If you’ve never designed a kitchen before, knowing what mistakes to avoid can be as difficult as deciding upon a colour scheme or figuring out where to put your appliances. In short, it’s a tricky business and unsurprisingly, those who don’t seek help from a specialist kitchens in Surrey company, fail miserably and end up with kitchens they’re far from satisfied with.
To help make sure your kitchen is the stuff of dreams not nightmares, here are some of the most commonly made mistakes that you should do your utmost to avoid making during the design process:
1. Not providing the space with enough ventilation
Open-plan kitchens are increasingly popular, but without adequate ventilation (such as a window or extractor fan, or both), your entire home could end up smelling of last night’s dinner – for days!
2. Failing to create a space that’s multifunctional
Many modern households revolve around the kitchen, and so much more than simply prepping food and eating, takes place inside them. However, without designing the space to incorporate a variety of activities, from cooking and eating, to working, reading and simply chatting, the kitchen becomes inaccessible for anyone other than the cook and diners.
3. Not positioning electrical sockets correctly
Think about all of your appliances and how and when you are likely to want to use them, before the electrician fits them. Wrong positioning of sockets and not enough of them, can spoil an otherwise magnificent kitchen.
4. Mismeasuring worktops and counters
The wrong height or wrong level of accessibility can render a worktop unusable.
5. Not including splashbacks
The walls of the average kitchen – particularly those behind major appliances such as the oven and stove, and behind the sink – can quickly become soiled from food spillages and debris, and without adequate tiling and splashbacks, they can look dirty and unkempt in next to no time.
6. Inadequate counter space
A kitchen can never have enough counter space, and having more than one easy-to-clean area for prepping food is a must in a modern kitchen.
7. Inadequate storage
While you may not want a totally minimalist bespoke kitchen design, you should try to minimise clutter so that the space stays looking spacious and clean, and this is only possible with plenty of storage.
8. Forgetting about rubbish disposal
While bins aren’t exactly the most glamorous of additions to a modern kitchen, they are essential, and no kitchen should be designed without having first incorporated somewhere discreet for excess food and other waste to be thrown into.
9. Not seeking advice from kitchen specialists
Even if you want to try and do much of the remodelling work in your kitchen yourself, you should never underestimate the value of expert guidance. Professional people who make a living out of designing kitchens, should always be your first port of call when beginning such a project, and even if you choose to do the main bulk of the work yourself, their guidance will likely prove invaluable and could prevent you from making any (or all!) of the mistakes mentioned here.
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Failing to reconfigure the kitchen’s layout
Often, all it takes to make a kitchen more accessible and a more desirable space for you and your family to spend time in, is a bit of reconfiguring. Ill-thought out designs and placements can render a space unfit for purpose, whereas with a little planning and minor repositioning of cabinets and appliances etc. you can convert the space into one for all the family to use, whenever they want.
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Opting for a design likely to fade in popularity
Following fashions and trends is great when you want a modern kitchen to make the neighbours green, but if you want the space to continue to look great as fashions fade (and they inevitably do), you’ll need to give careful thought to a lasting design that will prove timeless and chic.
With expert guidance and plenty of forethought, you can easily design a kitchen that will meet all of your needs, while avoiding the common problems listed above and remaining timelessly stylish and modern.
