Ideas for Your Entertaining Kitchen Design
By Ryan Horvath
With the holidays right around the corner, your kitchen will be the hot spot for entertaining. It’s where the food cooks and the conversation flows as well as the drinks. It’s where your kitchen takes center stage. The recipe (pun intended) for entertaining is beauty, comfort, and functionality. I’ve come up with some ideas for your entertaining kitchen design.
Before the Guests Arrive, Get Your Cabinets Looking Right
Open It Up
When designing for entertaining, consider having an open concept floor plan. Carry the wall color into the other rooms to make it feel like one giant room. This helps create a flow between your rooms and your guests.
An open concept allows for the cook to hang out with guests while cooking. The purpose of entertaining is to be around people…not hiding away in the kitchen. Draw people in with some soft lighting. Use under-the-cabinet and pendant lighting to create a dynamic atmosphere. Give your guests extra seating with banquette style seating or at a kitchen island.
Who Doesn’t Love an Island?
You may want to entertain but keep everyone out of your way. A kitchen island is where form meets function. An island helps establish the work zones…prep, cook, and clean. It can also work as a buffet station. Raised countertops with some seating gives your guests a place to sit. An island can also be a workhorse with an extra dishwasher, sink, oven, or even a wine fridge. Design the kitchen island to work around your needs.
Check out our Kitchen Island Trends blog!
Kitchen Bling
Appliances play a huge part when entertaining. They’re what cooks and stores the food after all. Consider a double range to help cook the food. Be sure to install a quiet running, but powerful ventilation system. Stacked wall ovens are perfect for many dishes. Warming drawers are for keeping cooked dishes warmed. Set up a wet bar area with specialty refrigerators. The specialty refrigerators can be wine coolers or beverage drawers. With all those dirty dishes piling up, consider installing quiet running double dishwashers. These will help ease the load (pun intended again) of clean-up.
Other Considerations
These are the extra bells and whistles. Someone is going to need to charge their phone. It never fails. Consider setting up a charging station at the island or outside of the prep area. Show off your fine China and stemware with glass-front cabinets. Add some cabinet lighting to show them off. Hide your clutter using base pantry pull outs, lazy Susans, and appliance “garages”.
The Wrap-Up
Design your kitchen with your entertainment in mind. Before starting the remodel, ask yourself a couple of questions:
- What kind of events do you plan on hosting?
- How many people do you plan on having over?
- Will you be doing the cooking? If so, are you going to need help?
- Are people bring dishes?
Ask these questions and start your entertaining kitchen design off on the right foot.
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