Is the layout of your kitchen suitable for cooking?
There are countless home activities that happen inside the kitchen, like cooking, drinking, socializing, eating and cleaning. You want this room to be functional and beautiful at the same time.
It does not matter what kitchen design style you opted for. In all cases, layout and organization are essential. With this in mind, here are some kitchen layout mistakes that are way more common than they should be.
The Kitchen Triangle Is Obstructed
The sink, refrigerator and stove form your kitchen triangle. The area market by these 3 elements is the one that shows the most activity. This is why you have to be sure that it offers unobstructed access.
Usually, it is the sink that sees a lot of action. You often see access being offered to the sink but it is not that great when it comes to the refrigerator and the stove.
The sink has to be close to plumbing. However, in some cases, due to how pipes are placed, the kitchen is designed with a sink in a really poor location. When this is your situation, hire a plumber in order to relocate plumbing so that the best possible sink placement is possible.
No matter what your kitchen’s layout or size is, the sum of the legs in this triangle should never be over 25 feet or under 10 feet. When you have a small kitchen triangle, you end up tripping over people that might help you. When the kitchen triangle is really large, food preparation is a very tiring task.
Storage Space Is Wasted
You often have countless items in a kitchen. Many of these are concealed behind the kitchen cabinets and are really oddly shaped. They do require much space, like stand mixers or food processors. It can definitely be tricky to find homes for appliances while keeping them accessible.
The built-in units will be expensive. This is why you can easily end up with a lack of storage space.
In most kitchens, space is wasted. However, this can be minimized with suitable forethought and planning.
When the kitchen is small, install some longer upper cabinets to get more storage space. Put greenery or lighting along molding so as to draw eyes up. Put cabinets over refrigerators since this storage space area is often wasted but could be used to store seasonal or large kitchen items.
The last tip you should remember about kitchen storage is to install shelves across the lower kitchen cabinet’s backs. You can thus get around 4 extra feet of great kitchen storage space.
Counter Space Is Inadequate
This is one of the really common complaints that appear when looking at kitchen design. You need to consider those kitchen activities for which a countertop is needed, together with appliances that are always located in your kitchen. Try to fit all that you can on the open horizontal surface area. You can do this when you add a breakfast bar or an island to the L-shaped kitchen.
Lighting Is Poor
This is definitely not a room where you can have poor lighting. Contrary to popular belief, kitchen lighting is not just about atmosphere and design. It is also about safety as you handle dangerous kitchen tools like sharp knives. Also, if you have more lighting, it is easier to show off design elements.
In a room you almost always need 3 types of lighting:
- General lighting – needed for overall illumination
- Task lighting
- Accent lighting
In the kitchen, you have to focus on the work area and offer as much light as is needed. For instance, you want to add lighting right above main working areas.
Use some mini-pendants or pendant lights in order to enhance kitchen beauty. The pendant lights will look great above the kitchen sinks and the mini-pendants work very well over kitchen islands and breakfast bars. Under-cabinet lighting can also be installed to make sure that the kitchen counters have the lighting that is needed for common tasks.
