Personalize Your Kitchen to Reflect the Way You Live

Whether you are adding on to your house to make room for a new kitchen, knocking down walls, installing new cabinetry or just rearranging your existing kitchen, have fun with the process and totally make it your own and make it work to fit the way you live.  In this day and age, a whole lot of living goes on in the kitchen.  It has pretty much become the hub of the house, so arrange it so when that living is going on, it makes the most sense.

This is our kitchen and what we needed was more space to hold our large farm table (to accommodate our somewhat big families and friends), so we added on a 14' x 14' room that is all windows and sliding door so we can enjoy the view of our yard all around us.  We designed each and every inch of our kitchen to reflect our needs and likes.  We have an open cookbook shelf cabinet and we use the cabinets/drawers to the right of that for cooking ingredients and supplies; a wine rack with a shelf under it for pictures and decorations; a double bread drawer unit, one of which we use for dog food so we don't have any large unsightly dog food containers around; we have one countertop next to the stove designated as our coffee/tea area and use the cabinets above for cups and supplies (one of which has a glass door on it to exhibit my teacup collection  - note:  be sure if you are installing a glass-doored cabinet, you install glass shelves so the lighting filters all the way through) and we used up empty space by installing a thin, cooking sheet/cutting board cabinet.  We also created a transom space above the kitchen door for a stained glass piece that I had made.  Our kitchen flows so easily and is such a pleasure to use and to be in.

A china cabinet, or buffet, takes up room and can become cluttered.

A common consideration that could be considered a problem when designing a personalized kitchen, but really isn't, is what to do about china cabinets that you enjoy having, as you can display your favorite dishes and/or glasses, but need the room that they take up.

There are endless cabinet options that you can incorporate into the kitchen design that can take the place of the china cabinet.  Notice in this design how the ends of the cabinets are on an angle making space for getting around the cabinets.  While light was not desired all the way through the shelving, you can see how the solid shelves vs. glass shelves blocks off the light flow.

Instead of creating cabinetry to take the place of this china cabinet, this customer preferred to use the space to create a walk-in pantry.  By using a frosted-glass door, the condition of the pantry was not visible.

In this next kitchen, you can see how the space that the stairs took up in a tri-level house was used for glass-doored cabinetry.

This is a perfect example of making the most of every available space which is a big part of Building Better Not Bigger.

You don't have to have a huge kitchen to achieve really neat design elements.  As you will see by the next two photos, by using glass-front cabinets, you create a formal area to your kitchen.

Instead of leaving the wall space empty near a sliding door, a drink center was installed complete with wine rack and glass holder.

In the next picture, this customer wanted to create a flow between her kitchen and living room while creating a casual eating bar for her teenage son.

So beautiful and reflective of how this customer and her son use their home.

It is important to include the needs of all of the members of the family in the kitchen design since it is one of the most used rooms in the house by all of the family members.  In this next photo, a desk area was included in the kitchen design for mom to do her bills and paperwork at and not off in some upstairs room away from her beautiful, family kitchen space.

A hole was made in the countertop to hide electrical cords.

And what a beautiful kitchen it is.  By using different woods species, different heights and depths along with above and below cabinet lighting such amazing visual interest was added to this kitchen design.

Don't be shy when choosing your lighting - let your creativity flow!

And for this last kitchen, this homeowner is a cook, studying to be a chef, and she had some definite musts for her kitchen.  She wanted a pot filler right at her stove and she wanted the counter on her island to be butcher block.  She also utilized the space at each of the island for a wine rack on one side and her cookbooks on the other.  Truly such a personalized and stunning kitchen.

Notice the beautiful stained glass pendant lights and the covered trash receptacle in the butcher block countertop for ease of sliding her food waste into the garbage.

So, whether you are designing the kitchen of your dreams or just rearranging the kitchen you already have - have fun with it and make it totally your own.

Randy is a Certified Kitchen and Bath Remodeler and would love to help you realize the kitchen of your dreams.  Be sure to give us a call to get the ideas flowing and before you know it, you'll be living life in your new beautiful, personalized kitchen.

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