How to Design Your Kitchen for Best Aesthetics and Functionality

Kitchen — rightly called ‘the heart of the home’ — is fast transforming into the luxurious hub where you don’t just cook. You hang out with friends over cups of coffee, you host finger-food parties, you socialise. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a kitchen to flaunt? Of course!

In fact, modern kitchens are no longer just rooms or accessories to your overall home décor. They can easily take the centre stage — all with a little thought and creativity. What’s better? A great-looking kitchen may even stir up major inspiration for cooking. Take the instance of Neena Sen, a 35 year-old Kolkata-based entrepreneur.

She hated being in the kitchen of her new home in Ballygunge. From furnishings to fittings, and fixtures, everything in her swanky apartment seemed perfectly in-sync, except the kitchen. Preparing food for herself and her family, after managing her hectic schedule, was her worst nightmare.

She wanted to design her kitchen for best aesthetics and functionality.

With the help of her interior consultant friend, Neena gave her dull and generic-looking kitchen a major face lift.  Now she enjoys every moment spent in her posh cooking haven.

Besides, the effects of a well-designed kitchen runs deeper than most realise. For example, did you know that a bad kitchen design can increase your stress levels? Or, that your kitchen design can actually lead to healthier eating habits?

Having said that, here are some ways you can achieve the right balance of aesthetics and functionality to create a kitchen that makes you happy and fetches a lot of compliments from guests.

The Classic Marble and Wood Kitchen

Nothing spells luxury more than a kitchen wrapped in exquisite marble and intricate woodwork. Most luxury kitchens are loaded up with premium marble tops and unique blacksplashes. The combo of wood and marble has been popular for ages and for a reason — it’s a combination you can almost never go wrong with.

Working with wood also allows you to create ample storage spaces, complete with cabinets and pull-out drawers. But to avoid the boxy feel of closed cabinets, you could adorn them with glass doors. This can easily serve as an interesting display for your precious silverware or even your collectibles or art works.

The Colourfully Vibrant Kitchen

When it comes to luxury kitchens, most people opt for rustic elegance with a lot of woodwork, metal, and glass finish. However, you can break the norm by setting up your kitchen with bold pulsating colours. Red and white offer a brilliant chemistry, giving your kitchen a healthy and energetic lift. To balance out the look, accessorise your kitchen with metallic-finish appliances in shades like steel-grey or silver.

The Vintage Chandelier Kitchen

You won’t come across many kitchens that sport a chandelier. Set your luxury kitchen apart from the rest by accentuating it with a Swedish crystal chandelier. Team it up with deluxe flooring, contemporary minimalist furniture, and edgy-looking appliances — and the end result is a fashionably quirky mix of vintage and modern kitchen design. Black or dark-coloured countertops and sleek, handleless cabinets work best with this kitchen type.

The Bright and Open Kitchen

Lively open kitchens are currently a hot-favourite among homeowners. And why not? This type of kitchen offers a larger-than-life appeal and is perfect for hosting a large number of guests. Add magic to it with ritzy backsplashes, matching flooring, and propped up stools lined by the table top or a central island unit.

The Stunning Ultra-Mod Kitchen

The ultra-modern kitchen is an ideal match for busy professionals. It integrates all necessary appliances just where you need them. These kitchens are usually sleek with smooth black and steel textures. Make it trendier with a wall-mounted TV for entertaining dinners with friends and family.

The Abstract Kitchen

Abstract kitchens are hugely popular for their stylish yet vividly different charm. If flamboyant is your style, this type of kitchen is for you. You may have never given it a thought but your kitchen walls can serve as the perfect canvas to flaunt your collection of abstract art. If you don’t have an art collection, no worries — an accent wall painted with abstract patterns can be as much of a conversation starter as any piece of art!

Make your abstract kitchen stand out in the crowd by adding electrifying ceiling colours, mural tiles in the backsplash, asymmetric furniture, and plush appliances.

Apart from these, you could add certain prime features to your kitchen for an instant upgrade. This may include high-end appliances such as sub-zero refrigerators, multiple dishwashers, high-grade chimneys, wine-pouring devices,  food warming drawers, cappuccino makers, and of course, integration of smart home technologies, which enables users to operate most appliance via a smartphone.

Lastly, it’s important to understand that in order to transform your kitchen into a living and breathing space, aesthetics, however luxurious, are no longer enough. A smart blend of functionality is now a key ingredient to create your dream kitchen — a perfect style statement for your home.

We hope these tips will serve as useful starting points for your kitchen remodel plans.