Kitchen Essential

Simple and contemporary

White or plain wood cupboard fronts — with a few glazed doors too. Try mixing white and wood together: white units with a woodblock work top, or wooden base units with white-painted wall cupboards. Stripwood floor. Plain white roller blinds for the windows.

Sleek and high-tech

Everything discreetly fitted, right up to the ceiling — no open storage except for ultra-functional chrome utensils on hanging rails. Recessed lighting. Granite-effect work tops. Black‑’ and-white tiled floors. Slatted window blinds.

Bright and practical

Whitecupboards with handles and trims in bold primary colours. Bright plastic utensils and stacking plastic storage containers. Chequered vinyl floor tiles. Simple curtains or roller blinds in bright colours.

Country style

Light wood or painted cupboards with panel detailing. A few free-standing pieces of furniture if there’s room. Open wall shelves and plate racks. Pretty china out on display. Blue-and white or green-and-cream ceramic tiles. Traditional terracotta- or quarry-tiled floor.

FITTED OR FREESTANDING?

Whether to choose fitted or freestanding units largely depends on whether you want to hide everything away or keep it out on show. Fitted kitchens are the neatest way of making use of all the available space and have the advantage of providing a complete furnished look for the room in one go. But freestanding furniture like chests and dressers will add character and variety in a less functional style.

A good compromise, if you need the practicality of fitted units but want to give the room a more individual look, is to combine fitted and unfitted furniture. Use fitted units to make a neat work area around the sink and draining board, then add freestanding cupboards and chests where you want them. Or install fitted base units and work tops, but leave the wall space unfitted: open shelves and display units will give a lighter; more spacious effect.

Fitted Furniture

There’s a unit for every purpose and every shape of room these days, so a fitted kitchen lets you organize the room exactly as you want.

Base units can be fitted with either cupboards or drawers. Many professional cooks consider drawers easier because you get an instant and well-lit bird’s-eye view of their contents instead of having to rummage around in the depths of a dark cupboard. Plinth drawers — shallow drawers fitted behind the unit kickboards at floor level — are a marvellous way of using otherwise wasted space, and some built-in oven-housing units are designed with a deep pan drawer in the base.

Wall cupboards usually offer more variety of size than base units. Generally designed to sit much slimmer against the wall, they protrude around 300 mm (12 in) as opposed to 500 mm (20 in) or 600 mm (24 in) for base units. Where floor space is short, a run of base units in this slimmer size is a great help too — standard units can be cut to size by trimming a few inches off the back.

Wall units are available in different heights too, • to fit different heights of ceiling. You can either run them right up to the ceiling to give you as much cupboard space as possible, or opt for shorter units and use the space on top to stand items like jugs and vases which you don’t want to hide away.

All fitted kitchen units are available with a choice of right- or left-opening doors, so work out the arrangement which suits your kitchen layout best. Awkward corners can be dealt with by specially designed corner units to avoid any waste of space due to inaccessibility. Look for units with hinged doors which fold right back to give a clear view of the cupboard contents, and carousel fittings which can be swung out toexpose the items stored furthest inside.

Make the most of all the space-saving and practical gadgets that fitted units can provide. Even if your kitchen isn’t short of space, they are a marvellous way of tidying away essentials and keeping everything to hand for when you need it. Tall end-of-run cupboards can store cumbersome items such as mops and brooms. Hidden waste bins, chopping boards, extra pull-out work surfaces, wine racks and even ironing boards can all be incorporated. And you can have functional appliances such as fridges streamlined into the plan too, neatly hidden away behind matching door panels — especially useful if your kitchen is visible from an adjoining room.

Freestanding Furniture

If you’re happy to have much of your kitchen equipment on view, there are all sorts of open- storage options available. A row of butcher’s hooks on a wall rail can be used to hang utensils above a work top so that they’re near at hand. Old-fashioned ceiling-hung airers make good use of overhead space: these are excellent for pans, utensils and strings of vegetables. A curtain pole or length of dowelling can be fixed as a wall rack to do the same job, and peg rails can be used to hang mugs and utensils.

Butcher’s trolleys are a godsend in both fitted and unfitted kitchens. Based on the traditional high-standing butcher’s block, these are fitted with castors and with extra shelving and storage beneath the chopping board to provide a complete portable work station that can be wheeled into service whenever it’s needed.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Instant Kitchen Styles

• Conquering Clutter
• Conquering Clutter (continue...)
• THE ABC OF COOKWARE Part 1
• THE ABC OF COOKWARE Part 2
• Kitchen Storage and preparation continue...
• Kitchen Essentials AND Utensils Part 2
• Kitchen Design & Textures
• Rich Kitchen Colour and Style
• DIY KITCHEN UPDATE continue...
• Kitchen Storage and preparation

Trackback URI | Comments RSS