Tips for Planning an Open Kitchen

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One of the hottest trends in modern home design is using open floor plans. Although every area of your home can benefit from being opened up, one of the areas where this design principle pays the biggest benefits is in your kitchen. When a kitchen is constructed with an open design, it makes the room much easier to use and provides you with a new spot for hosting your friends and family.

However, if you’ve never experienced an open plan kitchen before, it can be a good idea to examine some design tips so that you’re able to effectively plan your project. Here are some tips for planning your open kitchen, and advice for completing your project as quickly, easily and stress-free as possible.

Understanding Your Needs

As with any home improvement project, the very first step in planning your open kitchen should be to think long and hard about what you need out of your renovation. For example, do you want an open kitchen more for socializing or do want total freedom of movement to cook elaborate meals for your friends and family? What kind of equipment are you planning on placing in your kitchen, and will it require additional space?

Deciding what you need out of your open kitchen and how much space will need to be dedicated to complete these goals will give you a better idea of how to tackle your renovation and how much time and money your project will take up.

Think About Spaces within Spaces

One of the biggest principles of open design is placing related spaces next to each other. For example, rooms designed for socializing may be grouped together, as would rooms meant for utility. Using this principle of adjacent spaces is also extremely important when planning your open kitchen, and applying it properly means getting more utility out of your project.

Think about what spaces are most likely to complement your needs for your open kitchen. If you’re planning on regularly hosting, you might want to make sure your open kitchen is adjacent to the dining room. On the other hand, if you want to be able to prepare your meal while still socializing, you might want your kitchen to adjoin your main living area. Planning out your adjacent rooms will make your project much more successful.

How Much Flexibility Do You Have to Work With

Now that you know a little more about some of the basic factors of open kitchens, it’s time to think about one of the possible limiting factors of your project — how much space you have to work with. If you live in a smaller home, for instance, planning an open kitchen takes a little more effort and determination, although it is still possible.

Take a look at your existing kitchen and examine how much space it takes up. Next, think about how much extra space you’ll need to fully adopt the open concept. These two factors will let you know how to best attain your open kitchen goals and will make your project go a lot more smoothly.

Locate Your Hookups

An important part of constructing any kitchen, even those designed on open principles, is knowing where all of your hook ups are located. Before you begin construction on your open kitchen, you need to locate the gas, water and electric hook ups in your house, which will let you know how you should build your open kitchen.

Identifying where to best access your hook ups will also help you save money during the open kitchen construction process.

Options for Organization

In an open concept kitchen, one of the keys to getting the desired look of organization is storage. Traditionally, with an open kitchen, you would organize linearly, which means long, low profile storage spaces that will give you the room that you need while maintaining the open feel that you’re looking for.

Fortunately, there are several great storage options that you could choose that will easily allow you to achieve the open kitchen design that you’re looking for. Open shelving is a popular choice for open kitchens, as are slim cabinets. Whichever storage option that you choose, it needs to take up as little space as possible so that it doesn’t detract from the minimal appearance that is the hallmark of any open kitchen.

Moving Around Your Space

The reason that many homeowners choose to build an open kitchen in their home is so that they have more freedom of movement while using this all-important room. However, this free movement doesn’t come without careful planning, especially in regards to how your kitchen will fit into the rest of your home.

While you need to plan for your movement while you’re cooking in your open kitchen, you also need to think about how many people are expected to also be in the room at the same time, whether for socializing or simply for getting from one room into your home to another. Make sure that your open kitchen is large enough so that multiple people can move through it easily without the space starting to feel cramped.

Let Your Imagination Run Wild

While we’ve talked about some basic tips and concepts for designing and constructing an open kitchen, the most important aspect of this design trend is flexibility. Don’t necessarily think that you have to follow all of these style rules to get the kitchen you’re looking for. In fact, it’s a good idea to let loose your imagination and consider as many ideas as possible.

Have a brainstorming session for how you want your open kitchen to look and what features you want. Write down anything that comes to mind. Now, you can look at your list and narrow down your choices to what you think will be easiest to accomplish, both in terms of time and affordability. Your kitchen construction professional will be able to use your design wish list to help you plan the open kitchen of your dreams.

Plan Your Open Kitchen with Help

After examining some of the methods for installing an open kitchen in your home, you need to get advice from the kitchen remodeling professionals that you’ll find at Kitchen Solvers. The Kitchen Solvers teams is ready to listen to your needs and expectations for an open kitchen and can tell you the best way to tackle this project in your home. Stop by a Kitchen Solvers location today so that we can start working on your remodeling project.

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