Let’s be clear: the kitchen is an important space in your home. In fact, it might be the most important space you have. It is the hub where you gather, cook and socialise. It is also a blank canvas, upon which you can make your mark, create a powerful, personal signature that says something about how you live and what you like.
As specialist suppliers of fitted, designer kitchens in Bolton, Warrington, Wigan and across the North West, we understand the importance of the kitchen in the today’s home.
Why Your Kitchen Matters
In times past, the kitchen was hidden part of the home, a kind of engine room where visitors did not venture, but which powered the household, and provided the essential means for entertaining guests.
Now, however, things are very different. For many people, they are as likely to entertain in the kitchen as elsewhere. Kitchens are multi-purpose spaces, and choosing your kitchen style is, therefore, intimately entwined with how you plan to use it.
What Kind of Kitchen Suits You?
Kitchen trends change, but there is no one style that completely supersedes another. Kitchens can provide archetypes, or they can be utterly bespoke. There is no right or wrong answer to the kitchen question. There is, however, the right kitchen for you, providing you put the thought and research in.
Think of it as an extension of your personality, and how it should fit in with the character of your home.
You may want a space that’s comfortable to spend large amounts of time in, not necessarily just focussing on cooking or food preparation. Or, you may want a space that’s supremely functional, as a platform for adventurous and ambitious entertaining and dining.
Who uses your kitchen? Is it mainly for yourself, or will it be a big draw for the whole family, and guests?
Here are some broad themes for kitchen design. You don’t need to slavishly follow any specific one, but they can provide the essential inspiration and springboard for your own decision-making.
The Minimalist Kitchen
For some of us, an uncluttered, functional kitchen space is the key. The term less is more does have a very real, practical application here. We’re talking sleek cupboards, solid panels, and clean lines.
The minimalist kitchen is likely to have a simple, monochromatic colour palette, and a discrete but maximised use of available storage space.
The Industrial Kitchen
As food preparation has become an all-consuming interest for some, and as our whole relationship with it is now more adventurous than ever, so the concept of the commercial kitchen has spread to the domestic arena.
Consequently, the industrial kitchen is now a workable, and increasingly popular, theme for the home. It includes elements such as open-shelved top cabinets; overhead racks for pots, pans and utilities; exposed brick, pipes or beams; chunky wooden countertops and concrete floors.
Rustic or Country
The farmhouse or cottage kitchen ideal is long-established and has an enduring popularity, perhaps in spite of more overtly modern kitchen design concepts.
However, this doesn’t mean it can’t have a 21st century makeover. Think of plenty of timber; a range of finishes for a more lived-in look; and a warmer colour palette of yellows, creams and even bright reds.
You might even complement your wooden surfaces and textures with some stone or slate finishes too.
The key thing is not to overdo the country or rustic references. Your kitchen should have character, but it mustn’t become a caricature.
An Eclectic Combination
Kitchen design themes are just that: themes, not rules. You can use elements of each for inspiration, and come up with an eclectic combination of different styles and inspirations to give your kitchen a real feeling of individuality.
This isn’t about being utterly random, but rather carefully selecting different features and bringing them carefully together so that they complement one another while still offering a degree of pleasing contrast.
For example, you might offset your minimalist kitchen design with some Scandinavian-themed natural materials and organic shapes.
Free Kitchen Design
You don’t need to find the sheer choice of kitchen styles bewildering. We can help. We’ve got a broad range of quality fitted British kitchens and bold designs from Schuller and Next125.
Furthermore, we offer a free kitchen design service, using professional CAD software to create your own, unique kitchen space.
Contact us using our online form, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we possibly can.
