Currently, open plan home layouts are extremely popular, especially kitchen-diners. Historically, kitchens were positioned far away from dining rooms, but this trend died along with the idea that you need servants to do the cooking. Now we prefer living areas where we can cook and spend time with friends and family. And this is completely understandable – no one likes getting stuck in the kitchen while everybody else enjoys socialising in another room.
No day highlights this trend like Pancake Day. If you want your pancakes fresh and hot, it’s a good plan to cook and eat them straight away. But as pancakes are difficult to bulk-cook, the cook will probably end up churning out pancake after pancake, while everybody else enjoys eating them. If you are all in the kitchen this is not so bad, but if the cook ends up in the kitchen on their own it’s not much fun.
If you’re not happy with your kitchen and want to make it a more sociable area then we can help. Pancake Day has inspired us to come up with 6 ways you can make your kitchen a social space.
1. Invest in comfy seating
Do you have kitchen seats that nobody wants to use? It may be that they’re just not particularly inviting. Kitchen seating is usually made of metal, wood and plastic, which is practical but not particularly comfy. By all means, still buy seats made out of these materials. But see if you can find seating with cushioning. Or if you do not want to invest in new furniture, try getting tie-on cushions for your kitchen chairs, stool or benches. These will make your kitchen seating practical and comfortable.
2. Do some reorganising
Convinced that your kitchen is just not big enough to be a sociable space? Then have you tried doing some reorganising? One thing you could do try is relocating your white goods. If you have a fridge, freezer, washing machine or dryer in your kitchen, think about whether you could put them somewhere else. Maybe your washing machine could go in your garage or you could transform a cupboard into a pantry with a fridge? This would make some more space in your kitchen.
You could also move about your worktops. Have you got a long, thin kitchen? If you do, you could move all your kitchen units to one side to make space for a long, thin dining table on the other side. Lots people think that square kitchens are the way forward but there’s a lot you can do with a long, thin space too.
3. Create a breakfast bar
If you don’t have space for a dining table in your kitchen, have you considered making a breakfast bar? This can be a great socialising space for coffee time or pre-dinner drinks. It can even be a dining area if there aren’t many of you. You can create separate breakfast bars or tag them on the end of island or peninsular units. They’re great use of space when you haven’t got a lot to spare.
4. Use flexible furnishings
Another great way to make your kitchen a sociable space is to use flexible furniture. You may not have space for a full-length dining table when you are loading the dishwasher and cooking, but what about when you’ve finished? Get an extendable table that is compact enough for your kitchen while you are cooking but will pull out to accommodate all of your visitors when it is time to eat. You will have plenty of mingling space for your guests when they’re relaxing with a drink and still be able to fit a table in when you want it.
5. Let the light in
It is no secret that natural light can significantly benefit your home. It can make rooms feel larger and more enjoyable to be in. So use light to welcome people into your kitchen.
There is a number of options for you to choose from. If you have limited wall space but no rooms above your kitchen, you could get roof windows. This is brilliant use of space and could actually let more daylight in than if you fitted regular windows. Or if you can’t do anything major, try removing any big blinds or curtains from your windows or cut back any overshadowing trees or bushes in your garden.
6. Open up to the outside
If your kitchen’s too tiny for socialising and you can’t knock any walls down, think about opening it up to the outside. This is a great idea if your kitchen borders your garden. Installing bi-fold doors in an outside wall will enable you to open up your kitchen in warm weather, letting in light and making lots more space. If you can’t get a table into your kitchen you could place it outdoors and make one big inside and outside sociable space. And while it’ll be too cold to do this in the winter, your kitchen will benefit from the increased daylight the doors let in all year round.
So if you want to alter your kitchen to make it more sociable, there are a number of things you can do. Whether you have got lots of time and money or you haven’t got much cash to spare, there are several ways you can alter your kitchen to make a sociable space.