What Do You “Hate” About Your Kitchen?
Maybe hate is too strong a word in properly defining a frustration you might have with your present kitchen space; but it is these dislikes that will prompt you to make some much needed changes. There’s no arguing of the inherent importance of a well-designed, attractive kitchen in the home as it is the centralized hub of nearly every critical household activity. Take these traits of dislikes and dysfunctions of your present kitchen and list them; and then take the energy of your dismay toward a more positive venture—make the changes of your kitchen that work for you, and not for it!
Is It the Cabinet Space?
The primary dysfunction often noted in an ineffective or inefficient kitchen space is typically addressed in the kitchen cabinetry. Chances are that you inherited these cabinets when you first purchased the home and the cabinet layout and function were likely chosen by the builder or the previous owner who managed their kitchen differently than you do. Perhaps the cabinet shelves are too narrow or set too close together and your daily dinnerware and glasses are scattered in several cabinets because, well, that’s what the space dictates. Is the corner base unit accessible, or is it a ‘dead zone’? Is the finish on the cabinets hard to maintain? Are the drawers adequate to your needs or could you use a few more? Is the entire cabinetry layout riddled with ‘fillers’, denoting that there is a lot of potential cabinet storage space that’s wasted by virtue of the size and configuration of the cabinets? Is the hardware tired and outdated?
Is It the Work Layout?
Another common critique of a dysfunctional kitchen area is that of the proximity of the major appliances to one another. With these appliances being positioned at opposing areas of the room, the tendency to put-on a lot of personal mileage during the course of meal preparation is high. Having a kitchen that is sensitive to the intelligent positioning of the appliances is vital in ensuring a friendly atmosphere for the chef. Are the appliances inadequate to the needs of the cook, kids or guests? Are these appliances outdated, mismatched or just plain ugly?
How’s the Countertop Space?
One of the most vocalized compliments of a well-designed kitchen is that of the expanse or the viable, usable space within the countertop surface. It seems that many people are quick to envy those homes which have more-than-adequate counter services—like you can never have too much. So, as you review your own present countertops, determine if you have what you need for counter services. Is your counter ‘chopped-up’ into segments that inhibit the means in which you use the kitchen? Could you use and island or a workstation in your kitchen to help regulate or define certain usages of the countertop? Is the present countertop material hard to clean or showing excessive wear and tear?
Have You Just Gotten Used to It?
Some of the ‘dysfunctional’ or undesirable conditions of a kitchen are not always on the forefront of your mind as you have learned to accept or tolerate such things. Items like the kitchen sink and faucet, although an extremely important fixture in a kitchen, are often accepted for their limitations in an existing kitchen but are also one of the first things to be completely changed when the opportunity arises. Adequate kitchen lighting, whether generated naturally (windows, doors) or by strategic and aesthetically pleasing fixtures, will often go unnoticed; and folks will tend to deal with the shadows or simply introduce a portable light fixture into an existing kitchen—and that’s called, ‘accommodation’!
Once you’ve decided what works and what doesn’t work, start the process of planning and change. Your attitude and personal rejuvenation process begins with the critique and then with the execution of designing and creating a new, beautiful, working kitchen.
