Ensci Mini Kitchen Design
1 July 2009
“For All We Know”
You can spend a fascinating half hour on the Internet by simply plugging “teardrop trailer” into a Google search and browsing through the results. The teardrop was one of the first campers ever made, starting in the 1930s and hitting its stride after World War II. You could purchase it ready-made or buy plans and make it yourself, an idea I sometimes find myself fantasizing about. Although the classic teardrop shape is still the most popular, they can be obtained in other shapes, and they come in a number of sizes, some of them so small that they can actually be towed by a motorcycle! But what most interests me about them, and the reason I brought them up is their kitchens. You lift up the tail flap, and by gosh, there’s a full kitchen there, complete with stove, refrigerator, and running water! There is something about that marvelous utility of so small a space that has always appealed to me. Every time I have looked at one of th
em—and I sometimes encounter them at camping sites—I am convinced that no one else could possibly put a kitchen into so small a space.
Well, sir!
Ensci is a French company that has come up with a kitchen design that is pretty much a perfect solution for those who cook only a little and have other uses for the space that would be taken up by a traditional kitchen. In one of the pictures we’ve shown here, there’s a lady doing what looks like her homework, which seems about right, I think, because this is probably something that would appeal more to a college student, someone who is much too busy to cook with any real frequency. Although, I swear, given our own cooking needs, I have to believe we could do just fine with it for all but about two weeks a year. Truthfully, if the oven’s of a fair size, we could get by with this kitchen for the entire 52 weeks!
How much sense does it make for you? I don’t know. What are your space limitations? We all want that glorious thousand square foot fantasy kitchen, but I’m not willing to cram myself into what would be left of the house if I took that route, and you may not be either. And if you are one of those with an outrageously cramped space that passes for a kitchen, this may be just the ticket. I sometimes cook in another kitchen that makes our own look like a palace in comparison. The Ensci kitchen would actually provide more counter space than there is in that other kitchen. You could run a wall of cabinets across one end for storage, use this baby for a multi-function kitchen island, and end up with more space, fewer frustratio
ns, and NO banged knees! What’s not to like?
When you first see just the closed up box, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be particularly useful as an actual, honest to goodness kitchen, but it has a moveable countertop/tabletop that slides open to permit access to the range, sink, storage, cupboards and cabinets. Truthfully, I could probably store everything I actually use in this unit. Like everyone else we have a fair number of kitchen cabinets that are packed full, but the most of that stuff just sits. Get something like this, and the necessary “what-the-heck-is-this-throw-it-out” ritual would probably be fairly liberating.
I seriously doubt that Henry David Thoreau would have traded his hut at Walden Pond for anything, but looking at this little kitchen reminded me of the song he sang to himself while he was building his hut:
Men say they know many things;
But lo! They have taken wings,—
The arts and sciences,
And a thousand appliances;
The wind that blows
Is all that anybody knows
Joseph
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2 Responses to “Ensci Mini Kitchen Design”
July 4th, 2009 at 12:11 PM
Well, it would certainly work for the second kitchens you talked about in previous blogs. I could see using something like this in a sunroom, or even in an efficiency apartment. Hmmm… Maybe I could put one of these in my caboose.
Joe
December 21st, 2010 at 7:58 PM
What are the dimensions of this mini modern kitchen?
How do the sinks work? I don’t see any faucets? What does something like this cost?