The kitchen is the heart (or is it stomach?) of any home. It’s much easier to build your dream kitchen with everything you want from the get go than find an established home with a kitchen that matches your wish list or trying to add those dream items later. Finding the perfect balance between aesthetic and function can be difficult, so we’ve prepared five pieces of advice to help make it easier for you.
- Location, location, location!
Where the kitchen is placed in the house is absolutely key.
Whether you’re entertaining friends in the alfresco, sitting down with the family in the dining area, or getting spoiled with breakfast in bed, the kitchen needs to ‘speak’ to the rest of the home. Positioning your kitchen to the centre or rear of the home will provide the most seamless integration with the other rooms in the house.
Natural lighting is so important in the kitchen (and all living areas!) so wherever possible, place it facing north to maximize the sun year-long.
- What on earth is the kitchen work triangle?
Quick – what are the three most used elements of your kitchen? If you answered the cook top, fridge, and sink, you’ve discovered ‘the kitchen work triangle’.
When you position these three kitchen features close (ideally 2m) to each other, it makes your kitchen more functional, easy, and efficient to use. Make sure you don’t position them too close together; the relationship between these areas means it’s high traffic; you’ll need room to move!
- Storage War
There is nothing worse than bringing home a flashy new appliance and realising that you simply don’t have anywhere for it to be stored! Does it just live on the bench? That might make it accessible, but as you don’t use it every day it’s a waste of bench space.
We can’t stress enough how important it is to have ample accessible storage including cabinets, cupboards, and pantries. Prime storage positions should be given to the things you use every day – keep those cumbersome or seldomly used items in storage away from the main area (like that bread maker you only use once a year when the person who gifted it to you comes to stay).
Don’t forget the bench space! Your island or breakfast bar should be used for food preparation, not bogged down as secondary storage. Make sure you have adequate space either side of your sink for drying dishes and either side of your cooktop for your ingredients as you cook.
- Colour Me Impressed
Now it’s time to talk selections. What does your dream kitchen look like? What kind of vibe are you after? Here are two kitchen style trends we’re loving at the moment.
Feature Splash backs! Forget generic white tiles; think full-height tiled feature walls, think patterns upon patterns (geometric is one of our favorites), and think vibrant colours paired with metallic highlights. Keep your cabinetry simple and let the splash back shine.
Black Fixtures! There’s a reason black is considered so timeless; it pairs well with everything! That’s especially true of your kitchen. No matter your style, black fixtures (tap ware, sinks, appliances, even cabinetry) can be incorporated with ease and sophistication.
- Let There Be Light!
What’s left? The lighting, of course. There are three types of lighting essential for any kitchen; accent, task, and ambient. The ambient light (the overall room lighting) needs to be light and bright enough for you to see exactly what you’re doing with your food preparation. The task lighting needs to be focused on lighting up your cooktop, sink, and work surfaces.
Let us help you illuminate your kitchen dreams; get in contact with one of our new homes consultants today.