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Kitchen Design Tips

Before committing to a design made by designers, read these 3 tips to check on the efficiency of the design. Your kitchen experience is significantly affected by how easily you can move around the space. A well-designed kitchen will maximize the walk-in space, minimize the need to stop and reach and create comfortable cooking and cleaning experience. Below are the key elements to evaluate your kitchen design.

 

  1. Keep the Kitchen triangle in mind

 

The three most important elements in a kitchen design are the stove, refrigerator, and sink. These elements form the kitchen work triangle and need to be placed properly for maximum efficiency. You should be able to seamlessly move between the three during cooking and cleaning to make your kitchen experience pleasant rather than needlessly difficult.

Below are not the laws but helps to get the most efficient kitchen design

  • The sum of the three sides of the triangle should not be more than 26 feet.
  • Each side should be between 4 and 9 feet.
  • If your design had an island or peninsula then no side of the work triangle should cut through it by more than 12 inches.

 

  1. Check the ergonomics of your design

 

In General, daily – used items should be stored in easy to reach drawers near work areas as well as the lower level of the overhead wall cabinets above the worktop.

 

Seldom used items can be put on the top level of overhead wall cabinets and the bottom-level of base cabinets. Such planning help to save time during daily kitchen work by increasing the speed of accessing items.

 Similarly, check on the accessibility and visibility of your cabinets. For example, a base cabinet with a shelf allows only 25% of space accessibility and visibility while if it gets replace with full extension drawers both accessibility and visibility go up 100%.

 

  1. Is your kitchen functional enough?

 

To answer this, divide your kitchen into 5 zones.

  • Consumable zone

This is where you store your consumable and non-consumable items. Fresh food, frozen food, as well as dry goods, cans, and other non-perishables. You can think of this zone where you place your main pantry and refrigerator. Keeping these areas close can make it easy to get all the ingredients you need. Also, keep in mind that these items need to be replenished and thus need easy accessibility and better visibility. Having a pantry unit/ Tall unit for consumable items is a great idea as it can store almost a full month of groceries and leave ample space for non -consumable items and if budget allows it is suggested to have the pantry unit with accessories.

 

  • Non – Consumable zone

All daily used items like Kitchen utensils, cutlery, dishes, and glasses can be placed in this zone and as discussed in point 3, store the item at a level based on the frequency of the usage. This zone should be close to the cleaning zone as then it reduces the movement after cleaning.

 

  • Cleaning Zone

This area is typically built around the sink, but also includes the dishwasher, garbage, recycling, and household cleaning items, and a broom or mop. Consider installing waste cabinets near the sink to create a convenient space to keep your kitchen clean. Enhance the functionality of the zone by using under sink pull out drawers or accessories which will save valuable kitchen storage space in another zone which gets wasted keeping cleaning materials. This zone ideally should be close to both the Non-consumable and preparation zone.

 

  • Preparation Zone –

A pivotal point in the kitchen. Food preparation requires easy access to utensils, cutting boards, and mixing bowls, pantry items that are frequently used for cooking as well as plenty of countertop space to work and accommodate small appliances. Consider what you need for food preparation when planning storage options like base drawers, or roll-out cabinet shelves. This zone ideally needs to be between the cooking and cleaning zone. Dirty utensils can directly go to the dishwasher and cooking becomes more comfortable.

 

  • Cooking Zone

This zone is the heart of every kitchen- arranged around the cooktop, oven Microwave, and rangehood. For cooking storage, you need to plan landing spaces for hot dishes, as well as storage space for utensils, pots and pans, bakeware, and so on. Think of how you cook. Is a cookbook out? Measuring cups? The spatula that you just stirred with. Towel for cleaning minor spills? These types of things rapidly eat up counter space. 

 

Keeping these requirements, you need to choose cabinets and accessories.

Now you know how to check the efficiency of any design. Please verify all designs made by our modular kitchen design made by our Kitchen consultants they would love to rework the design if not align to any of the points mentioned above.