Open Floor Plan Kitchen: How to Plan It Correctly

Homeowners are always focused about the decor of their living room and the comfort of their bedroom, but they never really pay attention to kitchen that also is an integral part of the home. Kitchens today are beyond any ordinary cooking place, as many families prefer to have their meals together in the kitchen area. On the other hand, there are many people that would like to party and would like to invite their guests in the kitchen area. Keeping this is mind, many homeowners focus on open floor plan kitchen that would allow them to get enough space to walk and work around conveniently.

traditional-living-roomIf you are planning to have a perfect kitchen you need to start with a perfect open floor kitchen plan that suits your requirement and budget. There are many factors that you need to consider when you are preparing open floor kitchen plan. While you are doing that it is important that you focus strictly on your cooking requirements and styles. This will help you great deal in preparing your open floor plan kitchen. Everybody home has a different requirement and prepares meal differently and that is a crucial factor that needs to be incorporated while making kitchen based on open floor plan. This also gives the family ample space that they need to be together and optimize the limited floor space.

When you talk to the experts about open floor plan kitchen many might provide you with ideas of having kitchen in certain shapes that can optimize the space. For instance, there are kitchens that are developed in G-shape, L-shape and even U-shape and in all these designs renovators and interior decorators work on combining the three most crucial elements in any kitchen which are; the cooking area, the refrigerator and the sink. You can certainly go through all these shapes and see which one fits your kitchen space in the best possible way. Single wall and gallery kitchen styles also work for many homeowners, so do keep that in mind as well.

While you are making the kitchen efficient, you also have to keep in mind not to make it look monotonous. For this you can create more countertops and place them in the right way to provide a new dimension to your kitchen. With a proper plan for cabinets, drawers and shelves you can ensure that you store a lot more items in a neat way. Most kitchens that do not have proper plan for storage often end up looking cluttered taking up the limited space. It is recommended that you know about your cooking styles, so that you know how many storage options you need to keep your kitchen look spacious.

If you are internet savvy you can certainly make use of various programs that help you to design your open floor plan kitchen and you can experiment with different ideas before you finalize a design that suits your kitchen requirements. It is also recommended that you keep a close watch on the budget while preparing your plan.

 

How To Plan a Smoother Kitchen Remodel

Remodeling your kitchen is an important step in making your home more useful. The kitchen can be one of the most used rooms of the house. You can help make sure your kitchen remodel goes more smoothly by following some simple steps while planning.   Read more

Columbus Kitchen Remodel

Take a Closer Look at Popular Cabinet Door Styles

If you are going shopping for cabinet doors, it would be best to get to know the popular styles before you head on. You want your kitchen to look really neat and pretty, and the best way to achieve it is to make sure that your kitchen cabinets are covered with the right type of doors. Read more

5 Kitchen Design Elements that Make Your Kitchen Better

A good kitchen design is a dream come true for homeowners. However, that needs lot of planning and effort to execute it the right way. Kitchen is always the central place at home because that is where many families sit together for their meals and many important conversations take place in the kitchen area. While it sounds easy to design a kitchen, but the fact is that a wrong kitchen design can make it harder for you to prepare meals and be efficient. This is exactly why you have to be sure that you are planning and focusing on great kitchen design elements that can help you to handle your current lifestyle. Read more

Benefits of Kitchen Organization

Knowing where each of your kitchen items is can work a very long way when cooking or preparing something. You can save a lot of time, but you also skip all those frustrating moments arising out of nowhere. You do not need to picture each thing in your mind, but just have a top notch organization and know categories. Recipes, spices, small and large items will seriously cut back the time you need to waste inside the kitchen. As a general rule, organization is all about efficiency. Learning a few helpful tips can take your kitchen organization to the next level if properly applied.

