When I say cooking space, I’m talking about the literal kitchen in your home. But since the third Human Design Environment is also called Kitchens, I didn’t want to create something that read like “Set up your Kitchen for a Kitchen” — kind of thing.

When it comes to setting up the kitchen space in your home, you may not have the ability to so easily change up some of the room’s elements, like appliances, counters, etc.

In this series, I’m sharing ways to work with the space available to you, while keeping your Environment in mind. I’ll also share some ideal setups for the rare opportunity you may get to highly customize a space to suit you!

Center of home

If it’s possible, having the kitchen and cooking space located in the heart of the home is ideal. Sometimes we come into a home that is already established and we can’t make these sort of decisions, but it’s something to consider if you are creating your space from scratch.

The Island

Having an island in the center of your kitchen — where all sides are accessible — is an amazing set up for a Kitchens Person. This acts like the main working hub where you can pile your groceries, lay out your cooking ingredients, work on family projects, and anything else you’re heart can dream up. Your body will naturally be drawn to this space.

Sink in the middle of room

Having the sink positioned under the window to look outside is a great arrangement for many people. But for a Kitchens Person, looking into the space of an open concept home — peering into the living room and the TV on from the kitchen sink — is a more supportive Kitchens set up. The first three Environments, Caves, Markets, and Kitchens are all Hardscape Environments concerned with what’s available to them within a space. Whereas Mountains, Valleys and Shores are Landscape Environments and concerned with the energy around a space.

Eat in the literal Kitchen

You may find you are snacking on the food as you’re cooking it and by the time you bring the food out into the dining room, you don’t really have an appetite anymore. This is a pretty specific observation, but a cool way to notice how harmonious the literal Kitchen can be for you. This is easier if you have an eat-in-style kitchen rather than a separate dining room.

Open-concept

An open-concept cooking space is great for a Kitchens Person. They can see everything going on, every surface is awaiting alchemy and we’re really steeping in “the heart of the home” energy. The Kitchens Person has a tendency to move toward the core of things, and setting up your home with an open concept layout can be really fun to experiment in if you find yourself bumping into such an opportunity.

Prep Station

This might be the back bar, it might be the kitchen table, it might be that amazing island in the space — but it can be helpful to have a designtated prep station where you aim to “transform and alchemize” ingredients. When you’re cooking, you will take individual ingredients, combine and alter them (an amazing activity for a Kitchens Person), like mixing ingredients in a cauldron to reveal a cool potion. After everything, you’ll have something new. Notice in your space where you like to prep. Prioritize this area with things you like.

Use items from local makers

Whatever treasures or collectibles you find while out on the town, be sure to bring them back to your cave and decorate your space. In the modern age, you might order things online and find treasures that way, but there is something special for Kitchen’s People to go out into their community, support local makers and creators, and infuse that energy into their home space. These connects you to the heartbeat and economy of your community.

Try Trends

I noticed a lot of Kitchens People were drawn to Terrazzo for a moment — something about the many small-looking chards contributing to a larger beautiful thing. Regardless of what you’re into, experiment with bringing in cool of-the-moment trendy materials or tools/items into your cooking space, whether that’s a fun trendy colour, trying an airfryer or Nespresso, or playing with a certain style, like mid-century, japandi, bohemian, traditional, etc.