New York City is notorious for the very small kitchens homeowners have to deal with. These culinary spaces are often less than 50 square feet, most often arranged galley style with limited counterspace. Because of this, design experts agree that prioritizing function over aesthetics makes sense in this environment. Keep artwork and decorative items to a minimum in order to make food prep and cleanup easier and more hygienic.
Does this concept scale up to the larger kitchens we see in the Weston area? Here it’s not unusual to see kitchens that are many times the size of the petite Manhattan kitchen. As a rule of thumb, the larger the house, the larger the kitchen. So if you’re dealing with a kitchen that’s 200 square feet or even larger, does the wisdom from the small space experts apply?
Even the largest space has limits, and every family has unique and individual needs. Taking the point that every inch of your kitchen should be doing something to make your family’s life better, approaching the kitchen renovation can begin with the idea: What do we want to do in this space? What are the tasks we absolutely have to be able to achieve?
Beginning with functionality and how the space needs to work for your family can help you break free from any ideas you have about how a kitchen is supposed to be or what a kitchen looks like. It costs just as much to build an ugly, poorly functioning kitchen as it does to create a beautiful kitchen that really works for your lifestyle – so why not choose the better option? As a Weston kitchen remodeler, I’ve seen that the homeowners who really think about what will improve their family’s life on an everyday basis and incorporate that into their design wind up the happiest with their new kitchens.