For many people, the kitchen is the heart of the home and, as such, is the one room that they spend a lot of time and money. The design of your kitchen depends on the main ways you use it, and, in this article, we’ll look at the most efficient designs for a kitchen.
For the keen cook
If you’re crackers about cooking or bonkers about baking, it’s important that the design of your kitchen allows you to lay your hands on everything you need as efficiently as possible. For this reason, the line or L-shaped kitchen design will be your best bet. This design places all of your appliances, countertops and workspace in a row, allowing you to move smoothly and easily from one part to the next, i.e. from fridge to chopping board and from chopping board to pan.
This is, incidentally, the shape of the kitchen that celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay, favours – if it’s good enough for Gordon…
If your current kitchen isn’t the right shape for your cooking needs, we’re not suggesting you spend thousands of pounds on tearing it down and starting again. In many cases, we can work with your existing set-up and make a few easy and affordable tweaks to help you find the most efficient layout and design to help you cook up a storm without wearing out your shoe leather racing up and down the kitchen.
For the entertainer
Many people find that entertaining guests in the dining room is a little too formal and, instead, prefer to serve meals in the kitchen, which can often be cosier and more intimate.
If you’re using your kitchen for family meals and entertaining guests, a kitchen/diner design is the most welcoming and efficient. This design allows the cook to do their thing separately from where guests are seated, thus sparing them some noise and the occasional cloud of steam. You can create a kitchen/diner even in a small space by using a folding or collapsible table and chair, which can be stored away when not in use.
When using your kitchen for entertaining, you don’t necessarily want your guests to have a full view of all your appliances and equipment (hey, you don’t want to give away the tricks of your trade). Our kitchen makeover solutions can help to make your kitchen more attractive without having to go through the hassle and expense of installing all new units.
For the domestic kitchen user
If your kitchen activity largely involves cooking simple meals for yourself and your family, but you wouldn’t call yourself a keen cook, the triangle kitchen design is ideal. If you have the space, this design allows you to have two walkways on either side of the kitchen for appliances and storage, with a breakfast bar or table in the middle.
When you spend a lot of time in the kitchen, you not only want practicality and efficiency, but you also want it to have a fresh, clean look. Many people make the mistake of thinking that a kitchen update involves big bucks and weeks of disruption, but this is very much not the case. At Kitchen Makeovers, we make light work of freshening up your kitchen by updating and replacing panels, plinths, doors and drawer fronts, saving you huge amounts of money.
Galley kitchens
Many people, particularly in smaller houses and flats, have a galley kitchen (a long, narrow kitchen with appliances on each side). In fact, this year, 90-year-old legendary TV chef, Julia Child, revealed that now she has retired, she works in a kitchen much smaller than she was once used to, saying, “I have a very small and compact one. It’s rather like a kitchen on a boat. It’s kind of a galley kitchen, but I’ve got plenty of room in it”.
Working with a galley kitchen can be tricky as there is often not enough room to swing a casserole dish, let alone a cat; however, there are a few things you can do to maximise the space, including:
- Balance – Restricting cupboards and appliances to one side of the kitchen and adding a narrow worktop to the other can help to open up a galley kitchen while making the space more efficient.
- Lighting – Galley kitchens can often be dark and stuffy. If your kitchen only has a small window, you may want to think about a skylight or additional window, which will help to brighten the room.
- Utilising the space – Having several cupboards in your galley kitchen makes it seem cramped and even smaller than it actually is. Instead, invest in a couple of tall, ceiling-length cabinets to help make the space more efficient.
At Kitchen Makeovers, we make it our business to be the best when it comes to cooking up solutions for small and narrow kitchens without the expense of a full refit – making them more attractive and more efficient.
Open kitchen
An open kitchen, or American kitchen, is one which is part of a dining room or living room and one which can seem fairly limiting in terms of design and efficiency. Make the most of your open kitchen by:
- Add a long breakfast bar to serve as a border between the kitchen and the living area.
- Minimise precious space by adding taller cupboards for storing food items.
- Add pull-down baskets and shelves to maximise space.
- Adding, where possible, a good ventilation system to prevent food smells from penetrating your living room and beyond.
When your kitchen is in your living space, your priority is to ensure that the decor matches and looks attractive. We can help by creating hidden storage and replacing the frontages of cupboards and drawers to make the kitchen a modern and pleasing addition to the room rather than an eyesore which draws attention to itself.
Conclusion
Depending on how much time you spend in your kitchen, design is all important when it comes to efficiency. While it may be a ‘first world problem’, having to constantly move back and forth in the kitchen when cooking, it can be annoying and mean that cooking takes longer.
