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    Home Inspiration Home Improvements How To Work A Kitchen Into An Open Plan Home

    Home Improvements

    How To Work A Kitchen Into An Open Plan Home

    Open plan is still one of the most popular layouts for modern homes, and indeed many traditional houses are having walls knocked down and doors taken out to create a larger and more spacious living area. But when it comes to the kitchen, it’s not always clear how to best incorporate it into the rest of the home.

    One thing to think about is the flooring. Kitchens naturally need to have functional flooring that’s easy to clean and maintain. But tiles and vinyl aren’t always appropriate in other rooms. For a truly open plan, spacious look, the recommendation is to go with wood flooring - whether real or imitation. This will work well in most rooms, and will help you to create an uninterrupted flow between the kitchen and whichever rooms it shares space with

    To match or not to match

    This leads us onto the main point; do you leave the space fully open plan with the same decor throughout, or do you have differing design elements for each area - the kitchen, living area and dining area?

    Giving each space its own character can certainly be fun, but it might detract from the open plan feel, so most people will choose to have a similar design throughout. There’s also of course the eclectic option; choosing individual items of furniture and decor that look great individually, and work well as a mix of styles. The choice is entirely up to you, but try to visualise things with samples and cutouts before you get started. There are even apps and websites that can help you create a representation of how things might look. We have also put together a guide on how to design a kitchen with the key points to consider when looking at kitchen design ideas.

    Thinking practically

    Our final point is that of practicality. Having the kitchen next to the dining room or living room is great for entertaining, or even for just chatting with the family. However, as we’ve mentioned with the flooring already, kitchens do have slightly different requirements because they’re naturally messier places. A spill on the kitchen floor is no problem, but a spill on carpet can be a big headache. A good hood or ceiling extractor will be really important if you’re going open plan, because you don’t want smells to permeate the rest of the house. Some in particular can be really difficult to get out of soft furnishings.

    Working a kitchen into an open plan space isn’t too hard. There’s a wealth of design options these days to ensure that the kitchen fittings go well with the rest of the space, and as long as you bear in mind a few practical points, you should have no trouble at all coming up with open plan kitchen ideas. If you need more information, check out our handy guide on how to start a kitchen remodelling project.