As home designs and layouts have evolved over generations, so too have the functions of some of the key areas of a home. No single space in the home has evolved more than the kitchen. The kitchen used to be only a workspace, a cluttered and busy room tucked away out of sight. Today, a home’s kitchen is its centerpiece, on display, making a statement on the house as a whole.
Over the last 20 years or so modern kitchen designs have become more open-plan – there are no butler doors separating the kitchen from the dining area or cumbersome appliances restricting access around the room. Since Kvik invented the SociableKitchen, open-plan kitchens have become the standard for modern kitchen design.
Completing any open-plan kitchen design is the inclusion of a kitchen island. Kitchen islands represent a combination of style and function. While they are a small feature of a kitchen, they can fundamentally change the flow of the home.
Optimize Your Kitchen’s Space
An open-plan kitchen utilizes a house’s frame and exterior walls as supports for the kitchen cabinetry, countertops, and appliances. In a typical modern home, the kitchen is centered on one main wall or into a corner where two walls meet. The goal of any kitchen design is to maximize available space; however, this becomes difficult when you have limited wall space and want to keep the kitchen open.
A kitchen island provides a manageable solution to this problem. By incorporating an island into your kitchen design, you create a wealth of additional countertop and storage space, making your kitchen look and feel more open.
The additional countertop and storage space in a kitchen island gives you more options to strategically plan the rest of your kitchen layout. Kitchen designers will advise you to make sure that you establish a kitchen triangle that is easy to maneuver through. The kitchen triangle is the space between the refrigerator, stovetop, and sink. While your refrigerator is likely built into the wall, you could choose to have your stovetop or sink in the kitchen island for easy access.
Plus, with more available space, you can house more appliances, such as a dishwasher or an additional oven. Open-plan kitchens are preferred because they feel free of clutter, which is why installing a kitchen island is an ideal solution to maximizing available space.
Improve Your Kitchen’s Versatility
A kitchen island provides much more than just additional kitchen space; it gives your home an additional place for activity and socializing. When you consider that the kitchen is the centerpiece of the home, it makes sense to add additional countertop space with a kitchen island to make the area more versatile.
Since kitchen islands have two main sides, assuming the island is rectangular, the side away from the kitchen can be used for a wide range of functions. Typically, homeowners like to add stool seating to this side of the island, creating extra seating room for eating, working or socializing.
Homeowners with children tend to use this additional seating and countertop space as an area where the children can do homework while the parents are cooking. Additionally, it makes it easier for parents to teach their children cooking basics or get them to help out in the kitchen. Activities such as this help strengthen family relationships and make cooking more fun.
This counter space is also useful for parents and children as a space to leave notes or other important items that the whole family needs to see. Since an open-plan kitchen is at the center of the home, the counter on a kitchen island is one of the main places people pass as they walk about the house.
Socialize with Guests
Cooking meals has evolved from a chore to a celebration and is often an activity that the cooks like to share when they have guests over. Rather than having the person cooking retreat to the kitchen to finish preparing a meal when guests are over, the kitchen can become the space in which guests are happy hanging out.
This completes the vision of Kvik’s SociableKitchen concept, as a kitchen island makes the kitchen an area for both cooking and entertaining.
If you are considering redesigning your kitchen and have the available space to include a kitchen island into the layout, consider these benefits before making your decision. It’s truly remarkable how something as simple as a kitchen island can breathe new life into your home.