These days, kitchens serve a multitude of purposes from family room and impromptu office to entrainment venue and many things in between. However, their primary function is to help one store, prepare and cook food, and perform all the other tasks that derive from these activities. The downside to having a multifunctional and intensely used space is that it can get in the way of meal preparation.
Furthermore, these days many people tend to prioritise form over function when designing their kitchens and thus cooking ends up taking the back seat. Focusing on decor and aesthetics can indeed enhance the ambiance of the space, but it won’t make cooking any easier. You can have a picture-perfect kitchen that everyone enjoys spending time in and still find it terribly difficult to use it for more practical purposes. And so, even preparing a cup of tea or putting together a rushed breakfast can feel like a dreadful task, let alone cooking for the entire household which for many people has become a real struggle.
Unfortunately, not everyone is lucky enough to live in a house that they designed themselves or have the budget to remodel the entire kitchen to suit their needs and preferences. So, what’s there to be done when you realize that your kitchen is not as efficient as you’d like it to be? You can turn your attention to smaller and more affordable upgrades that can improve the functionality of your kitchen and turn it into a space that is fit for meal preparation. Here are a few kitchen design ideas that might help you rekindle the joy of cooking.
Focus on storage solutions
There’s a multitude of kitchen design styles out there, from shaker to slab or classic oak kitchens. But regardless of styles and trends, there’s a common woe that unites all kitchens: lack of space. No matter how big the room is, there never seems to be enough space to store appliances, utensils, groceries and all the other items that are necessary in a kitchen. If you have to constantly tiptoe around your kitchen because there are too many things in every square inch, cooking might feel like walking through a minefield.
However, more often than not, the problem is not the lack of space but how you use it. If you choose the right storage solutions, you’ll be able to maximise the room’s potential and use it more efficiently. Consider installing pull-out drawers and corner shelves, use a lazy Susan and add dividers to cabinets to store all the things you might need. This will help you improve the flow of the kitchen and make it easier for you to move around when cooking.
Solve the full sink problem with a double sink
Kitchen sinks always end up filled to the brim with bowls, pans and utensils, and that can be extremely annoying when cooking. Instead of focusing on your recipe and keeping your eyes on the pans and pots on the stove, you have to stop what you’re doing and go back and forth to the sink to clean the dishes.
Fortunately, there’s a simple solution for this all-too-common issue: installing a double sink. This small upgrade can make a huge difference to your cooking sessions, allowing you to speed up meal preparation and even have another person cook alongside you comfortably.
Install a pot filler
Pot fillers are another simple and accessible kitchen improvement with a big impact in terms of functionality. By installing this fixture above the stove, you’ll enjoy greater convenience while preparing dishes as you’ll no longer have to take regular trips to the sink and risk burning the food in the meantime.
Pot fillers are compact, so they won’t take up much space and are also easy to install, meaning you won’t have to turn your kitchen into a construction site for this upgrade. Besides, they come in a variety of designs at various price points, making it easy to find one that suits your kitchen design and your budget.
Bring in an expandable table
Cooking efficiency also depends greatly on how much usable counter space you have in your kitchen. If your countertop space is limited and you’re forced to work cramped in a corner, you surely won’t feel motivated to get in the kitchen and cook.
An expandable or foldable kitchen table can provide the extra space you need and make cooking a lot more comfortable for you. It can also prove extremely useful for family dinners or entertaining guests. And if you happen to have some DIY skills, you can build a custom-made table yourself to make sure it suits your needs.
Declutter and organise
A cluttered and messy kitchen is not the ideal place for meal preparation. When all your cooking tools and equipment are scattered around randomly or gathered in piles on top of each other, you have to work twice as hard to prepare even the simplest of dishes.
Unfortunately, kitchens tend to attract chaos and dirt like a magnet, to the point one might think that keeping the room clean and organized is impossible. However, you can keep clutter and mess at bay if you go through your kitchen items periodically, get rid of the things that you no longer use or need and organise the rest in a way that ensures easy access. As a rule of thumb, you should keep the most used appliances and utensils at hand and store away the ones that you don’t need frequently.
Wrapping up
If your current kitchen lacks functionality and doesn’t support your cooking endeavors you don’t need to build a new kitchen from scratch or take on a costly remodel project. There are plenty of small changes and improvements that can make cooking easier and more enjoyable and won’t cost you a fortune. So try to focus on the upgrades that would make a difference for you and you’ll be able to create a kitchen that’s both pretty and functional.
