We are Wealth Clinic Team
Your Kitchen is the most important, and most happening area of your home. It’s the area where the feast is prepared and served, It’s the place where friends and families bond, it’s the new living room and the heart of your home.
And your luxury abode – however costly and well-designed – is incomplete without a kitchen that is as luxurious, aesthetically pleasing, modern, and above all functional. And a modular kitchen serves all that for you. The good thing is you can design it to your need, available space, budget, taste, and preference.
Popularly, there are 6 kinds of modular kitchens. Let’s dive deep into each, their merits and demerits, and which one will serve you the best:
L-shape modular kitchen
As the name suggests, the kitchen counter is spread along two adjacent walls at 90 degrees making an L shape. It’s the most popular kitchen layout around especially if you have limited space available for the kitchen. The L-shape Modular kitchen ensures maximum use of the floor space while keeping the Working Triangle – the distance between your sink, cooktop, and refrigerator – to a minimum. Low Working Triangle is considered ideal for any kitchen as it allows for quick and easy movement for the cook making the food preparation and dish cleaning a quick, easy, organized, and efficient activity.
Merits:
An L-shaped Modular Kitchen is ideal if you have a small or elongated space earmarked for the kitchen. Since it uses only two walls, it leaves you with open space on the other two sides leading you into other rooms such as the dining room, living room, or family room. With such an open design, you never miss out on the fun that’s going on around.
Demerits:
L-shaped modular kitchen is too small for more than one cook to operate. And if you can afford a larger space for the kitchen, there are much better modular kitchen layouts out there.
U-shape modular kitchen:
Have ample space available to construct your dream kitchen? A U-shaped kitchen may be a great choice, more so if you have square space. The U-shaped modular kitchen utilizes 3 walls – one each for cooking, cleaning, and storage area. Having square space will make the work aisle spacious enough for 2 or more cooks to operate simultaneously. You can use an island benchtop – as one of the three sides – to separate the kitchen and dining area. Put some chairs around and you can use the island countertop – or even the third side – as a mini dining area as well.
Merits:
The U-shape kitchen layout is ideal for a big family, the family who spends lots of time in the kitchen, and the family who likes throwing feasts to friends and families.
Demerits:
It requires more space and money to build a U-shaped modular kitchen. It’s not meant for elongated space even if you have the money to splurge as this lead to a congestion-prone narrow work aisle.
Straight modular kitchen:
Straight modular kitchens – meant for homes with limited kitchen space – offer an alternative to an L-shaped kitchen. It’s the simplest and probably the most inexpensive modular kitchen layout out there. Just choose a longer wall of your hall or living area and build a countertop along it. Have a cooktop in the middle and sink and refrigerator on either side to keep the Working Triangle low. Add storage cabinets above and below the countertop and never run out of food storage space, ever.
Merits:
It presents a viable and affordable alternative to an L-shaped kitchen with a classy look, especially if you can dedicate one long wall to it. Meant for small homes, this kitchen type works great for loft, studio, or one-room apartments. Another advantage is that a straight modular kitchen is easy to alter, renovate, and add an extension to.
Demerits:
Working Triangle is difficult to keep low in a straight modular kitchen. Moreover, there are better kitchen layouts for homes with larger kitchen spaces.
Parallel modular kitchen:
When you build two parallel countertops on opposite walls with space – work aisle – in between, such a kitchen layout is known as a Parallel/Galley modular kitchen. It’s more suited to the elongated area that leaves ample space for the work aisle. Even if the kitchen space available to you is neither too small nor too large, you can give it a try. This style gives your kitchen a fresh and modern look.
Merits:
You can separate the two workstations into wet – cooking and cleaning – and dry – storage and refrigerator – areas for a more organized look and function. Install a door into one of the two workstations and you have a second opening to other rooms.
Demerits:
The ‘work aisle’ is not spacious enough for more than one cook.
G-shaped modular kitchen:
It’s an extension of the U-shaped kitchen with an additional benchtop – independent or attached to the rest – making the whole setup appear like the letter ‘G’. No dearth of space and money to dedicate to your kitchen but want something other than U shaped one? G-shape is the way to go.
Merits:
The G-shape kitchen layout is ideal for a big family or a group where more than two people want to cook simultaneously. You’ll never run out of space – for cooking, cleaning, and storage – with this layout. Such kitchens are ideal for organizing a get-together feast.
Demerits:
It’s more suited to large and square spaces and a tad expensive to build.
Island modular kitchen layout:
When the third arm of the U-shape layout or the fourth arm of the G-shape is an independent benchtop/countertop – much like an island separated from the mainland, such a layout is called the Island modular kitchen layout. If the island is big enough, it can wonderfully act as a dry storage area cum dining space.
Merits:
Same as of U or G shaped layout
Demerits:
It’s not meant for small, elongated, or inexpensive kitchen built.
Conclusion: An ideal kitchen layout depends on several factors such as available space, budget, number of people in the household and how many of them will cook at a time, existing fittings and fixtures, and so on. Straight and L-shape designs are tailor-made for limited space. Parallel and U-space are good for intermediate space. In case there is no dearth of space, G-shape and Island layout will work wonders.
Comments