3Kitchens

Archive for January, 2011

Personally, the kitchen is one of my favourite rooms in the house.
It is a space which is very social and you will often find the kitchen is the hub of most peoples homes. Taking this into consideration, often people have to make the decision either have an open plan kitchen/dinner or to have to separate spaces.

If I had the space in my kitchen I would definitely opt for open plan. Simply because I enjoy cooking and often hold dinner parties for friends and family members, as a result having an open plan kitchen would mean that when I was in the middle of preparing food etc, I would still be able to be involved with the conversation and they could also see what I was doing.

When designing and planning your own kitchen, a particular area which people appear to spend a lot of money on is their choice of fridge. I have been amazed when looking around  high street stores for kitchen appliances how big some of the fridges/fridge-freezers are!
Of course, people should consider the amount of space within their kitchen prior to purchasing a large fridge, although if you have the capacity for a big fridge there appears to be a large variety available.
I can definitely see the advantages of having all the new accessories, ice dispenser etc.

However in my mind, one fridge is very similar to another and as long as it keeps your food cold, that is all that matters!

I have previously written about storage within a kitchen and how it important to get the balance right. This is particularly relevant within my kitchen as it is the smallest room in the house, yet I spend a lot of time in it, therefore we have had to be pretty cleaver using the space we have to store the necessary items needed.
We live in a small terest house, therefore the kitchen is long and narrow. We have very little floor space and as a result the majority of our appliances have been discreetly tucked within the kitchen units themselves. I know this is not an option for everyone, particularly if the kitchen is pretty dated. I just wanted to stress it is important to consider the space you have and how to get the most from it.

Recently we gave some of the rooms within our house a facelift. Due to the current economic climate we were very careful with regards to setting our budget and understood what we wanted to achieve, prior to going ahead with anything.
As most people know, decorating and DIY can be very expensive especially when it comes to the kitchen. However we were pleasantly surprised at how simply changing the colour of the cupboard doors, the colour on the wall and the tiles made it feel like we had bought a whole new kitchen….it was great! I would definitely encourage others to change even small things within a room, to give it a new lease of life.

I often find that peoples kitchens can be quite plain and boring. Often people simply consider the worktops, cupboard and cooker as the most important aspects of a kitchen. In part I agree, although I think the colour scheme plays a significant part as well.
The colour scheme should be a priority as it is essential it should offer a contrast to the colour and materials used within the rest of the space. Getting the colour right, can not only bringl the whole space together, it can alter the atmosphere of the room.
Think about how you want the space to feel and consider all your options prior to making your final decision.