Kitchens are unquestionably one of the most important rooms within your home. So when it comes to designing a new kitchen it is important to follow some basic procedures to ensure you are going to get a kitchen that is functional for you and your family’s needs, and isn’t going to fall apart after a couple of years.
First and fore most you need to know how much space you have to work with. Grab out a tape measure and a piece of paper, preferably graph paper to make life nice and easy, and draw up the rough shape of your space in plan view. Then, using your tape measure, measure all walls and note down the ceiling height and window placement onto your plan.
If you are particularly computer savvy, I would highly recommend down loading a program such as Google Sketch up which is free, and you can draw your plan into there.
Now we have step one down, next I would have a really good think about what it is exactly that you want to gain from this space and make a list; is it space for entertaining? A place for the kids to sit at breakfast time? Are you a keen cook who requires an abundance of storage? Or do you have a small apartment and require a really functional small space on a tiny scale?
By making a list of these points you are organising all the thoughts in your head into a clear list that you, and who ever is working with you, can keep referring back to throughout the project so you don’t lose sight of what the end goal is.
Another useful tip is to make an inventory of what items need to be stored in this new kitchen:
- Kitchen Aid (400mm high)
- Baking trays (300mmx400mm) x4
- Muffin tins x2
- Cake rings x3
- Dinner plates x10
- Cereal bowls x8
- Serving platter (600mm long) x2
- Etc..
This way when you are designing your kitchen, your storage space is going to be completely dedicated to your needs and how you like to work within a space. The bonus is you can plan out in advance where everything is going to be housed so you don’t get to the end and discover you didn’t include enough storage or you don’t have a space wide enough to fit your grandmas serving platter she handed down to you.
A bold Black and White look with chunky bench tops, softened with natural marble pattern. The 'see through' island end provides a moment of light relief from an other wise heavy space.
This modern take on Mid Century is a beauty, such a statement lighting piece for an island bench with matching tap ware finish! The choice of styling subtly referencing that mid century vibe.
We love how calm this kitchen feels, high ceilings with incredible skylights and a touch of soft blue.. so pretty. The use of a window rather than splash back extends the room and brings the outside in.
This traditional style kitchen looks incredibly luxurious, veneer draw fronts with the recess detail, herring bone floors, slim bench top and slim tap ware looks gorgeous and rich.
Now we can get to the fun part, design! I highly recommend jumping on Pinterest or something similar to compile some images of kitchens you like the look of, you can save these all to one board or physically stick them onto a large piece of card if you want to do it old school. You will start to notice some common trends in the images you like. These might be things such as materials, handles vs no handles, textures, a certain style such as minimal, country, modern, mid century etc. This is a great activity to do so you can start to gain some awareness of how you want your final result to look before you go out looking at finishes. There are so many different finishes for kitchens available, it can be overwhelming, but by taking these steps before hand you can eliminate your self a lot of time and stress.
Your next step would be to find a kitchen/cabinet maker that you feel confident can deliver you a kitchen within your budget and to the quality you expect. If you are working to a tight budget it helps to keep all your services in their existing location, this way you can avoid additional costs from plumbers and electricians to move your services. This does however mean that you are limited in your design as they layout will generally need to stay the same.
Once you are in contact with your chosen professional they can generally guide you in the decision making process of layout, hardware, finishes, all the way up to installation. There will be many decisions to make along the way and you will need to coordinate between a few different trades.
The down side with pre-fabricated kitchens are that they aren't hugely customisable, they come in set sizes which often leads to a lot of wasted space and poor layout. They can be cheap and cheerful and may last you a good few years before the wear and tear starts to show.
So why should you hire an interior designer?
Here at Pocketspace we have created many kitchens for our clients and we endeavour to give them a kitchen that uses space effectively to provide maximum storage and a layout that it thoroughly considered as to how it will function for you and how it integrates with the rest of your home. Often when people take kitchen design into their own hands it can lead to a kitchen that has wasted space and poor design choices when it comes to layout and finishes. We can often provide you with alternative layouts that you may not of thought of or considered and can give you a finishes scheme that is guaranteed to look fantastic. There is nothing worse than getting to the end of your install and realising that the cabinetry colour you selected is a bit pinker than the shade you were expecting!
Our other promise is quality. We only quote the best quality kitchen hardware, materials and finishes, completely custom from start to finish, tailored fit to your space. We have established relationships with our cabinetmakers so there is no fear of any cowboys around here! The hardware we specify has a warranty of 20 years which means we make kitchens to stand the test of time.
Last but not least is point of difference. We can give you a kitchen that is completely unique and has details that you would not find in a standard kitchen.
Stunning bench top negative detail.
Pocket doors are a god send on pantries, they make circulation easy and make the space usable even with the doors open.
Black powder coated steal detail on open shelves.
These brass taps are a beautiful design, against the black marble they make for a real statement.
Black handles make a nice contrast against the wood.
Brass draw fronts and side panels with a wood veneer detail on the interior, it doesn't get more show stopping than this!
Our process is:
- Site consultation – We will come out and meet you on site, get to know you and your space and what you want to achieve. We will cover aesthetics and requirements and do a complete measure up of your space.
- Fee Proposal – from the site consultation we will compose a fee proposal specific to your kitchen. This will indicate how many hours it will take us to design, render, get quoted, on going site visits and meetings with the cabinet maker, management of installation and any other aspects that are specific to your kitchen.
- Concept drawings – once our fee proposal has been accepted by you, we will start to design your kitchen and provide you a few alternative space planning options, we can combine aspects from each design and tweak this until you are 100% happy.
- Quote – we will now send our designs off to be quoted by our cabinetmakers, we will present you with quotes from at least two suppliers to ensure you are happy and confident with the cost.
- Sit back and relax! – Now that you have selected a design you love and a quote you are happy with, you can sit back and relax! We will take care of all aspects from here; we can have regular meetings if you would like to be involved in the process from this stage. We will have meetings with the cabinetmaker to go over any technical details and manage communication between builders, plumbers, electricians and any other trades so you don’t have to!
- Installation – you can generally expect an 8 week turn around from the time you accept a quote from the cabinet maker, then when install day rolls around we will be onsite to oversee any issues should they arise and make sure every aspect is perfect!
We always recommend that you get in contact with us well in advance from the date you require your new kitchen. This way it’s a stress free process for you without the time pressures that usually come when designing a kitchen.
By working with Pocketspace Interiors you can rest assured that we will stay on top of all design aspects and provide you a service that will save you hours and hours of your precious time. Feel free to get in contact with us today to discuss your up coming kitchen project! We are more than happy to come out and chat with you about your vision for your future kitchen.
Lucy Sargent.