Compartmentalising Our Kitchen Space

139

Couple Living
4 br
HDB (Maisonette)
≥1,500 sqft
Eclectic

This shot depicts how our wet kitchen transitions into the dry kitchen. With the exception of us going with the same blue laminate for the cabinets, we planned the dry and wet kitchens almost separately but we think the end result wasn’t too off.
Our refrigerator sits in our dry kitchen and is hidden from view to the initial visitor until he or she ventures deeper into either the living room or the dry kitchen itself. We were adamant about having a side-by-side fridge because our last one, which had the freezer compartment at the bottom, was not user-friendly. Designing spaces around fridges can be quite the challenge. Some useful tips include: 1. Leave space around it for heat dissipation 2. Make sure the fridge door swings won’t be affected 3. Check that the fridge’s wire plug can be easily connected to the power socket. 4. Ensure that the fridge can be pushed in and pulled out easily
The patterned tiles for our dry kitchen backsplash were a bet that paid off. We only saw the design online and liked it a lot but the tile retailer did not have any sample in its showroom. Dang! As we could not find anything else that we like, we decided to just go ahead with these patterned tiles that we have never seen in real life. To our disappointment, the Italian tile manufacturer’s production schedule was affected by the pandemic and was initially unable to produce them in time for our renovation. Thanks to our tile retailer, it managed to liaise with the tile manufacturer which then helped to hunt down 5 boxes for us. It was really amazing!
As the wet kitchen is all about functional practicality, we kept its floor area to the bare minimum (read: claustrophobic but easy to clean). The doors and windows can be fully closed to prevent food smells from seeping out when we cook, or rather, when The Wife cooks. We matched the blue kitchen cabinets with a white large-format porcelain tile countertop (which is wider than usual to accommodate our dream kitchen sink) and backsplash. We abandoned our plans for a 75cm-wide hob in favour of a 30cm-wide one. The reality is both hobs have only 2 burners, and we would use at most 2 at any one time. This change allowed us to free up some working space between the kitchen sink and the hob. We chose not to “hide” or enclose our dish rack because we actually want our washed pots, bowls, utensils and what-nots to dry at some point of time.