Creating a Family-Friendly Kitchen
No matter what stage your kitchen remodel or redesign is in, there are plenty of ways to incorporate family-friendly touches into making your space benefit the whole of your household - helping you to live the life that you want.
Open Plan Living
Open floor plans not only give you spacious living and more design flexibility, but can help to bring the whole family together by allowing multiple activities to be going on at once in this shared space. Consider opening up the room so that you and your family can communicate and interact with eachother easily as one person may be cooking, another cleaning, and another relaxing. Open plan kitchens are often at the heart of every family home.
Multi-purpose Seating
Having various different seating areas and types can allow your kitchen to serve multiple purposes as your family grows – from swivel stools that can make interactions and facing conversations easier, to adjustable nooks that bring a more social element into your kitchen – and plenty of easily-moveable furniture for when you want your space to take on a new purpose entirely, such as for parties or special occasions.
Worktops that are easy to maintain
Going for easy-to-clean and easy-to-maintain worktop materials will make clean-up so much easier when day-to-day life gets messy. Choosing a smooth, hard-wearing surface that can simply be wiped down after each meal can save a lot of time and energy with kids running around the house. Consider materials such as granite, quartz or other polished natural stone, that are durable and smooth.
Child Proofing
Installing worktops with rounded edges instead of hard corners will help you to breathe more easily when you have children running around the kitchen, as will adding safety locks and latches on cupboard doors to keep any sharp utensils or cleaning products out of reach. You can also try creating child-friendly nooks, with comfortable seating and toy storage, to make the space more inviting for little ones.
Walk in Pantry
Not only will a walk-in pantry give you more space for food storage, but is perfect for fully organising your family kitchen – and getting the kids involved too. Lower-level shelving, and clearly labelled jars and baskets, can be used to encourage children to get involved with putting the groceries away, and fetching items for meal preparation – and will declutter your counter space.
Fun Touches
Think chalkboard walls that children can entertain themselves with, step stools so that everyone in the family can get involved with meal preparation, and media centres to add some music or TV entertainment to your day.
