To make the kitchen functional, designers calculate every detail – from layout to lighting. In this article, we talk about the basic and most important rules, without which it is difficult to obtain a comfortable kitchen space.
1. Choose practical materials
When choosing finishing materials, kitchen facades, and plumbing fixtures, focus on your lifestyle: how often do you cook, do you have children and animals in the family, are you ready to regularly clean the kitchen? Remember that on dark facades dust and any stains are more visible, on a dark faucet and sink – drops of water and limescale.
Wood and marble countertops require careful care. For example, stains from spilled coffee and wine are almost impossible to remove. Artificial stone and compact slabs are much more practical.
Large-format porcelain tiles are ideal for decorating a kitchen apron – there are a minimum of seams, which greatly facilitates the cleaning process. For finishing the floor, it is also better to choose porcelain stoneware. It is wear-resistant, and not afraid of water and temperature changes.
2. Use modern technology
Here, too, focus on your lifestyle. If you don’t cook much, it makes sense to buy a narrow dishwasher 45 cm wide, and instead of a four-burner hob, a two-burner one. For a large family, a spacious refrigerator and an oven of increased volume will not be superfluous.
Think about how often you cook and what equipment will help with this. A toaster, electric grill, blender, mixer – all this minimizes the kitchen routine and saves you energy and time.
And if you don’t want to fill your cabinets and countertops with unnecessary appliances, choose multifunctional appliances. For example, the Kenwood Cooking Chef XL kitchen machine will replace most appliances in your kitchen – from a food processor to an ice cream maker and a meat grinder.
3. Consider the “working triangle” rule
When thinking about the kitchen layout and furniture configuration, do not forget to organize a convenient working triangle. The point is to place the stove, sink, and refrigerator at a convenient distance from each other – no less than 1.2 m and no more than 2 m. When these elements visually form an isosceles triangle, it will become more convenient to move around the kitchen while cooking.
4. Think over a storage system
The lower cabinets are convenient for storing pots, pans, and other large and heavy utensils. To avoid having to constantly bend over, choose drawers for the lower tier.
Make the upper cabinets to the ceiling – there will always be something to store on the mezzanines. Organize storage in the hood cabinet as much as possible: for example, make shelves for spices and groceries. Use hanging organizers and dish racks to adjust the height of your shelves.
Sort your groceries into storage containers – it will be easier to use and maintain order. And remember the rule: place everything you use regularly at arm’s length.
5. Create a comfortable work surface
To make cooking convenient, provide at least one continuous piece of working surface 1 m long. Adjust the height of the tabletop to suit you: it should be 15 cm below the elbow of the person who cooks most often.
If possible, increase the work surface. This can be done by using the window sill, and turning it into a continuation of the tabletop. Another option is special cutting boards that go over the sink.
6. Set up a washing area
Designers recommend paying attention to under-mount sinks. Their trick is that they form a single surface with the tabletop without gaps and edges, where dirt and water usually accumulate.
A useful addition to the sink will be a disposer, whose task is to crush organic waste and send it along with the water pressure into the sewer. Thus, the device prevents blockages in the siphon and unpleasant odors in the kitchen. Install the disposer under the kitchen sink between the drain and the trap, and its button on the countertop next to the faucet.
Be sure to use the space under the sink. In addition to a trash can or waste sorting system, it is convenient to store household chemicals there. You can put a narrow pull-out shelving unit or attach several shelves to the side of the cabinet.
7. Calculate the number of sockets
To avoid unnecessary wires in the kitchen, and to avoid having to constantly carry small household appliances from place to place, calculate the required number of sockets. Ideally, there should be at least a couple of sockets on each section of the countertop, but not in the immediate vicinity of the sink and hob.
It wouldn’t hurt to make one or two sockets in the window slopes. In addition to connecting the garland on New Year’s holidays, you can organize a coffee corner here and thereby free up the worktop.
8. Consider multi-level lighting
Even if the kitchen is very small, one light source is still not enough – it is inconvenient to cook in a poorly lit room and the space seems even smaller.
In addition to general lighting, provide local lamps above the dining and work areas. Above the work area, this can be a built-in backlight with a motion sensor. It does not require a switch, and is very convenient to use: you just need to put your hand near the sensor and the light will turn on or off.
The most important thing about our X that it is for
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