The kitchen is known as the heart of the home, but sometimes it needs to be given some love and attention. Sprucing up your kitchen can transform it from a practical place to a space you cherish and adore. To help you create the cozy home of your dreams, here are five tips for designing a kitchen you truly love:
1. Ditch the Broken Bits
One common source of frustration that can wreck the zen of any kitchen is having to put up with broken, chipped, cracked, and otherwise rubbish bits and bobs that make life harder. A good example is non-stick cookware that has stopped being non-stick. Switching it for non-toxic ceramic cookware not only gives you the usability of the equipment back, but it makes your kitchen healthier in the process. Replacing old, ineffective cooking tools is an affordable first step to crafting a kitchen you truly love.
2. Identify What’s Wrong with Your Current Kitchen
One great way to craft your ideal space is to figure out what you don’t like about your current kitchen. What ticks you off? Which features get on your nerves? Which elements make you mutter inappropriate words under your breath? List them all and use that as your starting point for designing a much better kitchen for your home.
3. Love Your Layout
The layout of a kitchen is important. The distance between different fixtures should be comfortable, you should have zones for different tasks, including a dining area, a preparation area, and perhaps even a homework area, depending on your family. Some areas are likely to be multifunctional, but you should still signpost the different uses with your lighting, furniture, color schemes, and general design. The layout of such a dynamic room has to be really well considered so that the household can use it and enjoy it with ease.
4. Lean on Technology
Around 70% of consumers made improvements to their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, and over 50% of those consumers added smart devices as part of their improvements. From smart home centers and voice assistants to smart faucets and door locks, there are gadgets and gizmos galore. Your kitchen can be so much easier and more fun to spend time in if you work smart technology into your overall design. Just be sure to focus on devices your family will genuinely use and love.
5. Balance Timeless Appeal with Colours That Make You Happy
Kitchens are expensive to makeover, so timeless appeal has to come into your color scheme consideration. However, far too many of us dampen our design expression in order to keep the saleability of the kitchen.
Expensive aspects of the kitchen like stone worktops, flooring, and cupboards should be neutral because the cost of replacing them to sell the house is high. By contrast, the walls, splashbacks, and other easily-changeable aspects of the room can be a free-for-all when it comes to color.
Scientists have found that psychologically, colors like red and yellow can relate to feelings of warmth and excitement. However, for some, they can cause feelings of negative arousal. The same goes for most colors – there’s a general consensus on the feelings they inspire, but your experience may vary. So, set aside the rules and go with the colors you love. If that means you’re surrounded by a vibrant rainbow of visual tones and shades that truly speak to your heart, so be it.
With the tips above, you can create the perfect kitchen for you and your family to enjoy, making meals and memories together in the place you all love the most.
