Tips to Good Kitchen Design
It is impossible to give advise beyond the basics without showing kitchen design examples and discussing their merits. I have not done so at the moment but will add a design planning section soon. I will provide links to ranges that show merit and have elements of good kitchen design in them. If you want specific help then contact me. There are various catagories for kitchen style statements below that you may find helpful.
Kitchen Layout
'U' shape with Table
Triangle
It is important to take into account basic cooking principals when first laying out your kitchen. How close are the parts of the kitchen you use the most when cooking a meal ? Is the food storage close together, or spread all over the kitchen ? Is there enough storage, worktop space, seating etc? The work triangle is quoted often, and is useful to understand, ie the link between sink, fridge and cooking. It is important to keep these areas relatively close. the bigger the kitchen the more important this link becomes.
'U'shape
Clutter
It is useful to get rid of clutter in your kitchen into boxes temporarily, then add up how much storage you have, and if it is enough (be ruthless). You are then able to compare this with your new kitchern design layout easily to see if it fulfils all your needs.
Storage
It is useful to have a distinction between items in your kitchen used regularly every day and items used occasionally. If your storage is taken up with items you hardly use, then your existing layout is not working well. Can these items go into a utility with more wall units added ?Can you make the wall units taller in the kitchen to accomodate these items ?
Basic single-run kitchen layout with integrated fridge and d/w
Worktop area
It is quite an important kitchen area to get right, but sometimes over important when laying out the kitchen. How much worktop do you need to cook a meal? Well if you never put anything away, quite a lot !! If you have a cooker, sink, drainer and a metre length of top, most people would be able to cook a perfectly good meal (ask professional chefs). This concept is extreme I suppose, but 15 metres of worktop does not always make a nice looking functional kitchen. It is pretty universal that the more worktop you have the more clutter appears. I would sooner have more tall storage for food, pans or for larger items, than 2 metres of worktop I will never use.
kitchen showing how a simple 'L'shape layout can be made interesting with tiles, colour and stainless steel added. Appliances include an integrated tall fridge/freezer and dishwasher
Oven type
I have witnessed a boom in range cookers for quite a while, and recently the fashion aspect of this item has reduced. I have never seen the advantage of a range cooker for many families when compared with a good pyrolytic, eye level, self cleaning oven, with combi microwave and warming drawer. With small kitchens where there is no space physically for eye level cooking then I can see the point of a 600mm wide freestanding cooker but only just. Range cookers and aga type cookers have their place in larger kitchen schemes with large cooking demands and always will, but in smaller schemes the advantages of modern eye level ovens are taking over. ( unless you are a professional cook !!). The older generation has squarely gone back to eye level, after all that stooping and misplaced vertebrate, ie they have been there and got the teashirt! Modern kitchens have helped this shift to a more integrated look. As usual personal taste and need is always important, but I am just commenting on the trends as I see them develop and change.
A prep sink ?
Is there a case for this item early in the design process ? Yes if the kitchen area is large, or obstructed by islands or tables etc, and you are wasting time endlessly wandering between the existing sink and preparation area around these obsticals. Plumbing can be a problem, but A prep sink used properly, releases the main sink for use whilst someone is cooking. Other participants, such as children or partners, can clean up or stack the dishwasher etc whilst food is prepared (am I dreaming again ? )
American fridge/freezers
I have never had to try so hard, and with such a futile outcome, when trying to incorporate American fridge/freezers into your average well designed kitchen.They are big, awkward, and ill- suited to: hiding, boxing in or building-over, unless made for the purpose. I have recently designed a modern kitchen with low level cooker run and large island run opposite each other, the cooker was central against the wall with an elegant extractor over, which now has an American fridge freezer stuck on the end. I desperately wanted to put a large integrated fridge with freezer compartment into a recessed housing under the stairs and put the freezer into the utility/pantry, but the client thought it would look fine as it was. As usual they had bought the item early and convinced themselves it would be ok. It was a wasted opportunity and after many hours of design time did not get the point of what was potentially a stunning balanced kitchen with no tall items, or wall units in the cooking and island arena (but I am not bitter !!). the moral is to not let any one item dominate your design decisions or be too important. If it does then the whole scheme will suffer.
Modern kitchen design
I have already talked about the advancement of modern kitchen design and the recent receptiveness of my customers to trying something new, especially with high gloss or exotic veneers and vinyls. Is it easy to use these finishes and design a stunning kitchen for yourself ? The answer is yes, if you see a combination in a brochure that works for you, and are comfortable with, then put it into your own scheme.
If you are designing from scratch, with 2 colours and a wood veneer contrast, then I would say take care and get advise. There are 5 wrong combinations for 1 right one, and even I have to stand back and spend a lot of time simplifying and rationalising this type of scheme. Add the clients opinion to the design mix and there are many visuals in the bin before we are both happy!
Transitional kitchen design
I use this category to describe kitchen styles that are popular and middle of the road but updated versions. A good example is painted oak in a shaker style with the grain showing through. It can look traditional or modern depending on how you display it. Another is bevel edged vinyl doors in colour or wood grain. Both are popular and easy on the eye. It is probably the easiest category to design your own kitchen in.
Traditional kitchen design
Traditional kitchens are another area where I think you could have a go with reasonable results, or stunning results with good groundwork. There are plenty of known conventions to traditional design, and many ideas have, I'm sorry to say, been done to death. I do still think, as a designer, that I am pushed hard with bespoke traditional design, and have many avenues of adventure. I have few new avenues with conventional ready made kitchens, so my bespoke customers can rest easy that their schemes will remain individual and mostly unique!
