A kitchen is an essential communal space in any home; it’s where many rituals of nourishment and fellowship take place. From preparing and sharing healthy meals to helping children complete their homework, it’s important to conceive and implement the perfect kitchen design.
Twenty-first century kitchens come in a diverse range of styles, including aspects of kitchens from the past century, however, functional and cookie cutter they may be, with unique combinations of individual elements. Whether you go traditional or contemporary, you can mix different styles of décor, appliances, furniture, and cabinetry to build a vibrant hub in the home. Go for cosy pieces of furniture, everything from window seats with soft cushions to formal tables with padded benches if the goal is for the family to spend more time together in this space than in any other room.
Before committing to a kitchen design, take a careful inventory of your preferences for kitchen furniture and décor elements. A good starting point is whether the overall kitchen design will be fitted or unfitted. This could seem like a no-brainer, but it’s a huge decision.
Fitted kitchens are easy to choose because you can pick from an existing kitchen design that includes all cabinetry and workspaces, usually built to matching heights, in the same style with corresponding finishes. The fitted option may be necessary where space is premium but if you have the room why not get a little creative. Unfitted kitchens offer more flexibility, but they also demand more intensive design. This intense process concerns the original elements that will fit into the final composition.
Balance
Fitted and unfitted kitchens offer a wealth of possibilities. You could strike a balance between matching cabinets joined with singular pieces or a kitchen design which is unique and distinctive and treated as an assemblage of individual pieces. Trust a talented furniture designer to point you in the right direction.
Comfort for all
A well-conceived kitchen is serene, yet functional, complete with ample, easy seating, and artfully combined aesthetic elements. The kitchen atmosphere should bring your family closer together and encourage them to linger. A well-done kitchen is a bright place where loved ones can escape life’s many distractions – unhurried.
Unfitted Potential
Historically, the switch to unfitted kitchen design occurred because the role of the homemaking woman changed in the traditional home. Although convenient appliances and gadgets forthe kitchen were not equivalent to what we have today, they did lighten a woman’s workload. A woman no longer had to do laundry or wash dishes only by hand. She did still require surfaces in close proximity in which to handle her tasks, from food prep to cooking and clean-up.
With society more equalized and adults using their kitchens in keeping with their busy lives, a different kind of kitchen design has grown in popularity. In fact, the last thing many homeowners crave is a set of uniform cabinets that occupy precious kitchen space.
An unfitted kitchen is not decked out with cookie-cutter cabinetry that bespeaks a one-size-fits-all mentality. The design encourages pockets of open space where walls are not covered by cabinets. The focus is directed to more interesting and eclectic colour ways, relaxation and personality; it should evoke an expression of individualism. The look should be one of an interior that has evolved over time with a more strategic placement of heavy pieces, everything from china hutches to butcher block islands. In this kind of kitchen, you could source pieces from a variety of architectural styles and eras. Your bigger pieces are easy to match according to a theme, such as colour or texture. A theme could be as simple as stainless steel or as complex as French country cottage.
To create an unfitted kitchen with a unique combination of cabinetry, other design elements and select stylish furnishings, it’s important to hire an adept furniture designer. Amos Groth, head designer at Groth & Sons cabinet makers is an established furniture designer and interior designer who loves to develop new design concepts, and accommodates the needs of every individual and family, creating interior schemes that are as stimulating as they are individual.
