10 Top Kitchen Design Tips With Life Kitchens

Don’t be dissuaded by hours of swatches and cupboard handles – from virtual reality try-before-you-buy to options to build a bespoke pantry or even squeeze in a gin room, designing your dream kitchen has never been easier. Ready to get started? We asked Life Kitchens for its ten things to think about before designing a kitchen.

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10 Top Kitchen Design Tips With Life Kitchens

Use Life Kitchens VR technology to envisage your design

Planning a new kitchen can be a daunting task – so Life offers a fully immersive, virtual reality kitchen design experience in our London showroom. The ultimate try-before-you-buy, a 4D headset allows you to step into your new kitchen, walk around, open cupboards, turn on the taps, and see what your chosen colours and materials will look like. Knocking through or building out? We can create a VR version of your new kitchen as well. Life Kitchens’ ethos centres around crafting kitchens for real life – so tell us, how do live yours?

Install a gin room or bar to entertain in style

To make staying in rival going out, incorporate a stylish home bar in your kitchen, or a dedicated gin room if you have the space. It’s an area of the kitchen where you can really experiment with luxe textures and finishes. Amplify the luxury with uplighting and a curated display of your finest bottles.

Soften your kitchen with freestanding furniture

Blending freestanding furniture into your kitchen softens the style of your space. Think gin cabinets, breakfast pantries, dressers and sideboards, designed to bridge the kitchen, living and dining spaces with a relaxed, natural feel.

Layer up your lighting

Lighting sets the tone of your space. In addition to your main lighting, it’s worth considering targeted task lighting, like spotlights on the underside of your cupboards. Lighting in glass cabinetry, strip lighting around the underside of your island, or plinth lighting creates drama, ambience and a softer, relaxing mood in the evening. Sensor-driven lighting on the inside of drawers and pantries helps to quickly find things in low light.

Mix work surfaces to ‘zone’ the kitchen

Use a mix of work surface materials to zone key task areas. Durable materials like quartz are ideal for wet and prep spaces, while timber is better for lighter use areas like breakfast bars or side boards. Mixing materials is also visually striking, adding unique personality to a kitchen.

Invest in smart appliances

The best appliances are those that make your life easier, quicker and more convenient. Steam ovens are popular for healthier, cleaner living, along with smart ovens that you can remotely turn on, taps that deliver chilled, boiling and sparkling water in one and temperature and humidity controlled wine fridges. Choosing the right smart appliances is important, but also a fun part of your kitchen planning.

Embrace colourful kitchen design

There’s no better way to express personality than through exciting colours, textures and finishes. Blue has always been popular but soft, earthy greens are now entering the kitchen space (such as Life’s new Olive, Bay and Regent’s Green) bringing a sense of calm and nature with them. Warm, muted reds offer a  distinctive look (like Life’s Pimento and Georgian Red). It’s your canvas, and how bold you go is up to you. The most colourful kitchens still be given an opulent feel with metallic accents or richly textured work surfaces.

Add a utility or boot room for streamlined living

Many households are moving more functional aspects of their kitchen out to ancillary rooms – like utility, laundry and boot rooms. This creates a more relaxed kitchen environment, with dedicated adjacent rooms to close off any chaos.

Invest in smart storage

The best kitchen design is often about understanding how you use your kitchen and planning it from the inside out. Smart storage in the right places dramatically transforms everyday living. Pull-down cupboards are a good solution for hard to reach places, while slide-out corner storage and larders and pantries are great for organising ingredients and dried goods.

Add a kitchen island

If you have the space, an island or peninsular creates a central hub in your kitchen. Whether it’s an indulgent showstopper for pulling up a bar stool around a champagne trough, or a practical area with a sink, prep space and storage – islands are the perfect area to socialise.