Popular Kitchen Layouts and How to Design a Kitchen You Love
The way that your kitchen is laid out will likely dictate how you use this space for cooking, eating, and gathering with friends and loved ones. While the basic components of the modern kitchen are similar from one household to the next, there are many layout options to choose from. The layout you choose may be dependent upon your kitchen size, different appliances that you want in your kitchen, the desired distances between appliances, doorway sizing, and how much seating space you want.
Here are some of the most popular kitchen layouts, what they work well for, and some tips for designing a kitchen you love.
Steps for How to Design a Kitchen
Remodeling a kitchen takes a great deal of time, effort, expense, and planning. However, you don’t necessarily have to tackle the entire kitchen all at once to budget for costs and minimize household disruptions. The first step is to learn about different kitchen styles and choose one that appeals to you aesthetically and that also works functionally in your home. Cabinets are what anchor a kitchen, so it’s often best to start with cabinet replacements and upgrades first. Then you can move on to countertops, backsplashes, flooring, and other more decorative décor.
Options for Kitchen Layouts
In small homes, many homeowners choose a one-wall kitchen to keep everything simple and within reach. With this design, your refrigerator, oven, sink, and cupboards are all along a single wall. Meanwhile, a galley kitchen features appliances and cupboards along two facing walls and are also great for small spaces and maximizing efficiency.
You may choose a U-shaped kitchen layout if there’s just one primary cook in your household and you have a little more space to work with. To add more prep space and maybe even seating to this design, consider adding a kitchen island in the middle of the room. L-shaped kitchens are also popular options for kitchen layouts, especially if you like to entertain guests. For extra working space, you can also add a kitchen island to this design if your kitchen is large enough.
How to Layout Kitchen Cabinets
As we mentioned earlier, it’s often a good idea to start with your cabinets when establishing a new kitchen design. You’ll want at least 36 inches for the passageways between cabinet areas in your kitchen so that it doesn’t feel too crowded. If you will have just one cook in your kitchen most of the time, make sure the walkways are at least 42 inches wide, and add a few more inches if multiple cooks will be regularly preparing food at once. Lots of homeowners want to have a kitchen island to increase cabinet storage options, but skip it if your kitchen is less than 12 feet long and eight feet deep because an extra structure will make the space too crowded.
How to Design a Kitchen Layout That Works in Your Home
When you’re thinking about how to design a kitchen, consider how you currently use your kitchen and also how you may want to use it differently in the future. If you often find yourself entertaining guests and having social conversations in the kitchen, then make sure to incorporate seating space to keep those conversations going. If you love to cook and invest in all the latest and greatest kitchen gadgets, then kitchen storage should be a top priority and dictate how many cabinets you install in the room.
Also, as you are setting your budget for a kitchen remodeling project, don’t forget about plumbing upgrades and new kitchen fixtures that you’ll need to go with the updated layout and design. At Central Plumbing Specialties, we have all of the plumbing supplies and decorative kitchen fixtures to make your space beautiful, functional, and ready to make and enjoy the foods you love!