A luxury kitchen incorporates the often associated expansive spaces and clean lines of modern home design. However, luxury is not only about style—it is also about ease of use.
The kitchen should be one of the most useful spaces in your home, helping you to cook, entertain, and dine without stress or complication. So, what does that mean and how is it accomplished?
A stress-free, luxury kitchen should require the minimum number of steps to complete the tasks that you perform most. Your morning coffee, for example, should not take you back and forth from one side of the kitchen to the other.
In modern kitchen design, luxury seamlessly meets purpose in what we call “zones of function.” The goal of these zones is to allow for a luxury design while also ensuring that your kitchen tasks remain pleasant and simple.
Defining the most important zones
Luxury kitchen design is not a certain layout or a repeatable design. The concept of luxury kitchen design within modern home design is that each kitchen should be completely customized and function according to the people who are using it most.
To begin your luxury kitchen design, the zones of function that are most important to you must be defined. Take a look at your current kitchen routines.
What activities do you do the most?
What tasks annoy you?
What do you wish your kitchen could do that it currently does not?
If you drink coffee every morning, everything you need to make that coffee should be in one place. If you wish you could prepare healthier meals, your prep station should have easy access to a cutting board, sink, and be close to the stove. If you love wine, your wine storage should be accessible from the entertainment area, not placed in some obscure and hidden part of the kitchen.
By considering your current and desired use of your kitchen, you can define the “zones” important to you. Once you’ve done that, an appropriate design of the kitchen’s spaces according to those zones should develop naturally.
Designing each zone of your luxury kitchen
When you know your most important zones of function, you then have to look at each zone in greater detail.
What appliances are useful in this zone?
How many utensils are required and how should they be stored for easy access?
Does this zone need to overlap with another to maximize efficiency?
Usually, high-use appliances such as the refrigerator, oven, stove, and dishwasher will act as links between zones because they are used for multiple kitchen tasks. Depending on the zones of function you have designated as the most important, it may make sense to repeat kitchen features, such as having a second sink or an island cooktop to help optimize preparation or a second dishwasher to aid in cleanup.
Defining the zones is the easy part. Designing the details gets a bit more complicated. That’s why we recommend working with an experienced kitchen designer who can take those zones of function and turn them into a cohesive workspace that is beautifully designed.
Seamlessly moving between zones
Different zones of function do not mean the zones are visually identifiable from one another. In fact, they should be invisible. The zones exist in their function, not in their appearance. Each area of your kitchen should overlap and melt together to create one complete space of luxury, style, and purpose.
When designed well, zones of function will flow together naturally. With creative storage and a consistent style, each area of the kitchen can feed into the next, running uninterrupted from end to end.
Our talented designers are experts in creating seamless zones of function for our clients, spaces that are not only beautiful to behold, but also beautiful to live in.
Contact us today to create your perfect luxury kitchen!