How To Create A Great Open-Plan Kitchen

Older houses tend to have the kitchen as a separate room. These days, however, it is generally considered better to have an open-plan kitchen. Ideally, this should flow into the dining and living spaces. Open-plan kitchens generally make far better use of the available space.

To explain further, kitchen show room specialists, Tara Neil share their expertise on how to create the perfect open-plan kitchen.

Everything starts with flow

When you create an open-plan kitchen you need to think about the flow within the kitchen itself as well as the flow within the broader open-plan area. Within the kitchen area, the first priority has to be safety and the second economy of movement. These two concepts are often closely connected. For example, the less distance you have to carry hot pans, the less time you have to injure yourself.

Within the broader area, you need to think about creating zones. Essentially, these are ways to divide the space visually without the use of walls. The classic approach to separating an open-plan kitchen from the next space is to use a kitchen island. This clearly delineates the two spaces, but also allows for easy movement between them.

Remember kitchens create smells

In open-plan kitchens, you can never have too many ways of dealing with cooking smells (and condensation). Ideally, you’ll have an effective cooker hood, plus a regular fan (e.g. overhead) plus a window. This gives you lots of options so you can pick the right one for the situation. For example, if there’s only a mild smell, opening a window may be less intrusive than using a cooker hood.

Think about flooring

Realistically, kitchens need hard floors, there is just no practical alternative. In principle, you can use mats and rugs for decor. In practice, you do need to be careful not just to choose hard-wearing items but also to make sure they do not become a slipping hazard.

Dining rooms and living rooms, by contrast, often benefit from softer flooring. This means that you either need to find a way to blend the hard flooring in the kitchen with the soft flooring in other areas. The usual way to do this is to keep the same hard flooring throughout and to layer it with rugs in the dining and/or living areas.

Plan your lighting carefully

Lighting is about safety at least as much as decor, especially in a kitchen. This means that you need to plan out your lighting to ensure that you have suitable general and task lighting. At the same time, however, you also need to think about how this lighting will blend with the lighting in the dining and/or living areas.

This means that you may want to think about investing in the sort of statement light fixture which might normally be considered a bit “too much” for a kitchen. You also want to think carefully about the position of the light. Ideally, it should either be clearly central to a zone (e.g. the kitchen) or clearly shared between zones (e.g. the kitchen/dining area). It should never be “hovering” between zones.

Try to combine spaces if possible

When it comes to creating your open-plan kitchen, it’s all about the space but also the connections. Do you want your kitchen to connect to the living room or your garden? Kitchen trends often take both stances, and you’ll see most houses have a large dining-kitchen area with beautiful bi-folding doors that lead on to the garden.

This could be the perfect opportunity to really scope out what you want this room to do for you and your family, aside from cook! Combining these spaces will make your home feel better and keep you all together, even when you’re in separate rooms.