The kitchen that ate the house

Showpiece

Showpiece kitchens sometimes have a smaller "dirty' or "wok" kitchen where the actual cooking often takes place or where dirty dishes can be shuttled away.

"Everyone likes to be seen cooking, but they don't want to be seen cleaning up the mess," says Malibu, Calif.-based architect Doug Burdge, who designed the showpiece kitchen pictured here.

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Parking for diners

Whitney Fitzgerald, the owner of a wholesale food company, recently renovated her 6,000-square-foot home in Glencoe, Ill. Per her designer's suggestion, she converted an oversized, two-car garage into a 700-square-foot kitchen.

According to the National Association of Home Builders, the average floor area of the kitchen has increased by about 50% from 1973 to 2007, when the average kitchen size topped out at 303 square feet, or about 12% of a home's overall space. Although it decreased slightly during the housing downturn, to 298 square feet, the amount of floor space dedicated to kitchens increased in fourth quarter of 2011, according to the American Institute of Architects' Home Design Trends Survey.

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Kitchen seating area

Fitzgerald's kitchen has wide-plank hardwood floors, vaulted wood-panel ceilings, an office alcove and a seating area decorated with a plush, cream-colored couch and armchairs.

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For the 'kitchen-centric'

When Fitzgerald's designer, Mick De Guilio, first showed her the floor plan, she says that she was hesitant about the kitchen "kind of creeping into the house … and taking over the whole home."

But now that space is completed, she says she and her family of four "live in that room," spending 90% of their waking time in the kitchen area.

"The hierarchy of the home is changing," says De Giulio, a Chicago-based designer who is currently working on a 1,500-square-foot kitchen in a client's roughly 5,000-square-foot weekend home in Detroit Lakes, Minn. "People's lives today are more kitchen-centric than ever before."

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Modern look

German kitchen designer Poggenpohl recently teamed with New York chef Eric Ripert to create this home kitchen, designed for preparing food socially with friends.

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Indoors and out

The kitchen trend marks a shift toward a more casual lifestyle, where people often want to prepare food with company by watching or helping them cook the meal. Joanne Hudson, a Philadelphia-based kitchen designer, says she also attributes the trend to more people cooking at home for health reasons — as well as wanting to show off the latest in increasingly pricey, commercial-grade home cooking appliances.

This past October, KB Homes in Southern California rolled out its largest great-room-style kitchens in Irvine, Calif. These models connect to outdoor kitchen areas on an adjacent patio.

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Goodbye, formal dining room?

Steve Ruffner, president of KB Homes' Southern California division, says the company introduced its kitchen/great room model about five years ago, replacing the formal dining room in many homes.

KB Homes' houses with these kitchens are priced between $600,000 and $1 million.

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Two for the price of two

The New Home Co. has added wok kitchens and butler's pantries to many of its new designs. The company hopes to appeal to Asian buyers who are used to a two-kitchen setup, says Joan Marcus-Colvin, senior vice president of sales and marketing.

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Seamless

German kitchen designer Poggenpohl aims to create fluid, open spaces between the cooking and living areas.

High-tech gadgets, such as ovens that can be controlled from a smartphone, are also changing the way designers think about kitchens. Homeowners have more devices to show off — or hide behind cleverly designed cabinets. Steam ovens, which heat foods quickly, have become more common in high-end kitchens, designers say.

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Kitchen great room

This "country kitchen"-style open space includes large casual living rooms by Jeffrey Collé, a designer and builder based in New York's Hamptons.

The nearly 1,400-square-foot kitchen great room has hardwood floors, a fireplace and informal family and dining area, as well as a pantry, powder room and outdoor cooking area. It takes up almost half the square-footage of the home's ground floor.

This home, in Wainscott, N.Y., has been on the market for $8.95 million.

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In the open

This kitchen by The New Home Co. features hardwood floors and a large center island. It is 700 square feet.

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