Like your car or your clothing, your kitchen should fit and serve you well. In addition to accommodating the way you cook, eat and store food, it must harmonise with your home’s design scheme and provide a comfortable- able gathering place for your family and friends. How do you begin planning a kitchen that will […]
Kitchens
Looking at the kitchen layout
Kitchen remodelling projects can be grouped into five levels, based on how much the room’s layout will be changed (there’s more information on each level on this website). To determine the amount of change you need when designing your new kitchen, ask yourself a few questions. Do you have enough space to prepare meals? How […]
Assessing your needs
If you determine that you don’t have enough counter space in the right locations, ask yourself if the problem can be remedied with a Level 2 or a Level 3 rearrangement. If not, or if you clearly don’t have enough room to work, consider adding to the size of your kitchen with a Level 4 […]
Floors and walls in your kitchen
ln addition to upgrading your major appliances, consider adding some of the many useful small appliances that are available, such as trash compactors, warming drawers, instant hot-water taps, cabinet-mounted can openers and built-in stereo and television units. Floors, Walls & Ceilings Your kitchen floor, walls and ceiling provide the back- drop for all the other […]
International kitchens and cuisine
If you specialise in the food of a specific culture, a remodelling project is a perfect opportunity to adapt your kitchen to the cuisine of your choice. In addition to selecting the best materials and equipment for preparing traditional meals, consider adding some decorative elements that reflect the spirit and style of the culture. Mexican […]
User-friendly kitchens
One of the trends in kitchen design is a savvy combination of form and function called universal design. Born out of efforts to accommodate the disabled, universal design concepts are now applied to kitchens for all sorts of users- – and it involves far more than simply lowering all the counters to wheelchair height. It […]
Working with kitchen drawings
Now that you’ve made some decisions about the scale of your kitchen design project, you can put your ideas on paper. Whether you’re planning a cosmetic makeover or dreaming about an addition, drawings let you experiment with different layouts and force you to get down to the details of how the pieces of the project […]
Kitchen design standards
The goal of any kitchen design layout is to make the cook’s work easier and, where possible, to allow other people to enjoy the same space without getting in the way Understanding the accepted kitchen design standards can help you determine whether your present layout is sufficient or if your kitchen needs a radical layout […]
Kitchen designs with cabinets
Appliances Any drawings you make of your kitchen should include all of the major appliances, as well as space allowances for the safe and comfortable use of each unit. If you’re buying a new appliance and don’t know its size, you can use the standard dimensions given in Table 1. Keep in mind that most […]
How to keep on the right side of planning laws when designing a kitchen
Building codes are locally enforced laws that govern building construction and renovations. They exist for your safety, and if your remodel involves anything more than refinishing the surfaces, chances are there are codes you’ll need to follow. Your kitchen drawings probably won’t include all of the structural and mechanical elements governed by the applicable building […]
