How to choose a kitchen

Con­sid­er­ing the ques­tion of how to choose a kitchen, you will have to decide a few addi­tion­al ones: in what style, col­or and what mate­ri­als it will be made of, what fit­tings will be on it, fill­ing options are best for cab­i­nets. After all, you need to get com­fort­able, prac­ti­cal, func­tion­al and beau­ti­ful fur­ni­ture.

Kitchen style

Deter­min­ing for your­self which kitchen is bet­ter to choose, first of all, you should decide in what style the whole room will be dec­o­rat­ed. The style of the kitchen large­ly affects the choice of col­ors, tex­tures, mate­ri­als.

By ana­lyz­ing the var­i­ous trends in kitchen design and fash­ion trends, you can choose the one that best suits your per­son­al tastes.

Classic style

The clas­sic style of the kitchen inte­ri­or can be quite con­cise or art­sy. The design may be dom­i­nat­ed by signs of antique, Venet­ian, Eng­lish and oth­er trends. The main prin­ci­ples are sym­me­try, reg­u­lar shapes and qual­i­ty of mate­ri­als.

The col­or scheme tends to pure shades of white, pas­tel, black, brown. Bright, but nat­ur­al tones are accept­able: blue, yel­low, carmine, bur­gundy, ter­ra­cot­ta, emer­ald, gold.

The set is cho­sen from nat­ur­al hard­wood: oak, beech, maple, aca­cia, birch. Mod­ern kitchen fur­ni­ture in a clas­sic style can be made of MDF, lined with nat­ur­al veneer or paint­ed with a pati­na effect. Out­side, a head­set, both in clas­sic and oth­er styles, may seem bulky and non-func­tion­al, but at the same time it has a rich and com­fort­able inte­ri­or con­tent. The facades are lacon­ic or dec­o­rat­ed with carv­ings, milling, glass inserts, rat­tan.

The table­top is wide, made of nat­ur­al wood, glass or stone. Han­dles — vis­i­ble, curly. You can choose with the effect of antiq­ui­ty.

Modern

When won­der­ing how to choose mod­ern kitchen fur­ni­ture, they pay atten­tion to the fol­low­ing fea­tures: inter­est­ing geo­met­ric shapes, smoothed cor­ners and smooth curves, asym­me­try, glossy sur­faces, bold col­or com­bi­na­tions, func­tion­al­i­ty, mod­ern house­hold appli­ances, a min­i­mum of decor. In an L‑shaped head­set, the cor­ner is nec­es­sar­i­ly round­ed; round box­es can be used.

The design is char­ac­ter­ized by con­trast­ing com­bi­na­tions of nat­ur­al wood, plas­tic, glass and met­al. Fur­ni­ture should be not over­loaded with details and func­tion­al. It is made from both nat­ur­al wood and lam­i­nat­ed mate­ri­als. Glass inserts with­out decor are accept­able. Han­dles can have an inter­est­ing shape or be hid­den.

Back­ground col­ors: soft, smoky shades of blue, brown. Nat­ur­al tones of red, blue, green are used as accents. The set can be mono­chrome, includ­ing white, or designed in two con­trast­ing col­ors.

Hi-tech style

If the ques­tion of which kitchen set to choose has not yet been resolved, you should pay atten­tion to high-tech fur­ni­ture. Its main fea­tures are: min­i­mal­ism, straight and lacon­ic lines, clear geo­met­ric shapes, func­tion­al­i­ty, ergonom­ics. This is great fur­ni­ture for a small kitchen.

Lead­ing col­ors: white, gray, beige, blue, black, metal­lic, rich red, blue, green, yel­low, orange, pur­ple. Mono­chrome or con­trast­ing com­bi­na­tions are char­ac­ter­is­tic.

Manda­to­ry ele­ments of the kitchen: glass, plas­tic, met­al, mod­ern built-in appli­ances, glossy sol­id facades with­out decor, push mech­a­nisms and closers, roof rails. Mate­ri­als for the man­u­fac­ture of fur­ni­ture are high-tech, with increased strength. The fit­tings are con­cise, often chrome-plat­ed, mat­te or shiny. Han­dles may be com­plete­ly absent. The work­place is dec­o­rat­ed with tem­pered glass, stain­less steel or lam­i­nat­ed MDF.

