Practical recommendations for choosing a kitchen layout

A kitchen is the heart of any home, its focus, hearth and center for coordinating family life. That is why the situation in the kitchen should be not only beautiful, cozy, but also comfortable, practical. In order for the home to please you and your family, when planning it, you need to take into account a lot of criteria, among which the list is headed by functionality, comfort and ergonomics of the room. The convenience of using the kitchen is primarily determined by its successful layout. It is necessary to think about what type of planning will be most suitable for your premises before planning a design project. We hope that the following recommendations will help you make the right decision and make a dream repairAs a result of which the whole family will be able to enjoy a stay in a comfortable, functional and beautiful kitchen.

Before embarking on a direct study of the types of layout of the kitchen space, I would like to mention some useful recommendations. The choice of the layout of the kitchen is affected by its location in the apartment or home ownership, the quadrature, the number and location of door and window openings and the layout of engineering systems. Of course, all these criteria must be considered before ordering furniture and household appliances. In addition, there are several rules, following which you can create a truly functional, safe and convenient kitchen space:

• try using the "triangle rule". Its essence is simple - the basic elements of the working area in the kitchen, such as a refrigerator, stove and sink, should be at the tops of an imaginary triangle. Then the hostess (or the owner) will not have to spend extra energy and actions on moving between these main working segments. Ideally, the area of ​​this triangle is 4-8 square meters. m;
• The kitchen item most dependent on utilities is a sink. Decide on its location and, depending on this, distribute the remaining working areas, segments and household appliances;
• installation of the slab will need to be carried out with a margin of working surfaces on both sides, about half a meter. It is undesirable to place the stove next to the sink or window. If it is possible to transfer gas communications (if the gas stove), it is better to carry them out immediately, before repair;
• it will be better if the refrigerator is placed in one of the corners of the kitchen, so you can not interrupt the work surfaces. Check that the open refrigerator door does not interfere with kitchen traffic;
• it is desirable to arrange high household appliances or furniture so that they are not higher than the working surfaces, this significantly reduces the size of the functional area of ​​the kitchen.

This is one of the most versatile types of layout that can suit a kitchen of almost any size, location relative to other rooms of an apartment or house. One of the most advantageous applications for this type of layout will be a medium-sized (or close to square) kitchen. If you follow the "rule of the triangle", then the angular arrangement of the kitchen layout most closely follows it - household appliances and storage systems are located along adjacent walls, forming an ergonomic work area.

Among the obvious advantages of the angular layout are:

• space saving;
• the ability to set a dining group in the center;
• distribution of all built-in appliances along two perpendicular walls;
• convenience of movement between the main working segments.

Among the disadvantages of the angular layout, it can only be noted that such an arrangement of working and auxiliary surfaces is not suitable for very narrow and very spacious rooms.

One of the most popular and economical options for the production of kitchen units today is the use of MDF panels with a laminated surface. All doors of kitchen cabinets are equipped with closers, in which case you can refuse to install door handles. As a rule, luminaires are built into the bottoms of cabinets of the upper tier for bright illumination of work surfaces. From the point of view of care, it is the old glossy surfaces that are most practical; fingerprints and traces of water drops are practically invisible on them.

With the angular arrangement of kitchen cabinets and appliances, in the center there is enough space for installing a dining table with chairs or even mini-chairs.

This arrangement of storage systems and built-in appliances is ideal for narrow rooms, small spaces. In order to comply with the “triangle rule” in such an arrangement, it is necessary to place a sink and a refrigerator on both sides of the stove or hob. The linear layout will be efficient and ergonomic. If the length of the working surface does not exceed a length of 3.7 m.

The disadvantage of a linear layout can be called a limited cooking area, but, as mentioned earlier, for very small kitchens this placement may become the only possible one.

In the case of the arrangement of all kitchen cabinets, with integrated appliances in one row, there is a lot of space for the installation of a dining group. If you do not need to integrate a dishwasher, washing machine and stove into the lower tier of the kitchen set, but only two of the three components, then there may be enough space.

Some homeowners use single-row layouts for large rooms, if they want as much space as possible for the dining area.

If your kitchen is a walk-through space and at the same time has a sufficiently large area, then such a layout will be ideal. As a rule, in this case, a stove and a sink are placed on one side, and in a parallel row is a refrigerator, other household appliances and storage systems.

Among the minuses of the parallel layout, it is possible to note the impossibility of installing a dining table in the center of the room. But if your kitchen has a really large area, this problem disappears.

If your kitchen has two doors (for example, the entrance from the living room or corridor and the exit to the dining room), then a parallel layout would be an ideal option for placing storage systems and built-in household appliances.

Sometimes a two-row layout is used for a room with one entrance, such as in the kitchen space in the photo above, where one of the walls is equipped with a window opening that does not go outside, but into the space of the neighboring room.

A very convenient and roomy way of planning is suitable for medium and large kitchens (with an area of ​​more than 10 square meters). In this arrangement of kitchen segments, it is very convenient to fit the three main elements of the triangle - one on each side.

The advantages of the U-shaped layout are obvious - spacious storage systems, the ability to embed a large number of household appliances.

