Kitchen on Order: 20 Tips for Creating the Perfect Kitchen

Before designing the kitchen layout, a designer formulates a technical specification for planning — clarifying the client's preferences and wishes.

If you plan to design a kitchen without a designer, do the same — create a technical specification based on your answers to our questions. Let's get started!

Tatyana FABRICINA, Interior Designer, Head of Design Studio 'Decotrend'

What is your kitchen for?

This is not a rhetorical question — it's important everything: your lifestyle, number of household members, how often and how much you cook.

If you only have breakfast at home, don't plan a kitchen with many storage spaces and a large amount of appliances. It also makes sense to avoid upper cabinets — without them, the kitchen visually appears more spacious, which is especially relevant for small apartments or studios.

And if you regularly cook at home and often with family members — consider a kitchen island with built-in sink and additional workspace, as well as drawers-transformers for bulky dishes.

Design: Nolte Küchen

Besides, it's important to properly distribute household appliances. A very convenient solution on the kitchen — a separate pantry for food, where you can hide large appliances, additional foldable chairs, and also store vegetables, fruits, and homemade pickles.

Design: Nolte Küchen

If you only have breakfast at home, there's no point in planning a kitchen with many storage spaces and a large amount of appliances.

What kind of appliances do you need and in what quantity?

Create a list of appliances and equipment you would like to place in your kitchen:

• cooktop. Which one exactly — induction, gas, or electric? How many burners — 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6? In some models, several heating zones can be combined into one, which is very convenient for large pots or woks. There are also induction panels that are built into the countertop, and only the cooking zones are visible on its surface;
• dishwasher. 45 cm or 60 cm wide? Pay attention to such features as a large loading area, which allows placing dishes of different shapes and sizes, and half-load mode that saves water;
• oven. The most convenient placement for an oven is at chest level. Often, ovens can be combined with microwave ovens and steam cookers. However, such ovens are smaller than standard ones and are not suitable if you're used to baking large poultry or big pies.

Design: Nolte Küchen

• refrigerator. Built-in or freestanding, two-compartment or three-compartment? 60 cm, 90 cm or 120 cm wide? Keep in mind that built-in refrigerators have less capacity than freestanding ones. Therefore, in our projects, we often place a refrigerator without a freezer compartment, and the freezer is installed under the countertop.
• small household appliances: microwave oven, coffee maker, steam cooker, grill, fryer, warming drawer, vacuum sealer, oven — freestanding or built-in?
• hood. Essential if you cook frequently. Hoods differ in power. Choose one suitable for your stove;
• wine cooler. Not a necessity, but many of my clients want to install one. Often there is not enough space for a large cooler. Therefore, pay attention to built-in wine coolers of small size — up to 18 bottles.
• sink. Single or double, made of steel, ceramic or artificial stone? Will a garbage disposal be installed under the sink?
• kitchen faucet. Will it have a pull-out spout or an additional spout for filtered water?

Design: Tatyana FABRICINA. Kitchen Furniture: Nolte Küchen

Built-in refrigerators have less capacity than freestanding ones. Therefore, in our projects, we often place a refrigerator without a freezer compartment, and the freezer is installed under the countertop.

How to Choose Kitchen Furniture?

What and how will you store in the kitchen, how much space do you need for pots, pans, and plates? Maybe you have a collection of dishes to display behind glass or want to place a sideboard in the kitchen. Pay attention to:

• base cabinet. Few people know about it, but this is a very convenient place for storing baking trays, racks, and baking forms. Especially relevant in small kitchens;
• counter height from the floor. Definitely consider your height when choosing a kitchen, it's very important. If you are tall, it will be inconvenient to cook on a countertop that is 85 cm high, make it 91 cm high;
• height of upper cabinets. They can go up to the ceiling or be completely absent. Pay attention to ensuring that opening doors don't interfere with pendant and surface-mounted lights. Facades of upper cabinets with micro-lift should not touch the ceiling;
• working surface. Decide how much space you need for it. Usually, 60 cm to 90 cm is allocated between the sink and the cooktop for the working surface.

Design: Nolte Küchen

If you are tall, it will be inconvenient to cook on a countertop that is 85 cm high, make it 91 cm high.

Kitchen Layout. Placement of Kitchen Furniture

Will your kitchen be combined with the living room and is a dining table needed or is a bar counter or island sufficient? If a table is planned, for how many people?

It's important to note that a kitchen with a gas stove cannot be fully combined with the living room — there must be hinged or sliding doors between these two rooms.

Choose photos of kitchens you like. Mark what you liked in the photos — it could be the placement of kitchen furniture, color of the kitchen, placement of appliances, location of the dining table, etc.

Design: Nolte Küchen

Measure the room: all protrusions, load-bearing walls and columns. It's important not to forget to measure the ceiling height, window, windowsill, and door. Indicate gas and heating pipes, drainage and water outlet points, radiators on the plan.

After collecting all the information about the kitchen, you can start creating a layout solution. You can sketch it schematically yourself, but the rest of the kitchen planning work is better left to a skilled manager in the kitchen showroom.

A kitchen with a gas stove cannot be fully combined with the living room — there must be a door between these two rooms.

What to Pay Attention to When Designing a Kitchen

• Check that the doors and drawers of kitchen cabinets open freely, no protrusions, windowsill or heating radiator should interfere.
• If the kitchen is cornered, the handles of corner cabinets should not hinder their opening.
• Do not install sockets behind a base cabinet with a drawer.
• There should be no water or drainage outlets behind built-in appliances.
• If a garbage disposal and filter with a storage tank are installed in a 60 cm cabinet under the sink, it doesn't always fit a trash can. Plan the placement of the filter or trash can in an adjacent cabinet in advance.
• When installing a built-in microwave oven above an oven in the same column, pay attention to ensuring it is not placed too high, otherwise it will be inconvenient to use. The same applies to other built-in appliances stacked one above another.

Design: Tatyana FABRICINA. Kitchen Furniture: Nolte Küchen

Don't forget about lighting

Plan several lighting scenarios for the kitchen:

• general lighting — ceiling light or spots;
• lighting of individual zones — light over the dining table, kitchen island, bar counter;
• under-cabinet lighting for the kitchen work surface.

and electricity

Count how many household appliances will be placed on the countertop and how many sockets they will occupy. Plan additional sockets that can be hidden in drawers or the countertop. Also, always ask the kitchen supplier for recommendations on electrical wiring.

Design: Nolte Küchen