There are many various ideas on kitchen designs and I’ll offer you my insight to help guide you to achieving the best kitchen possible.

Over the years the kitchen has become on of the most important parts of a home, and it’s design should fit your lifestyle. It’s evolved from only the cooking place to now doubling as a gathering place. It’s also usually the most expensive part of a home.

The first thing you should consider is your kitchens layout. It needs to look good as well as being a functional cooking place. An old method of designing a kitchen is using the work triangle where the stove, refrigerator, and sink would be laid out as the points of a triangle. One issue with this layout would be that only one person could fit in the triangle. Nowadays cooking is a family event where people talk and socialize, making this layout inefficient.

Kitchen Design Ideas

A newer design that designers use is a zone design which allows for multiple people in the kitchen at a time. This design allows for multiple cooking areas with separate ovens and cook tops, and sometimes two sinks.

Here are some of the basic floor plans/layouts:

- Single Wall – Simple for small kitchens, but not a very functional cooking space
- Galley Layout – For small kitchens that allow you to “pass through.” Has two sides that face each other
- L-shaped Layout – Commonly used for standard sized homes, very functional
- U-shaped Layout – Large Sized Kitchen design, fits multiple people
- Layouts with an island – Very common and provide you with a central workplace to cook
- Peninsula Layout – Provide an area to sit in the kitchen
- Outdoors – Increasingly popular

When deciding which layout to choose I would suggest reading the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA for short) guidelines. They were created to maximize the functionality of a kitchen. The NKBA guidelines give good recommendations for proper placement for different equipment, and the proper distance between cabinets and doors.

They will help make sure you have enough space to function properly in your kitchen.

The washing machine is churning, the TV is blaring, the kids are screaming, the pots are boiling over, and you, simply are going over the edge. Your home is a war zone and the kitchen is the battlefield.

Before resorting to holding everyone hostage or calling the National Guard, avoid federal and criminal charges by assessing what it is about your kitchen that makes it turn into a state of calamity in two minutes. The answer could be as simple as disorganization. In other words, your kitchen is a big mess.

Your appliances are all over the place, you never know where anything is, you’ve got clutter all over your counter tops, and your kids are eating from the stove. Believe it or not, a single piece of kitchen furniture could be the answer to your dilemma. The solution could be as simple as buying and installing a kitchen island.

Kitchen islands, for such little effort, make a huge impact on the organizing and streamlining of your cooking space. It becomes the center of the kitchen, optimizing your kitchen space, and giving you easy access to all the functions of the kitchen while adding flair and style to your kitchen space.

When it comes to choosing kitchen islands, bear in mind that there are three major types: the mobile, the built-in and the butcher block-type of kitchen island.

As its name suggests, mobile kitchen islands can move around and adjust to your needs in the area where you need it. Though its ability to follow you around like a faithful elf would work for some people, there are others who are looking for a more stable, solid and permanent surface.

That is where the built-in kitchen islands come into play. It would take some remodeling work, possibly even some digging and re-plumbing, but a built-in kitchen island comes in a wide variety of styles, and can even be custom built according to your specific needs.

You can choose the fixtures, the counter tops, the finishing, the size, the color, the cabinets and do whatever you want. For serious cooks who require serious preparation areas, butcher-block kitchen islands are the type for you. If you are a cleaver-wielding, meat-chopping machine, the counter top of these kitchen islands will give you the surface you need.

Whatever type of kitchen island you decide on, bear in mind these three things: quality, functionality and design. With those at hand, buying a kitchen island will be less of a daunting task.