Ina Garten’s Classic Tip for Designing a Kitchen

Recently on Today, Ina Garten joined the program to talk about life in quarantine and her new cookbook. In the course of chatting, one of the hosts basically sums up everything with her comment, that while staying at home, she “wanted to learn to be you.” (The “you” being the Barefoot Contessa, of course.) Ina doesn’t quite explain how to do that, but she does shed a little light on a few things — including that she just finished filming more episodes of her popular television show. Lucky us!

She also gives the Today crew a little tour of her kitchen and explains the layout. “When I’m designing a kitchen … I think of setting the stove, the sink, and the refrigerator in a triangle so that you can move around really well,” she explains. She notes that this makes the three spots you use most close together, but there’s also still plenty of workspace between them. 

Watch the clip here: Ina Garten gives a tour of her kitchen

A “work triangle” is probably familiar to anyone who’s considered a kitchen redesign in the last few decades. But in recent years as kitchens evolved — and open floor plans got more popular — kitchens stopped being so self-contained and now many designers subscribe to a modified version of the triangle featuring different “stations” for different activities — cooking, cleaning, food storage. It’s particularly helpful when there is multiple people in the kitchen, but that’s probably less of a problem for Ina as Jeffrey seems like he’d stay out of the way until it’s time to come in and taste test.

Of course, Ina’s design also has a little more flexibility than most of us, as she points out when she turns around, “I like the sink to have a good view,” she says, showing how it looks out to the garden. She also notes that she has an extra cooktop right next to the sink. Celebrities, they’re just like us — only with twice the stove space.