As an Architect, I attempt to make the most of the perfect technique of design to make a home extra environment friendly and nicely utilized for the sq. footage. On this article, I am coping with kitchen design, and easy methods to make it extra environment friendly in use and storage, make it really feel extra open than a typical kitchen, however do it in a smaller dimension (sq. footage prices cash).I’m an enormous believer within the “Open Floor Plan” which has fewer partitions and doorways, with rooms tied collectively as open visible house. Holding the Nice Room, Eating Room and Kitchen “open” (which means no partitions between them) assist make all of the rooms “feel bigger”. The wall elimination helps facilitate the open communications between the rooms. You do not really feel remoted within the kitchen when wall limitations are eliminated, and thus individuals do not must step into the kitchen to speak to you. They’ll do it from outdoors the kitchen zone.Hold your ceilings tall by placing in scissors trusses. You may make your partitions Eight foot tall, however by including the scissors truss (peak at 13 to 14 ft) provides you with a lot of visible house and a much less confined feeling. And get a skylight within the kitchen. The opening for a skylight might be a lot larger than the skylight itself. Get the opening from the height of the ceiling to the sting of the wall, and find the skylight close to a perpendicular wall so it’ll disperse the sunshine all through the kitchen. Put some “niches” in your tall partitions above the 8′ line for greenery, or statues. Put “puck” lights in these niches for accent lighting.Use tall, 2′ deep cupboards as an alternative of overhead cupboards. 2 foot deep, 7 foot tall cupboards (or Eight foot tall) are also called pantry or utility cupboards. With mounted cabinets, they maintain over four occasions as a lot stuff as an overhead cupboard. Put a line of tall cupboards alongside a again wall, and close to the opening to the kitchen zone. By having a 2′ extensive, 2′ deep, 7′ tall cupboard close to the Kitchen opening (often subsequent to the Eating Space) it will probably retailer all of the glasses, dishes, platters, and bowls that you simply use each day. Folks do not must enter the kitchen to get the dinnerware to set the desk as you’ll with overhead cupboards.By utilizing simply three tall cupboards (2′ deep 7′ tall) on the rear of the kitchen, and the open ground plan, this enables all the remainder of the kitchen to have 36″ tall base cabinets and countertops, without overhead cabinets. Eliminating overhead cabinets (and the associated wall) just gives you an incredible open feeling. The kitchen isn’t as nearly as cramped. The windows and natural light come from the windows of the other rooms and skylights, meaning you don’t have to waste valuable kitchen wall space for windows. Place your sink and cooktop to face the open rooms.In the corners of the kitchen, install cabinets at 45 degrees to the adjoining cabinets rather than a “blind” cabinet or “lazy susan”. While a 45 degree cabinet has some dead space, it utilizes more space than a “lazy susan”, mainly because the cabinet shelves and drawers are square, and a “lazy susan” is round.Put a pantry in the corner between your tall cabinets. It doesn’t have to be very big (4′ x 4′) and being in the corner will utilize all the corner “lifeless” space. The pantry would have a 2′ opening at 45 degrees to the adjoining cabinets. The pantry walls could be 2×4 framed with drywall or 3/4″ MDF, however the wall should not be taller than the peak of the tall cupboards. This permits for crown molding (if you happen to use it) to even be used on the pantry. Have the pantry open on the prime, particularly if there’s a skylight above, to permit daylight into the pantry. Have cabinets from the ground to prime of wall. Put a “cabinet door” (identical as the remainder of your tall cupboards) on the pantry entrance, not a body door such as you’d use within the bed room. By having a cupboard door the pantry, and the pantry partitions on the identical top as the cupboards, the pantry seems to be like a cupboard reasonably than a drywall opening.Within the pantry, set up a counter with four electrical shops. That is the place the espresso maker, toaster, electrical can openers, and so forth are to be completely positioned. It retains them off your kitchen counter tops, however they’re at all times obtainable to make use of. No must retailer them in your cupboards and no want for equipment storage cupboards. This leaves your major kitchen counter tops “clean” (nothing on them) and extra open for the meals prep you must do.Put an higher counter 8″ above your countertops (i.e. 6″ wall, 2″ thick upper counter). In an “open ground plan” concept, this 8″ of top hides a “messy” kitchen counter from view to the opposite rooms. It additionally offers you loads of room for a number of electrical shops within the within the 6″ wall areas. The 6″ tall wall is the proper top for six” ceramic wall tile. The upper counter is 44″ (elbow top) an ideal top for “leaning”. This permits your friends to “lean” on the counter (out of the kitchen) and speak with you whilst you’re making ready meals (within the kitchen). It is also a superb top for serving meals or for tall stools as a breakfast bar. Not all the higher counters must be the some