What makes a great office kitchen? 9 top tips

Office kitchens are often an overlooked, undervalued and underinvested part of a workplace.

And, yet, its contribution to helping maintain a motivated and happy team should not be under estimated.

Many a great idea has been born at the water cooler, OK, maybe some gossip too, but by taking the time and effort to create a welcoming and pleasant office kitchen design, a business can reap big rewards over time in terms of team harmony and productivity.

What’s more, a well laid out kitchen, with all the appliances and a comfortable seating area for food or a coffee break, is far more likely to foster a friendly and collaborative working environment.

While some business owners may think that it could be a distraction and people will just be chatting and making drinks all day, research time and again shows that this is not the case.

However, not all office kitchens are equal, below we highlight the benefits of office kitchens and 9 top tips on creating a great space.

Why office kitchen spaces are so important

Looking beyond those water cooler moments that help create a happy work environment, there are a number of good health and business reasons why you need to include one in your office design, here’s why:

1. Employee health

It is common sense that a healthy team will be more productive and likely to have far lower absenteeism.

An office kitchen, where employees can prepare, cook or reheat their own food enables them to make healthier food choices and can help avoid the less healthy options of convenience or junk food.

Even better, a well stocked kitchen with fruit and vegetables may actively encourage healthier eating habits.

2. A useful informal meeting space

The office kitchen can be great place for informal meetings, a space where your teams can meet and quickly discuss ideas.

Meeting rooms are always at a premium in offices and the creation of informal meeting spaces can relieve this pressure. A quick meeting in an open, larger office kitchen space is also more desirable than crowding around a cramped desk or congregating in the middle of an office and disturbing those people close by.

Not forgetting, for all those caffeine monsters (or those partial to meeting biscuits), holding meetings in the office kitchen means it is easy to make sure everyone gets their cuppa or treat… without the hassle of setting up a meeting room!

3. Break out area / screen break

Whether it is a few minutes away from your screen or a longer formal break, the office kitchen can be a useful breakout space for your team to sit and relax in.

Particularly in today’s modern offices, where people spend a lot of time in front of PC screens, a kitchen space provides your staff with a place to get a few minutes away from the screen to make a drink or to just take a minute for themselves.

If you want your staff to function well and stay happy and motivated, allowing them time away from the screen will be very beneficial.

4. Keeping food & smells out of the office

Not surprisingly, without a dedicated kitchen space, employees will often default to eating at their desks.

Most businesses do not like to encourage this as it leads to less productive work time, mess and food smells in a working environment.

In addition, eating at desks is quite divisive among staff members, especially if you are sat close to the person who likes to eat fish at lunchtime!

5. Adding a creative spark

Haven’t we all had some of our best ideas when we have relaxed and just stepped away from our hectic lives for a moment?

Big tech companies and forward thinking businesses have for many years been developing workplaces around a more relaxed working environment for precisely that reason.

A well-designed office kitchen is one area where your team can step away from the daily grind for a few mins, to get that bit f of space, and you may be rewarded with some true creativity.

What makes a great office kitchen?

Creating a great office kitchen takes office design and space planning, just having a kitchen isn’t enough to make it a good investment.

A dark and dingy room that isn’t well stocked or welcoming is not likely to be used much or make your employees feel happy and motivated.

So, knowing what makes a great office kitchen is very important.

Here are some tips on how to create an amazing office kitchen for your team.

1. It doesn’t have to be open plan

Open plan offices, vast open spaces without doors, remain a popular office design layout. Indeed, for many offices it offer the optimal layout to maximise the space but, including an office kitchen within the open plan space, can lead to some significant issues.

To put it simply, smells and noise travel! It is pretty much unavoidable and can be very distracting for those sitting throughout the office.

For example, if someone has burnt their toast in an open plan kitchen, even if they managed not to set off the alarm, the smell would fill up the whole office… and that is not what you want when people are trying to work!

Similarly, a number of people chatting and laughing in the kitchen is likely to disturb those working nearby.

Creating a separated, closed off space for the kitchen and break out space will obviously keep this disturbance to a minimum. Ensuring those using the kitchen can relax and those working will be unaffected.

Alternatively you could create a drinks station in the open plan work space for preparing hot drinks and have a food prep kitchen area separate.

If an open plan office kitchen is the only option due to the office configuration, then the design needs to be clever, blending in office noise reduction ideas such as partitions, planting and acoustic panels. Check out our reducing office noise guide.

2. Make sure it is long lasting

It can be tempting to cut corners on quality when designing on an office kitchen, saving money for use in other areas. However, we recommend not compromising on the quality of the kitchen as it will be a hard worked area and quality will increase its longevity.

Try to go for easy to clean surfaces and stain resistant ones, these may be more expensive but are going to stay cleaner and last longer in the long run.

