Guide on how to design your kitchen
The kitchen is a vibrant part of every home; it is a vibrant hub that is always buzzing with activities that go beyond food preparation. Over the years, the kitchen has become the center of attention in most homes, which raises the need to create good kitchen designs. In this article, we take a look at how to design your kitchen to be comfortable for entertaining guests and family.
Designing your kitchen begins with identifying the room in the house that will be used as the kitchen. It is recommended that when making this decision, you strive to orient the kitchen to the southeast or east, where the morning sunlight will fill the room. Once your kitchen is oriented, below are some basic guidelines on how to design your kitchen.
Traffic
The kitchen should not be perceived as an island; it needs contact with the outside world that is achieved by car. You can have the adjoining room used as a garage attached to the kitchen or have the back door lead to the front of the house, so you won’t have too much hassle bringing in your groceries or taking out the garbage.
You can also make a mud room to minimize traffic inside your kitchen by acting as a staging area for trips in and out of the house. Create storage for coats, boots, and hats, buffer cold air, or you can put shelves in the pantry to hold items that aren’t intended for immediate use. Once all this activity is redirected from your kitchen, you will have more space to eat and cook.
the work triangle
In the past, kitchen designs were made around a work triangle; determined the position of the sink, refrigerator and stove. A good kitchen design should make the distance between the three appliances comfortable because most of the kitchen work revolves around them. If the distance is too much, whoever is going to cook will get tired of jogging between them, and if it is too close, the work area will be cluttered.
There are three main designs for the work triangle; the galley, I-shaped and U-shaped. The U-shaped layout places the three appliances on three different walls. In the I-shaped layout, one appliance is placed on one wall while the other two are placed on another. If you’re working in a very tight space, you can have all the appliances arranged along the same wall, hence the name kitchen.
Turning on
If you’ve been wondering how to design your kitchen, lighting is among the top considerations. Having good lighting in the kitchen helps to highlight the countertop, the food, the cabinets, and ultimately you. Here are some lighting designs you can adopt:
• Recessed lighting to help eliminate shadows in the room while you work. You can do this by placing different task lights on countertops, sinks, cabinets, built-in pantries, and kitchen islands.
• Cabinet lights. Such lights are more inclined to mood than function. When mounted on top of cabinets, they create screens that illuminate the ceiling and walls.
• Under cabinet lights. These lights are used to bathe countertops in their bright light.
Floors
When choosing a flooring design for your kitchen, ease of cleaning and durability should be at the top of your list of considerations. The best options to work with include wood, ceramic tile, or linoleum. They are all easy to clean, long lasting and come in numerous designs.
Another factor to consider is safety, especially if you have children; You should consider installing textured tiles, as once smooth they become slippery when wet. Hardwood floors, on the other hand, are a perfect option if you have a lot of traffic in your kitchen.
Theme
When thinking about how to design your kitchen, the theme should be your first consideration. The theme you decide to work with influences your choice of lighting, flooring type, kitchen units, and many other factors.
Tip: Kitchens have become the main house in recent years. For this reason, while looking for ways to design your kitchen, you should consider designs that connect the kitchen with the adjacent rooms so that they are harmonious.
There are several other factors that you can consider in your search for how to design your kitchen. This list is not conclusive, but it will take you a long way in realizing the kitchen design you want.
Visit this blog for more kitchen design ideas.