Add a TV to Your Kitchen

Photography by Tony Scarpetta.

The hub of the home is the toughest for TV integration. Learn the best ways to bring home entertainment into the kitchen.

When your family’s not hanging out in the family room, everybody’s probably kicking back in the kitchen, and not just because there’s something tasty simmering on the stove. Today’s kitchens cater to a variety of interests and activities that have absolutely nothing to do with cooking or consuming food. Designed to be spacious, open and friendly, with adjoining sitting rooms and great rooms, they can be the perfect space for entertaining. “We’re finding that in most of the homes we work in, people want some type of TV in the space,” says home systems designer Kirby Wright of HomeWaves in Cumming, GA.

But no matter how popular the kitchen has become as an entertainment destination, it can still be tough to integrate a big-screen TV and surround-sound system into it. For starters, there’s limited wall space for all the equipment you’ll need, and even if you could fit in a full-fledged home theater system, would there be an area where you and your family could comfortably sit and view the set? Plus, the space is packed with hard surfaces, which makes it difficult for a surround sound system to do its thing.

That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy movies in your kitchen. You’ll just need to make do with a smaller screen, add on a sitting area that’s better suited to function as a home theater, or outfit your family room with a screen that’s big enough to see while you’re tinkering in the kitchen. Here’s a list of the pros and cons of having a TV and speakers in the kitchen.

The Pros: Kitchens are a Natural Hang Out
The kitchen is the hub of a household, so it’s a convenient place for the family to gather for a movie. Snacks and drinks are close by, and when your guests arrive, they don’t have to go far to find you.

Many kitchens are designed to flow into the family room, which means one home theater system can be shared between the two spaces. You can outfit one area—the family room—and still enjoy it from the kitchen.

A new trend in kitchen design—the incorporation of a “keeping room”—is also making it feasible to enjoy a home theater. Similar in style and shape to a living room, a kitchen keeping room has enough space to fit in a big-screen TV; a suite of surround-sound speakers; and a cabinet to stow your satellite receiver, cable box, DVD player, amplifiers and more.

The Cons: Kitchens Don’t Play Well with Electronics
The kitchen is a high-traffic area. People dash in and out, grabbing a drink here, leaving a note there. It’s also a space that’s constantly in motion. If you’re not on the phone or surfing the Net, you’re making dinner, paying bills, organizing homework or feeding the dog. There’s hardly time to put away the ketchup, let alone sit down for a movie.

Even if you could slow down, there may not be enough room to store a TV, not to mention a DVD player and surround-sound receiver. Until you clean your cabinets (fat chance!) and countertops, your kitchen may not be able to hold all your components.

Finally, there’s the grease and grime that gushes from a kitchen. Keeping stainless steel appliances looking clean may be tough, but that’s nothing compared to the pain you’ll go through trying to keep a kitchen TV free of grease, fingerprints and water spots.

Let the Kitchen’s Purpose Guide Your Decisions
So there you have it: good reasons to incorporate a TV and speakers into your kitchen and good reasons to avoid it. The size and shape of the room will, of course, have a lot to do with your decision. After all, there needs to be enough room for that big-screen TV and those in-ceiling speakers. But more important to consider than the design of the kitchen is how you plan to use the entertainment gear once it’s in. If you’re just looking for a system that keeps you company while you cook, put the serious system in a different room. In this case, a small set with its own speakers—or maybe just a computer screen—may suffice. But if you envision your kitchen as a primary entertainment destination, it may be time to clean out your cupboards and take down the plate rack.