Designing Cooking Kitchens - Practical Advice For Your Dream Kitchen Part 1

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A great cook’s kitchen can often sell a house. But not everyone needs a chef’s kitchen.

In fact, these days many families dine out, or order in. So I’ve seen houses with small kitchens, but this can limit future buyers, perhaps excluding some.

Kitchens are expensive, and changing the layout and fixtures later will be costly so carefully consider the design layout. Ensure you get it right. Kitchen suppliers can create 3-D graphical designs of your kitchen which will help you visualise the finished kitchen, ensuring that the layout suits you and your lifestyle and that everything fits together.

A good kitchen is one that’s functional while also being aesthetically pleasing. It should be practical, easy to clean with a great use of space. It’s a place to cook, often a place to eat, and of course it can be a place to impress friends.

Considerations for kitchens include:

• That there’s sufficient space for appliances, which include fridges, freezes and dishwashers. Consider what size fridge and freezer a family will require, not necessarily only what you want.
• That there’s adequate counter space for working on.
• There’s enough (rather an excess) of electrical outlet points, so appliances can be connected. These should be placed where they’ll be required and above counter tops.
• There’s sufficient cupboard or storage space for crockery, pots and pans, utensils and groceries. Considerations include:
  • You could have a walk-in pantry for groceries.
  • Allow a mix of drawers and cupboards of various heights and sizes.
  • Place for brooms and vacuum cleaners.
  • Cupboards placed above counters are great, but ensure that they aren’t too low, and that they step back slightly from the counter top below so that you don’t accidentally hit your head on them while trying to work on the counter below.
  • Cupboard doors help keep dust off items and are useful to hide untidy spaces.
  • Taking cupboards to the ceiling creates extra storage, but cupboards above head height are only useful for items that are seldom used and not for general items which are used every week. You don’t want to be using a ladder every time you need your everyday things.
• That there’s adequate space to move around and between counters, even if the oven or a drawer is open.
• The areas most used are the sink, stove and fridge, so these three items should be within easy reach of each other, but not right on top of each other, and they should, where possible form a triangle with them all being within two to three metres (six feet to nine feet) of each other.
• That wash-up sinks are big enough for large pots and plates. Personally I find small sinks irritating where you can hardly wash anything. Double sinks for washing and rinsing are useful.
• There should be sufficient space for stacking dirty and drying items on either side of the sink – sure you may have a dishwasher, but guaranteed you’ll always wash something in the sink.
• Areas around the sink will get wet, so make certain that the counters can withstand the wet and always silicone seal between the sink and the counter so that water doesn’t leak down into the cupboards below. Installing tiled or glass splash-backs behind sinks placed against walls is good practice, since they’re decorative, protect the wall from moisture and are easily cleaned.
• Kitchens can be messy areas, so consider what you might want to screen off from visitors. Open plan living areas and kitchens are great for family interaction and communication, but you might not want visitors to see your piled up dirty dishes. Screening can be achieved by raising the front of counters above the sink height, or placing some items around the corner, out of the immediate line of sight.
• Do you want to include an eating area in the kitchen, in the form of a counter, or even a table and chairs?
• Lighting is important, especially over work counters. Carefully consider the placement and type of lights. Perhaps even have lights on different circuits so they don’t all need to be on at the same time if not required.
• Counter tops should be robust, not easily marked but easy to clean. Marble isn’t a good material for kitchen tops. The counter top can add immensely to the feel of the kitchen and often it’s worth spending a little more money for granite or stone tops.
• Areas around cook-tops will get splattered with fat and oil so they should be easily cleanable.
• Install an efficient extractor by the cook-top to suck away cooking odours, oils, greases and smoke.
• Don’t have cupboards right next to the cook-top where they may be damaged by heat.
• Floor finishes should be hard wearing, nonslip and easily cleanable.
• Continued in Part 2

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​For more valuable home improvement, design and renovation tips and advice read: 'An Introduction to Building and Renovating Houses - Volume 1 Hiring Contractors, Managing Construction and Finishing Your Home' and 'Volume 2 Finding Your Ideal Property and Designing Your Dream Home'

​This is an extract from: 'An Introduction to Building and Renovating Houses Volume 2' by Paul Netscher. Available in paper or eBook from Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon AU and all online bookstores. To read more

​© 2018 This article is not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without written permission from the author.

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