Cool Move: Put the Kitchen in the Basement

Here's an old idea made new again: putting the kitchen in the basement. That's just what my own mother did in time for summer. She had a small, simple kitchen installed in the basement of her house. And she has used it nonstop for the last three months:

From baking to canning (both really hot kitchen activities), the kitchen has been put to hard use so far. It stays cool naturally so she's always comfortable when working there, even on the hottest of days. And the rest of the house isn't overburdened with the heat of an upstairs kitchen (nothing like hot weather, an air-conditioned house, and a hot kitchen pumping heat right back into the interior!).

She kept things simple: a basic range, open shelving (since most dishes and things are still stored upstairs), two used cabinets that were being discarded from another home, and a laminate countertop bought by-the-foot from the home improvement store. It isn't necessarily pretty, but it's the epitome of function and has been an absolute joy for my homecook mom.

It used to be that homes were always built with the kitchen in the basement. Not so much to keep cool, but to keep "the help" out of sight. Anyone up for bringing this movement back without the class division but with nice, cool relief for summertime home cooks? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

(Image: Flickr member , licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Comments (18)

amazing!! no basements in socal, but i do so love this.

I always thought that the kitchen downstairs would warm all the house with its radiating heat and less than ideal vent. Maybe I was wrong, or it doesn't work like that for all the kitchens and homes?

My childhood home had an unoccupied apartment in the basement, and my mom would do all of her canning down there, but that might have been to avoid doing it on the glass cooktop.

I'd actually rather have the kitchen outside, under a shelter but with no walls - need ventilation more than actual coolness with the things we cook (very aromatic!) But it's not feasible for apartment dwellers or people who live in a place with winters!

Me too, kittystockings! I'd love to bake stone fruit pies all summer long without adding a drop of heat to the house. I think I'm going to try to figure out if this is feasible on a gas grill...

I'm also curious about whether this still heats up the house.

I live in Toronto, where basement kitchens are incredibly common in the Italian, Greek and Portuguese communities. My Portuguese neighbours do pretty much all of their summer living in the basement, when they aren't outside. I don't think they mind if it heats up the rest of the house, as they aren't using the rest of the house!

I love the cellar look. It reminds me of Wizard of Oz.

Don't you remember the fantastic kitchen in "Io Sono L'Amore" (I Am Love) with Tilda Swinton? A gorgeous basement kitchen in a villa in Milan. Love the idea. x shayma

I have a basement kitchen! We built in storage shelves underneath the stairs which is great for home-canned items and root vegetables. I wish I could say this was our second "summer" kitchen, but it is kitchen #1 since we live in the basement portion of the home. Here's a picture before we installed a glass tile backsplash: http://apurplekitchen.blogspot.com/p/hello-im-vicki.html

This makes me wish I had a basement. Growing up, my mom would cook outdoors. Clean up was pretty easy and the smells from cooking would not stick to everything in the house.

wow that is a neat idea but for now I'm actually happy that I I don't have an open floor plan and can close the door on my kitchen so the rest of the house stays cool.

I don't know if it's possible on the gas grill, but you can always bake a pie in a Dutch oven outside using charcoal briquets like you use in a weber grill. Just google "pie Dutch oven". Oh, this would be the kind of Dutch oven with the plain cast iron and the little legs, not the fancy Le Creuset kind.

My mom had my father build her a full kitchen in our basement when I was growing up -- she did all her canning down there, however it was bigger and easier to get around than our upstairs kitchen...when it was really hot, she'd cook meals from there.
I don't have that luxury/space...however, we do cook most of our meals outside during the summer on the grill --

I dream of having a basement, for any use. But really, I want a root cellar.

My grandmother grew up in a (small) house with a basement kitchen. It's where they did all their summer canning and preserving and kept the root beer barrels.

The girls I grew up with in Jersey who had italian grandmothers all had garage kitchens, too, for the same reason. It was much cooler in the summer to be in the garage with the door open.

My aunt has a second kitchen in the basement. I am frequently jealous, she can bake without heating up the house and can in the summer in the coolness.

My great grandmother's house had its kitchen in the basement in the German part of STL (although they were Italian). She had it moved upstairs sometime in the 40's. Her house had two rooms, so she must have lost some space when she moved it upstairs.