Why Isn’t Your Open Plan Kitchen Working?

Why Isn’t Your Open Plan Kitchen Working?

Get an open plan kitchen, they said. It’ll be fun, they said. Only, now that it’s a reality, you find yourself dreaming of the good old days amidst the noise, mayhem, and general disruption of your so-called open plan dream. After all, going from a private space to an open kitchen/living room/diner is a lot for anyone to deal with. Luckily, the fact that open-plan in general has long been creeping up the home trends list means that it can’t be all bad. Perhaps you simply need to bring out the good by considering the following reasons why your open plan kitchen right now feels like such a nightmare. 

Reason 1: You haven’t set clear boundaries

When it comes to open plan mistakes, a lack of boundaries is by far the most fatal. After all, just because there’s no wall to dividing the two isn’t to say that your open plan kitchen should see you cooking in the living room or having to worry about splashing tomato sauce on the sofa. Installing an island is perhaps the most obvious way to stop this from happening by setting a clear divide between rooms, while further steps such as installing separate kitchen tiles or flooring that come to an end where your living room starts can make a huge difference in splitting the space in your head. This can then create a much more segmented sense of calm, as well as letting the family know what’s what. 

Reason 2: The issue of smells

From fried onions to stinky fish, open plan cooking smells can soon create an unpleasant stench on your sofa material and living room carpet if you don’t take steps to prevent it. While it might be a little noisy, an extractor fan that drives out all of that stinky air is perhaps the best option in this instance, allowing you to cook whatever you wish without worry. What’s more, incorporating plenty of openable windows in the kitchen area, or even installing some patio doors in this section if you can provides an immediate and noise-free way to keep the air flowing so that smells never build up. 

Reason 3: You’re compromising on storage

While it doesn’t necessarily mean losing space, turning to an open plan layout can often see us compromising on kitchen storage, which is guaranteed to be a problem when your kitchen sides are suddenly on display at all times. Luckily, the addition of an island does buy you some extra storage, but this is largely going to replace the cabinets from the wall that you’ve lost. To get on top with a clean and clutter-free finish, you might therefore also want to consider additional options including a larder, hidden drawers behind your cabinet doors, and even the implementation of small, standalone storage trolleys that you can wheel around as and when you need them. 

Open plan living is popular for a reason. If you don’t see it right now, then you could probably benefit from incorporating these crucial kitchen considerations.

Contributed Article.