Do's and Don't's in Kitchen Design

Kitchens need to be both beautiful and functional as it is a place for socialising among family and close friends. This raises a double challenge of do’s and don’ts in kitchen design.

The sink, stove and refrigerator are the kitchen triangle, the area of greatest activity which requires careful planning and unobstructed access. Sinks need to be installed in close proximity to the plumbing, but often kitchens are designed with the sinks installed right above the plumbing or in a poor location. The sum of all the legs in a work triangle should not be less than ten feet and greater than twenty-five feet.

Almost every kitchen design has wasted space, but this can be minimised with adequate planning and forethought. For small kitchens; consider installing extra long upper cabinets with moulding for extra storage space. Always install cabinets over the refrigerator as a potential storage space for large or seasonal kitchen items.

The kitchen is one room where you can’t afford to have poor lighting specially while handling sharp kitchenware. Consider adding lighting directly above all the main working areas, use pendant lights or a series of mini-pendants in areas where these can enhance the lighting and beauty of the kitchen. Also, install under-cabinet lighting as an additional way to ensure that the counters have sufficient lighting for common kitchen tasks.

 The best of kitchen design fades in the presence of foul smelling air. Inexpensive range hoods simply circulate dirty, stale air, while a good ventilation system will help improve the quality of your indoor air and also help keep your kitchen cleaner.

Knife blocks are space suckers. A mounted knife rack, on the other hand, keeps your tools within reach — while at the same time tucked out of the way.

A built-in shelves encroaches on square footage by mere inches and provides ample previously unused storage in return.

A rolling cart is the small kitchen's bff . Wheel it out when you need some more counter space, slide it to the side when you don't.

These days, with the advent of recycling, dealing with trash in kitchen design has gone beyond sticking a bin under the sink.