What color to choose

When decid­ing which col­or to choose for the kitchen, it is worth study­ing the main prin­ci­ples of col­or com­bi­na­tions. The kitchen set is part of the inte­ri­or, so its palette and bright­ness affect the impres­sion of the geom­e­try of the room and its illu­mi­na­tion. The choice of col­or large­ly depends on the size of the room and the inten­si­ty of nat­ur­al light.

Light shades visu­al­ly expand the room, dark ones reduce it. For a small kitchen, choose soft col­ors. Deep dark col­ors will add cozi­ness to a spa­cious room.

In one head­set, you should not use more than 2 shades. In this case, the col­or of the upper mod­ules should be lighter. If there are more shades, only one should be dom­i­nant.

cold colors

The cold col­or of the kitchen set is suit­able for a warm, sun­ny room. Nat­ur­al shades of blue, laven­der, blue and green will add a feel­ing of relax­ation, calm­ness, com­fort and fresh­ness to the atmos­phere of the kitchen. Cold pas­tel gam­ma com­pen­sates for the excess of house­hold appli­ances.

Sat­u­rat­ed dark cold tones go well with white, gray, light pas­tel, nat­ur­al wood col­or. They work well as con­trasts. So, green goes well with pur­ple, red, and blue with yel­low, orange.

warm colors

If the loca­tion of the kitchen is the north side, then it is bet­ter to choose a set in warm or hot col­ors. But, since these col­ors are too excit­ing for the psy­che, you should use sim­ple rules on how to choose the col­or of the kitchen in warm col­ors.

Such tones go well with the brown col­or of wood, with warm shades of white, with beige. An excel­lent choice for a small dark room is a palette of yel­low. It goes well with white, black, gray and many oth­er col­ors. It is impor­tant to choose the right shades for the com­bi­na­tion.

A mono­chrome kitchen in red or orange is a risky move that isn’t for every­one. The way out is mut­ed col­ors, heav­i­ly dilut­ed with calmer shades. Anoth­er option is to place the bright facades of the kitchen set in its low­er part, and install lighter and calmer sur­faces at eye lev­el.

Neutral colors

Neu­tral col­ors are a ver­sa­tile option. They are an excel­lent back­drop for bright accents, suit­able for rooms of any degree of illu­mi­na­tion.

A neu­tral-col­ored set for a small kitchen is suit­able regard­less of the degree of light­ing, as well as for a large one. Neu­trals include beige, milky, smoky gray, sandy brown, taupe, antique and snow white. These sub­tle, soft ver­sa­tile shades pair well with both warm and cool col­or palettes.

Dark uni­ver­sal neu­tral col­ors — choco­late, black and graphite.

Production material

When decid­ing how to choose a kitchen set, the main task is still to deter­mine the mate­r­i­al from which it will be made.

Despite the fact that the frame is hid­den from view, it is the basis of fur­ni­ture and the key to its dura­bil­i­ty. Most often, man­u­fac­tur­ers pro­duce kitchens with a frame made of wear-resis­tant mate­r­i­al: lam­i­nat­ed chip­board or MDF, mul­ti­plex.

Facades can be made of the fol­low­ing mate­ri­als:

Countertop material

First of all, you need to choose a kitchen work­top accord­ing to the qual­i­ty of the mate­r­i­al. It is nec­es­sary to take into account the col­or and com­bi­na­tion with the style of the room.

The main require­ments for the mate­r­i­al:

1. Strength, wear resis­tance and resis­tance to dam­age.
2. Den­si­ty, due to which the mate­r­i­al will not absorb mois­ture, odors and pol­lu­tion. The coat­ing can­not be a sub­strate for microor­gan­isms and mold.
3. Ther­mal resis­tance. The sur­face of the coun­ter­top should not dete­ri­o­rate under the influ­ence of hot dish­es and a gas stove.
4. Chem­i­cal resis­tance.
5. Secu­ri­ty.
6. Ease of main­te­nance.

Ful­ly meet these require­ments: plas­tic, stain­less steel, tem­pered glass, ceram­ics, quartz agglom­er­ate. At the same time, on a coun­ter­top cov­ered with ceram­ic or glass tiles, you will have to reg­u­lar­ly change the sil­i­cone grout. In tem­pered glass, holes can only be made before pro­cess­ing; plas­tic is scratched over time. Stain­less steel can­not be used for a cor­ner kitchen due to an ugly weld.