You also need to bear in mind that this is not a family home, it is an office, so try to go for catering quality fixtures and fittings. Things to consider include:

• Are they durable – tough enough to cope with higher usage than would be seen in a domestic kitchen
• Are they easy to use – with lots of users not familiar with the brands chosen, can they quickly use without a lot of instructions
• Are they easy to clean/maintain – the easier they are to clean the more likely that they will remain clean!

Better designed, quality products, you will reap rewards in the mid to longer term in terms of longevity and reduced replacement costs.

3. Make sure your design has some purpose

Some businesses can make too much effort to make an office kitchen look modern and arty, instead of considering the practicalities.

Cover your designers ears… sometimes you need to focus less on the colour and more on making sure there is plenty of storage and all the correct appliances you need for a functioning kitchen.

It doesn’t matter if your kitchen looks pretty and modern if it has the fridge overflowing and nowhere to store anything – that is just going to look cluttered and messy.

Make sure you have storage for your utensils and cutlery so they are not just left on the side. Ensure the fridge is big enough or that there are multiple ones so that your team can store their food there without worrying they are not going to have space in the fridge.

Can you keep the counter tops free of clutter by making sure you have plenty of cupboard space and storage boxes for cereals, tea and also coffee?

Also utilise your space well, maybe think about a boiling water tap instead of a kettle and try to get counter tops that are wide so you can fit appliances and have space for making.

4. Think about noise cancelling

If you want to promote the kitchen as somewhere people can catch up and have a chat while making drinks or food, you will need to be aware that it could become loud and distracting to those that are working.

The last thing you want is distract from your staff, but you also don’t want to make the kitchen a quiet room where no one can have a chat.

Your design should think about the positioning of the kitchen and try and make it so it is not right next to any work stations to stop the noise traveling too far.

Also think about the way it is separated from the main office, walls, partitions, sound proofing etc. Our office noise reduction guide will give you lots of ideas.

5. Make sure to set out kitchen rules

Ugh, do we really have to have rules?

You want the kitchen to be a nice place for people to take a break and make their food and drinks, but you also need to make sure everyone is aware of what is expected of them and rules, love them or hate them, do tend to make sure everything stays functioning well in the kitchen.

What do you need to be thinking about?

• Do they have to load the dishwasher with any items they use?
• Are you throwing out any food in the fridges at the end of the week?
• Are there separate bins for food and recycled waste?
• Do you need food hygiene rules?

It is also worth putting up a little rules sheet or poster so they know what they need to be doing, if they see it then it may remind them to do something if they have forgotten.

You do not need to be really fierce with it as you want them to enjoy the space, but in order for it to stay clean and tidy then it really does help to set some ground rules.

6. Try to get the lighting right

As your team may be using knives and other utensils to preparing food in the kitchen, good lighting will help with the prep and is important from a safety perspective.

In the seating spaces a more ambient and relaxing lighting is more appropriate. You don’t want it to be too bright as you want to set a relaxing atmosphere so they can switch off for a bit before going back to work.

Things like under cabinet lighting can be great to make sure there is sufficient lighting without making it too bright and eye staring in for the employees.

You cannot just rely on natural lighting from the windows so make sure you install lighting that will make it safe to cook in the kitchen, they need to be brighter than natural light.

7. Make it roomy

The last thing you want is a cramped up space for your employees to be taking a break in, this will make it an unhappy place to relax in.

You need to make sure you are giving them enough space to eat and sit and relax for their breaks without having to feel like they need to rush around because others need to go in there.

Try to have multiple seating areas for people to sit in and have a kitchen area big enough that multiple people can prepare drinks and food at the same time.

8. Making it healthy

A healthy team is a happy and productive one! So, promoting a healthy lifestyle in your office kitchen makes perfect sense.

How about displaying recipe cards around the kitchen that are quick, easy and healthy to create in the kitchen? It will inspire lunch choice and help promote healthier lunches.

You can also put fruit and snacks in the kitchen to promote good health. It also provides something to take a quick break for, getting them away from screens even if they don’t want a drink.

9. Make it comfortable, inspiring, fun

Once you have ensured all the practicalities of an office kitchen, you can also make it a great place to be.

Colourful décor, funky tiling, jazzy flooring, comfy sofas, awesome plants, ping pong tables, let your imagination run wild! It doesn’t have to be expensive or over the top, clever and imaginative design can transform the space into somewhere your team will love.

Not only will a great office kitchen inspire your current team, making it a place they want to work, it is highly likely to attract and inspire new recruits.

Helping you create an inspiring office kitchen

Feeling inspired or a little bit overawed?

Don’t worry, help is at hand. Great office design is what we do… taking a lot of ideas, adding a dash of creativity, and bringing it all together in one plan to meet your needs.

We work with businesses across the UK on office design, space planning, interior fit outs and refurbishments. If you are considering a new office kitchen, talking to an expert team like Source One Consulting is the best place to start.

Get in touch now for a free, no obligation chat.