If you’ve flipped through of home design magazine lately or you’re scouring Pinterest for kitchen renovation ideas, the odds are better than good than you’ve come across some beautiful sculleries – but these tend to just be images of mysterious doors going somewhere…
So what is a scullery and why do you want one?
A scullery is the answer to the problems having a kitchen in an open-floor plan home presents. When you have an open floor plan, everything is on view all of the time – which sounds great, until your dinner guests arrive early as you’re in the midst of cooking a gourmet meal!
A scullery is a second kitchen, literally ‘behind the scenes’, where all the messy stuff happens out of view. The kitchen your guests see can be flawlessly clean and perfectly organized, with an Instagram-worthy fruit bowl and bouquet of flowers on the countertop.
Why are sculleries so hot right now, when a lot of people aren’t doing any entertaining?
Two words: Zoom meetings. Whether it’s the kids doing the remote learning thing or you’re joining a meeting from home, you want whatever’s on camera to be attractive and organized. If you haven’t gotten the grocery delivery put all the way away yet or the dishes aren’t done, you don’t want the whole world to see that. The scullery keeps the real work of keeping the family fed out of sight and off camera.
In our role as Newton kitchen designers, we’re also seeing quite a few homeowners choose to have a scullery built because it introduces a quiet, private place for them to work while the rest of the family is engaged in their tasks.
What else is cool about sculleries?
Sculleries are a great place to store small kitchen appliances such as stand mixers, waffle makers, toasters, and so on. They’re also handy for more robust appliances such as a second refrigerator or dishwasher, which is great when you are entertaining again. And of course, sculleries provide extra storage space for serving dishes, glassware, pots and pans and food. So if you’re looking for that little something extra to take your Newton kitchen remodel to the next level, consider the scullery.
