Design: Lauren Liess, Virginia US | Photography: Helen Norman
Creating a timeless kitchen may look simple to design, but it’s one of the most complicated rooms to design in your home and usually where a vast amount of where your home building/renovating budget will be. These days Kitchens are becoming a pivotal room in your home it’s not just a place to cook, eat and entertain but more about being the connecting and living hub of your you and your family.
Defining a timeless kitchen
The space planning and the layout of the kitchen is crucial. And this doesn’t mean having a large kitchen either, the most efficient kitchens can be smaller. Really the kitchen needs to take into consideration 2 aspects; form + function.
What defines a timeless kitchen? Is it the colour or the finish used on the cabinets or the appliances that show off a certain style. Firstly I want to know what style and character home do you have?
Is it a 1930’s classic Californian bungalow or a 1950’s classic workers cottage or more of a retro 1980’s (internal face brickwork everywhere – like I grew up in! ekk) home in need of a modern retrofit. Or are you starting with a classic home and contrasting with a more modern luxe style kitchen or updating with shaker style door to emulate a certain amount of classicism.
Designer: Jaclyn Peters Design, California Photographer: Ariana Tennyson
Space planning and layout
The biggest key factor to any timeless kitchen is fitting the modern appliances we require today in a useful and efficient space plan. Any timeless kitchen’s key ingredient needs to be usability and layout, because at the end of the day, appliances, finishes and cabinet doors can all be updated.
When it comes to an efficient layout, you need to think of the traditional design triangle, so the distance between the sink (food prep area), to the oven stove or hub (cooking zone), to the fridge (sourcing ). But I also like to consider the pantry access also, as it’s part of the sourcing zone~ so I think more of a design square.
Typical Kitchen styled layouts:
-U shaped
-L shaped
-Column
Designer: HAUS LOVE Indianapolis Photographer: Ash & Co Creative
There’s a trend in Perth for larger Kitchens and they seem to be expanding with scullery’s or walk in pantries. But sometimes creating these large pantries we can invertley create a lot of unnecessary walking from one part of the kitchen to the other. This is also the case for long excessive kitchens, I can remember in the past I was drafting for an architect, a 12 metre long Kitchen! Admittedly it was for a large luxury home and the bench then flowed out to the Alfresco area. So when you have this dilemma you need to break up the efficiency triangle into different zones, so a food prep, food sourcing ingredients, entertaining and cooking zone’s.
The timeless style lasting the years.
Frank Llyod Wright House based in Hawaii, Completed in 1995 the home was commissioned by Sanderson Sims who partnered with Taliesin Associated Architects, John Rattenbury and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to bring the unbuilt plan to life.
Take this beautiful Kitchen by Frank Llyod Wright, who is known for incorporating local natural materials within his homes of a mid century influence. While this home was only built in 1995, it was built from Frank Loyd’s original house plan designed 1954. While yes it might have modern appliances it has a timeless aesthetic appeal in keeping with the mid century character of the home. The Layout is a typical L shaped with central curved island. A smart design aspect is to incorporate curves within the kitchen, as this constraints with all the straight lines and can make the space feel more organic and unique. You can see here the curved island is reflected by the circular skylight and then also curving the cabinet edge to the right hand side.
Design: Kate Maker Interiors, California | Photographer: Margaret Rajic
The key consideration to any kitchen design, is all about the function and how you individually use your kitchen and allowing for all your storage needs. Then developing a lasting colour palette, this includes not just a white kitchen, but a good mix of stone, timber and texture to create depth and interest visually helps you create a timeless kitchen.
For more interior design inspiration, have a look at these posts:
HOME TOUR Check out this gorgeous California bungalow >>
STUDIO PROJECT: Behind the design scenes of this Perth Kitchen Reno >>>
RENOVATING: Do I need a builder or a renovation contractor vs Trades?>>>
What Benchtop to choose? Enginnered Quartz vs Natural stone?>>>