Design is everything. If you look into every utensil and tool in your kitchen, they’re all designed to increase your productivity. While you may start a Twitter war arguing which is better between the fork-spoon combination versus chopsticks in dining, everyone will agree the right design is essential in better performance. And what better way to up your kitchen experience than to give you greater leeway in moving about. Yup, we’re talking about an open-plan kitchen for you, where the food factory of your abode is joined to other rooms in the house.
You may not totally agree. A hundred years or so ago, people had a notion that rooms ought to be exclusive. You eat food in the dining room; you amuse yourself in the living room. And the richer a homeowner is, the more rooms his abode has. Of course, we agree offices need rooms for confidentiality — managers need the privacy to iron things out. A sea of cubicles, in fact, has proven to be a better way to work than open spaces filled with tables without barriers.
But when it comes to productivity, the open-plan kitchen is as spot-on as can be. And you may not be able to make it better otherwise. Here are four reasons why.
Greater Space
An obvious benefit of an open-plan kitchen is more space. More space can spell greater convenience for you as there’s a bigger area to do the cooking. Plus, when you decide to break down the walls of division from the kitchen to your other rooms, the area expands appearing bigger than before.
It’s essential that you delineate the areas from one another. While before you had one room for a specific purpose, now you have a bigger room with different functions. The trick is to have each area well-marked. If you’re having a hard time, you can start with the decor. It should set the tone for each portion of the bigger room.
You can also have the couch create boundaries between the living room and the kitchen. Additionally, a big floor rug can act as a timely marker.
Know that an open-plan kitchen will require you to remodel. More often than not, this means getting custom-built cabinets into the picture to give you better storage options. While you could surely give it a shot and DIY the job, getting experts to get it done will not only give you a professional finish but will also ensure you can get the transition in the shortest time possible.
More of Nature In
Sans the barriers that stop natural light from coming through, you will get more rays of the sun in. Natural light has its distinct advantages. For one, you get to lower your power bills. As a result, you get more vitamin D in the process.
Even better, you let fresh air flow throughout the room. That has incredible benefits for you. For starters, fresh air has more oxygen compared to indoor air. More oxygen entering the brain means better brain function. And that also goes true for your bloodstream. Fresh air rid the lungs of harmful toxins. In the long run, you improve your immune system.
In short, you improve your productivity. What’s more, getting fresh air can boost your mood thanks to , the “happy hormone” which is directly influenced by the amount of oxygen taken in.
Better Communication
Think about it. When you have all those divisions separating the kitchen and the living room, talking can be a stretch when you have a conversation with someone else in the other room. But not with an open-plan kitchen.
Communication flows freely. You can have a healthy conversation even when talking to someone on the other side. As a result, this fosters greater unity for your family.
Think of the possibilities when you entertain guests at home. The open setting actually encourages the conversation to keep going. That means talking won’t be a tall order anywhere in the house.
That doesn’t happen with a kitchen and the living room separate from one another. You’ll have to get in and out just to bring closure once a conversation starts.
Best for Small Dwellings
If you’re short on space, the open-plan kitchen fits the picture to a T. Small wonder why many New Yorkers design their kitchen that way. When your precious abode is space-challenged, making the most of every inch of the estate is a must.
Open plan kitchen, therefore, should be the logical choice. By breaking the walls, you free up needed space. You can cook better and enjoy more of the things you love. And yes, cleaning up is a cakewalk.
