If You Love to Entertain, This Is How to Design Your Kitchen

A kitchen is more than a place to cook – it’s a place to exchange ideas, entertain, and engage guests. Entertaining at home is more casual and affordable than going out, as you can linger and talk about whatever is on the agenda for the night. If you love to entertain, optimize your kitchen space for family gatherings and rendezvous with friends. When looking to transform your kitchen into an entertainment spot, there are many essential aspects to get right. Please continue reading to discover what it takes to create a space you and your loved ones will enjoy.

Maximize Your Traffic Flow

You and your guests should be able to move through the kitchen easily, so establish a functional flow. It will make your life so much easier. Clutter equals stress, so having an organized home eases the brain. Creating a space that flows and adds value to your home isn’t as hard as you think. Actually, it can be a lot of fun. Follow our advice on designing a kitchen layout to ensure your home is beautiful and highly functional.

  • Organize your kitchen using the zoning method. Your kitchen is a series of dedicated areas: one for consumables (food), one for non-consumables (cutlery, glasses, dishes, plastic containers), one for cleaning, one for prepping and cooking food, and one for entertaining. If the kitchen is zoned for entertaining, you’re ready to host an event anytime. The flow of traffic during a party won’t be obstructed.
  • Don’t waste storage space on items that won’t be used anytime soon. Pack away your seasonal stuff in labelled bins in another area in your home. You’ll know exactly where to grab them. Remember that special occasions items take up precious, limited space. Adjust the shelves to transform the inside of your cabinets and pick out handleless replacement kitchen doors to impart a feeling of a major facelift.
  • Have a seamless indoor-outdoor transition. If you opt for an open-plan layout, select materials that require (very) little maintenance so that the kitchen keeps its appearance for years to come. For example, quartz and porcelain are non-porous, so no moisture is absorbed, meaning you don’t have to worry about bacterial growth. Your kitchen should be an inviting place to socialize for years to come, withstanding all sorts of occasions.

Use The Kitchen Island as A Serving Station

The island is the heart of the kitchen, a place where family and friends can get together, so it tops the list of must-haves in renovations. An island will boost your kitchen’s social status. Guests can help themselves to snacks and refreshments while you can get on with the important stuff. A stainless-steel kitchen can work well even if it has a commercial touch. To look at the person next to you, have seating on both sides of the island, with at least 24 inches of space between each seat. It creates a welcoming, natural space for guests to perch and relax. If you want to sneak in additional seating, consider installing a banquette, which allows you to accommodate more people than if you had chairs.

Create A Comfortable Acoustic Environment

Kitchen surfaces have to be tough and practical to use, not to mention stylish. Nevertheless, this affects the acoustics of the room, so your guests might find it hard to talk above the echoes. Create a secluded area that blocks out the noise from food preparation by incorporating a clever partition. For instance, you can have a transparent wall partition – it’s enough to separate the room without being too much. The glass component makes the partition look more elegant. It’s recommended to check the decibel ratings of new appliances to have a guarantee they won’t make a lot of noise. Install soft-close hinges so that slamming doors don’t make people go crazy.

Have Some Music to Set the Scene

Music can be used to set a positive tone for the day as the kitchen comes to life. It can influence your perception of taste and flavour and your mouthfeel. What can be better than coming back home to hit the play button on Spotify? This can be a daily occurrence. In unprecedented times, it’s easy to find yourself in a poor mental state, so make the best use of your time. People expect to hear music while attending an event, so provide background music. More exactly, you need a little bit of entertainment there. If you’re looking for something a little bit more exciting than a Bluetooth speaker on the kitchen tabletop, install a HiFi stereo system. You won’t find the sound disappointing.

If you have basic DIY skills, you might just get away with doing the entire process yourself. If not, the only solution to get a fully-fledged sound system is to spare some cash for the fitting process. A professional will run the wires without tearing up the walls and ceilings. Calling a professional service is the no-hassle way to go, but if you want to give it a go, keep in mind these tips:

  • Find the best location for the HiFi system. Install the HiFi system at the ear level for the best sound quality. Remember that you’ll need an electrical outlet nearby. You can mount speakers in the ceilings or walls, centered on your listening position (e.g., above the kitchen island).
  • Connect the wires. All you have to do is remove a section of the plastic sheathing, untwist the pair of wires, and use a special tool to push them through the blocks. Connection details may vary from one manufacturer to the other.
  • Turn on the music and see if everything works perfectly. If you’re lucky, you’ll boot the audio equipment, and it will work flawlessly. If it doesn’t, you’ve probably made a mistake, so retrace your steps.

Include A Beverage Station

A beverage station allows you and your guests to help themselves to a cold drink at get-togethers and parties. You can stock wine, coffee, tea, cocktail ingredients, and so on – all that matters is that drinks remain topped off. Create a dedicated cabinet for this specific purpose. Don’t you want to show off your wine collection? If the answer is yes, opt for glass cabinet doors to add a touch of elegance. As far as storage is concerned, use sliding racks or bespoke bottle racks; carefully consider design, material, capacity, and cost.

All in all, the kitchen is the canter of social activity, whether for relaxing drinks, large gatherings, or intimate dinner parties. Instead of following the trends, you should better invest in cherished pieces and enduring finishes.

 

Kimberly Atwood’s books have received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. Kimberly lives in the Rocky Mountains with her husband, an exceptionally perfect dog, and an attack cat. Before she started writing historical research, Kimberly got a graduate degree in theoretical physical chemistry from Ohio State University. After that, just to shake things up, she went to law school at the University of London and graduated summa cum laude. Then she did a handful of clerkships with some really important people who are way too dignified to be named here. She was a law professor for a while. She now writes full-time.

You May Have Missed