Background of the issue.
To paraphrase a well-known proverb, one can, with all the grounds, state that in our house "the kitchen is all over the head". The dwelling of the Russian man from the earliest times has been arranged so that the place where the food is cooked (stove) was given a central position in the room. With the advent of private residences and then large urban apartments, this tradition was for some time replaced by a European manner of separating the kitchen from the "clean" room, but in the Soviet era, when ordinary people settled in the houses, the traditions returned and the cuisines became active social life. Today the concept of "cuisine in Russian" is a phenomenon known all over the world, and foreigners perceive it as part of a national exotic.
Why do we like to sit in the kitchen?
If you think about the meaning of our tradition of accepting guests not far from the "home hearth," thoughts involuntarily arise about the peculiarities of the Russian mentality. Maybe it's all about our "Oblomov" laziness: why bring ready-made meals to the living room or dining room, when it is much more convenient to cover right there where prepared? Or maybe the talkative Russian hostess does not want to "fall out" of the general conversation, running between the kitchen and the living room? Or even easier: the kitchen so delicious smells of pies that you do not want to go anywhere. In any case, if all of the above are close to you, do not succumb to any trends of alien fashion: sit in the kitchen, take guests there and decorate to your taste.
When the kitchen is small ...
Perhaps this is the most common problem. The most optimal solution is to combine the kitchen with the next room. It can be a hall, a living room or even a room that you always gave under the bedroom: after all, for the sake of getting a comfortable and cozy room it is quite possible to reconsider the arrangement of the apartment as a whole.
Welcome to the living room.
This idea is not liked by everyone: many consider the kitchen an aggressive environment - to some extent this statement is not far from the truth. However, with today's level of technology, it is quite possible to reduce annoying shortcomings to a minimum. In any case, the main "side effects" - the smell of cooking and cooking - can easily be defeated with good ventilation and ventilation. As for the organization of the kitchen space, there is no doubt that today's trend is getting rid of the kitchen as a separate room (with furniture and other attributes of the room). In the projects of young architects of premises designated as "kitchen", it is getting smaller, and this is not surprising. Thanks to the multitude of household appliances, the process of cooking has become much more pleasant and aesthetic - so why hide it and separate it from the rest of the dwelling? Until recently, the working area stretched in one line along the wall in the kitchen-living room was tried to "camouflage" with the help of a sliding curtain or partition. Today, when everyone realized for a long time that a residential apartment is not a branch of a restaurant and no one here is going to stand for hours at the stove, the kitchen zone is more often decorated in the form of an elegant bar counter, transferred to a window or in general have such an "island" in the middle.
Useful window.
This solution, helping to bring ready-made food to the consumer, is as old as the world: you simply punch in the kitchen wall adjacent to the living room, a small window, supply it with a door and a tray support with food. In this case, your little kitchen remains a purely working area - just a "laboratory" for cooking. All the coziness and glamor goes to the next room: there, near the treasured window, you make a dining area - you stir a large table, chairs or a corner sofa (the rest of the room is formed arbitrarily, but preferably in the same style). The kitchen in this situation is as much as possible free of excess, but the full program to score it with modern technology. Perfect for such a case is the high-tech style: metal surfaces, glass shelves, some natural wood, tiles or laminate on the floor. Complete your laboratory with planted and hung here and there plants - and a comfortable beautiful "food" is ready for use. It's nice that, unlike a laborious project with the demolition of a wall, a special window does not require separate approval and authorization in official instances, since re-planning does not count.
Bar counter: not only decoration.
To have a bar at home is considered fashionable and prestigious - it looks like in a movie, and space itself "zoned". Meanwhile, to use it only as a furniture or decorative detail is wasteful. Much more thoughtful is the option when the bar counter turns into a full-fledged element of the kitchen equipment: it can be built in various household appliances (refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, etc.), in its bowels, convenient closets and drawers. Then from the side of the room you will have a high table with stools (actually "bar"), and from the kitchen - a full working surface. To ensure that the stand does not become useless in your kitchen, you should think in advance about what you "start" it, and not buy a ready-made version, but order your own according to an individual project.
