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An office kitchen not only serves as a place where employees prepare their lunch but also as a popular meeting point for employees to exchange ideas with colleagues and to take their well-deserved break.
Therefore, this room should definitely be well planned in order to provide your employees with a comfortable space to recharge.
When deciding about a kitchen design, it is imperative that you take ergonomic factors into consideration because you are not dealing with just a simple kitchen, but with an office kitchen.
If you are interested in more tips for office kitchen designs, check out WEMA Raumkonzepte, a German company that knows all the ins and outs of office design strategies.
Keep reading to learn how you can choose the best design for your office kitchen!
The Perfect Design
First, it is advisable to opt for a neutral design when choosing the furniture for your office kitchen, since that is most likely to please every employee’s taste.
Bright and warm colors will create a comfortable atmosphere that allows people to relax and disconnect from work during their break.
Just because the kitchen is in your office building doesn’t mean it should be cold and uninviting, right?
These warm elements could include the right lighting (i.e. warm, orange light instead of a cold light), some easy to care for plants, some decorative elements like wall art, a fruit bowl, or a bulletin board where employees can post pictures they’d like to look at during their break.
In addition to that, you will obviously want to pick a design that goes well with the rest of your building. For example, if your office building is furnished with extremely modern, high-tech furniture, a rustic farmhouse kitchen would probably look a bit out of place.
Try to pick a design that matches the rest of the building and adds a cozy, warm touch to make it more comfortable!
Choose Easy-to-clean and Durable Materials
Since an office kitchen is usually taken care of less than a kitchen at home, we definitely recommend choosing materials for the countertops, sink, cupboard surfaces, etc. that are easy to clean, low maintenance, and, most importantly, very durable so that your office kitchen stays nice and functional for many years.
Ceramic or stainless-steel sinks, for example, are among the most forgiving and easiest to clean. For your countertops and kitchen tiles, we recommend either materials that are non-porous, like quartz or porcelain, or granite that has been sealed, since it is a porous material.
These are easy to clean because they do not absorb liquids as easily as wood, for example. The same goes for your appliances like the refrigerator, the extractor hood, stove, etc.
Stainless steel is probably one of the most durable and easy-to-clean materials. However, try to include other materials and colors to avoid the look of a canteen kitchen.
Picking the right flooring for your office kitchen is probably one of the most difficult decisions since it is such a big part of it.
We recommend large tiles of a durable material like porcelain, or engineered hardwood since they are the most durable and low maintenance. If you opt for a wood floor, choose hardwood like oak, maple, or cherry.
Furthermore, the warm and brown color of the wood is very forgiving when it comes to the visibility of dirt accumulating on the floor during the day.
A very bright or dark color would create a big contrast and make the dirt more visible, creating the need to clean even more frequently.
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A Kitchen for Many People
In regard to the general design and measurements of your office kitchen, keep in mind that it will be used by many people, and often at the same time.
Therefore, it is crucial that the counters and kitchen shelves are at a rather low height, permitting all your employees to reach them without any problem, and allowing shorter people to not struggle with the counters’ height when cooking their meal.
Moreover, there should be enough counter space for multiple employees to prepare their meals at the same time.
So, include as much counter space as possible when planning your office kitchen. Also keep in mind that this is the ideal place for employees to meet and exchange ideas, build relationships, etc.: Design your office kitchen in a way that invites people to sit at the same, ideally round, table.
If you have enough space, you could even include a kitchen island that encourages people to communicate as one person is already eating at one end of the isle and another one is still cooking on the opposite end.
Another investment to optimize your office kitchen is, obviously, a good coffee machine that ideally brews more than one cup at a time. This will save your employees a lot of time when preparing coffee for more than just one person.
In addition to that, a big refrigerator to store many pre-cooked meals before your employees need to heat them up at lunchtime is essential to avoid an unorganized and messy refrigerator.
Additionally, you might want to include enough kitchen cabinets and drawers to store all the plates, cups, glasses, silverware, and other utensils in an organized way that makes it easy to find what you need.
Label the cabinets on the inside, so everyone knows where to put their dishes after washing them. Don’t forget to provide dessert plates and vases for special occasions in your company, such as Christmas parties or birthdays.
When it comes to the placement of different appliances, consider your employee’s most frequent needs as you design the layout.
For example, if most of them drink one or more cups of coffee, a lot of mugs are going to accumulate in the dishwasher, so try to place the cupboard that holds your mugs near the dishwasher to avoid long distances.
That way, your employees will also be more likely to keep the kitchen organized and well set up for the next day.
Conclusion
When choosing the right office kitchen, you should keep two main factors in mind:
Firstly, you are creating a room that will help your employees to relax, build relationships with colleagues, and replenish their energy to keep working productively.
Secondly, many people will use it at the same time, creating the need for a lot of counter space and durable materials.
So, try to include warm and cozy elements that allow for people to disengage from work during their break and set it up in a way that invites communication with each other, e. g. by installing a kitchen isle.
Moreover, choose easy-to-clean and low-maintenance materials to make sure that your kitchen stays as functional and beautiful as when you first install it. With these tips, you are guaranteed to pick the right design for your office kitchen!
