Kitchenette

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A kitchenette is a small cooking area.

In motel and hotel rooms, small apartments, college dormitories, or office buildings a kitchenette usually consists of a small refrigerator, a microwave oven or hotplate, and, less frequently, a sink. New York City building code defines a kitchenette as a kitchen of less than 7.4 m² (80 ft²) of floor space.^[1]

Modern kitchenettes often have microwave ovens.

Kitchenettes are very commonly found in hotels and motels, and often contain a coffeemaker for the use of the guest. Some hotel kitchenettes also have special refrigerators that can detect when guests move or remove items from the refrigerator. This is the source of many complaints from hotel guests who aren't aware of the sensors, because even just moving an item will usually trigger them. Refrigerators in hotel kitchenettes, along with small countertops, are very commonly called mini-bars.

In British English, the term kitchenette also refers to a small secondary kitchen in a house. Often it is found on the same floor as the children's bedrooms, and used by a nanny or au pair to prepare meals for children. It also counts in hotels such as some in London.

The word kitchenette was also used to refer to a type of small apartment prevalent in African American communities in Chicago and New York City during the mid-twentieth century. Landlords often divided single-family homes or large apartment units into smaller units to house more families. Living conditions in these kitchenettes were often wretched; the author Richard Wright described them as "our prison, our death sentence without a trial".^[2]

In Brazil, a kitchenette (spelled "quitinete" in Portuguese) is a very small apartment. It is basically composed of one room, one bathroom, and a kitchen, which is often in the same space as the room. It corresponds, in fact, to the studio apartment in American culture (or studio flat in UK).

References

↑ Department of Buildings. "Interior Environment". New York City. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
↑ Jerry Washington Ward and Robert Butler. "Kitchenettes". The Richard Wright Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2008. 220.

External links

Kitchenettes entry at the Encyclopedia of Chicago

v t e Rooms and spaces of a house

Shared residential rooms	Billiard room Bonus room Common room Den Dining room Ell Family room Garret Great room Hearth room Home office Kitchen Kitchenette Private library Living room Home cinema Man cave Recreation room Shrine Study Sunroom

Spaces	Alcove Atrium Balcony Breezeway Conversation pit Corridor Deck Elevator Entryway / Genkan Foyer Hallway Loft Loggia Patio Porch Ramp Secret passage Sleeping porch Stairway Terrace Veranda Vestibule

Utility and storage	Attic Basement Box Room / Carport Cloakroom Closet Electrical room Equipment room Furnace room / Boiler room Garage Janitorial closet Larder Laundry room / Utility room Mechanical room / floor Pantry Root cellar Semi-basement Spear closet Storm cellar / Safe room Studio Wardrobe Workshop Wine cellar Wiring closet / Demarcation point

Private rooms	Bathroom Bedroom / Guest room Boudoir Cabinet Jack and Jill bathroom Nursery Suite Walk-in closet Toilet (room)

Great house areas	Ballroom Butler's pantry Buttery Conservatory Courtyard Drawing room Fainting room Great chamber Great hall Long gallery Lumber room Parlour Porte-cochère Salon Saucery Scullery Servants' hall Servants' quarters Smoking room Solar Spicery State room Still room Swimming pool Undercroft

Other	Building Furniture House plan Single-family detached home Multi-family residential Secondary suite

Architectural elements	Arch Baluster Ceiling Colonnade Column Floor Gate Lighting Medaillon Ornament Portico Vault Roof

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.