Credit: Designmarked Kitchens
Today we thought it high time to talk about sculleries - haven’t they come of age!
Every real estate agent will talk up a house because of a scullery, no matter what size they are. Architects and group housing companies go to great lengths to squeeze a scullery into a design...no matter what size they are. It seems they are no longer a luxury item, but a must-have commodity - like a toilet.
So, what’s the deal with sculleries? Why are they (apparently) essential to modern kitchen design?
Let’s roll this back a bit. Back in the 1800’s kitchens were isolated from the living areas of a house for several reasons. They were considered non-social areas, and often seen as places for the home help to work in, not the family. Another more practical reason for the separation was that they produced a lot of pollutants, food odours, heat, steam and noise (more on that in future articles).
By the time the 1950s arrived, clever architects like Frank Lloyd Wright thought (or perhaps it was the 1950s housewife that spent hours a day slaving away in the kitchen) that because we spend so much time in the kitchen, we need to bring it closer to the living areas of the home.
Credit: Apartment Therapy
They then struck a problem as to how to get rid of the pollutants that cooking created. Frank Lloyd Wright had a few ideas, but none were as successful as the invention of the rangehood. This appliance (the unsung hero of the kitchen) allowed for true open plan living. So, for the next 60-odd years we lived in harmony together and the housewife was no longer hidden away; her family servitude was in plain sight for all to see. I told you the rangehood was an unsung hero.
Credit: Instagram - The Colour Tribe
The 2000’s then roll around and we find that this kitchen isolation, now non-gender specific, is back in fashion. How did this come about? Why did we need to hide away in the kitchen again? I certainly don’t have kitchen servants that I want to hide (although my partner might disagree). Rangehoods have become much more efficient since the 1960’s, so what’s changed?
Answer: The proliferation of small appliances and teenagers.
Hiding small appliances but allowing them to be used in-situ (often only once a year), has become the goal for a lot of our customers. Now gender equality has extended to age equality; teenagers will often cook for themselves. Sadly, the teenage DNA hasn’t evolved enough to condition them to clean up after themselves. The brief from a lot of my clients is “hide the mess and house 25 years of anniversary gifts”.
Credit: Designmarked Kitchens
Surely skilled kitchen designers can do this without creating another room. At $5000+ a square metre, adding a scullery seems to be a very expensive solution, and a step back in design development. I certainly agree there are occasions where the design brief and family dynamics will require a good scullery (more on that in a future article) but it shouldn’t be the default in all designs.
Mark Bruce