PLANNING YOUR SPACE

From Kitchens founders Adam Eckworth and Darren Hancock demistify the proccess

What’s the best way to get a clear sense of what you want? How people use and enjoy their homes is central to all good design, and we like to focus on creating opportunities for beautiful ‘everyday moments’. Do you have a good view that you want to make the most of, or would you love to have a perfect spot for that morning coffee? Maybe the most important thing for you is that there’s a sense of visual connection while cooking and chatting.

Do you subscribe to the famous ‘triangle rule’, which suggests the sink, fridge and oven should be contained in a compact zone? The flow of a kitchen is crucial and, generally speaking, it’s good practice to minimise travel distances between key appliances, but we don’t follow the triangle rule religiously. Always encourage your kitchen designer to trace the steps you’d anticipate making while using the space – typically, it’ll take them from the larder and fridge to prep, cooking, dining and wash areas. Often the most important spaces are those in between.

What about choosing colours and materials? A calm palette can give greater emphasis to natural light, so we don’t tend to use colour to define a kitchen design. Think about the way specific materials can serve the space – timber might work well for an area that requires warmth, like bench seating, while natural stone is a hardworking option for your preparation zone.

How can a kitchen design be future-proofed? Meeting your current needs is key, but so is flexibility; it’s always worth anticipating how your requirements might change. The increase in home working will be an important factor in the kitchen of the future, so you might consider how your space could help you to keep a healthy degree of separation between your work and home life. Kitchens from £18,000 (fromkitchens.co.uk).