Our Open Concept Kitchen: Rustic Meets Joseph Joseph

1046

Rustic Chic
HDB (BTO)
~1,000 sqft
3 br
Couple Living

Oh hello again, welcome to our kitchen! With the kitchen space of HDB BTO notoriously small, we wanted to build a kitchen that is not only functional but also spacious. We opted for an open concept to facilitate better airflow and to give an illusion of a bigger kitchen. A peninsula was also created parallel to the stove.
Instead of placing the oven below the stove, we had it elevated to allow for easier monitoring of the food during its cooking. We went for a tabletop microwave as opposed to a built-in one as we rarely use it.
We chose a gas stove as nothing beats the crackle of a stove being lit. A 60cm 3 burner hob from Bertazzoni was chosen and the 3 zones is more than enough for both light and moderately heavy cooking. A slim pull-out hood was chosen from the same brand. The hood does the job for most western-style cooking as we have a habit of mopping the kitchen after every cooking session anyway.
To keep our commonly used utensils accessible, we had them hanging on the walls around the cooking zone. We chose a knife magnet over a knife block as the magnet allows for better ventilation, as a traditional knife block has greater likelihood of mould buildup. We chose a model from Scanpan, with the wood being gentle on the blades of the knives. The strong magnet also grips the knives tightly, ensuring no sleepless nights worrying about dropping knives.
Our sink of choice was an undermount one from Franke. The 60cm sink has ample space for washing bulky items like our Bosch oven tray and cast iron casseroles. Its built-in dampening pad also allows us to bid goodbye to loud clanging noises while the sink is being loaded. To complement our dishwashing routine, we bought a few products from Joseph Joseph. The soap dispenser is useful as it can be pressed with the forearm or elbow when fingers are dirty. The Edge washing-up brush eliminates all caked up mess on our baking trays and pots easily. We also own the CleanTech washing up brush, which we use to scrub vegetables like potatoes and cucumbers.
We had two open shelves built into the peninsula for storing our bulkier items like the rice cooker and casserole.
We went with a 20L step bin from EKO. Our priority was getting a bin with a lid to keep out flies and odour. Additionally, the bin has a soft closing lid which can be set to open fully for ease of clearing our food waste. The 20L size is perfect for a day of heavy cooking too. Also in our kitchen arsenal is a dry powder fire extinguisher. Here's to praying we will never be needing it but until then, better to be safe than sorry!
The peninsula was designed parallel to our gas stove as it allows for easy transferring of cooked food from both the oven and stove. Furthermore, the spacious setup can easily accommodate up to 4-5 “chefs” at a single go.