  photo: Grothouse Lumber Co. |
Renovating your kitchen can be an overwhelming task: it takes a lot of careful thought to properly plan a kitchen that you’ll love to live, work, cook and dine in for the next 15 years.
A modern kitchen doesn’t simply follow the classic triangle layout — in fact, if you hear a kitchen planner mention the word “triangle,” run. That formula was big in June Cleaver’s day; it simply doesn’t fit with how we work and use kitchens today.
As you start the planning process, you’ll be asking yourself: “What do I need to know?” and “Where do the best kitchen design ideas come from?”
Let me walk you through some ideas and some food for thought you can use during the planning stage.
First off, take your time. Don’t try to plan this all out in an afternoon or even a weekend. You’ll be living with the results for a long time — it’s a lot more permanent than a new sofa.
Today, we take our design cues for a great kitchen from commercial kitchens. Think about it:
• They’re used by more than one chef (many homeowners have partners, kids and friends who want to help cook).
• They offer easy access to pots, pans and tableware (think open shelving), multiple ovens and sinks and ergonomically positioned appliances (think elevated dishwashers and bottom freezers).
Today’s kitchen is designed with the way you like to cook and entertain in mind.
For example, if you’re a pie maker, you’ll need a section of marble countertop (perfect for rolling pastry), a section of butcher-block countertop, perhaps a raised bar so visitors can marvel at your culinary skills and perhaps some granite or stainless steel for sparkle and elegance.
So many decisions, and that’s just for the countertop. If you don’t take it one step at a time, you can have major regrets.
One of your first steps is to commit to appliances. You need to know what appliances you want and their required space before you can lay out a new kitchen plan.
It can be lots of fun, because there are so many options these days. How many ovens do you need? Do you want a freezer separate from the fridge? Wine fridges? Drawer dishwashers? Drawer microwave oven? TV? Computer? Fireplace? Coffee maker? Custom cooktop? (Many makers, such as Wolf and Jenn-Air, let you design your own: all gas; gas plus induction; grill; wok; even a deep fryer.)
Next step is to space-plan to make sure there’s enough room for your spices, knives, utensils and other cooking essentials.
Plan each task area as a zone with enough space for all the things you’ll need. For example, in the coffee zone, you’ll need space for coffee, coffee maker or built-in appliance, cups and saucers, flavours and sugar.
Other likely candidates: prep zone, baking zone, cleanup zone, garbage zone (bins for compost, trash and recycling), cooking zone, wine zone, baking zone (there are devices you can leave your mixer on so it will flip up, ready to use when needed), eating zone, lean-on-the-bar-and-watch-the-cook zone and, of course, pet zone (dishes, food, even pet beds).
It may seem like an overwhelming process, but zoning out like this makes a lot more sense, and the results are worth the effort.
Then comes the fun part: choosing all the pretty stuff, such as flooring, lighting, backsplash, cabinet style and material.
You can mix and match here; no reason to stick to one colour, material or even style. It won’t be easy – but then, as moms the world over will remind you, nothing worthwhile comes without a price.
So take your time, do the research. And then be sure to invite me over for that first dinner party.
Cheryll Gillespie is an internationally celebrated, award-winning designer with a passion for travel.
Designer thoughts
In the bathroom, open storage continues to grow in popularity because it lends a feeling of spaciousness. I prefer to mix open and closed storage, since it lets us both enhance the visual space and minimize clutter.
Weekend project
Go and order yourself the most fabulous roll of wallpaper and line the back of your bookcase it — wow!