 

When changes are welcome

Rotating things randomly is not always the good idea because you will soon forget where they are. You do not have to rotate tools and pans though. Instead, take a peek into your pantry and rotate the respective stuff every once in a while. This way, you can get rid of expired food without letting it rot in there. Furthermore, you can even prevent it from getting there by eating it before it expires. Oftentimes, pantries are filled with all kinds of worthless stuff because people tend to forget about the things in the past. This is a great money saving opportunity for those who truly care about their budget.

 

Kitchen-pantry-designs-898Avoid stock piling

Stock piling is something everyone goes through every once in a while. It occurs when you simply have no clue how much of this or that you got. Instead of taking any risks, you just choose to get a little extra. Sooner or later, such things lead to a constant waste of money. When everything is properly organized, stock piling becomes history. You know exactly how much of this and that you have. You can also tell when you are about to run low on particular foods, only to prevent unexpected situations. Realizing that you do not have a particular ingredient is the last thing you want while cooking.

 

How about decluttering?

Decluttering is often needed, yet plenty of people are unable to kiss their beloved items goodbye, even if they never plan to use them. They inevitably assume that sooner or later, they might need them. They might need them tomorrow or perhaps ten years later. If the respective items are also new, chances are they will not even think about getting rid of them. Spatulas, measuring cups and wooden spoons are just a few of these elements.

Decluttering is excellent then. You will be surprised by how Cuisine3-1030x687much room you can save. Worried that you are giving new stuff away? There is nothing to feel concerned about. You will love the extra space. Donate them to a homeless feeding center or perhaps a needy friend and the rewarding feelings add to this activity.

In conclusion, a top notch kitchen organization can become your best friend. It adds to your overall efficiency when cooking, but it also clears the space for plenty of other items, especially if you need to enrich your kitchen with new stuff.

 

Ten Tips for Designing a More Practical Kitchen

Functionality:

1) Make sure that your storage cabinets, microwave oven, cutlery, etc.… are all within arm’s reach. What use is your storage space if you cannot reach it easily? It would only serve to increase the time it takes to cook and prepare food, while being really annoying at the same time. A design where anything and everything is easily accessible is at the heart of practically designed kitchen.

2) One should also consider modern-kitcheneliminating wasted steps that are spent running around looking for cooking utensils. Perhaps once you get to the knives and forks they are easily enough obtained, but a layout where all the cooking can be done with the least amount of steps is a way to prevent mishaps before they happen. For example, let us say you are frying up an onion, but your stove top and countertop are on the opposite sides of the kitchen. If you get too caught up preparing food to be cooked on one side, you may forget that the onions are busy frying and then have to run back and forth when the stove and countertop could have just been placed side by side.

3) The paths and walkways of your kitchen should be accommodating of traffic with enough width to allow people to pass through but without having to interrupt any cooking. The standard should be 36 inches at least for walkways, 42 inches (one cook kitchen) or 48 inches (two cook kitchen) for cooking paths.

4) Plan your kitchen in such a way that all the cabinet doors open easily with nothing in the way to block their swing path.

5) Having an island is often a great addition to a kitchen, but what kind depends on the layout of your kitchen. If you plan to put the oven and or stove in the island make sure you have sufficient space to still keep practicality in your kitchen.  If you plan to eat on the counter top, make sure there is enough space between the cooking area and the dining area.

Practicality:

6) Knives can be stored, on the wall above the cooking space, on a magnetic strip. This area is known as the backsplash. This makes it easier to spot the right knife for the task at hand as well as being out of reach of small children.

RecycleBin4 00037) Make your kitchen recycle friendly by having enough space for recycling bins, such as plastic, glass, tin and even a spare cupboard for paper.

8) Having an extended hose attached to the sink water facet, makes it easy and convenient to fill large pots with water quickly. Because the hose is movable and manageable, it also makes it convenient to quickly rinse or fill whatever is at hand.

9) Place power outlets all along the backsplash of the cooking area and on the island so that there is never a struggle with finding electricity when you need it, where you need it.

10) A very nice addition to any kitchen is a message centre. It can simply be a place for a telephone, important notes, numbers, dates, shopping list, etc…