Kitchen Design Special Features

LIGHTING

Do you wish you had more light when chopping your vegetables and less light when the cooking is done?

If lighting is the jewellery of your kitchen, what is the best complement to your design?

A good lighting plan includes task and ambient lighting and uses light and shade to create an interesting and overall feature enhancing addition to your design.

• When planning your lighting consider natural, feature and in-built components.
• Skylights are a wonderful way to wash your space with daytime light.
• Artificial light gives you light to work under, highlight features and add character — special fixtures are like the jewellery of your interior.
• Well-placed task lighting will mean your work surfaces are sufficiently illuminated for safe and enjoyable food preparation.
• It is obvious but needs to reiterated — your light fittings need to be selected for the style of the fitting AND the light it emits. Where does it shine? How strong is the light? Is the colour temperature (warm or cool) consistent and does it create the intended effect?
• Avoid pendants that cast strong shadows over work surfaces.

HANDLES & SPECIAL FRONTS

How do integrate your love of crafted details and tactile materials into your new design?

The front elevation of a kitchen can be viewed as a piece of graphic design with a careful allocation of light and dark, positive and negative space, colour blocks, alignment of elements and balance in scale.

• For cabinet fronts there are classics such as framed panels and tongue & groove and many new options such as grills and rattan. From Blum you can now have super thin stone fronts for a very sleek top to bottom application of a material.
• For handle hardware we are enjoying access to a growing range of options in form, material and colour.
• Integrated handles, where the handle function is integrated into a design feature, can be so special. Craft something very custom and make it a feature.
• Drawer and cupboard handles can also be cut out details creating holes or lips for finger pulls.
• Finishes that are smooth to touch along with smooth running, soft close drawer hardware will offer kitchen users ongoing pleasure.
• Seek a joiner who delivers on the details like aligning all those fronts to be flush with even gaps between the drawers and cupboards.

OPEN STORAGE & DISPLAY

Do you have something always stored away that deserves to be on display?

Do you want to be able to easily access everyday items such as placements near a dining table?

Creating open storage and display elements in your kitchen that are the right size and in the right place can be an attractive and a highly functional feature.

• Open storage is an important part of layout planning so they are in the right place to be useful AND in balance-in-scale with closed fronts.
• Box shelves, island open fronts or framework structures all offer places to stack and arrange your beautiful things.
• Everyday kitchen items are often smaller than you think so work out what will go on your shelves and scale appropriately.
• Thinking specifically about what will go on your open shelves, you may only need one or two open shelves to cover what you need on display.

(For a full-project brief, here’s a link to Top Tips to Brief Your Interior Designer which can be used to guide you with your kitchen design and where to start.)