Sunday, August 22, 2010

Common Kitchen Design Mistakes To Avoid

By Richard McIntyre

No matter how big or small your kitchen design ideas may be, there are several common tips to help you avoid mistakes that could hurt or damage your kitchen in the long run. One thing home owners inadvertently seem to do is place their appliances where they cannot easily be reached. The refrigerator, sink and stove are the most used appliances. These appliances are referred to as the kitchen 'triangle' and should be no more than 2 steps away from each other. The stove should not be placed beside a wall or immediately at the end of a counter. Always allow for a little bit of counter space on both sides of the stove. This will leave your stove where it is not exposed. Leaving your stove expose will also leave the exhaust fan exposed which is not attractive. An exhaust fan should also come with the stove as its function is to decrease the amount of condensation above the stove and bring fresh air in the kitchen.

We often take things for granted in our kitchens and the exhaust fan is one of those things. They do not automatically come with the stove when we purchase the stove. The exhaust fans are separate and apart from the strove. The exhaust fan is an important device in the kitchen as it takes away smells and other odors and brings fresh air into the kitchen.

When installing your kitchen lighting, you will want to consider the areas that need to be well lit. You may also want to take into account that kids love to sit in the kitchen to do their homework. The brightest lighting may need to be where the food is prepared and where the eating or homework will take place. The entire kitchen will not need to be bright as it can be very distracting. Over the dining table a light dimmer can be installed in the event you want a dimmer light to eat an elegant dinner. This will give kids the flexibility to brighten the lights to do their home work. Do not forget that lighting is needed over the sink also.

Lighting plays an important role in the convenience and comfort of a kitchen. You should consider what type of lighting you need for what kind of food preparation you are going to do. You will definitely need bright lighting if you are doing something very detailed such as pastry decorations. You will need bright lighting when cleaning salad makings and cutting meat, fish or poultry. You may want to consider something like track lighting for these areas. Although the dining area needs light also, the lighting does not have to be as bright as the preparation areas. Have you ever noticed when you rented an apartment or moved into a home where everything was already in place, that there are never enough electrical outlets? When renovating or remodeling your kitchen, be sure you have planned to have enough electrical outlets to accommodate your appliances. Draw the outlets into your kitchen design after you have taken inventory of the appliances you have and what you plan on getting.

Be sure to incorporate things like the material you want for your countertops, the height of your kitchen countertops, and most of all where will you store all the necessary things to make your kitchen neat. Keep all of the little things in mind when making up or looking at kitchen designs in order to avoid kitchen mistakes that are most common.

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