Over 1 million new kitchens are fitted across the country each year. Whether this is in newly built houses or from renovations and overhauls of existing kitchens is unknown, but the fact remains. When it comes to home upgrades and areas to invest in, the kitchen is still the main focus of any home improvement.
And there’s no denying that if you’re at the point of designing a new kitchen, it can be incredibly exciting. Picking out shiny new worktops, getting rid of those old units you absolutely detest – it’s a fun and almost cathartic experience. But before you get carried away bringing your Pinterest board to life, there are some details of a kitchen reno that can often be overlooked, and these can make a big impact on the finished result.
This is a collaborative post.
Sockets In The Right Places
It’s probably not as sexy as choosing your new kitchen island or fancy new hot water tap, but making sure you have enough sockets in your kitchen and they’re in the right places can be a choice you’ll be glad you didn’t skip. Think about where your toaster and kettle will live. You need sockets there. If you’re adding an island, you will want power running through it via sockets, which will benefit you. Adding in USB sockets is a good idea, as are hidden sockets for things like cookers and washing machines. These small details matter even if they’re not the showstoppers.
Kitchen Flow
The biggest mistake often made with a new kitchen renovation is focusing too much on the features, not on how they use the space. What we mean here is putting too much attention on how it looks, not how it works. Your kitchen is a working, functional room, not an aesthetic side piece, and it should flow as such.
How do you enter the kitchen and exit? Is it easy to navigate, or do you need to look into rounded edges to remove sharp corners from smaller spaces? Can you get more than one person in by the sink, or can people move around each other freely? Manufacturers like Ramsbottom Kitchens can work with you to help create a flow that works for your kitchen, including ensuring you have the “kitchen triangle“, ie your hob, sink, and fridge forming three points close enough to be practical.
Lightning That Helps
Lighting for your kitchen should not be an afterthought; it needs to be part of the design. The right kitchen lighting can make your life so much easier. You want to pay attention to where shadows fall, if the light is behind you or not, meaning it’s blocked when you’re preparing food under cabinets, etc.
Consider downlights or undercabinet lighting to help you illuminate dark spaces, recessed spotlights and pendants over an ideal work breakfast bar will pair well together, as will lighting around the bases of cabinets to light from the floor up. It’s about finding the right lighting arrangement that works with the kitchen, your design, and how you will use it; it matters more than you might realise.