The design of your kitchen has a huge impact on the rest of your home. A kitchen that laid out in a logical way will make it easier to prepare food and come together with friends and family members to enjoy a good meal or some memorable company.
Whether you are creating the design for an entirely new kitchen, or you are renovating the kitchen that you have currently, it is important that you make a decision about whether you want your kitchen to be open or closed. Open kitchens and closed kitchens are very different in style, which means that they have various pros and cons.
Open Kitchens
Open kitchens have become much more popular in recent years, thanks to the rise of the kitchen as a place where people gather and spend time with one another. An open kitchen is one that might not have a specific door or entryway. Usually, these kitchens are open to other hallways or large rooms, such as a dining or living room. An open kitchen might have a central island with a sink or cooking surface, as well as a place for homeowners to store cooking utensils and accessories.
Open kitchen layout.
Closed Kitchens
A closed kitchen is a more traditional type of kitchen that has been popular throughout history. These kinds of kitchens might be located towards the back of a house, where guests or visitors may not be. Closed kitchens generally have only one or two doorways, although they might feature saloon doors or another type of swinging door instead of a traditional door with a knob. A closed kitchen will often be set up less for looks and more for the function of preparing meals.
The Advantages of an Open Kitchen
An open kitchen is great for homeowners who want their kitchen to have a more contemporary look. Open kitchens are considered some of the more modern types of kitchens, depending on exactly how they are laid out.
Open kitchens are also excellent for people who like entertaining guests or having dinner parties or banquets in their home. This is because an open kitchen acts as the centre of a home’s layout: an open kitchen becomes a place for conversation, drinks, and snacks, instead of being relegated to only being a place where meal preparation occurs. Open kitchens are also great for multitasking. You can watch television, keep an eye on children, or talk to someone in another room while you are working in an open kitchen. Closed kitchens do not give you this benefit.
Closed kitchen. Source: Houzz. Photo credit: Greg Page Photography
The Advantages of a Closed Kitchen
One of the big benefits of having a closed kitchen, especially if you are remodelling an existing home, is the cost of a closed kitchen. Closed kitchens are much less expensive during a renovation, since you won’t have to knock down any walls to create space for an open kitchen. If you are on a limited budget and you would rather invest this money in other parts of your kitchen, you might decide to opt for a closed kitchen instead of an open one.
A closed kitchen is also better for homeowners who want to give themselves some privacy while they are in the kitchen. Since kitchens usually see a lot of activity on a day to day basis, they can get messy or disorganised: open kitchens require plenty of cleaning work, since almost everyone who comes over to a home with an open kitchen will be able to see some part of it. A closed kitchen allows you to keep some of this mess out of view, which relieves some of the pressure on you to always keep your home as clean as possible.
Planning for your kitchen can be tough, especially if this is the first time you will be building or renovating a kitchen. One of the hardest decisions you will face is choosing between an open or a closed kitchen. You should learn as much as you can about both open kitchens and closed kitchens so that this decision is not as big of a challenge for you when you go to renovate or create the kitchen of your dreams.
