It is well documented how remodeling your kitchen provides one of the best returns on your investment when it comes to home improvements. The kitchen is one of the most important areas of a house. Ensuring that yours is appealing and functional will enable you to sell your property fast. Moreover, a well-maintained kitchen can also leave a positive impression among family members and guests, increasing the value of your property in the future.
However, even if you are not thinking about selling up for the next few years, it’s still best if you choose to remodel a kitchen and ensure that the entire area works well for you and your family, and provide you with efficient use of space.
Here are our tips to help you achieve a kitchen that is not only aesthetically pleasing but efficient too.
The way that we use our kitchens has dramatically changed over the years. Fewer meals are cooked from scratch, kitchens are more multi-functional than ever, and the change in usage pattern has meant that our design needs have changed too. Aside from preparing meals, kitchens are now utilized as an area to make conversations with friends and family, creating happy memories with them. In fact, a lot of homeowners would opt to increase the seating capacity of their kitchens to ensure that they can entertain more guests in the area, ensuring that everyone stays comfortable.
Here are key considerations for your kitchen’s design:
- Distances between the sink, the cooker and the refrigerator (known as the work triangle). These are the three most important areas of your kitchen, which is why it’s important to allocate sufficient space for each. It’ll be challenging for you to make the most out of your kitchen if these areas are missing or lack space.
- Traffic spaces – there needs to be adequate space for you to work in, and for people to pass you safely. Traffic spaces are essential in every kitchen because it ensures that everyone can freely move around, and the entire area doesn’t look too cramped. If your entire kitchen doesn’t have any traffic spaces, you won’t have the motivation to cook and entertain guests.
- Countertop size – you need a space that allows you to prepare food. The size of your countertop depends on the variety of tasks you do around your kitchen.
- Cabinet volumes – as less food is cooked from scratch, people tend to use more jars, tins, and bottles with their cooking, whereas once refrigerator or cold store size was more important, now people focus on standard cabinets to store their ingredients. Aside from improving the storage space of your kitchen, cabinets can also make the entire area cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing. If you’re fond of storing countless raw ingredients and spices in your kitchen, cabinets are vital.
However, design involves more than simply efficiency, and because the kitchen fulfills many roles within a family home, and as we spend more time in the space, we have become more concerned with its design than ever before.
Space
Typically, most homeowners want more space in their kitchen, so unless you are going to add an extension, you need to find more space somehow. Options that you can consider are knocking down a wall, exposing under stair closets, or even raising the ceiling. Think carefully about what you need to have in the kitchen, and what you would like to have in it – the two lists are often quite different.
Adding more storage options in your kitchen is also a great way to maximize every square inch of the area. Having proper storage will also keep your kitchen more open and inviting. Depending on your preferences, and available space, you can install kitchen bespoke cabinets or invest in furniture that offers storage.
Lighting
Now that kitchens are multifunctional, lighting has become more important to define the different areas and uses of the kitchen. Pendant lights can provide stunning alternatives to spotlights for task lighting, and contemporary chandeliers over the dining table can provide a statement focal point that adds a sense of luxury and opulence. Further your kitchen experience by using dimmer switches to control the lighting options that you have.
The design of your kitchen needs to be considered related to the rest of the home. You want your remodel design to complement your home, rather than feel like an inorganic addition. We no longer use kitchens solely for food preparation, they are now used for a whole host of reasons, and our designs need to reflect that. The appliances that are used in kitchens can now be invisible under counters, and the collections of worktops and materials that are on offer are varied and can meet both the functional aesthetic needs of the room. Treat your kitchen as you would any other room, spend time choosing the paint color, accessories on display, and even the artwork to hang on the walls.