By letting your imagination run wild, you can get the best and most unique layout and style for your kitchen space. From U shaped, to L shaped, to G shaped, there are a number of different kitchen layouts and styles that a homeowner can opt for. Best of all, the majority of kitchen product suppliers and designers today offer quite a number of free design tools, both online and offline, which are very helpful for homeowners that need to plan and visualize different layouts for their kitchens.
So, if you are a forward looking homeowner, then today is the right time to play around with different kitchen ideas. These include playing around with different color schemes, appliances, dimensions, finishes, floor plans, and etc. Here let’s have a look at some function and design basics where kitchen designing is concerned.
Layout
The six commonest kitchen layouts opted for today by many homeowners are as follows. But before we dive into them, note that these design options form the foundation of most kitchen layouts.
• Gallery: This layout is named after galley. A gallery is the cooking section on a ship. The majority of restaurant and industrial kitchens make use of this configuration. Appliances and cabinetry in this case are aligned parallel alongside each wall. The design is similar to a corridor.
• G-shape: This layout is a favorite with many homeowners who have a detached room for a kitchen. The appliances and the cabinetry are placed around the walls a G-shaped sorts of a configuration.
• Wall: This design is recommended for small spaces and where the kitchen is along one wall. The layout makes great use of restricted spaces.
• Island: The majority of kitchen designs include an island bench where there is sufficient space. This kind of a bench is utilized as a cook top, dining space, or food preparation area, and invites an all-encompassing social kitchen setting.
• L-shape: The design is excellent for open-plan living and enhances the use of island benches.
• U-shape: The design is best suited to single cook households and is very popular with many homeowners.
Kitchen layout and design experts encourage opting for island benches as the kitchen feels better than those that have formal cooking lines and islands suited in the middle.
Function and zoning
When designing a kitchen, it is recommended that the designer think about the different functions the space requires fulfilling. This way, it becomes easy to create zones within the room. Here is how:
• Create some equipment storage space for storing things such as pots, cutlery, cups, pans, glassware and plates.
• Food storage section: This area is for placing freezers, fridge, pantry equipments, food stuffs, and etc.
• Food preparation area: This space is commonly used as the place for preparing food in a kitchen. Prep utensils, prep sauce, and commonly used cooking items are to be found in this zone.
• Cooking section: The stove, microwave, oven, grill, and the likes are placed here.
• Cleaning section: The sink, recycling, cleaning products, waste matter, etc, all are to be found in this section.
Whichever the case, the designer must make sure the kitchen has sufficient preparation space to allow a natural working flow. A set-down space is required on either side of the cooking area to make sure there is a nice work flow. For instance, if you are chopping vegetables, then the bin needs to be close by. The sink also needs to be near so that you can easily wash them. When the dishwasher is opened, you do not want it to close off half of the kitchen.
Merging kitchen styles
Regardless of whether it is an outdoor type of a kitchen, or is an indoor variety with an open-plan social area, or a type that is commonly used as the center of action in a home, combining different styles like industrial, vintage, minimal, old world, rustic, or modern , can help prevent the design from becoming outdated. For instance, merging the old-world European allure of marbled pastry granite benchtops with the modernity of shiny laminate or vinyl cabinetry in a favorite midnight blue hue and the aged bronze industrial factory lights result in a uniquely warm and inviting kitchen space. Or, you can opt for brushed-concrete walls and island benches that are softened by the utilization of country wood finishes on the bench or counter tops and then completed with minimalist steel appliance and white cabinets for a dramatic effect.
To ensure that the potential kitchen ideas can work together, it is recommended that you get pictures from kitchen product manufacturers, magazines, supplier swatches, brochures, and etc. Kitchen ideas in Newmarket can also be sourced online from kitchen design websites, kitchen appliance and brand blogs, and the likes. If these can’t work for your case, then it is recommended that you talk to a kitchen designer or product manufacturer as these two are experts where kitchen plans and layouts are concerned. If you are technologically savvy, then try using a 3D modeling software to help you out.