How to get the best from your kitchen diner

The 21st century has continued to see the popularity of the kitchen diner in home owner refurbishments and architectural developments. Today’s fast paced lifestyle means that more than ever people want convenience and space to socialise with family and friends. Allowing parents to prepare meals and care for their children at the same time or have a dinner party but still be part of the action whilst cooking a fabulous meal for their guests, rather than being stuck in a rather passé adjoining room. Seldom is it seen that people favour a separate dining room over a kitchen diner, which would explain why many kitchen projects start with the idea of knocking down the wall that divides the kitchen from the likely unused, out of date dining room. I’ve seen it time and time again, and whilst some kitchen design ideas are merely a momentary fashionable fad the kitchen diner refurbishment offers so much to so many so I believe this will continue for many years to come.

The question is, how can you get the best from the space once you’ve finished with the sledge hammer? Well, that all depends on how much room you have to work with;

Don’t be tempted to shoe horn an island into the space if the room just isn’t big enough. My rule of thumb is that if you can’t have a minimum of 900mm on all sides then consider a peninsular design instead. It will give you more space to move around the kitchen and it will look and feel less squashed. It will still give you all the advantages of the island you’ve been longing for but more importantly it will be a better space for it. Bear in mind that now you’ve combined two rooms, you don’t want the whole space to look like a kitchen. You want the room to feel like an inviting social space that has the convenience of being multipurpose. So less fuss is most certainly the way to go, keep the design simple and clean. The use of integrated appliances is a nice way of keeping the space feeling less kitchen like and going for matt or painted cabinetry will soften the look and help the cabinetry seem more like furniture and less like kitchen units. So be inspired and go and create your dream kitchen diner.