Cabinetville Dealers Assist with Planning the Perfect Kitchen

Making your layout more elegant and efficient with the proper placement and selection of kitchen products

It’s one thing to make your kitchen look great; it’s quite another to match a striking appearance with efficient operation. In any industry, the marriage of style and performance is the key to creating a classic, and home remodeling is no different. You want your kitchen to be inviting, but you also need it to function smoothly. So, when your children are underfoot, you can still enjoy ease of movement, because everything is easily within reach and in its proper place. And when your party crowd inevitably congregates in your kitchen, you can gracefully entertain them while still managing the next course. At Cabinetville, we have decades of experience with kitchen remodels. We know the best practices for kitchen layouts and can advise you on the perfect approach to your particular space.

The Four-Point Plan for maximum kitchen efficiency

Think of your kitchen as a baseball field. The infield has four bases that runners touch in sequence — as quickly as possible — to score. Your kitchen also has four touch points for food before it reaches the table:

  • Refrigerator/pantry — Your storage areas are best placed by the kitchen entrance, so food brought in from the store can be easily put away without interfering with any other activity in the kitchen.
  • Sink — This important touch point is where you rinse food prior to preparation, drain boiling water from food you’re preparing, and toss used pots, pans and utensils to be cleaned as you go. Your sink requires space for the work you do there and proximity to other work areas, particularly the prep and cooking areas.
  • Primary prep area — Peeling, chopping, dicing, mixing, slicing, kneading, rolling, etc. require uncluttered space, especially when your meals require preps for multiple dishes. Traffic to and from the other three touch points must be direct and unimpeded.
  • Stove/oven — This is, quite literally, the hot spot. Your kitchen design must allow you unobstructed access to your stove/oven, but it must also incorporate the best practices for reducing the risk of accidents there. That means ergonomic design, so that everything you need is within reach. This reduces awkward reaching that could cause an accident, such as a spill of a hot liquid onto you or grease onto an open flame. Your cooking station must also have a secondary prep area to rest ingredients, utensils, and hot items you’ve removed prior to final preparation for service.

A baseball field also has a dugout, where reserve players are kept. Likewise, your cabinets and drawers must be smartly placed so the items contained there are close to the working spaces where they’ll be most needed. Finally, there’s the outfield. That’s the space where your children do their homework or your guests idle, sipping Chardonnay, ready to join the action when you need them.

Popular floor plans for contemporary kitchens

The four-point plan maximizes kitchen efficiency and it is flexible enough to adapt to various kitchen footprints. Depending on the dimensions of your kitchen, you might select one of these popular floor plans:

  • Horseshoe — This design employs three walls in a U-shape. You can triangulate your three busiest work stations (stove, sink, and prep) for great efficiency. Many homeowners choose to add an island counter to bring the prep area closer to the sink and stove and to provide greater storage space below.
  • L — This open design relies on two walls joined at a right angle, but it can include an island counter housing one or two work stations, most often primary prep and sink.
  • Galley — This design for smaller kitchens places work stations on two parallel walls, so a cook can access three or for work stations simply with a turn and one or two steps. But this principle is adaptable to larger spaces, also. In a larger kitchen, you can place work stations on a wall and a parallel island counter.
  • Single wall — This open kitchen design places all important work stations in a single line.

If you are planning a full remodel of your kitchen, you have options when it comes to design. But a mistake in the layout could make your kitchen less efficient and turn the joy of cooking into a frustrating chore. To ensure you’ll be happy with your new design for years to come, talk to an experienced kitchen remodeler at Cabinetville. We have knowledge based on decades of home remodeling, so we can help you select a design that fits smartly into your space.

Contact Cabinetville today to discuss your kitchen design

Cabinetville provides high quality, pre-assembled cabinets that are stylish and durable. But if you want to completely redesign your kitchen, we can also offer reliable advice on functional layouts to enhance the efficiency of your kitchen as well as its appearance. We can also provide a construction estimate through our relationship with NJS Construction. To get your remodel started, call Cabinetville today at 973-908-7024 or contact us online to arrange an appointment. We come to you at your convenience anywhere in New Jersey.