For many people the kitchen is one of the most important rooms in the home. Gone are the days when only food was prepared here, nowadays modern families make use of this room in a multitude of ways. For some it can be a genuine meeting point, away from the technology and potential distractions that the lounge area can throw up. For others it can be a place to socialise, getting together with friends and family over a cup of coffee or even a glass of wine.
The reality is that to make this room work in its modern form it needs to be both functional and beautiful. With this in mind many home owners have taken to giving their humble kitchen a makeover, in the hope that they can maximise its potential. Of course the kitchen can be compared to other areas in the house, in so much as there are some do’s and don’ts that should be considered before changing things.
This blog post will take a closer look at a few essential tips that should help to avoid your kitchen design going horribly wrong. For want of a better phrase, turning in to a kitchen design nightmare.
Understanding the Kitchen Triangle
The first thing to focus on when trying to come up with a new design for your kitchen is that there are areas that will feature more traffic than others. The important thing here is to make sure that you fully understand the relationship between these key areas. Failing to do so will almost certainly relegate your kitchen overhaul into the disaster zone.
For some time now experts have referred to these busiest zones as the kitchen triangle. So as you might expect there are three particular places that need to be well thought out. These are of course the:
- Sink
- Cooker
- Refrigerator
Generally speaking the majority of homes will find that the sink will see the most action. It is vital that in your planning that you allow easy access from the sink to the cooker and refrigerator. Thought should also be given to the ease of access to the all-important kitchen worktops.
Making the decision to place the sink right next to the fridge is a disaster waiting to happen. That said it could work in a kitchen that is only ever used by one person; however, you can bet your bottom dollar that congestion will set in when other users are introduced. Put simply, placing these key items too close to each other and you will have people tripping over each other. Likewise, too far away and the kitchen chores suddenly become a marathon effort.
Adequate Kitchen Worktop Space
The biggest gripe with budding chefs is often that there is simply not enough usable kitchen worktop space. To rectify this it is perhaps important to try to consider all the different activities that will make use of this vital space.
Don’t forget that much of this space will already be taken up by permanently housed kitchen equipment. With this in mind it is good practice to consider ways that you could incorporate much needed additional workspace. This could come in the form of a breakfast bar or an island, with these arrangements being particularly suited to owners of L-shaped kitchens.
Setting the Trend
As you might expect there are often some weird and wonderful designs available. Riding on the back of the latest fashion trend might not necessarily represent a faux pas; however, remember beauty is nearly always in the eye of the beholder. The key here is that if you are planning to go “uber trendy” in the design of your new kitchen then it is important to make sure you can live with it.
Very often the most stylish designs and vibrant colours will tend to have a short shelf life. It would be a real shame if having worked your design magic that you felt compelled to rip the whole thing out and start again after a short period of time.
With the above in mind, many home owners play things a little safe. This doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to end up with a spectacular room. Often people find that by carefully selecting the worktops and other key surface areas they can come up with something that is not only individual but also both practical and stylish. Furthermore you are less likely to offend other visitors to your kitchen. This can be an important point when there are other users of the kitchen in residence, not to mention making the home a touch easier to sell as and when the time arrives.
A great example of this can be by installing solid wood worktops. These tend to be available in a wide selection of colours and finishes to help provide a more luxurious feel. This of course could well be an important consideration especially if you find yourself hosting dinner parties and other social events.
Featured images:
License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/#/?q=kitchen island
Before embarking on a successful career as a freelance writer, your author (Stephen Jones) spent a number of years as a kitchen designer. He strongly recommends that any new design incorporates adequate working space, sadly when this element is overlooked the whole kitchen design almost always suffers.
