Open Kitchen

What’s Good For Open Kitchen

Well, what’s so good about the open kitchens? For one, it brings down the walls between the people who are inside and outside the kitchen. So, there’s more space for interaction and the person inside doesn’t feel like they’re boxed in. It’s also helpful as the guests feel like a part of the family, since they’re in the heart of the home.

Also, open kitchens make the best of all the sunlight in the morning. But the biggest advantage of open kitchens is experienced by those who you live in small or moderately sized homes. Making the rooms in the living space of your home blend in with each other makes your home feel bigger and more spacious. These kitchens do have everything you need, and since they blend in with everything else, they give the semblance of space, even if in reality there isn’t much to go about.

So, if you don’t have many things and are someone who usually manages to keep the kitchen clutter free, then the open kitchen is absolutely a great option for you and will bring a lot of character to your home. And your home will be easier to clean and maintain as well.

What’s Not Good For Open Kitchen

The reason that a lot of people prefer closed kitchens is mainly because of all the extra storage space they get. When you make a mess, the closed kitchen help hiding it. And, when you’ve cooked such an elaborate meal, you’re bound to have all the cooking smells wafting around and a closed kitchen means that those odors stay in the kitchen. For an open concept, everything’s right there in the open for everyone to see.

If you’re into preparing elaborate meals, and it’s important for you to have your guests see none of the mess, then a closed kitchen space that’s separate from main living areas might be desirable.

If you look at it logically, then in most states, changing walls requires building permits—and structural modifications can affect your home’s resale value. So before you make any changes to the structure of your home, think about what it will do to your property in case you need sell it.  It’s easy to be dazzled by professional photos of kitchens, but take a good look at your home and what it can hold.

Solve The Space Problem In Open Kitchen

If you prefer the open kitchen space, one way to get extra storage space is through frameless cabinets. Frameless kitchen cabinets have been popular with European cabinet makers for years. Cabinetry Factory make quality framless kitchen cabinets, which are sometimes referred to as “full-access kitchen cabinets.” The only difference between these and face framed kitchen cabinets is that the frame is invisible when the doors are closed.

The construction of the frameless kitchen cabinets offers the biggest door overlay. The gaps between the doors are very small, so you can only see the doors and not the hinges. These cabinets have easy-to-mount shelves. Slide the shelf straight in, rather than diagonally as you would do with face framed kitchen cabinets. Because there’s no ‘lip’ or frame, you have slightly more storage room. If you have large appliances such as a food processor, juicer, or pasta maker, you may want frameless kitchen cabinets.

Every inch adds up, in the end, especially if you have a small kitchen. For example, an 18" wide frameless kitchen cabinet has an interior drawer width of 15 inches while a 18" face framed cabinet has an interior drawer width of only 13 inches. Here, you tend to lose three inches in a frameless cabinet, but five inches in a framed one. So when you look at it logically, you gain two inches of storage using a frameless cabinet. This adds up to an entire kitchen.

Those extra space at the end of a cabinet run may not be enough to fit another cabinet, but it may be sufficient for adding a spice pull out. The frameless European style kitchen cabinets also give the look of spacious, contemporary and will blend in well with an open kitchen.

To be or not to be?

Whether you want an open kitchen or not depends on the kind of person you are. If you are a minimalist, chances are you will choose to have open kitchen. But, if your kitchen gets messy when you cook big meals and you don’t want to worry about your guests getting a glimpse of it all, then you may not like open kitchens. Find out who you are and what you’re comfortable with before making the decision.