width. Some sections could also be 9″ wide (just a top to the kitchen partition, while other sections of the upper counter can be 24” wide, for serving food or as a breakfast bar.Now…I’m discussing this portion last because different clients use their kitchens differently, and every person has their own taste. I’m not talking about the size (although it’s related), but how many people they want in a kitchen. Some clients want everyone in the kitchen, including guests and relatives, to help in cooking or processing the meal, which means a larger kitchen to handle the people. Others don’t want anyone but a few people in kitchen, so they’re not tripping over people to get the meal finished, which means a smaller more efficient kitchen.Most modern house designs have the kitchen open to the garage or rear door and open to family room and/or other rooms such as breakfast areas, dining rooms, or hallways. This means the kitchen has multiple openings to handle these functions. Some kitchens also have “island” cabinets/countertops with two or more openings. All the openings to the kitchen allows people to come in, stand around, or pass through the kitchen from Point A to Point B somewhere else in the house. Also, one of the quirks of our human psychology is everyone eventually ends up in the kitchen. This design concept uses the kitchen as a “visitors hall”. These kitchens need a large amount of space to handle the volume of traffic. Again, some clients love the flow of people in and out of the kitchen. They just need a larger kitchen space for all this happenOther clients think the “visitors hall” kitchen concept “clogs” up the kitchen with unnecessary and unwanted people. Count me in the “keep-the-unnecessary-people-out-of-the-kitchen” category. I like to keep the kitchen open and inviting, I just don’t want the extra bodies while the meal is being prepared. By keeping the extra bodies out, the kitchen can be smaller and more efficient, meaning fewer steps between the refrigerator, cooktop and sink.Keeping people out of the kitchen is very easy to do in your design, just make it difficult for them to get in. Use a wrapping countertop with just one (1) countertop opening into the kitchen, and locate that opening in the most difficult spot to enter the kitchen. This, along with the “open ground plan” is the most effective way to prevent unwanted kitchen traffic. The single kitchen entrance will psychologically keep them out of the kitchen zone, while the open floor plan (no walls) allows you to communicate with family and guests, while keeping them out of the kitchen.With the tidbits I’ve discussed above and by keeping the people out of a kitchen, a kitchen size of 16’x10′ or 12’x12′ is very effective, with tons of storage. Making the kitchen a “visitors hall” for individuals to cross by, the kitchen would want to double in dimension, and you are not gaining cupboard space with that dimension as a result of all of the openings to the kitchen are consuming up what may have been used for cupboards.With regard to lighting, most kitchens have a couple of major approach of lighting (or mixture of those)A. Gentle within the ceiling fan
B. “Can” lights within the ceiling
C. Underneath-cabinet lighting (often puck lights or fluorescent strips)I usually reject all of those lighting ideas. With a lightweight within the ceiling fan, you at all times have the sunshine at your again, which means you are casting shadows onto all the pieces you do on the countertop. Can lights are “energy hogs” as a result of they lower massive holes in your insulation, and use inefficient incandescent lighting (often 75 watt). I do not use overhead cupboards so due to this fact eradicate under-cabinet lighting, which is usually expensiveWith the tall ceilings of a scissors truss, I like to make use of MR16 adjustable lighting fixtures, not “can” lights. The MR16’s are often know as “strip” lighting. Nevertheless, you may need to use a “plate” as an alternative of a “strip” for the fixture connection. By utilizing a plate, the MR16 makes use of a typical electrical field, so a smaller gap in your insulation blanket in comparison with a “can” mild, and so they pump out twice as a lot mild for much less wattage (often 50 watts) than a “can” mild. MR16 fixtures might be very small (so you do not see them) and never very pricey (round $20). MR16’s are adjustable, which means you’ll be able to level the sunshine the place you need it. A “can” mild factors mild perpendicular to the ceiling. In a sloped ceiling, that is not good. Find your lights above the countertop to eradicate shadows, alongside your main work areas (sinks, cooktop, reducing and prep areas) after which distribute evenly alongside the remainder of the counter tops. You actually do not want lights elsewhere apart from for accent lighting. The lights above the counters can be greater than sufficient, assuming you are retaining the kitchen smaller.If you wish to have a look at some examples, you’ll be able to go to my web site http://youngarchitectureservices.com/home-architect-indiana.html and click on on any of the ground plans, and zoom in on the kitchen space. There are additionally photos of kitchen within the “Interior Design” part of the web site. Bigger scale photos of a kitchen are positioned on the “Home Page” below “View More House Photos”Discuss to you later,
Brian