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“Many people have things in their kitchen that take up room, but they don’t use them quite so often. So, it’s really great to have an additional pantry storage space that’s close by but

doesn’t occupy the valuable real estate,” Finne says. 4. THE DESIGN IS IDEAL FOR AGING IN PLACE Francisca Alonso, 55, cofounder and CEO at AV Architects + Builders in Great Falls, Virginia,

wrote a book called _Nesting for Empty Nesters_. Most of her clients are 55 and up and many are interested in staying in their homes as they get older. “They know they’re going to live

another 30 years, which is like a third of their lifetime,” she says.“What if, instead of having one wall, you have three galley kitchens in one kitchen? You have one wall that is all about

breakfast,” Alonso says. “We make refrigerator drawers for the frozen fruit, drawers for all the proteins, all the seeds, everything that you put into your breakfast.” Breaking up a galley

kitchen into zones can bring all your food and beverage favorites into one space, minimizing movement and making cleanup easier. “It used to be that the butler’s pantry was way on the other

side of the house near the dining room, and the bar was all the way in the basement,” Alonso says. “But with clients right now, they want main-level living. That’s what the empty nester

wants, everything on one floor.”​ An open concept galley kitchen designed by Visbeen Architects allows for movement between dining and seating areas. Ashley Avila Photography 5. THE GALLEY

KITCHEN IS PARTY READY Whether you’re inviting friends over for brunch, cocktails or movie night, an open-concept galley kitchen makes entertaining easy. For one of her clients, Alonso

designed a galley kitchen with a cocktail zone, including a kegerator for beer, a wine fridge and an ice maker. “The kitchen is still the gathering place, so people want to have really great

kitchens,” Visbeen says.  And, as people age, architects are seeing clients who want to downsize and be more cost-effective with their budgets and more efficient with their space, he adds.

“So I think the galley kitchen makes sense if they’re going to have a functional kitchen,,” he says. It’s clear that the galley kitchen has come a long way since its seafaring days, but

what hasn’t changed is its versatile layout that can be made to fit any style, space or budget.“Even if it’s simple, they want great accessibility,” Visbeen says. “The galley kitchen

delivers this.” _Merlisa Lawrence Corbett is a contributing writer who covers sports, interior design, business and human-interest stories. A former reporter for _Sports Illustrated_ and

tennis columnist for _Bleacher Report_, her work has also appeared in _Essence_ and _Black Enterprise_. She is the author of the biography _Serena Williams: Tennis Champion, Sports Legend,

and Cultural Heroine_._