In designing a brand-new home, a lot of people are working really hard on researching and picking only the best materials to create and design spaces according to what they want them to look like. Having a vision on what the spaces in your home should look like is a great start of designing a property. A lot of people are commonly focusing on the living room; making it the most attractive space inside the house. This is because the living room is the space that you and your family would stay together in most of the time. It is the “common room.” It is also the space where you would naturally reserve to accommodate visitors and family activities. Although, it is not wrong to give more focus on your living rooms, the other spaces in your house should not be left out. They need your attention too. One of these spaces is your kitchen, where all the magic actually begins. Designing your own kitchen or choosing the perfect kitchen layout can sometimes be frustrating, especially if you are restricted to a certain room area or pre-made layout. This is due to the fact that a kitchen typically has unmovable fixtures such as the sink, as they are connected to your home’s plumbing system. Fear not! There is a new trend in kitchen design that is blooming right now and that is the L-Shaped kitchen layout. If you’ve bought a house and lot property with a small kitchen space, do not fret, as the L-shaped kitchen layout can be used for small spaces too.
Maximizing the spaces in your home is something that a lot of homeowners want to achieve and starting it all by picking the proper layout before buying your furniture and fixtures. You can achieve the perfect design of your spaces with the help of a professional, which in this case, is an architect and/or an interior designer. These professionals can help you design the spaces in your home to their most efficient possible layout— that will give you the aesthetic that you want and the comfort and efficiency of having a well-designed home.
Having a large kitchen is a want and a dream to a lot of homeowners but sometimes, there are some restrictions that hinder you from getting that massive kitchen space that you want. But not having a large kitchen does not mean that the possibilities of having an amazing kitchen layout is impossible. All that you have to do is read this article, and we will discover how you can make the most of your L-shaped kitchen and make it the star of your home.
What is an L-Shaped Kitchen Layout?
An L-Shaped kitchen layout is a popular kitchen configuration that you can also incorporate in your home design. Usually an L-shaped kitchen layout can be seen on kitchen spaces with two perpendicular walls which creates an adjoining set of countertops and cabinets in the shape of the letter L. Having this kind if layout for your kitchen has a lot of perks and efficiency benefits that is why a lot of people are looking for ways to transform their kitchen into the popular L-shaped. Just like in the shape of the letter L, this kind of kitchen layout consists of a short part and longer leg on the other side. The short leg is commonly dedicated to other kitchen activities such as for plugging in your toasters or other appliances, or even a dedicated space for your meal preparations such as slicing vegetables or peeling fruits, this side could be the perfect place for your kitchen sink. The longer side, however, can be reserved for your major kitchen tasks and that is cooking, this side of an L-shaped kitchen layout is the place where you would typically place your range or your stovetop. The extra space on the longer side will be efficient as it would be the place where you would place your cooking utensils and tools for an easier reach.
Although there is a common configuration for an L-shaped kitchen layout, the neat part about having one is that it can take a lot of forms. Those forms will depend on your taste or what you want to add to the overall design. For example, you can designate a place for a fixed chopping board, or maybe you’d like to add a space for your mini-indoor herb garden. The L-shaped layout of a kitchen provides the user with easy movements to work freely and seamlessly in the area while doing the necessary things done in the kitchen. In an L-shaped kitchen layout, the possibilities are endless and to provide ideas, we are listing down suggestions that you can add to your kitchen to spice the space up.
The Work Triangle
The work triangle is a great concept to incorporate in your kitchen layout. The work triangle is a design guideline that can be used to a lot of spaces like an office or a bedroom, but commonly it is used in designing a kitchen. In a kitchen work triangle, you are designing the major tasks in a kitchen to be aligned like a triangle, with one task at each of the points of a triangle. For example, one point is for cooking, one point of the triangle is for dishwashing, and one point for storage. This concept makes your kitchen movements more efficient as no task is obstructing another task to be done, especially when there are more than one person working in the kitchen.
The kitchen work triangle works with an L-shaped layout because the layout is already providing you the two legs of the triangle. In this case, one point is located at the shorter leg of the countertop where you’ll find the kitchen sink, one point has the range or the stovetop located at the longer leg of the countertop. Now, you might be wondering where the other point would go. The answer is in the space that is facing the legs of your kitchen layout, and in that space, you would normally place your refrigerator or pantry. With this kind of concept incorporated in your L-shaped kitchen layout, a lot of tasks can be done at the same time by more people and with less clutter. This creates a much effective work done in the kitchen. This is just an example of how you can utilize the work triangle in your kitchen. If you would look at the layout or plan of your kitchen space, you can think of other ways you can use the work triangle by either switching things up or adding another element in the layout such as a kitchen island.
