Create the Ideal Kitchen - in Form and Function
Remodeling tips that add form and function to your kitchen. remodel.
The kitchen is easily the most used room in the home, but in too many cases poor layout and outdated styles make it both inefficient and unattractive. The modern kitchen is the true heart of the home
If you’re like many homeowners you’re more than aware of the shortcomings of your kitchen and have already spent time dreaming of a new kitchen.
A kitchen renovation needs to be carefully planned. Here are some tips on how to create the ideal kitchen — in form and function.
Add Space
Although the size of the average family is much smaller than in the past, kitchens just seem to keep getting bigger. To create an ideal space that will work for all its users, more room is almost always needed. The number, and size, of the various appliances situated in the modern kitchen is usually one of the main reasons people feel cramped. Just take a look at your own countertops!
Gaining space might be easier than you think. Look at adjoining rooms — an entryway or dining area — as potential. It might just be a matter of opening up a doorway by a few feet.
User Friendly Space
Long gone are the days when the kitchen was a place where mom worked alone. The modern kitchen often has more than one cook and several helpers. By designing the kitchen with the users in mind, you will end up with a much more functional space. Varying countertop heights, for example, will not only make it more comfortable for people to work there, it can add a lot of visual style as well.
Multiple Cooks
Kitchen designers have long used the classic work triangle (the shortest distance between the food preparation area, the refrigerator and the stove) as the key element in kitchen layout. Although that basic element may still exist in many modern kitchens, there is just as likely to be more than one sink, as well as extra counter prep area with refrigerator drawers underneath. Once your family experiences the wonders of more than one work center, you’ll wonder how you ever did it before!
Think Storage
Good storage options in the kitchen are critical — not only for the kitchen not to look cluttered and messy, but for the space to work to its full potential. But don’t worry; you don’t have to be an organized person to have a very well organized kitchen. Today’s kitchens can include: roll-out and fold-out shelves, a pull-out pantry, a recycling center, and an endless array of other creative ways to battle clutter and find extra space in the busiest of rooms.
With good planning and help from a professional kitchen remodeling contractor, your dream kitchen may be within easy reach.
Find your local Kitchen Designer in our Homeowners Resource Guide >>