Minimalism
Another kitchen category to tread carefully with. I think this is a category for designers with lots of experience. extreme caution!!
Retro 50s and 60s kitchens etc
This can be fun and very personal, but tends to attract people with a design bent and bags of ideas. Alternatively it can be a modern curved kitchen with smeg retro fridge in the corner at its more simplified level, and both are interesting and fun to explore. I have had to work hard to be satisfied with curved kitchen schemes, so I would still point you towards a professional designer wherever possible to get all the additional detailing right.
Keep it simple and uncluttered
I would say at the moment that my advise would be keep your design uncluttered and devote more money to good materials and appliances. If you can stretch to a bespoke kitchen by having fewer units and add later your kitchen will last longer, and always make you feel happy for doing so, when more conventional kitchens will bore and fade away.
Out-there kitchen design
Is it important to make a statement with your kitchen ? No, but it would be boring if sometimes we did not take a risk. I would be very bored if customers did not test me and ask me to look again with a more radical approach. It does not happen very often, only when I have scared the last customer to death with a lime green and black gloss kitchen scheme, and had to tone down my approach! I am always "up for it" and so it should be. I have waited many years to have the kitchen design options available to me that I have today. Can this be a double edged sword ? Yes! my idea of radical design compared to my customers is probably slightly extreme, and if not addressed, can lead to lost kitchen business and confusion. This is the part that is least understood by my customers ie where do the ideas come from? well the simple answer is that I have a tendancy towards sculpture and fine art where most of the modern ideas come from, and are then rationalised and adapted to the commercial kitchen industry. In Britain we have one of the most creative enviroments for ideas in art , music and design. Industry has found it very hard to embrace this talent, more often it has tamed and destroyed it with commercial demands for easy manufacture and cheap costs.
Kitchens on a budget
Is it possible to design your kitchen on a tight budget ? Yes easily if you put the money in the right places. When I renovated a large church, we lived in a wing with temporary kitchen units and worktops from MFI. They lasted less than 2 years before turning to junk. If I had planned carefully, I could have had a couple of freestanding kitchen units with legs made. I could have re- used them in the main kitchen and saved some money. My view is always avoid cheap carcases and worktops and anything with thin laminate or paper edges . The latest machined vinyl edging techniques should mean that no one buys poor kitchen carcases with peeling edges. Small kitchen manufacturers in particular still persist with poor kitchen carcase fabrication because vinyl edging machinery is expensive.
Old hat
Are there kitchen door designs that are dead and destined for the skip ? Yes, I have a long list and will use it at will! Can you work out what is no longer popular and guaranteed to put off friends and family? I would say that, as a designer, I would be very unhappy presenting a cathedral arch vinyl door in antique oak to anyone who still had a pulse !!It is Important if you want to be fashionable, and make a statement, to not listen too hard to conventional kitchen furniture suppliers, they are constrained by what they can easily make or supply, and prone to follow the crowd and produce cheap copies of anything new and radical. we have tended to follow Europe and this is still the case for new kitchen designs in the more mass produced kitchen market. It is only the bespoke modern/traditional kitchen market or top end European kitchen companies that are more individual and exciting at the moment, and I am open to your comments on that one.
Recycled kitchens
I am in an area where I will have to research and report later. there appears to be very little to get my teeth into that is worthy of design merit. I did find some recycled glass worktops though that look interesting.
Adding value to your property?
Does a well designed and good quality kitchen add value to a house ? In other words is your new kitchen a good investment ? I would say yes and yes. I am tired of seeing sane and experienced buyers, rationalise paying peanuts for kitchens and appliances, and feeling proud about their bargains until the first problems appear. I have seen many mistakes, and the main one is taking too small a budget to buy a cheap copy of what is required. The final kitchen is often without the detail and finishing touches that differenciate a quality kitchen from the ordinary. I have filled many a skip with these kitchens after the next owners have moved in. Some times they have got away with it, but mostly the purchaser has demanded a discount on the house value to pay for a refit. Reworking old kitchens with new doors is also an area I find little joy in, I avoid it everytime. Old carcases are still old and worn out and always the wrong colour with new doors. Again throwing new money after old is mostly a false economy. Even worse is replacing an existing well made old kitchen with cheap vinyl and thin carcases !!
Iin- frame kitchen doors or unframed doors ?
This is down to personal taste for people who have a preference, and If not then it is dependant on the budget and expectations of customer. I find it hard sometimes to recommend vinyl or laminate for high value houses and I would be doing my clients a dis-service if I did not make it clear that some kitchen ranges are a bad investment and that they need to devote the right amount of money to avoid mistakes. In- frame doors are an area where it is hard to give clear guidelines . I normally will know whether it is right to take the full handmade bespoke route with painted units and wood etc. It is normally discussion and weighing up the clients likes and dislikes. Will their budget buy an expensive mass produced kitchen, reproduced all over, or something unique for similar or slightly more money? Most of my high budget clients, at the moment, decide between bespoke handbuilt and gloss laquered doors when faced with this question. If they require a modern bespoke hand painted look, then I reduce the detail and play with colour combinations, wood, and other finishes such as glass and silestone .
Full online kitchen design service link
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