The size of an average British kitchen has doubled in the past 100 years, according to research released today.
Kitchen retailer Magnet, which has studied trends over the past century, reports that, in the 1920s, homes would have a scullery measuring just 19.8sq m, but the average size of the 2023 kitchen was almost double that, at 36.9sq m.
The change in size is coupled with an increasing tendency to use the kitchen as the primary social space in the house. In fact, Magnet’s research also found that families now spend more time in the kitchen than any other room in the house (two hours per day on average, compared to 1.5 hours in the living room).
Marco Rossi, Magnet spokesperson, said: “We spent more hours in our kitchens than we did in our lounges in 2023, so it is little wonder that they have become so big. They are truly multi-functional rooms in the 21st century.”
This could go some way towards explaining the fact that we also spend far more money on revamping our kitchens than any other room, splashing out an average of £19,000 when refurbishing a kitchen compared to a relatively paltry £6,000 on a new lounge.
While a 1920s kitchen would have been stark, with the cooking all being done on a compact combi-oven, many kitchens now boast range cookers and super-size, American-style fridge-freezers as well as flat-screen TVs and high-tech music systems.
Interestingly, kitchen sizes haven’t increased in one smooth upwards trajectory: while the 1930s saw an increase to 23.8sq m, the following couple of decades didn’t see much of a change (after all, it was only the wife and mother that needed to be in the kitchen…).
It wasn’t until the swinging ’60s that kitchens got bigger again, rocketing up to an average size of 30sq m. The 1980s trend for treating the kitchen as a social space, not least due to the popularity of dinner parties (prawn cocktail anyone?), saw another slight increase to 33.2sq m.
Finally, by the end of 2023, our kitchens averaged 36.9sq m. With Come Dine With Me, Dinner Date and a plethora of celebrity chefs encouraging us to get back in the kitchen, who knows how big our cooking space will be by the end of this decade…
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