12 Tips To A Great Kitchen Design

A new kitchen is one of the most rewarding gifts you can give yourself and your family. The heart of your home, your kitchen is where late-night talks, homework sessions, and casual celebrations (the best kind!) happen naturally. It’s where memories are made. This is 12 tips to a great your kitchen design.

1. Choose the right layout
No matter what your style, budget or space, every kitchen layout should be designed around what experts call the ‘Golden Triangle’. This involves placing the main work areas – fridge, sink and oven/cooktop – close to each other, positioned at three sides of a triangle. Regardless of kitchen size, these activity zones should be no more than three metres apart, so you can move easily between them.

2. Size (width) of window and door casings
If cabinetry must fit between, say, a wall and a window, the size of the window casing is critical. Likewise, cabinetry fitting BETWEEN window or door casings. Casings being changed? To what size, and how will that affect cabinetry?

3. Maximise storage
Drawers maximise storage space, making it easy to access your kitchen’s darkest corners. Extra-deep options are perfect for pots and pans. Shallow, extra-wide varieties are great for storing cutlery.

4. Integrate applicances
In a quest for open-plan bliss, appliances are making themselves scarce, hiding behind closed doors for a clean look that blends with the living area. For fridges, it’s a matter of fitting a door in the same material as the cupboards. Disguise your dishwasher with an integrated front panel.

5. Clue up on color
Create calm by choosing neutral colours. All-white, cream or pale grey are foolproof design classics. Dark tones make an impact, but can overwhelm small spaces, so use on the bottom row of cabinetry. Keep bursts of colour to feature spots, like splashbacks or the front panel of island benches.

6. Opt for an island
A well-designed island bench is essential for entertaining. Fit with a sink, cooktop or chopping boards, so the cook can face family and guests. A benchtop overhang makes it comfortable for people to sit. Or if you prefer to keep mess out of sight, a raised edge will hide the lot.

7. Streamline surfaces
Think smooth and seamless. Cupboards should reach the ceiling or run flush with a bulkhead, doing away with dustcatching wasted space. Benchtops should be streamlined with few visible joins. Go for under-bench sinks that sit below the benchtop so you can’t see the edges.

8. Get a smart splashback
Want to show off some flair with colour or texture? As the design focus of modern kitchens, the splashback is the best place to do it. Natural, clear glass splashbacks are still high in the style stakes, as are mosaics, or choose the same material as your benchtop for a seamless look.

9. Large sinks
You love the large sinks, but beware of how deep they are front to back, and if undermounted, add the rim size to determine if your faucet will fit underneath the countertop. More and more recently, I am making sink bases deeper to accommodate these large sinks. This also effects adjacent cabinetry!

10. Flaunt benchtops
For a modern benchtop, choose natural textures like marble or matt granite. Stone composites, polished timber and poured concrete are also beautiful. Design-wise, it’s all about chunky slabs with deep edges. For a price-smart option, apply a thick edge to a thin slab.

11. Look, no handles
Cupboard handles are best kept low key. Choose invisible angled ‘finger pulls’ cut into the top or side of the cupboards. Or, if you want handles, go for no-fuss designs in matt chrome or stainless steel.

12. Switch to clever lighting
Light up your kitchen with pendants or halogens, plus over-bench lights for brighter work spaces. For extra atmosphere while relaxing, fit ceiling lights with dimmers, or just leave on the over-bench lights.