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The kitchen used to be a place for the behindthe-scenes activity of cooking and cleaning up, tasked Martin Moore with creating Above: The owners of this house a family-oriented culinary zone with situated separate from the comparative calm of traditional handmade furniture to the dining room. However, thanks to the rise reflect the property’s rural setting. of open-plan living in modern homes, the way we use The island functions as the focal the kitchen has evolved. This contemporary hub now point of the room and the main functions as a space not just for meal prep, but also as area for meal prep a home office, an area for kids to play and do homework and a zone for entertaining guests in the evening. The fact that the kitchen is more on show than ever before has created an opportunity for it to become one of the major design features of the property, too. With a host of stylish finishes and sleek appliances on offer for you to choose from, what’s the best approach to designing a kitchen perfect for your bespoke requirements?
The more tech you have in the home, the more space that’s needed. With all the kit that’s now required for modern heating and ventilation systems, for instance, it’s worth factoring in an adequately sized space from the early design phase of your project so you can avoid struggling to squeeze in all the equipment later. It’s a good idea for your designer to look to rationalise building services as much as possible by creating a hub in the plant room, with all the appliances and core controls in one location. Keeping the important kit all in one place will also make finding and fixing faults easier in future, and allows the runs for different services to share the same routes, making it easier to integrate them discreetly into the building fabric. For some houses, a cupboard of 1.4m by 1.2m might be adequate, but this will only accommodate a boiler and some water storage. If you intend to have underfloor heating, solar panels, and mechanical ventilation and heat recovery you could need twice this or more. If you’re concerned that it may turn out to be too big, consider doubling it up with another use, such as storage of household tools and equipment that can be easily removed when it’s time for periodic maintenance.