Kitchen Designs

Whether you're giving your kitchen a revamp or designing a kitchen for your new home, you'll want to design a kitchen that's functional, attractive and easy to maintain. A professional New Zealand kitchen design expert will be able to help out, but for those with DIY aspirations, follow these tips for good kitchen design:

1. Gather kitchen design inspiration
Your kitchen plan should be useable as well as attractive. Check out kitchen showrooms to get a feel for different kitchen layouts and browse home design magazines for aesthetic ideas. Once you have some inspiration, draw up a rough plan that takes into account your kitchen's measurements, approximate appliance sizes and storage space. Consider:

• Placement of appliances: are the oven, pantry and refrigerator in convenient places?
• Drawers and cupboards: are these easy to access in terms of height and mechanism? Can shelves be adjusted?
• Style and colour: are these in keeping with the rest of your home?
• Benches: is there enough space to prepare meals, stack dishes or store benchtop appliances? Is the location of the sink convenient?
• Storage space: is there enough space for food, rubbish, recycling and appliances which aren’t in use?
• Ventilation: will there be adequate ventilation when you’re cooking?
• Maintenance: are kitchen surfaces easy to clean?

2. Set a budget for your kitchen
Make sure you don't blow your budget, by having a clear idea of how much you will have to spend. As a rough guideline, the market value of your house should give you an idea of how much you can expect to pay for your kitchen renovation:

House value = cost of kitchen
$200,000 = $10,000 to $16,000
$300,000 = $15,000 to $24,000
$400,000 = $20,000 to $32,000
$500,000 = $25,000 to $40,000
$600,000 = $30,000 to $48,000
$700,000 = $35,000 to $56,000
$800,000 = $40,000 to $64,000

3. Plan your kitchen design
No two kitchens are identical – yours must be suited to your home, budget and useability requirements. Call on a professional New Zealand kitchen designer or draw up your own plan. Generally, in good kitchen design:

• The refrigerator, sink and oven are an easy distance from one another, so you can move easily between them
• The number of surfaces that can gather dust are minimal
• Appliances are hidden behind doors or well integrated, giving a seamless, clean look
• The splashback allows for a feature point with colour and/or texture, using glass, mosaics or other materials
• Benchtops incorporate textures through the use of marble, granite or polished timber. The current style is a thick slab benchtop with deep edges.
• Colour won't be intrusive (neutral tones such as white, cream or pale grey can be complemented with small areas of dark tone or bold colour)
• Lighting allows for both cooking and relaxing (this is especially important in open-plan kitchens), with brightly lit work areas and over-bench lights, and dimmers for atmospheric lighting
• Storage spaces are unobtrusive and make good use of the room available in your kitchen

4. Build smart
For real Kiwi DIY experts, building your new kitchen is the next step in the process. For others, you'll need to call on the services of a professional New Zealand builder. Some NZ kitchen designers have an in-house building team or a building company whose services they employ. If you are responsible for choosing a builder, ask friends and family for recommendations and check:

• Cost: get a variety of quotes. If one seems too good to be true, it may be a sign of poor workmanship or materials of a low quality. Some offer low tenders initially to ensure they get the job, but during the process may cut corners or make expensive additions
• Experience: check out their work history by viewing examples of their work and asking for references
• Qualifications: find out what qualifications they hold and how long they've been working for in the building industry. It's also a good idea to use the services of a builder who is a member of the Certified Builders Association of New Zealand (CBANZ) or the Registered Master Builders Federation (RMBF)
• Guarantees: find out if there are any guarantees included in your agreement
• Compatibility: do you get along with the builders? Do they seem open to your input? Do you have confidence in them?

Looking for more information? Find New Zealand kitchen designs in the NZS.com directory.

Get published online by adding an article to the NZS.com Articles section. Before you add your article read over our guidelines for article creation and find out the benefits of publishing on NZS.com.

Business images from Flickr: Sky Tower, New Zealand Flag and Wellington Buildings.