The disadvantage is the impossibility of use for small rooms.

In this kitchen with a U-shaped layout, one of the sides is not adjacent to the wall, but itself is a screen-partition for the adjacent dining room. In this case, convenient placement of work surfaces is a bar counter for the next room where you can organize a breakfast area.

This is a modification of the U-shaped layout, when work surfaces and appliances are located along three walls, but not following the shape of the rectangle, but located asymmetrically, in accordance with the shape of the kitchen. In some rooms that have garbage chute boxes or other communication spaces, such deviations from the correct geometry of the rooms are inevitable and will have to be taken into account when planning the layout of the kitchen unit.

Such a layout is suitable for kitchens larger than average (over 15 sq. M.). Often, such kitchens are combined with a dining area or are part of a spacious living room. In fact, you can organize an island layout complete with any of the above types, adding a kitchen island. As you know, an island is considered to be a work surface, a dining area, a storage system, or a combination of these, brought to the center of the room, with free space on all sides of the structure. The size of your island, in the first place, will depend on the area of ​​the kitchen itself, as well as on what functionality you want to give your central element. In addition to worktops, someone supplies the island with a sink and embeds a hob. At the base of the island you can place a dishwasher or a wine refrigerator (possibly both). On one side of the kitchen island, you can organize a breakfast counter (and if the area of ​​the kitchen does not allow the placement of a dining table, then for other types of meals). You can extend the island with a console and get a full dining area.

Among the obvious advantages of the island layout, first of all, high functionality and the ability to create a single, effective space in a fairly large room.

One minus and it is obvious - not suitable for small rooms.

Sometimes an island can serve not only as a monolithic construction, equipped with storage systems and integrated household appliances. In this small kitchen, for example, a counter acts as an island, which can be used as a dining and working area, as well as a storage system.

The island layout will help you significantly save space if other segments are located in the room - a living room or a dining room. In the base of the island, you can integrate household appliances that did not fit in the main working area of ​​the kitchen.

Among the design projects of modern kitchen spaces there are also those in which absolutely all work surfaces and storage systems are located within the island, and there are no kitchen cabinets at all. A sink, hob, sometimes an oven and a dishwasher are integrated in the kitchen island. Storage systems are located on one side of the base of the island, the other has an extended countertop for comfortable placement of the dining area

The island layout is perfect for the minimalism style in the kitchen interior, which strives for simplicity and practicality against the background of a high level of functionality. At the same time, the minimalist interior should be spacious enough, free to move.

This is a modified modification of the island layout, in which the kitchen island is combined with one of the sides of the working areas located against the wall. As a result, a certain protrusion is formed, which serves to zonate the working and dining areas.

The advantages and disadvantages of the peninsular layout almost completely repeat the characteristics of the island type of location of the kitchen segments. But the peninsular scheme is suitable for smaller spaces, due to the fact that it is more compact.

In a peninsular layout, your dining area (which is located behind the island counter) is located far enough from work surfaces and stoves. But at the same time, all the furniture and appliances are compact enough to talk about the rational use of the space provided for the kitchen.

This is a free layout in which the cutting surfaces located on the cabinets, storage systems, counters, all are equipped with wheels that allow you to change the layout as many times as you like, moving the working segments. This new trend in the organization of the kitchen space is quite convenient and allows you to modify the interior without much effort, but it requires really spacious rooms.

Following the recommendation described above, you can organize a rational, effective and practical arrangement of the main segments of the kitchen space and in a very small room.

For some very small rooms, it will be necessary to consider the possibility of moving storage systems outside the kitchen, into the corridor or interior space. Some homeowners take the refrigerator outside the small kitchen, embedding it in the furniture ensemble of the hallway, for example. In this case, there is no need to talk about the convenience of movements, but the small area of ​​the kitchen leaves its imprints on the possibility of arranging furniture and household appliances.

Of course, with such an arrangement of the kitchen segments, there can be no talk of placing the dining area within a small room, but integrating all the necessary work surfaces and household appliances into a small area of ​​the kitchen will be very successful.

In addition to a suitable layout, in small rooms it is important to use other techniques that visually expand the space - a bright palette, glass and mirror elements, minimal decor, strict lines and shapes.

How, among the variety of kitchen layouts, choose the one that fits into the parameters of your kitchen in the most effective and practical way? There are several practical recommendations from specialists in ergonomic arrangement of space:

1. make a detailed plan of your kitchen room, on which the exact dimensions of the room are applied, designate all door and window openings, the location of ventilation systems, water supply, gas pipeline (if any), sewage, the location of sockets (existing and planned);
2. use the services of special programs that will help to distribute furniture, appliances, cutting surfaces and auxiliary objects in terms of the kitchen of your size. This is much more efficient than hand-drawn schemes and does not require much time. In such programs, you can immediately try to apply color solutions, consider the combinatorics of wall, ceiling and floor finishes, their combination with the selected range of furniture and household appliances;
3. in some salons for the production of kitchen sets there are free services of professional designers who will help you determine not only the layout, but also the detailed study of all the key elements of the kitchen space. Typically, such services are provided to potential customers of kitchen furniture systems.