Your kitchen is the heart of your home and gets a lot of use. Even if you aren’t a big cook, the chances are you use your kitchen on a daily basis, so it needs to look good but also work hard.
Your kitchen should be a space that you enjoy, whether you use it for cooking, entertaining or family meals. This means you need to make it work for you, which takes some thoughtful kitchen design.
Here at Reeve & Co, we help create stunning bespoke kitchens to help bring your plans and inspiration to life. However, to help us design and make a kitchen that truly ticks all the boxes, there are a few things you should consider about what you want and need your space to deliver.
Here are a few things to think about when designing a kitchen from scratch or renovating the room you have.
Traffic Flow
The traffic flow of your kitchen helps you ensure that everything is put where it needs to be for easy use. Not considering how you use your kitchen could mean you end up crossing it multiple times when cooking a meal as nothing is to hand where you need it.
Your layout needs to follow the way that your family uses the kitchen so you can use it easily and without needing to work harder. For example, food and other ingredients should be stored near the cooker, as should pans and utensils. Ideally, your cooker should be placed away from high traffic areas to avoid spillages, whereas your fridge should be easily accessible to those cooking in the kitchen and people passing by.
Think about the way you use your kitchen and what annoys you about the layout of your existing room to create an accurate traffic flow that will help with the layout.
Corners
Corners can prove to be a nightmare in a kitchen. You don’t want to have to close the kitchen door just to be able to open the oven, so you need to ensure that cabinets and appliances are placed carefully.
To achieve this, you need to plan solace for every cabinet’s door clearance and the same with your oven and fridge. You need to make sure that doors can be opened at the same time without banging each other, otherwise, the functionality of your kitchen will be affected.
Lighting
The lighting in your kitchen shouldn’t be an afterthought as it is an important part of creating the right ambience for the space. Your lighting helps to set the mood and allows you to change the feel of your kitchen depending on what you’re using the room for. You also need to be able to cook and prepare food safely, which means being able to see what you’re doing.
Consider what types of light sources you want to use and where you may need extra lighting. It is generally a good idea to incorporate some wall lighting – either in the form of spotlights or a cooker hood – along with overhead lighting so you can fully tailor the feel of your kitchen.
Ventilation
You want your kitchen to look great but it also needs to be functional, which means thinking about proper ventilation. Ventilation when cooking is important as it helps to avoid condensation, which can lead to mould and mildew, as well as gets rid of cooking smells.
Ideally, you should include an extraction fan in your kitchen design plans to help improve ventilation and ensure your space stays fresh.
Countertop Details
Ensuring you have ample countertop space is important both for storage and cooking. Too little countertops can leave you working in cramped conditions and make it difficult to keep your kitchen clean and tidy.
Think about what appliances need counter space at all times, if there is anything else that will be kept on the counter – such as coffee canisters and knife blocks – and how much space you’ll likely need for cooking.
If space is at a premium in your kitchen, you can also start considering clever storage options that still make things easy to access but don’t result in a cluttered countertop. This can include pop-up plug sockets, magnetic knife strips and fold-down spice racks.
Island Function
If your dream kitchen includes an island, the best way to ensure it is actually useful is to decide on its function. It’s great to have extra counter space but if you aren’t sure how you’re going to use that space, you won’t get the most out of it.
Is your island going to be used for cooking, eating, as a sink area or something else? Will it help with the design and use of your kitchen to use the base of the island purely for storage or will it help with the flow of your kitchen to place appliances like your dishwasher underneath it?
Thinking about these factors will ensure that you can fully use your island rather than it simply taking up space.
Materials
The materials used in your kitchen will determine both the way it looks and its longevity. Ideally, you want to use materials that look great, are suitable for the way you use your kitchen and will continue to be strong and attractive for years to come.
While it can be tempting to cut corners to bring the price of your kitchen down, this is usually a false economy with cheaper materials costing you more in the long run. Choosing high-end materials will ensure your kitchen continues to be functional, is less prone to damage and will still be doing you proud for years.
