1. The most important is the usability of the kitchen
When the kitchen is designed by a layman, his first stop will be the colour or style of the kitchen.
When it is designed by a professional, however, he will first consider its layout; most of his attention will be paid to the usefulness of the kitchen.
So, in the kitchen design, you should stick to the first simple principle: first usability, then beauty. Your kitchen must be functional.
The functional kitchen means that you can easily move during cooking and cleaning.
The most common term used by kitchen design professionals is »the kitchen work triangle«.
»The kitchen work triangle« means that the three main kitchen elements - a kitchen sink, a stove (with a hob) and a refrigerator should be placed close to each other in the shape of a triangle.
With the triangle structure, you can easily move between the three elements while preparing food, without doing unnecessary steps.
At the same time, all the important elements stand apart from each other sufficiently to offer enough space - even if there is someone else in the kitchen with you, he won't be crossing your path during the work.
The kitchen designer will anticipate the kitchen layout so that the kitchen sink, refrigerator and stove arranged in the form of a triangle (regardless of whether he uses an island, or places a free-standing refrigerator in the opposite line), usually with angles between 15° and 25°.
If in your future kitchen there is a bit of extra space, the kitchen designer will probably create more cooking triangles, so that they can serve for various cooking stages (food preparation work, cooking, moving through the kitchen - any "visits" to the kitchen, for example, thirsty children do not interfere with the first two triangles).
If there is a bit more space in your future kitchen, the kitchen designer will probably create more kitchen triangles, which will be used in various stages of food preparation (work areas for food preparation, cooking, moving through the kitchen – so that possible "visits" by, for example, thirsty children, do not interfere with the first two triangles).
If you often host and entertain guests, or simply prepare meals on a regular basis for your loved ones, which takes a lot of time, do not isolate yourself from them - let your kitchen be a place for family gatherings.
Already at the start of your designing venture, think it over how you could be part of the conversation during the cooking - perhaps it could be the extended part of the kitchen island where there will be enough room for bar stools or other equipment.
For the kitchen to be functional, everything you need must be at your fingertips. Kitchen designers will always advise you to try to plan for a while in advance, where you are going to keep frequently used pans, spices, accessories...
The route of the dishes from the kitchen sink to the dishwasher and back to the shelves should be as short as possible. It's the smart organization that will immediately improve the experience of using your kitchen
2. Lighting
If possible, make sure that the place where you will most often stay in the kitchen (it's usually at the work plate between the sink and the stove), is in front of the window, or close to it.
This way, you will ensure an unlimited source of natural light and get a lively atmosphere during the cooking, because you will often look through the window.
Watching events on the street, children during the play or nature will surely calm down your feelings. If the window is directly above the work plate, including possibly the sink, and you are worried about its opening without obstacles due to the high kitchen fittings, Alveus has the right solution for you - the foldable under-window kitchen tap, flexy window.
If you are having difficulty choosing a suitable kitchen tap, we recommend you to read the article How to choose the most suitable kitchen taps
3. Choose the right colour for your kitchen
One of the most entertaining tasks in interior design is definitely choosing the colours of the furniture.
The kitchen is a long-lasting purchase because we usually have one and the same kitchen for more than twenty years before deciding to get it renovated, so the choice of colour is quite important.
Kitchen designers advise that when choosing a colour, you should focus primarily on what the feeling it will give to the entire room. Of course, the presence of natural light has a great impact on the colour, as well as the solar orientation of your kitchen.
If the kitchen is on the north side and therefore the whole room is darker, the kitchen should have light colours that will reflect the light making the room seem larger.
If, however, your kitchen is soaked with sun, you can easily choose one of the hottest trends this year - dark colours of the kitchen - because the room will get a pleasant, cosy feeling.
If your personality is strong and you preferably choose striking, powerful, flashy colours, keep in mind that people get fed up with such colours much sooner and ask your sales advisor for the wooden part of the kitchen, which you can repaint yourself.
Or, limit yourself to only one flashy coloured part of the kitchen - blue chairs, red island, colourful tiles above the work plate... The ideas are infinite, you can find plenty of them online.
4. Proper processing of materials
In addition to colour, material processing is also very important - whether the kitchen cabinets will be high gloss, shiny or matte.
What will the kitchen appliances and sink look like?
Will you choose eternal glossy stainless steel or natural-like composite materials?
Of course, the choice depends largely on your taste in interior design.
The frequent advice of kitchen designers is to stick with the furnishing style of the entire flat: if you have a modern furnished flat, high gloss cabinets and stainless steel will fit.
Also, matte-finished kitchen cabinets or composite materials of sinks and fittings will slightly soften the appearance of the kitchen.
If you like the rustic style, you should avoid the highly-processed cabinets, but you can still add some gloss to your kitchen with a stainless steel sink.
Alveus offers a few very special colours of sinks and fittings to bring you a lot of excitement into your kitchen.
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5. Get rid of the clutter!
Why have we so often mentioned the Scandinavian style in recent times?
Because we all adore their minimalist style.
How could you stick with it in the kitchen as well? Simply, say the kitchen designers and sales advisors, just get rid of the clutter in the kitchen and think of the small details, such as junk, soap, and other clutter in the kitchen when planning it.
There is nothing uglier than an unattractive waste bin (often even plastic, partitioned to separate waste in cheap white or olive colour) in the middle of a new kitchen.
Plan ahead in order to simply hide your waste under the carpet - not quite literally, but you can hide it elegantly behind the kitchen cabinet door.
Alveus advanced system for separate waste collection offers a much better solution than a standard plastic waste bin - your waste will be hidden from your eyes and from your guests, and with easy waste separation, you will still be taking care of the environment.
Also, at the kitchen sink, the obligatory accessory of every real chef is quickly found: soap, sponge and washing-up liquid.
You will somehow find the place for the sponge on the kitchen sink, but the bottle with soap and washing-up liquid in most kitchens is unpleasantly "sparkling" in the wet part of the kitchen.
Alveus has an elegant solution for you to use on a daily basis - a dispenser that can be filled from the bottom side of the work plate! Thus, the elegant dispenser head will be seen directly from your kitchen plate, and the soap dispenser and washing-up liquid dispenser will be economically and ecologically filled with corresponding liquid hidden under the plate.