Most of us consider the kitchen to be the ‘heart of the home’.
The room where you’ll spend a lot of your time and where
everyone usually ends up at parties! More importantly though,
the kitchen is often one of the biggest selling points of a
house if you ever decide to sell it.
A well thought out kitchen plan is essential then if it is to be
functional, effective and most of all – safe.
This quick and easy guide will help you to ensure that your plan
makes maximum use of the space available and best suits your
circumstances. A little time spent at this stage will save you
from making potentially expensive mistakes later.
PLANNING
Kitchen design is relatively straightforward in most cases and
really just relies on accurate measuring and knowing what
cabinets & appliances are available to fit in the space you have.
In any kitchen there are 3 main ‘zones’ which professional
planners try to tie together to create a working triangle.
1. Food storage & preparation – fridge and worktop area
2. Cooking – oven, hob, microwave
3. Washing up – sink and dishwasher
Before putting pencil to paper (or finger to keyboard in our
case) you have to give some thought to your circumstances.
Things to consider:
• What’s your budget?
• What’s your timescale?
• Who’s going to install it – you, or professional fitters?
• Do you have alternative means of cooking - microwave, take-away?
• Do you want to retain the same basic layout or completely change it?
• If you’re changing layout, can the services be moved easily (is there
access under the floor for example?)
Your circumstances will affect not only the style of the kitchen
but the type of units you use, the appliances you specify and
the kind of accessories you want to incorporate. So…
Who’s going to use it? – are you:
• a single person living on your own,
• a couple,
• or a family with one or more children
What are you going to use it for:–
• will you just cook in it,
• do you have a utility room where you do your laundry,
• will you entertain in it,
• will your kids watch TV in it
Are you just looking to give it a quick makeover or do you want
to completely redesign it?
Tip: if you live in a relatively modern home,
before you decide to completely change everything around,
remember that at some point a highly qualified architect has
used his experience to design an efficient and effective layout
for the space you have available. In this situation, I would
recommend sticking with this basic layout unless you plan to
enlarge your kitchen with an extension or by knocking-through
into another room.
LAYOUTS
The shape of your room will dictate, to a large extent, the
basic layout of your kitchen. Most kitchens fall into one of
the following configurations:
Straight Line – if you have a very narrow room,
you may be limited to just a single run of worktop. Although
you can’t really achieve a ‘working triangle’ as such, it’s
still possible to group your appliances together to make the
best use of the space available. In this case, most of your
storage will probably be in wall units.
Try to place the washing machine and dishwasher either side of
the sink for ease of plumbing. In most properties you will tend
to find the sink beneath the window if there is one. There’s
also adequate space between the hob and sink - which needs to be
at least 600mm for current building regulations.
Galley – if you have a square or rectangular
shaped room with a door at each end then a galley layout is
probably the most effective for you. To use this layout your
room will need to be at least 2.4m wide to allow a 600mm worktop
on either side and a 1200mm gap between them for walking space
when cupboard doors and drawers are opened.
Kitchen measurements are usually expressed in millimetres (mm):
1000mm = 1metre and 100mm = 10centimetes (cm).
L-Shaped – this kitchen shape is ideal if you
only have two useable walls to build out from. This
configuration tends to leave a nice open space in the centre of
the room – handy if you want to use a table and chairs or if you
simply want a light and airy kitchen (just because you have
available wall and floor space, it doesn’t mean you have to fill
it with units).
Tip: Avoid locating your fridge or freezer
right next to your oven if you can, otherwise it’s going to have
to work much harder than normal to keep cool.
U-Shaped – if you only have one door leading
into or out of your kitchen and you have three useable walls,
then a U-shaped configuration might be perfect for you. With
this layout you’ll get maximum space for units and appliances.
The only thing to remember, as before, is that you need at least
1200mm between opposing rows of base units to allow you to open
doors and still walk past.
Island – if you’re lucky enough to have a large
kitchen then you might want to consider an island layout. In
the right setting they can look fantastic and be a real feature
of the house. Normally you would create an L or U-shaped layout
as above but with the addition of a central ‘island’. This can
be used simply for storage or, for the more adventurous; it’s
possible to have your hob located here with an island extractor
above it. Obviously this depends on being able to run services
to the island under the floor.
The other appeal of this kind of design is that, if large
enough, the island can double as a breakfast bar. Although you
could use 665mm breakfast bar worktop if space is tight, it’s
better to use 900mm wide worktop if you can so that you can
place bar stools underneath it. The same regulations apply as
before in that you will need to have at least 1200mm between the
island and adjacent worktops/units to allow for easy passage
when doors/drawers are opened.