16 Ingredients For The Ideal Kitchen

Kitchen… This is often one of the most heavily used rooms in a house. Here we have our meals, morning and not so morning coffees, chat with family and meet with friends. That’s why this place should be comfortable, cozy and beautiful. To achieve this, I believe it is enough to mix these 16 simple ingredients (listed without any particular order, just as they came to my mind):

1. ERGONOMICS
This is by far the most essential factor in the planning of a kitchen. Think about the height of the working surface and cabinets – it has to be coordinated with the height of family members so that it is convenient to cook or to get something from the shelf. Think about location of the fridge, the sink and the cook top – they need to be put within so called “kitchen triangle”, where the distance between each of these units must be no more than 3 meters away from each other and no less than 1.2 meters.

2. TABLE AND CHAIRS
Dining table shouldn’t be too small, yet not so big to occupy the majority of space. Bear in mind the rule: one person needs approximately 60 centimeters to sit comfortably. Location is another thing to consider: if you put the table next to the wall, the quantity of seats will be reduced. If you are planning to put the table in the center of the room, I recommend to go for round or oval shape. Which material? That’s probably another good question to ask. First of all, it needs to be a good match for the overall style of the room, thus for country or traditional kitchen wood will be the perfect choice, for high-tech or contemporary style will suit plastic or glass.

3.  FRIDGE
Let’s talk fridge now, as it is the second most important thing in the kitchen. Not only it is the place where you store the food to keep it fresh, but also an important design element which can become the main focal point in the space. Alternatively you can always camouflage it by using built-in models. When choosing a fridge, it is essentially important to think about its location first, so that you can decide on its size and therefore the volume. The family of 2-3 people will require the fridge with the volume of 250-350 litres. Another thing to think about is whether you need or not a deep freezer. If you don’t use a lot of frozen and ready-to-cook food, perhaps built-in the fridge freezer might be sufficient for you.

4. STOVE
There is such a variety of kitchen-ranges on the market and it is so easy to get lost. Professional chefs prefer to cook over the open flame (gas stoves), as the food gets ready faster and more evenly. Electric stoves are less fire hazard, but also less energy-efficient. The new and prospective direction – induction cooking, however high price and necessity to buy new special pots must be mentioned as significant disadvantage. There is no right answer on the question, which stove you should buy for yourself. But before purchasing anything read carefully about all pros and cons of each, to make sure you choose the one that mostly suits your needs.

5. TV
To install or not to install: that is the question. My answer is: to install. If TV in the bedroom is a big no-no for me, I believe the kitchen is the right place for it. It is so nice to enjoy morning news with a cup of coffee, watch culinary shows or just put it on the music channel while you cook. Remember though to switch it off when having dinner with your family, so that you don’t forget to enjoy the company of each other.

6. SINK AND TAP
Sink should be spacious and easy to clean, tap should be tall and easy to wash with. Square sinks from stainless steal and taps with pull-out hose remain the most practical solutions for a kitchen.

7. COOKER HOOD
There are many types of extractor hoods: chimney style, integrated, canopy, conventional, etc.  Whatever you choose, the most important thing is that it should be on the comfortable and safe level, so that you don’t break your head while cooking, and it should be very easy to clean as it tends to get dirty very quickly.

8. FLOOR FINISHING
Practicality, durability, easiness to clean – these are three elements you should look at, while choosing floor for your kitchen. Though timber might seem beautiful and ecologically friendly option, the difficulty to remove food and wine stains make it not very appropriate for the kitchen. Tiles remain the most popular and advisable solution. The only disadvantage is coldness to touch, but it can be easily resolved by installing underfloor heating.

9. KITCHEN BACKSPLASH
The idea of backsplash is to make the walls around cooking area easy to wash and resistant to cleaning chemicals. Although trendy today white tiles might seem very attractive, it is not the most feasible choice. I recommend to go for colourful tiles or glass, which leave food and oil drops not that visible on their surface.

10. CUPBOARD AND SHELVES
I can’t imagine a kitchen without any cupboards and shelves. Despite open shelves might seem more convenient to use, cupboard doors will protect the items inside from dust and dirt. Try to maximize the use of space: by hanging more shelves in “dead” corners you will get some extra storage which never is too much in the kitchen.

11. DISHWASHER
Gone are the times when women were spending several hours a day by washing plates. With today’s rhythm of life dishwasher is not a luxury, but a necessity. With plenty of them available on the market, you can find one that will fit your budget and kitchen dimensions. For example, one of the popular choices today for a small family or a tiny kitchen is a portable countertop dishwasher, like on the picture below:

12. LIGHTING
Appropriate lighting in the kitchen is not only the matter of aesthetics but safety as well. In that sense it is specially important to think about task lighting and make sure that cooking area is well lit.

13. CLEANING DEVICES
Of course it is so nice to observe spotless, just built or newly renovated kitchen. However, as soon as it starts to be exploited, it inevitably gets dirty with food drops, wine stains, bread crumbles, etc. Having such useful device as cordless vacuum cleaner will help to keep your kitchen perfectly clean. In our kitchen we have the model below with removable crevice cleaning tool, which I can highly recommend:

14. CLOCK
Maybe not so obvious as fridge or stove, clock nonetheless is an important element in a kitchen. It will help you to trace the cooking time and not to miss its readiness.

15. COOK BOOKS
Hesitating on what to cook for dinner? Having a good cook book by hand will help you to find inspiration, that’s why I recommend you to keep them not in the library, but in the kitchen itself, so that they are easy to find and get.

16. PLANTS
One might think that plants are not so necessary.  And will be wrong. Apart from their air cleansing properties, they are able to make any kitchen feel warm and cozy. Besides easy to maintain succulents, kitchen is a perfect place to grow spices and herbs – ginger, bay laurel, pepper, lemon balm and mint, which you can immediately use for cooking:

The last advice from me: if you want to get an ideal kitchen, arrange it the way YOU want it to be, without looking too much at fashion and trends. They tend to change very often and very fast, while cozy and comfortable for you kitchen will stay for years.

I want to hear your thoughts too – what is a must-have for you in the kitchen? What ingredients make it ideal? Looking forward to reading your comments!