Designing a Luxury Kitchen
Today’s kitchen is much more than just a place to prepare and eat meals; it’s the look, experience and emotion of a striking, well-planned environment for you and your family. When building a luxury kitchen for your home, it’s always useful to take a methodical approach; starting with the cabinets and then progressing through to the finer details such as taps, appliances, lighting and flooring.
A luxury kitchen design should always start with the cabinets. This is because the secret to a quality kitchen is all in the framed construction of your cabinetry. Quality kitchens will have doors set into the hardwood frames, secured firmly with butt hinges to ensure that the doors will not drop – no matter how much they are used. When the doors are set on the outside of the hardwood frames, they usually drop as time progresses and the preceding luxurious appeal becomes a thing of the past.
What’s more, a strong, quality kitchen cupboard will have solid tops and backs that are tongued and grooved, screwed and then pressure-glued to maintain maximum rigidity. This technique creates an immensely strong kitchen that will look beautiful and function perfectly for many years to come.
To maintain a quality and luxurious feel, it’s important to select the best materials including marble, slate and granite work surfaces, state of the art imported appliances and hand crafted, tailor made cabinetry made from luxurious materials such as oak and walnut.
When choosing your taps consider the styles, features and finish as this will really help to maintain a consistent, luxurious feel. There are many styles to choose from when it comes to your kitchen tap, encompassing a wide range of options from individual taps to single lever and dual control mixers.
Single lever mixer taps with pull out hand sprays are becoming an increasingly popular option as they combine elegant design with functionality. When selecting your kitchen taps, be certain to choose an option that is functional and consistent with the quality image you are trying to portray through your new kitchen design.
Finally, spot lighting is a great way to brighten up your kitchen. These can be positioned to illuminate dark corners and aimed at reflective surfaces to ensure light travels around the kitchen. It’s a great idea to consult with a lighting specialist who will be able to best advise you on the number and position of spot lights to maintain the consistent, quality and luxurious appeal desired.
By: Toni Hill