The K Kitchen Design Project & Tips!

Oh the kitchen! The kitchen is the gathering place for friends, family and guests, that is why you need to put a lot of thought and love into your design. This blog post has tips for kitchen designs and a client’s kitchen I recently designed.

When designing a kitchen you want to keep a few things in mind, The Work Triangle, Lifestyle and Cost.

The Work Triangle

The work triangle is defined by the National Kitchen and Bath Association as an imaginary straight line drawn from the center of the sink, to the center of the cooktop, to the center of the refrigerator and finally back to the sink. Efficiency is the triangle's main goal. It keeps all of the major work stations near the cook, without placing them so close that the kitchen becomes cramped while minimizing traffic. The work triangle is not always going to work. As open floor plans have become more popular and kitchens have multiple workspaces the work triangle isn’t practical. Your lifestyle should determine the functionality of your kitchen, not the other way around. You do not always have to play by the triangle's rules when it comes to drafting kitchen plans. Below are some examples of The Work Triangle.

Lifestyle

Your kitchen shouldn’t be determined by a rule, It should be determined by your lifestyle. Keep in mind functionally and the beauty. Counter space, cabinets, specialty storage and high end appliances and finishes are huge aspects of your kitchen design. Whether you are a person who loves to cook, a professional chef or someone who uses their oven for storage coming home to a beautiful and functional kitchen is key. Design it around you!

Cost

Cost is the hardest part of designing if you’re on a budget. As I sit with my client one of the first things I ask is what is your budget? The budget is really the determining factor when deciding the plan to bring your ideas into reality. You may want a gorgeous Carrara Mable Countertop with a Viking Range and a Sub Zero Refrigerator but you also have to demo the entire kitchen along with moving electrical, piping and walls. This all can become very expensive very quickly. My suggestion is to make a budget and a list of needs and wants. Are you a professional chef who needs a Viking range or do you just want it because of the status symbol? Once you determine what your needs and wants are then it becomes much easier deciding how to spend your budget effectively.

The K Kitchen

I recently did 3 different designs for a client’s extremely small kitchen. She came to me with a request, can you help my daughter’s kitchen? She informed me that this is her daughters first home and they are doing a full renovation on a very limited budget. They would like to use the existing cabinets and appliances to keep the cost down. The kitchen setup was not functional especially for her growing family. I took her existing kitchen design and demolished it. When designing anything I follow my 4 steps; envision, determine, design and execute. These steps help me to envision what the space could look like when setup correctly, determine/design can my ideas work and will the client be satisfied and execute, begin construction!

Below is a photo of the existing kitchen. Not very pleasing to the eye or functional. Can we say HELP! Since it is only 10 x 8 the placement of the appliances is a huge part in creating openness.

What could this look like?!!?

Design # 1 is by far the favourite of the bunch. It is functional and opens up the space. The client is able to use all of her existing cabinets and appliances. This design does require the relocation of piping and electrical. Luckily her father is a contractor, the cost for labour is zero!

Design # 2 is another great design. This does require purchasing additional cabinets and a custom corner cabinet. In this design the cabinets are center stage. This does not give an open and airy feel due to the refrigerator placement.

Design # 3 is similar to design # 2 in regards to the appliance placement. The only difference in this design is the client has 2 options for sink placement.

In the end my client ended up going with Design # 1. Construction begins this September 2016! The final result will be posted once the project is complete.

Note: Cabinet faces and sinks do not appear in the 3D design

Thank you so much for following The Style Bean! I hope you enjoyed my Kitchen Designs and Tips!

For designs services please contact me @ kmrp1010@gmail.com or reach out to me on my Instagram page (located on the main page on The Style Bean.)

Xoxo

Kristin