How to Re-Design your new Kitchen Space
Many older homes feature smaller kitchens which often don’t suit modern life. These awkward spaces can be difficult to work with the rest of the house, especially when homeowners are looking to create a large, open plan living area.
So how should homeowners proceed when looking to redesign their kitchen?
James Bernard, director of Plus Rooms, a London-based design and build company which has completed over 1,000 extensions, shares his expert tips.
- Start by identifying where you will spend the most of your time
Typically that space is located at the rear of your property towards the garden, because this is where you would enjoy eating and relaxing the most – and where you are most connected to the outside.
Because of this, you want to have the area further away from the garden dedicated to more functional use, leaving your living and dining space with the most natural light.
Often this means the kitchen is located in a darker zone of the space, but that can be easily be countered with well-designed lighting.
- Consider what type of kitchen would fit your space best
Gallery kitchens are flush against one wall and have less units, which means that they don’t take up as much space as standard kitchens. This can make a big difference if you have a limited space and wish to squeeze other things into the room.
On the other hand, if you have a larger space consider angled kitchens, especially if your space is rectangular as in often the case in terraced properties. This will help cut the linear design and help the space feel less long and narrow.
- The “Working Triangle” might not always be the best option for your kitchen
This depends on the layout of your kitchen and on traffic paths. Ideally, you want to keep right angles and zones of space away from the line of flow, because that is how you will cut down on traffic.
This will help you gain in efficiency in the use of your kitchen space as it will be easier to compartmentalise the kitchen away from the line of traffic.
- Play with the design to retain a distinctive kitchen space in an open space
When designing your new space, keep in mind that you can play with several aspects of the design to create distinction and have clearly defined areas in your open plan.
Positioning the kitchen underneath the slope of the roof or section of the ceiling, for example, can really help define its space as separate from other zones of the interior.
- Keep storage near the centre of your home
Redesigning your new kitchen space offers the perfect chance to create additional storage, but think carefully of where to put it so it doesn’t disturb the traffic paths in your new space.
As a rule of thumb, we try to keep it outside of the main kitchen / dining / living area and as close to the hallway as possible because it makes it much more easily accessible to the whole house. By keeping it in a darker zone of the space, it also means that you don’t have to sacrifice natural light for functional use.
For more details visit www.plusrooms.com
