Buffer

Email

Print

Kitchens have often been described as the heart of the home; we’ve always had one even back in the days when the kitchen was little more than a campfire. Although we’ve long moved out of caves and into more desirable dwellings the kitchen remains one of the basic necessities of domestic life. From humble cottages to palaces, kitchens are to be found in every size and shape of home. Combining function and form they continue to come in all manner of designs. When building, developing or simply upgrading a home, they form a crucial part of the design and shouldn’t be overlooked. In many homes the kitchen has traditionally been placed at the back of the building but in more modern developments the trend has been to place them at the front or in a central position, forming a hub around which the life of the house revolves. Creating your perfect home will be very much a personal journey and creating a kitchen that suits your lifestyle will be essential.

Function over Form

When designing your dream kitchen it’s important to consider the actual functions it’s going to be required to fulfil. This also means some thought about how you and your family live and use the various rooms. A large, comfortable family kitchen with plenty of seating and space is all very well and good, but if you and your family rarely eat at home and spend most of your time in other rooms, it can be a large and expensive waste of space and money. If the kitchen is not a room that you love to live in, then the cost of building a bespoke kitchen may be not worth the money it. On the other hand if you’re a ‘kitchen-living’ family it’s worth the money to create a room that functions not only as the place to cook and eat but also to entertain. Open planned living/kitchen/dining rooms have become a popular choice and these make great, friendly social spaces for those brave enough to be able to cope with an audience while cooking!

Popular Materials

The materials used in constructing a kitchen are largely a matter of personal choice. Wood remains a perennial favourite with many people and thanks to its huge variety in colour and texture it can be a perfect material for creating a warm, homely look. However, wood doesn’t have to mean ‘traditional’ and by creative use of different types of wood and patterns in the wood grain you can create a stylish statement that looks and feels ultra modern. Light tones of wood can create a clean, airy look whilst rich dark woods can provide a classy backdrop.

Work top surfaces are often also created with wood but steel, glass, marble, granite and even polished concrete have been used in modern times. Again, this is as much to do with personal taste as more traditional kitchens will best suit wood or stone, while modern statement designs with streamlined looks and ultra-modern gadgets will often look best with steel, granite or glass work surfaces.

Cheap as Chipboard

Over our lifetimes, we may live in many different kitchens and will use them for a multitude of different functions. Therefore it is important that when a kitchen is designed and build, that the designer understands that this kitchen must stand the test of time. By spending extra on durable materials and solid units, you will find that you kitchen lasts longer and stands up to knocks and scrapes easier.

While many assume that a bespoke kitchen comes with a bespoke price this is a little misleading. Bespoke kitchen designers and producers readily compete with (and often outperform on price, quality and style) more mainstream manufacturers. Bespoke producers also don’t tend to be over-reliant on chipboard and MDF and while there is nothing technically wrong with the cheap as chipboard approach to kitchen furniture, there are issues around the lifetime you can expect. With a bespoke kitchen the price usually includes a very long life for your kitchen indeed.

Nick Thorping is a writer who believes that solid and well designed kitchens should not have to break the bank. If you are looking for professional and well priced fixtures and fittings designed for kitchens, Bristol experts can help you to source materials to ensure that your bespoke kitchen lasts.

Related articles

• Cooking Up A Design Storm: Country And Contemporary Ideas For All
• Styling Your Kitchen: Designing A Great And Practical Space
• Simple Ways to Create Stylish Bespoke Kitchens
• When a Bespoke Kitchen is truly Bespoke !
• Wren Kitchens New Website Launch
• Making the most of a Cosy Kitchen
• Best Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Tips
• Modern Kitchen Design Guide2013
• Thinking About Backsplashes
• Making Bespoke Kitchens Stylish and Affordable