Designing a functional kitchen for your apartment can be a challenge. Without careful planning, one cannot expect to have a functional and aesthetic kitchen in their apartment. Planning is of the utmost importance. Whether you’re working with a small space or trying to make the most of your limited budget, these 7 tips will help you create a kitchen that works for you.
Create an Island for your kitchen
One of our favourite things for a kitchen is to develop an island to help with storage and countertop space. This can turn your “L” shaped kitchen into a “U” shaped kitchen.
A beautiful kitchen island is a perfect space to sit and chat with friends or family. This can be a great place in your kitchen, where you eat breakfast every morning! It also offers an additional countertop area as well as storage for pots, pans and dishes etc. A U-shaped design will give maximum use out of limited space, while still being practical at the same time.
Embrace minimalism
We like to keep things minimal when it comes to building kitchens in apartments. Apartments usually have a limited amount of space to work with, carefully designing exactly what you need and removing the need for waste will allow you to keep your kitchen clean and aesthetically pleasing without having wasted space.
Plan out electrical points beforehand
One should plan out electrical points before renovating or remodelling a kitchen in their apartment.
Carefully choose where all your electrical points should be positioned along with each of the chosen electrical appliances you plan on using in the kitchen.
It is better to have electrical points at each workstation where each appliance is going in, in order to remove the unappealing look of having cables all over your kitchen.
Ensure you have enough space next to your appliances
Following on from electric points is also important to ensure that you have enough space next to all your appliances so that you don’t feel cramped in your own kitchen. For example, a stove needs a place to put the pots and pans or mixers for cooking in close proximity to the stove to ensure that it is easy to prepare the food without having to walk across the kitchen the whole time. Ensure close proximity of all the items storage goods will ensure that you are able to prep your meal with minimal fuss.
Dedicate areas to “cooking stations”
As mentioned above, keeping everything in close proximity and well organised individual areas around your cooking station and washing up area will make the kitchen more functional and more enjoyable. An example of this is to have all your cups and saucers near the espresso machine on your kitchen counter. Having dry goods just above it like your coffee beans essentially helps you build an “espresso station”. Keeping items like pots and pans near the oven also allows you to keep all those items together within reach. This helps facilitate smoothly running the kitchen in your apartment.
Ensure you have enough storage space
Following on from keeping everything together, ensure that you have enough storage space to store all your dry foods, pots, pans etc in your kitchen. Apartments are usually small so you do not want excessive storage space in your apartment because it sacrifices other functional items in the kitchen.
Ensure adequate lighting and ventilation
Lighting and ventilation are extremely important in a kitchen, especially during summer. In a perfect world, you would want to have a cross breeze through your kitchen with open windows and also lighting through your windows makes the kitchen a brighter, more enjoyable place to entertain guests. The problem with apartments is it’s usually difficult to get windows near the kitchen. This is why we feel that if you are not able to have windows for ventilation and lighting, good air conditioner units to give the kitchen a cool breeze in summer and suitable lighting in the ceiling and shining on the countertops would help a lot. Lighting also allows for an ambience and enhances the aesthetic appeal of the kitchen and also provides light to what you’re doing. A dark kitchen is horrible to work in.
Well, there you have it. 7 tips for a more functional kitchen in your apartment. The biggest issue with apartments is the lack of space. With these 7 tips, you may be able to make the most out of your kitchen in your apartment. If you would like to view our kitchen renovation services or need help with your kitchen renovation, contact us today.
