Planning Your Kitchen Design

The kitchen is a very important room in a house, that is where most meals are prepared. The kitchen may also serve as the meeting point for family breakfast and other light meals.

To plan a kitchen we need to start with establishing the parameters within which we have to work. This includes the actual space, the uses of that space and the budget. 

There are four stages to planning a kitchen:

Defining the space. This involves measuring up and noting the position of the existing services, windows and doors. It also includes planning from the start with the architect on how you want the space laid out.

Designing the room’s layout. You need design the room’s layout in order to have the appliances, work tops and cupboards where you want them.

Confirming the layout and the services. You need to confirm the layout and the services that are required. At this point, lighting should be factored into your plan. For example, apart from the centre main lights you may want lights hanging in specific places like over the cooker or over some work tops.

Confirming the finishes. You need to confirm the finishes that are required for the bench tops, the exterior of the cabinetry and the interior of the cabinetry, the flooring, the walls, ceiling and window treatments.

The following is intended to help you with the actual kitchen planning, but they are only suggestions and will not be practical in all situations, you will often have to compromise. The golden rule is – keep it simple – and remember that the kitchen is one of the main selling points for a house.

For years now kitchen designers have used a simplistic method of a triangle to connect the three main work spaces within a kitchen.

The main working zones in the kitchen are generally recognized as being – food preparation, cooking and serving, and final washing up. Each activity zone needs to include the work top(s) and appliances required for that activity; also the zone will require the storage space for the utensils, ingredients etc. required for it.

In addition to the three zones, it is important to arrange the appliances and work tops in the correct order i.e. work top - appliance – work top. A work triangle is formed between the three zones.

At Rosemary’s we delight in transforming your home and office into a haven even with a limited budget. We also offer consultancy and advisory services on all aspects of interior decoration.