After plenty of time cooped up in our own homes, we now have an opportunity to visit other people’s homes. It will be fun to visit neighbors’ kitchens this year. The pandemic delayed the Kitchen Tour for a year, but RCPC is resuming this neighborhood
tradition in October.
The tour is a fundraiser that helps support various RCPC activities in the community. And the tour fits into RCPC’s broad mission of
sharing information and fostering community and communication here in our neighborhood. The tour also provides opportunities for people to get involved by undertaking volunteer tasks, large and small, with their neighbors.
Each kitchen remodel is an exercise in creating a space that functions well both as a place to prepare dishes and meals, from snacks to feasts, and also as a pleasant place to spend time and feel at home with friends or family, or solo with your morning coffee. New kitchens in existing houses must often be fitted into small or oddly shaped spaces. Some kitchens can accommodate
cooking, dining and lounging, while others have room only for the cook. The classic “golden triangle” of kitchen planning, identified in the early 20th century, is formed by sink, refrigerator and stove. A contemporary kitchen can include multiple sinks, warming drawers, ovens, cooktops, wine fridges, computers with screens, and an array of appliances that all have to “coexist” and serve the cook efficiently. It’s interesting to see how these things all come together in a particular space, for particular people.
What about the “look and feel” of a kitchen? The potatoes on the stove don’t care about the room’s color palette, but we do. What sort of design works well with the architecture of a house, be it Spanish, English vernacular cottage or Mid-Century Modern? Should the new work look as if it’s “cut from the same cloth” or does it contrast with the existing aesthetic? You will see how different designers approach questions of style.
Most of us are always imaging home improvement of some sort. If you are planning or dreaming of building a new kitchen, the RCPC Kitchen Tour is an enjoyable opportunity to see various ways kitchens are planned, and to see the types of materials used. Searching for the right designer and contractor for your project can be a challenge; the tour allows one to look at the work of
some of these professionals. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the choices available for components of a kitchen; appliances, cabinets, wood, tile, stone, lighting, storage, colors for walls floor and ceilings, hardware, and so on. It’s best to see these things
in a real setting, rather than a showroom or catalog.
WANTED:
The Tour Committee is accepting kitchen submissions through May 15, 2022, at kitchentour@rockridge.org. Works in progress are welcome, although expected completion should be no later than August 1, 2022.
If you are interested in volunteering with the RCPC Kitchen Tour, please come to the meeting on March 14. Email kitchentour@rockridge.org for more details.
