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Kitchen with painted white cabinets and stained island

3 Things to Consider When Designing Your Kitchen

Kitchen layouts have a bit of a Goldilocks complex: too tiny or cramped and you risk spills and collisions; too lofty or cavernous and you’ll get tired traveling between your cutting board and your oven. How do you get a kitchen that’s just right?

At Westwind Woodworkers, we consider many factors when helping customers design their ideal kitchens including storage, the work triangle, and the number of chefs in the kitchen. It’s all about finding the right fit.

Function should always be paired with form, too. You want your kitchen to match the architectural style of your home. You want the cabinets to match your taste, down to the wood, stain, and door style. But it’s much more than just being attractive – you want your kitchen to have a seamless flow, and also to flow with the rest of the house.

If you’re striving for a seamless kitchen here are our tips to tackle any obstacles standing in your way:

1. Consider An Open Floor Plan

Removing a wall is often the best way to create a more functional and social kitchen. You want your kitchen to help everyone feel connected. You also need enough space by the sink, range, and fridge to get everything done.

These clients from Big Fish Lake had a choppy and dysfunctional kitchen. A wall was removed that isolated the kitchen and a staircase was moved so this lake home had views of the lake from across the house.

Open floor plan kitchen

2. Remove Features You Don’t Need

Create additional space by ridding your kitchen of unnecessary features, such as non-load-bearing columns and unused chimneys. Don’t be afraid to look into the cost of moving those big features that take up a lot of space, it’s often more affordable than people think.

A chimney at this Cold Spring home hadn’t been used since the 1940s. When it was in the corner of the kitchen, the refrigerator, range, and sink were all crammed together. When we removed it, this customer gained usable inches for the countertops, now there’s a spacious work triangle.

3. Rethink the Peninsula

If you have a U-shaped kitchen with a peninsula that separates it form the rest of the home, consider replacing the peninsula with an island. Otherwise whoever is in the kitchen feels like they are trapped and it’s hard to accommodate multiple chefs.

Such was the case in this Cold Spring kitchen. Our client did a lot of canning and the layout wasn’t working for her. By removing the peninsula, she was able to incorporate a long, narrow island and a raised table. Now she can work while someone else is performing another task.