Coun­ter­tops made of nat­ur­al wood do not tol­er­ate con­tact with hot dish­es, burn out in the sun. Nat­ur­al stone has poros­i­ty, which facil­i­tates the pen­e­tra­tion of dirt and mois­ture. It must be con­stant­ly treat­ed with spe­cial sealants. Acrylic stone is afraid of high tem­per­a­tures.

accessories

Acces­sories play not only a dec­o­ra­tive, but also a func­tion­al role. When choos­ing it, you should pay atten­tion to inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies.

Kitchen han­dles are of the fol­low­ing types:

• sta­ples (rails), arcu­ate or rec­tan­gu­lar;
• but­tons (but­tons, rings, shells, etc.);
• built into the door or locat­ed on the side.

Pens are made from plas­tic, met­als, wood, stone, glass, or a com­bi­na­tion of dif­fer­ent mate­ri­als. The shape and decor depends on the style of the inte­ri­or.

The choice of door hinges depends on the method of apply­ing the door to the end and the open­ing plane. The most mod­ern are spring hinges (open the doors up or down), gas lift (open when you press the facade) and self-clos­ing. Loops can have a sur­face of dif­fer­ent tex­tures and col­ors.

Slid­ing mech­a­nisms for draw­ers can be roller or ball. More mod­ern sys­tems are metabox­es and tandem­box­es. The select­ed sys­tem should silent­ly, eas­i­ly and smooth­ly open the box, with­stand it in a loaded form.

Lift­ing mech­a­nisms are used in wall cab­i­nets. They are divid­ed into swing and work­ing from press­ing the facade.

Addi­tion­al­ly, you can pur­chase end shelves, a rail­ing sys­tem, a dry­ing rack for dish­es and oth­er fit­tings.

Built-in appliances

Built-in appli­ances save 20% of the usable area. Many peo­ple ask them­selves the ques­tion of how to choose the right kitchen for the para­me­ters of built-in appli­ances. This is fun­da­men­tal­ly wrong. Before order­ing fur­ni­ture, it is worth con­sid­er­ing what and where you will build in, but you need to select equip­ment for your fur­ni­ture, and not vice ver­sa.

It is not nec­es­sary to buy appli­ances that are iden­ti­cal in style or col­or to the kitchen set. You can try eclec­ti­cism: com­bine wood with high tech­nol­o­gy, gloss with a mat­te sur­face, min­i­mal­ism with retro.

Pro Tips

First of all, when choos­ing a kitchen, you need to pay atten­tion to the mate­r­i­al of the head­set and coun­ter­tops and its qual­i­ty.

If the kitchen will be made to order, mea­sure­ments and cal­cu­la­tion can be entrust­ed to spe­cial­ists. The mas­ter will take mea­sure­ments, draw a plan tak­ing into account the wish­es about the size and con­tent of the mod­ules, and name the esti­mat­ed cost of the fin­ished fur­ni­ture. If you plan to buy a ready-made head­set, you will have to do it all your­self.

It would be a mis­take to trust the crafts­men and not check the fit­tings when buy­ing and installing. You will have to inspect all the han­dles, guides and mech­a­nisms, cuts and ends.

The best kitchen manufacturers

Lead­ing Euro­pean brands:

1. Poggen­pohl. The com­pa­ny has been pro­duc­ing con­cep­tu­al kitchen fur­ni­ture for almost 100 years. This man­u­fac­tur­er was the first to release sec­tion­al sets, island ele­ments, sol­id wood kitchens.
2. Siemat­ic. The man­u­fac­tur­er was the first to release a mod­u­lar kitchen, facades with hid­den han­dles. Their fur­ni­ture is char­ac­ter­ized by func­tion­al­i­ty and inno­va­tion. The busi­ness card is built-in details and hid­den fea­tures.
3. Hack­er. The brand offers head­sets of almost all styles, high qual­i­ty and at afford­able prices.

When choos­ing good kitchen fur­ni­ture for the kitchen, you should go to com­pa­ny stores, study the range and pric­ing pol­i­cy.

It would be use­ful to read reviews about man­u­fac­tur­ers in pub­li­ca­tions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hti5296LeY0