Have you heard of The Simpsons Show? Let’s examine this iconic TV show, particularly its kitchen design. Let’s dive right in.
About The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American Animated sitcom created by Matt Groening. It features a sarcastic cartoon depiction of American life and follows the Simpsons family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show parodies many iconic figures and events of American history, culture, and society.
Design
The Simpsons kitchen has purple doors on brown body cabinets and purple countertops. The cabinet doors are inlaid in the body and do not cover the body as most cabinet doors do today. This technology was common among older-style kitchens that had a frame covering the fronts of all the cabinets.
Each cabinet door has a circular door knob located higher than traditional handles. Drawers each featured double knob handles for ease of opening.
The Simpsons kitchen has a double sink, 4-burner slide-in range, dishwasher, and single-door green refrigerator. The stove vent is mounted right under the wall cabinets right of the sink. Many other countertop appliances are seen, including a microwave, coffee maker, toaster, and blender.
A dish rack is present on the left of the sink above the dishwasher. Many cooking utensils like spatulas and oven mitts are found wall mounted.
Other designs present in the kitchen include the dining table with four chairs, checkered tile flooring, a large window with carrot-patterned blinds, and a single light hanging above the dining table. These traits fit an old-style kitchen when the show debuted
Layout
The Simpsons kitchen features a U-shape layout. For storage, the cabinets feature 3 banks of drawers, 2 double-door cabinets in the base, and 7 wall cabinets above. The sides of the kitchen are short but line up with each other, with the refrigerator lined up to a support wall right before the entryway into the kitchen.
The work triangle commonly found in all kitchens is present here. Despite the close proximity of the sink and stove, the kitchen flows. A hint would be to move the dining table, which interrupts the walking through between the three appliances.
Functionality
Although the Simpsons kitchen is designed as a cartoon, its flow makes sense logically. The work triangle is present in the design to actually work and function like a kitchen found in homes today. However, there are some flaws that transform this kitchen into reality.
The first is available workspace. Since the kitchen has so many utensils and appliances on the countertop, there is almost nowhere to prepare food. A Functional kitchen works best when more space is available for the cook.
With the amount of countertop space and storage available, putting away some items and appliances that are not being used shouldn’t be a problem.
Second is the stove’s location. Everyone can see that the range hood is simply attached to the bottom of the wall cabinets. This means there is no dedicated ventilation that goes out from the range hood and out of the house. It simply cycles the smell and smoke out from just the stove.
Typically, a stove can be moved a few inches, give or take, from the location of the ventilation hole. The problem is that the countertop space between the range and the sink only allows enough room for a toaster. That is not enough for most food preparation.
This space would commonly be at least 15 inches wide to accommodate large bowls or plates. Moving the range and range hood to the right allows for enough storage and better use of cooking space.
Improvements
Can the Simpsons kitchen be remade into a modern home today? Definitely.
A hardcore fan of the show who wants to create this iconic cartoon kitchen in their home can do so. The old style aesthetic where a frame covers the fronts of the cabinet would be hard to create in the modern day. Custom cabinet makers can make that a possibility. Let’s go over some improvements to standardize this old kitchen.
Unfortunately, the kitchen has many dead corners. The base cabinets have no access to the space where the cabinets turn. The wall corner cabinet left of the sink features a blink corner, but that’s the only one. Even the wall cabinet right of the sink does not have the handle on the correct side of the door.
Clearing out the clutter of appliances on the kitchen countertops is a much-needed improvement. Certain appliances, like the blender and coffee maker, can be stored when not in use. The dish rack is not needed if a dishwasher is available.
Most homes simply store the dishes after washing them in the dishwasher to free up countertop space. Even the spices on the right-hand side of the kitchen countertop can be stored in a cabinet.
A potential flaw is the ventilation for the cooking range above the stove. Since it is simply attached to the bottom of the wall cabinets, the exhaust does not go anywhere, resulting in a very smoky kitchen. Converting the cabinets on top to house the range hood would be a better idea to vent out the smoke lingering in the kitchen.
One would say they would lose space for storage. This is easily remedied by having a cabinet on top of the fridge. Since the kitchen is symmetrical on both sides, nothing houses the refrigerator, leaving the space on top open for storage or dust.
Adding the cabinet makes cleaning on top less of a chore and more storage.
Lastly, the kitchen lighting comes solely from one light above the dining table or from the window above the sink. During the nighttime, the kitchen would be very dark and not well-lit.
The best solution is adding an additional light to make the room much brighter. These lights can still be symmetrical and have an even distance between each other.
Overall Thoughts
Just from the colors and art style, this kitchen can be described as iconic. Even to this day, the Simpsons kitchen is well remembered. The show is the longest-running American animated series, the longest-running American sitcom, and the longest-running American scripted primetime television series. Even viewers who have not seen the show will recognize the infamous kitchen.