Adding a Kitchen Island
If you look up the latest kitchen design trends online, you would notice that one element is always almost present, and that is the kitchen island. If you are not familiar with a kitchen island, it is described as a free-standing cabinet that can be placed at the centre of your kitchen. A kitchen island can be designed to match your existing L-shaped countertops to make a more cohesive kitchen aesthetic. But if you like to be unique and daring, you can plan to design your kitchen island to be contrasting or complimenting to your kitchen design. There are a lot of perks that a kitchen island will give to your overall kitchen design. First of all, it adds integral spaces for storage so you would have more cabinets and shelves to put and display all of your favourite dishes and fine china. A kitchen island can also be a way to add more seats or a breakfast bar, the possibilities are endless. In a kitchen work triangle, adding a kitchen island can be efficient as you can choose to place your kitchen sink in there, giving you a much more efficient kitchen design. A kitchen island, because it is located at the centre of your kitchen, can be accessed from all the sides, it’s like a fixed service table but versatile.
Read Also: Essential Pots and Pans for your Kitchen
Natural Light and Passive Ventilation
Out of all the spaces in a household, the kitchen has the most components that can make the space seem congested. The kitchen can easily feel like a cramped space due to a lot of cooking utensils and appliances in every corner, not to mention it is also the intended space for cooking so having a wide variety of smell and smoke floating in the air is very common. In other words, there are a lot of factors that can easily make you confined in your own kitchen space. Being uncomfortable in your kitchen makes it harder to stay in and enjoy the space but the solution for that is very easy. All you need to do is look for the possibilities to let the natural light in and have passive cooling in the space and maximize it.
In an L-shaped kitchen layout, having large windows that can be opened is almost a requirement, this allows the natural light to fill the space and give life and vibrancy to your kitchen. If you are in a situation in which windows are impossible to place in the walls due to—for example, both of the perpendicular walls are firewalls, you can lean in to adding a skylight to let the light in. Making sure that natural light flows in your kitchen helps with enlarging a small space. The same can be said with proper ventilation. Windows can help in maximizing the airflow in the kitchen but you can also add an exhaust fan to suck the heat from the interior space. This allows the smells and scent from your kitchen to flow out and not linger inside.
Plan your storage system
The main factor that can make your kitchen space look cluttered and messy is a poor organization system. In an L-shaped kitchen layout, you are provided with lots of possibilities to add storage cabinets, drawers and shelves. Although additional storage spaces are helpful, poor organization skills can still make it look messy. Here are tips on how to plan a proper organization system and up your decluttering skills:
- Organize each kitchen utensils according to uses and put them beside similar objects. For example, all spoons should be adjacent to other cutleries and arranged properly in the same drawers.
- Make sure that there is a space to let your freshly dish washed tools dry before putting them in storage, this decreases the chance of your cabinets to get mouldy and musty.
- Invest on matching containers to being a more cohesive and pleasing-to-the-eye design to your kitchen.
- Put additional ingredients and seasoning in one place, the tip is arranged them from wet ones to dry ones accordingly.
Read Also: 10 Kitchen Organization Ideas
Add your personal touch
An L-shaped kitchen layout would not be complete and perfect if you will just replicate design that you see on the internet. It is better if you could your own personal touch to the design to make the space more unique and one of a kind. This could be something that would lean more on the aesthetic or theme side of your kitchen. You can think of a theme that is true to your personality such as, if your family likes the beach, you can add beach elements to your kitchen design with white sand floor tiles and countertops, or how about sea blue eye-catching splashbacks. A kitchen will only truly fit in your home if it is a space that you know you want to stay in and be a hotspot for family bonding.
In choosing a layout and design for your kitchen, it is better to plan things ahead before making a move. Just like in choosing the right home for you and your family, making sure that everything is planned out makes everything smoother. Bria Homes offers a wide variety if affordable house and lot and condominium properties all over the country. Choosing Bria Homes to guide you along the way for your dream of acquiring the perfect property is a great step in making it turn to reality. The Bria Homes website offers features that will help you choose the perfect property to invest in at the comfort of your home.
Written by Rashid M.
