Our Kitchen: How We've Grown To Love Our Closed-Concept Kitchen

9818

Minimalist
HDB (Resale)
~1,000 sqft
3 br
Couple Living with Kids

Welcome to our Kitchen! A Recap: Our priority is to retain a spacious living area, thus building a "closet" office beside the kitchen. Because of this decision and how our home layout is, we can only have a closed concept kitchen. It was a bit of a bummer at first as having an open-concept kitchen would be more ideal with all its benefits, especially for families with kid(s). After living here for a year, we realised a closed kitchen actually works better for us. And with proper planning and design, we were able to make everything work out for the better. :)
The kitchen is usually where all the mess happens, with dishes, oily pots and laundry hanging. A closed kitchen allow us to separate and keep them out of sight from our chill area (living area), making our chill spot less cluttered and conducive. Our kitchen is built along two parallel runs of cabinets and the narrow walkway actually forms a close-knit work triangle (fridge, sink and oven), which increased efficiency and productivity as less distance to travel between each stations. Oh wait! Where is our Oven?
Tadaa! Here it is! Our Samsung microwave oven is hidden behind this pocket door to prevent it from getting oil splatter, dirt and dust when not in use. The pocket door also helps us achieve a seamless look and free up our counter space from this bulky kitchen appliance. We do not bake, so there is no need to spend on a built-in oven.
- #Kitchendesign
This is a common feature for most kitchens, a pull out drawer for our sauces, grains and pastas.
Our original kitchen layout is really small. To allow maximum natural light into the kitchen, our ID proposed to hack away the walls of our service yard and combine 2 spaces into 1. This creates more counter space and storage for our kitchen. We really love our long counter space! She also suggested having open shelvings on one side and full height shelvings on the other to reduce visual bulk at the top as overhead cabinets on both sides can create a feeling of being closed in and confined. We used our open shelvings to showcase some decorative items so our kitchen looks more welcoming and less boxy. The fluted panels were a last-minute decision we made to cover up our chimney hood because we find our hood not as visually pleasing. The horizontal beam actually helps to block our chunky steigen.
- #Kitchendesign
- #openshelves
We kept our kitchen design in line with our overall theme of our home: Simple, seamless and easy maintenance. Since we were very safe with our colour choices for our entire home, we decided to go bold with textured looking countertop and backsplash. It was love at first sight when our ID showed us this dekton slab. 1/10 of our reno cost went to our dekton backsplash and countertop. 💸 But no regrets! We really love how it looks and how durable it is. We chose to have a portable hot water dispenser because we feel heart pain to drill a hole on our dekton countertop. LOL!
Hidden switches yet easily accessible for our important kitchen appliances. (Washing machine, steigen, fridge, microwave oven, hood and induction hob)
This area was previously proposed for our built-in microwave and oven. Since we don't use both of these bulky appliances much, we chose to have a....
.. Pocket door that opens up to our mini dry pantry area. I purposely wanted extra counter space to put my baby's steriliserz and bottles that is separated from the main working area, away from the mess and oil. #hygienefirst She has already outgrown this phase, so it's time for a make-over. Probably, a new coffee machine on the way? :)
We placed our fridge away from the wall so we can comfortably open both doors to its maximum. We chose double door fridge so our daughter can access the lower racks to get her own snacks. Our water heater is house at the top cabinet above the fridge. Our ID did a really great job with the lighting for our house, and the kitchen was no exception. The entire kitchen is well lit with LED strips on both sides of our cabinets to properly illuminate our countertop area. We also make use of our Steigen's tri-colour light to keep our service yard well lit at night.
We have plenty of drawers of different heights to house our cookware, utensils, snacks, etc. Everything is soft closing, including our kitchen door! Cooking utensils and ingredients are generally all within arms-reach, making it accessible and convenient. It's a great space for small families like us to work around. Tip: Remember to factor in enough space for your vacumn to clean the gap between your floor and cabinets. That's all for our kitchen tour, and I hope you manage to get some inspiration for your own dream kitchen. :) Stay connected on our IG @rachieehome.
- #kitchen