Living your Space: The Kitchen II

By Elisabeth Onuoha

Planning a kitchen is much more than just placing a state of the art cooker, refrigerator and what have you in the kitchen space. As stated earlier in the past edition, the needs of the users and number of people in the family must be taken into consideration.

 

L-Shaped Kitchen Design

When planning a kitchen, it is important to ensure that the three centers which comprise the receiving, storage and food preparation and ending with cooking and serving are placed in a particular sequence to ensure ease of movement while eliminating wasted movements around the kitchen space. This leads to a typical layout with refrigerator, sink and cooker in that order spaced out with work counters and storage between major appliances.

There are five basic types of kitchen layouts; we have the straight-line layout, the ‘L-Shape’, the ‘U-Plan’, the corridor or parallel plan, and finally the Island layout. Each of these layouts is unique in its own way and seeks to maximize space.

The straight line plan is the most common and perfect for a small kitchen. Here everything is lined up against one side of the kitchen wall. We have here, the refrigerator, sink, and cooker all lined up

U-Shaped Kitchen Design

with work counters and storage between them.

The ‘L-Shape plan is as the name suggests. The layout here is like the straight line but bent at an angle to give it the ‘L’ look. This is mainly to fit the space available.

The ‘U’ kitchen plan is where the layout of the kitchen is shaped like a typical letter ‘U’.

This is the most popular and is often recommended. The layout is perfect for one person working alone who stands within easy reach of the three centers made up of the refrigerator, sink and cooker. The parallel plan is simply made up of a straight line cut in two and placed facing each other with an isle in-between

The island layout

Parallel Kitchen Design

is achieved by adding an island to a U layout, or an L layout. It could be square shaped or round. This layout is suitable for large kitchens where you have enough space to play around with.

KITCHEN ELEMENTS AND MATERIALS.

The beauty of your kitchen is more enhanced by the appliance you decide to equip your kitchen with. These appliances add to the aesthetics of the kitchen and make the kitchen inviting. I have been to kitchens where all you have is a kerosene stove thrown carelessly in one corner and a table holding some plates, pots and pans. All kitchens may not necessarily have state of the art appliances, but if you have an eye for beauty and fine details, that kerosene stove could still be placed in a more beautiful way than just been thrown on a table.

In choosing kitchen appliances, the choices are between a built in oven and cooker into cabinets or a stand alone cookers. Other cooking devices like microwave, deep fryers, toasters etc serve as auxiliaries to the basic cooker.

STORAGE. Storage is an important aspect of a kitchen. You can choose between closed cabinets and open storage. Closed storage is ideal for items that need protection, while the open storage is for items that do not need to be protected. Though when using the open storage plan, it is important to ensure that things are stored neatly in jars or containers. I love the open storage for items like spices etc. In my kitchen, I have a spice rack directly above my cooker. It makes cooking easy as all I need do is reach up for the salt or pepper jar while cooking.

Straight Line Layout

Also the open storage is ideal for pots and pans and other utensils that can be hung.

FLOORING: There are many types of flooring to choose from while considering flooring for your kitchen. You can have Linoleum, Ceramic tiles, quarry tile, wood flooring etc. The most popular are the tile or granite. These are easy to maintain.

WALL SURFACE:  Most homes have tiles on the wall of the kitchen, while some have paint and tiles on the wall. Whichever one you choose, do ensure that the colors or tiles used are bright and cheerful enough to make the kitchen inviting at all time

LIGHTING: The most effective lighting comes from strips concealed under wall cabinets and shelves. An extractor is also ideal to help eliminate smells and deposits of grease and cooking fumes.

ACCESSORIES:  These are things like kitchen towel racks, pin up board where you can have menus put up, clocks, spice racks, etc are things that can also add to the overall ambiance of your kitchen and give it that that ‘Wow’ effect.

While these maybe the blue print for what the ideal kitchen may look like, you do not need to break bank to achieve this, according to Mr Adekola Oni of Regal associate, “there is a kitchen for every budget all it takes is careful planning and you can get the kitchen of your dreams”. I may not have the kitchen of my dreams yet, but am making maximum use of my kitchen space as it is for now while hoping to get my dream kitchen soon. Till I come your way next time, keep the kitchen warm and live your space.