Three Key Elements In Kitchen Design: Worktops, Cabinets And Flooring

The kitchen acts as the focal point of the home and its design can have a huge impact on your home's overall interior appearance. However, with a kitchen's design relying upon several different individual elements, it can sometimes be difficult to achieve a cohesive look where all aspects of the room complement one another.

As a starting point to revamping the design of your kitchen, it's vital to consider the three most prominent elements: the worktops, the cabinets and the flooring. By achieving stylistic harmony between these three parts of your kitchen, you'll be a long way towards your ideal aesthetic vision.

Kitchen worktops: Functionality over design?
Your kitchen worktops are arguably the most prominent aspect of your kitchen and hold the potential for tremendous visual impact. At the same time, they're the part of the kitchen that you use the most, so it's essential that your stylistic choices are informed by practical considerations. Most importantly, you need to be realistic about the amount of space that you'll need and not be tempted to keep your worktops small for the sake of more floor space.

Worktops can help set the visual theme of the room and the choice of your worktop's material should be influenced by whether you're going for a more traditional or contemporary design. The colour and patterning of the worktop will also play a big part in the kitchen's overall colour scheme. In a kitchen that already has a lot of colour, for example, a more subtle finish on the work surface can help to add balance.

Kitchen cabinets: Less is more
Your cabinets face into the room and are often the first place to which the wandering eye is drawn. For that reason the large variety of different woods, shapes, styles and glazes available offer exciting opportunities for making a great impression on the rest of the kitchen. In this instance, however, their contribution to the kitchen's design is as much about size as it is about style.

Cabinets primarily act as storage space and it can be tempting to opt for large units to meet your storage needs. Banks of units can be very unattractive and in many cases unnecessary, so it's important to try to minimise the size of your cabinets. Layout is also vital and it's a good idea to try to deviate from the standard practice of having your cabinets in a line on the longest wall. Time spent thinking about layout can help to give your kitchen a unique stylistic edge.

Kitchen flooring: Filling the gaps
While the flooring may often be neglected when it comes to thinking about kitchen design, it can actually have a big impact on the room's visual balance. For example, the warm, neutral tones of wooden or laminate flooring can help to give an impression of light and space, while stronger colours can create a sense of intimacy, especially in smaller kitchens. The material you choose will also have repercussions for the floor's durability and comfort, so make sure your design choice reflects your family's lifestyle.

Paul Trafford is employed by Lark and Larks, who specialize in fitted kitchens and replacement kitchen cabinets. From complete kitchen units and made to measure kitchen doors to replacement drawer fronts and kitchen cabinet handles, Lark and Larks supply all the fittings and accessories required to create or refurbish a fully-fitted kitchen.