How your kitchen looks and functions can affect the ambience of your home, as well as the value of your investment. It’ll be very challenging for you to enjoy your home if your kitchen is not in the best condition. How can you enjoy it if it looks and feels old? Will you have the interest to cook meals if your kitchen is dull and boring?
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Scandinavian is popular for its minimalism, brightness, and use of the colour white.
When many people think of designing a Scandinavian kitchen they think it’s an expensive option, but the opposite is true.
Scandinavian design isn't only focused on a high-end product, it's more creating a clean kitchen design that incorporates organic and natural elements. Similar in style to a shaker kitchen, Scandinavian focuses on the simplicity of white with wood accents but with the lack of clutter and accessories.
Designing a Scandinavian kitchen is an ideal way for you to renovate your cooking space. This design is popular for its minimalism, brightness, and use of the colour white. Although a Scandinavian kitchen is characterised by neutral colours and organic elements, a lot of people still choose to follow this trend because its colour scheme highlights unique accessories and decorations.
Here are some simple ways on how you can design a Scandinavian kitchen in your home:
1. Opt for an all-white kitchen or 2-tone kitchen
Scandinavian kitchen design is well known for its lightness and brightness, something which you can easily achieve by painting your kitchen white or renovate with plain white cabinets and cupboards. If you prefer to cut the cost by painting existing cabinets, you can start by adding a fresh coat of white paint or by using neutral colours such as hues of taupe or light grey.
For those wanting to rip out and replace the entire kitchen, possibly due to age or poor layout, ready-made kitchen cabinets with white finishing are probably the most affordable cabinets you can buy.
2. Choose practical and functional storage
You will never be able to achieve a Scandinavian kitchen if the space is cluttered. This design is known for its minimalism and brightness. Do you think you can achieve any of these if your kitchen is disorganised?
Functional storage is the way to go if you want to enjoy a Scandinavian kitchen. The average kitchen needs to house a lot of things and it’s always best if all of these have proper storage. Aside from improving the looks of your kitchen, functional storage will also result in convenience because you’ll get to find what you’re looking for the moment you need it.
Depending on the space available in your kitchen, you can opt to use floating shelves, install new cabinets, or buy bespoke drawers. You can also downsize some of your furniture to make room for more storage in your kitchen.
3. Switch to organic lighting
The lights you’ll use in your kitchen can influence the mood and atmosphere of the space. It’ll be challenging for you to create an ambience that encourages conversations if the entire space is too dark. How can you even make your way around the room if your kitchen is too dark? Do you think you can prepare meals with ease without appropriate lighting?
Pendant lights and other types of feature lights hang low from your ceiling, giving your kitchen more character and making the space brighter. With the number of designs to choose from, you can easily install feature lights that add drama to your Scandinavian kitchen and make the space stand out.
4. Opt for laminate wood flooring
The material used for your kitchen floors is also important because this element is seen throughout the entire kitchen. Using flooring that clashes with your kitchen’s overall theme and design can make the space feel and look disorganised. This environment can evoke a negative emotional response to individuals and even cause anxiety.
In some cases, making bad choices on interior design can become the reason why you’ll lose the interest to spend time and cook in your kitchen. You can prevent these from happening and achieve a Scandinavian kitchen by using wooden flooring.
5. Choose wood accents
If you don’t want your kitchen to look too plain or sterile by strictly adhering to the all-white rule, consider investing in organic wood accents and accessories, raw stone or facebrick features. In a white kitchen, these pieces will easily stand out and can become the focal points of the room, as well as adding warmth.
Wood and organic materials bring a level of warmth to a Scandinavian kitchen with the use of fixtures and fittings. While a true Scandinavian kitchen would be decorated in a monochromatic colour palette, you can easily incorporate a few splashes of colour with plants and kitchen accessories.
READ: Easy DIY: How to transform your kitchen with paint and wallpaper
In previously published article Eugène Jordaan, Principal at Leapfrog Moreleta Park, advised that a few savvy adjustments, creative considerations and smart planning can make the kitchen the most loved space in the home:
Prep and plan
As with most home renovations, the available budget tends to dictate the scope of the project.
“Start by listing everything you would like to change, determine the cost of the line items on the wish list, and then work backwards from there, dividing the list into the essential must-dos and the nice-to-haves,” recommends Jordaan.
If you’re worried about overcapitalising, speak to a trusted property advisor who will be able to share useful insights with you about what sort of value your improvements will add to your property in the medium to long run.
When planning your new kitchen, bear in mind that practicality is key in a kitchen. Think about how you use the space and how the flow, organisation and aesthetic could make it a more pleasant place to work and play.
“Too often you see kitchens where the coffee things are on the side opposite to where the kettle is. By simply moving it closer you’re enhancing the space in a subtle, but very important way,” says Jordaan.
If your budget is limited and you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck, it would be wise to not make any major structural changes, such as moving the plumbing and breaking walls, but to rather focus on improvements that refresh the look and feel.
Social circle
Gone are the days where the kitchen was a secret compartment that led off from the dining room.
Kitchens today are hubs of social activity, and need to be designed to match both our social and culinary needs.
If this is true of your kitchen (and lifestyle), plan and renovate accordingly. This could mean adding a centre island, if space allows, or lengthening the counter to allow for more people to sit at it. “It may also simply mean moving the appliances that you don’t use every day to make room for more social activities around the counter,” adds Jordaan.
Counter offers
Speaking of counters, if your budget doesn’t allow for a massive aesthetic overhaul but you’re desperate to update the look, consider just replacing the countertops. “The countertops are the first thing that catches our eye in the kitchen and tends to dominate the look and feel of the space,” says Jordaan. If the cupboards and fittings are in good condition, simply replacing the countertops with something more contemporary could make a world of difference, without costing the earth.
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