Designing your home is always a very exciting time and for more reasons than one. For starters, you get to pick and choose how the place that is yours looks and feels. It is your decision and yours alone. Since you want the absolute best you can find and afford, you know already that you will finally have the place of your dreams and no longer think about it as a future possibility. Opportunities like this come around only once or twice in life for most common people, which is why they can also feel stressed and intimidating. What is more, there are countless choices to consider in terms of home layouts so it can get overwhelming too as you browse the catalogs and websites.
This is particularly true for the heart of every home, the kitchen. You may rest and relax in your bedroom, ready to tackle the next day with enough energy. The home office or the game room may give purpose to your life. The living room is where you socialize with others, make memories with friends and family, and where you spend those lazy afternoons. However, it is the kitchen that most homes revolve around especially if they double as dining rooms too. It is where you prepare the meals and eat them, where family members meet in the morning before they leave for work and school, and where they meet again in the afternoon. Storing groceries, dishes, and cleaning supplies are also reserved for this room.
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It is safe to say that the kitchen is referred to as the heart of every home for a very good reason, as you can see. Therefore, you have to make sure that the layout you choose for its design meets the requirements of your lifestyle and that of the rest of your family. In this article, we aim to help you with that by giving you the most important tips on how best to pick such a layout. Kitchens vary in size, features, and design, so doing the most with yours does seem like something an average homeowner could use a helping hand. To find out more about home design in general and browse a collection of amazing products, make sure to check out https://www.home-design.schmidt.
1. The Size
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As you probably know already, the size of the kitchen is usually a factor that either makes or breaks the whole interior design. Nobody likes a small kitchen where you cannot do or store much. Being able to move freely as you prepare a meal is relaxing and comfortable and you will become a better home chef because of it. Of course, not every house or apartment has the luxury of a big kitchen and size does become a problem in those situations. To tackle this issue, you need to think about how much you use the kitchen at all and whether it plays a big role in your life. Do you eat there too, or do you take the food into another room? Do you store a lot there, and do you cook that often anyway? If the answers are negative here, you can survive with a small kitchen and use the absolute minimum. If you need it and use it a lot, you will need to think about the best layout, furniture, and appliances that fit.
2. The Kitchen Island
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By far the most widely popular element of a modern kitchen is the kitchen island. It is a utility solution that can serve so many functions at once. Some people have their stove there, for some, it also has a sink, while almost everyone uses it as a high-top table, bar, or dining room replacement. You can put cupboards above it and store dishes in the cabinets below. It is simply too good to pass out on, particularly if you live fast and have a busy schedule. You can hardly set up the table for every meal if you are always in a rush. Quicker meals on bar stools right at the kitchen island are a timesaver so definitely pick a kitchen island if this sounds like you. The best thing of all is the fact that you can have the island no matter the layout. Whether it is an L shape, a U shape, or just one side of the wall, you can have the centerpiece around which everything will revolve.
3. Storage Solutions
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This is another feature that depends on how much you cook at home and how much groceries, ingredients, and supplies you need at all times. If your lifestyle implies cooking every day for yourself and your family, you will need a lot of storage for spices, herbs, canned supplies, and fresh groceries. This means hanging cupboards above and floor cabinets below. In addition, you need enough workspace on the counters for dicing, slicing, cutting, and seasoning your home-cooked gourmet dishes. If you cook a lot, a wide selection of dishes, pots, pans, and cutlery will be a regular sighting in your kitchen so at least a few wide and deep drawers are a must. Basically, if you cook every day and spend hours in the kitchen, invest in a lot of different storage units that will be close to hand to where you work from.
4. Appliances and Technology
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This is not so much the question of the layout of the kitchen as it is the matter of comfort, necessity, and the general importance of modern solutions in your life. Life is better and easier if you have the latest in tech, and the same goes for every appliance in your kitchen. A modern fridge with all the important functions, a cooker at an optimal height, and stoves that heat up and cool down quickly have been a standard for a long time. You cannot have a kitchen without a dishwasher either. Most people have these four things in separate areas, but still, close by. Basically, these need to be a few steps from each other and within the arm’s length of each other. Again, the L shape of the kitchen may be the best solution but you can do quite well if you can manage a U shape where you are in the center of it all. Countertop appliances like toasters, juicers, food processors, coffee makers, and other novelty gadgets that you use every day need to be accessible and visible, so enough room in the working area is prevalent.
