How to design your kitchen? How to have a harmonious and functional kitchen? How to redesign your old kitchen to get a much more practical and optimized one? You will find all the answers to these questions in this article!
The kitchen is undoubtedly one of the most important rooms in your home. In fact, it can be said that a lot happens in a kitchen. Between the breakfasts taken on the run and on the work surface in the morning, the dishes to be cooked for lunch and dinner, there is a lot of activity!
As a place to meet, share and socialize, the kitchen is pivotal in your house or apartment. Therefore, designing and arranging it well is essential to get all the benefits.
And if this can seem like a real obstacle course, you should know that it is not so complicated and tedious to design your kitchen correctly. To guide you in your renovation work, here are 5 practical tips that may well facilitate your kitchen’s design. Let’s discover them right away!
1/ Design your kitchen by choosing the proper layout
When you start designing your kitchen, the first thing to do is to think about the layout of the kitchen. Very often, and in most cases, the layout is imposed by the shape of your kitchen’s room. But it is still possible to vary the layout. There are several kitchen designs, with L-shaped kitchens, full-length kitchens (I-shaped), parallel kitchens, and U-shaped kitchens.
The L-shaped kitchen is one of the most popular layouts. The L-shaped kitchen offers two separate walls against which you can easily place your appliances and storage units. A central island or counter can easily be added.
The I-shaped kitchen, all in length, offers a really simple layout. Everything is within reach, and this is ideal if you have a kitchen that opens onto your living room, for example.
As its name indicates, the parallel kitchen offers a layout with two blocks facing each other. This layout is more for large kitchens, since it usually requires a lot of space to promote the design.
Finally, the U-shaped kitchen is, like the L-shaped kitchen, one of the most popular layouts. It has furniture installed against three separate walls, and you have enough space to circulate and do your activities.
To go further, you should also know – and this is true regardless of your type of layout – that specific dimensions must be respected when designing your kitchen. As a general rule, the height of a work surface is around 90 cm, and a circulation corridor of 90 cm must also be set up in order to circulate in good conditions.
2/ Designing your kitchen with the activity triangle in mind
As a second tip to make your life easier when designing your kitchen, you should think about the activity triangle. The activity triangle is an expression widely used by kitchen designers and architects to optimize the space of a kitchen properly.
In concrete terms, the activity triangle is an organization of space that aims to reduce the distances between the three main poles of your kitchen as much as possible: the refrigerator, the cooking plates, and the sink.
The goal of an optimal activity triangle is to minimize the space between these three poles and facilitate access.
3/ Design your kitchen using easy-to-clean materials and functional storage
A good kitchen design also requires an intelligent choice of materials and storage. To do this, you should choose resistant materials that are easy to clean. For example, grease spills are commonplace in a kitchen, and a good credenza is more than necessary. The same goes for the worktop, which will also blow away dirt.
For the latter, it is better to use materials that are easy to maintain, such as wood or granite. Finally, as far as storage is concerned, take advantage of designers like Concept Usine, who offer extremely functional storage units. This will ensure comfort but also a considerable saving of space.
4/ Organize your kitchen with a dining area
To organize your kitchen in the right way, you should also think about installing a small dining area in it. Indeed, the kitchen is a real place of passage, and you will see that it is sometimes possible to have your meal or your breakfast directly in the kitchen.
Even if you have a good dining table in the living room, think of organizing a small dining area in the kitchen. For example, using the work surface or creating a small bar area.
5/ Designing your kitchen with lighting in mind
Finally, it is also important to design your kitchen with appropriate lighting. You will make your best dishes in this room, and it is therefore essential to see what you are doing! At the same time, consider diversifying the light sources throughout your kitchen to create a distinguished atmosphere and decoration.
As you can see, in order to properly design your kitchen, you need to pay attention to several elements. Starting with the layout of the kitchen, its functionality, and its practicality, by providing a dining area and not forgetting the lighting. In short, you have a lot of work to do. Let’s get to work!