Questions of ergonomics.
Not bad, designing a modern and ergonomic (that is, convenient for movement and work) kitchen, to approach the issue "scientifically" - taking into account the professional techniques, rules and standards of such layouts. At the heart of any kitchen layout is the so-called "working triangle", which consists of a refrigerator, a sink and a stove. Even if you have a very large kitchen, the distance between the peaks of this triangle should not exceed 3-6 m (and if possible be at least this figure).
In the order of location of all working areas, cooking technology should be traced:
- food storage area (refrigerator),
- pre-treatment zone of the product (place for cleaning),
- product washing zone,
- zone of cutting,
- heat treatment zone of the product,
- serving area of the finished product (this can be a dining kitchen or serving table).
We get space by cunning.
If you do not have opportunities for any global alterations, and the size of your kitchen leaves much to be desired, there is nothing left to do but use all sorts of tricks to, on the one hand, create the appearance of a larger room, and on the other hand, really try to find a way for yourself a little space.
- Decorate your kitchen in light colors.
- Order individual furniture for your kitchen, considering all its spatial possibilities from floor to ceiling (the most convenient for a small square kitchen is the L-shaped layout).
- Buy multifunctional equipment (food processor with blender, meat grinder and vegetable shredder in one person, microwave with grill and convection, etc.).
- Build all the equipment, including also the refrigerator, in the kitchen panel.
- Discard the dishwasher.
- If necessary, move the sink and gas stove.
- Get railings with hooks for placement on the walls of small things.
- Eliminate the door or make it sliding (folding).
If the kitchen is spacious ...
In new buildings, kitchens, as a rule, have a large footprint, and the problem of saving space disappears by itself. But another arises: how to fill these "mansions" that fell on your head, if you, on the one hand, have become accustomed to "cute" crowdedness, and on the other - never thought about the issues of kitchen fashion. Meanwhile, a large kitchen opens up a lot of opportunities for you. It is hardly worth trying to implement all the current trends in one kitchen at once, but to take at least one or two is very useful.
Open cabinets and shelves.
Modern designers insist that it is necessary to unload the top level of the kitchen "line" as much as possible, replacing the classic closed cabinets with cabinets without doors or in general with a system of open shelves.
Non-built appliances.
The same idea of an "open" kitchen can be supported by getting rid of massive "containers" for household appliances. To do this, buy quite elegant-looking kitchen units (ideal - metallic style), which will look quite good on metal shelves-brackets or on racks.
Everything is small and transparent.
Kitchen furniture should create a feeling of lightness, but it is better to "disappear" and get lost in space. To do this, it is supposed to be maximally miniature and contain as many glass and light reflecting elements as possible (can be backlit).
Round and oval countertops.
The most "hit" version of the modern dining table is a round table, which becomes oval when unfolded. Traditional rectangular tables have now retreated into the shadows and are now considered to be non-ergonomic.
Eclectic on the topic of high-tech, eco-style and "flea".
Such a "cocktail" can look like this: you are filling your kitchen with appliances and utensils in high-tech style (better with metallic shine). Then buy "ecological" (that is, simple wooden) furniture, and then fill the open surfaces with nice home-made things in the style of "grandmother's trunk". If space allows, it is very important to look in such an interior one really antique piece of furniture like a prehistoric cupboard or an old carved coffee table (the main thing is to arrange it so that it does not "fall out" from the context).
Do not repair, and "change clothes."
If you have never had a decorated interior kitchen - the design it clearly does not hurt. But there is neither time nor money for repairs. What to do? You can try to change the kitchen at least externally.
- Buy a self-adhesive film and cover it with all the surfaces of the kitchen furniture (including the kitchen table).
- Remove the old curtains and replace them with something new - elegant blinds, Roman or roller blind (it is desirable to change and the system of their fastening).
- Throw out the old kitchen stools and replace them with small soft chairs (this is more actual) or at least wrap them with a new drapery cloth or film (better than different colors or shades).
- In free places, attach to the walls open shelves, on which you will place different kitchen decor: vases, bottles, jugs, pot plants (the more "greens", the easier it will be for you to breathe).