Your kitchen design should reflect what you do in your kitchen. If you want a sewing area - design it in.

This is part of a series of ten kitchen design tips. Please scroll down to the bottom for details of previous tips and useful links.

Design the Kitchen for You and Your Circumstances

This design tip might seem obvious. Nobody would design their kitchen for somebody else, would they?  That’s true – but some people do accept a standard design – one that hasn’t been tailored for them in particular. That might be unavoidable – if you’re buying a new house, for instance – but when you’re buying a new kitchen, everything about it should be tailored to the needs and wants of you – and your family (if you have one).

The way people use their kitchens varies quite a lot, especially for medium sized kitchens. Very small kitchens are usually just used for food preparation and cooking, washing up and maybe washing clothes. Very large kitchens often include living and eating areas, with a separate dining table and chairs and maybe a sofa or easy chairs … and a tv. It’s the in between kitchens that vary the most.

How many people are likely to use your kitchen at any one time? Do you want to squeeze in somewhere to sit? Would chairs be better than stools – for kids doing homework, for example (see our previous blog on Kitchen Seating Design). How many small appliances do you use? Have you thought about where they’ll go? Would an oven with a programmer be useful? Do you store a lot of dry goods and ingredients – or would an extra freezer be more useful? Do you need a pet feeding area? Room for pet beds? Cat litter tray?

I’ve been asked to include all sorts of things in a kitchen design; from indoor salad gardens, to fish tanks, to grandfather clocks … to more predictable items like wine racks … but it’s less usual to be asked for a wine rack for 100 bottles! One kitchen I designed was half functional kitchen and half picture framing studio. It’s your kitchen … design it for how you want to use it.

This half of the kitchen in a traditional Debyshire cottage was designed for picture framing - with lots of little drawers to hold all the bits and bobs - and a special corner unit to store the frames

I just want to add a slight word of caution to finish. If what you want to do in your kitchen is very outlandish, then do bear in mind that it might affect the saleability of your house. If you don’t cook at all, for instance, and include only a microwave and a fridge (it has been done!) … that’s going to be a bit off-putting to any potential  purchaser who’s a keen cook.

There are lots more hints on kitchen design over at the Advanced Kitchen Design website … you might also like to have a look at “Storing Small Kitchen Appliances” for some design ideas.

Previous Tips:

KITCHEN DESIGN TIPS No.1: Measure Carefully

KITCHEN DESIGN TIPS No.2: Choose Your Appliances First

KITCHEN DESIGN TIPS No.3: Collect Ideas

Next Time: Start with Items that Can’t be Moved

Tags: design your own kitchen, kitchen design, kitchen design ideas, Kitchen Planning & Installation, new kitchen