Planning a Kitchen

It has come to the time where I need to plan a new kitchen. I am now sick of the hells kitchen that I currently have. So I thought I would share my top tips for planning a kitchen just in case any of you have kitchen planning on the agenda.

Before you start planning a kitchen think what was good or bad about the old kitchen! Some people are tempted to stick to the original layout of the kitchen, don't be tempted this is your chance to change and improve your kitchen.

Refitting a kitchen is the perfect time to think about upgrading the electrics, for example at the moment there are not enough sockets in my kitchen, the extractor fan is broken and lighting is not great. As the kitchen is the only room with no windows in the house the lighting and extractor fan in the kitchen are essential to the planning.

So general rules for electrics, think about task lighting a good option for task lighting in a kitchen is a spotlight or a set of low voltage track lights across food prep areas. There are lots of lighting options so have a think about the look and feel that you want in the kitchen.

If you have a dining area in the kitchen you may want to have multiple options for lighting so that the room is not too heavily illuminated and you have the option to relax when eating. Another thing to consider is having a clear path to the table this will mean that food can be served easily and also that guests can talk to the chef who will no doubt be busy preparing the meal.

Drawing up a Kitchen Plan

Make a rough sketch of the room showing all the doors, windows, plumbing, electrical sockets etc. The next step is to take accurate measurements and add them to the sketch. I find that graph paper is useful for the next step a more advanced drawing planning the kitchen to scale.

You can even cut shapes out and move them around a basic floor plan giving you an idea of the best placement.

Kitchen Planning using the Triangle

When planning the kitchen one of the important things to think about is the work triangle, the majority of work in a kitchen revolves around the work triangle.

The Kitchen Sink, the Fridge and the Cooker use these as a guide and try planning the kitchen using the work triangle.