The kitchen is the heart of a home. It is a space where we spend many hours and good times around food. If you are thinking of building a new kitchen or remodeling the one you already have, here are some tips.
To choose the perfect option, we must take into account, honestly, the needs and pace of life. We must think well about the use we give to this room and its main elements to choose the most appropriate and get the most out.
Beyond issues such as budget, if you love cooking, or what color we want, here are tips and solutions to what you have not considered.
Before starting to design, the most important thing is to understand how a kitchen will be used. This is the basic approach to take when planning a new kitchen. Because the kitchen cannot be the leftover space or simply a space that will be defined at the end of the project, you have to understand that it has flows, different work areas, and that must be carried out within the overall project.
Beyond the style or design required, Philadelphia kitchen design experts say it is essential to define a specific modulation that optimizes its performance and thus minimizes the manufacturing costs of its different elements. Therefore, the measurements of all the kitchen components must be understood and internalized before defining the space that will house them.
Several studies have defined five general zones for the kitchen:
- Pantry: storage space for food, canned goods, refrigerator.
- Storage: appliances, utensils, work tools.
- Sink: cleaning area.
- Preparation: ideally, a large work counter.
- Cooking: oven and stove.
The pantry, preparation, sink, and cooking areas are permanently combined and are related to preparing a meal in the most efficient way possible. As a result, the sink, preparation, and cooking areas create an even tighter work triangle from which different typologies are born.
All experts recommend planning the space from an imaginary “work triangle,” composed of storage-washing-cooking, corresponding to the refrigerator, the sink, and the hob to facilitate the distribution of the elements.
These are related to the space to be designed. The most commonly used typologies include:
- Linear (or two parallel linear).
- L-shaped
- U-shaped
About these configurations, it is essential to understand how the different circulations work. The work triangle should be kept in a fluid relationship, and cross-circulations should be avoided when two or more people are working. It is always good to ask how you would like to use your kitchen or what aspects of my current kitchen I dislike or dislike the most? This way, we can meaningfully design our spaces.
If you have space, consider an island. Island kitchens are the most spectacular, although they require more space than other distribution typologies. Incorporating the dining area -as in the image- ergonomics is improved, and space acquires a complete sense.
To avoid problems, modulation must be a design condition, and no fixture can be misapplied. In addition, fixtures must fit within a single module, avoiding placement between two modules. As an example, a dishwasher, oven, or cooktop cannot be placed right in the middle of two modules. If this happens, they will have nothing to hold on to (since there would be no support), and the installation of faucets or other ducts will be complicated.
It is interesting to ensure that the sink area is closer to the refrigerator because fresh food must be washed before cooking. The hob and the sink should be on the same front or at a continuous angle, primarily since the separation between the two will determine the working area. A distance of 90 centimeters may be sufficiently balanced.
