The L shaped kitchen is a layout where the kitchen cabinetry sits along perpendicular walls. This kitchen layout has become increasingly popular with open plan living as it allows the kitchen to be open to the living area of the home. This plan is ideal for families so children can be supervised during meal prep time and for entertaining.
This kitchen layout is ideal for contemporary dwellings and with careful planning can be designed to be both a fabulous and functional kitchen that will serve as the heart of your home, and impress guests when entertaining.
Stunning L kitchen with white polyurethane finger pull cabinets, engineered stone benchtops, glass splashback and stainless steel appliances – kitchen renovation by Master Bathrooms & Kitchens
Function
The L shaped kitchen is completely open to the living area and therefore does not suffer from connected traffic areas as with other kitchen layouts that have narrow passages. With careful placement of the main elements, aka the kitchen work triangle, this kitchen layout allows for multiple cooks in the kitchen at the same time.
Storage
As the cabinetry is limited to two walls, the amount of storage available is limited by the length and height of these walls. Consider taking the wall cabinets as high as possible to take advantage of as much storage space as possible. Whilst shelving is a contemporary feature in the kitchen, it can limit valuable storage. Adding a bulkhead to the space between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling creates a seamless, modern finish that creates the sense of space and blends the kitchen cabinets into the living area.
Benchspace
Work areas by way of benchtop space can be limited without the addition of an island bench. Again, this is dependent on the length of the two walls chosen for the L shaped kitchen. Should this area be limited, consider storing appliances such as the kettle, toaster etc in the cabinets to free up as much bench space as possible.
Gorgeous polyurethane cabinets, engineered stone benchtops, undercabinet lighting, glass splashback and stainless steel appliances – kitchen renovation by Master Bathrooms & Kitchens
Add an island
Where the area allows, the L shaped layout is ideal for a kitchen island. The addition of an island serves as an extra workspace and can be built with clever cabinetry to provide additional storage. Kitchen islands are perfect for informal dining and are a fantastic area for guests to gather whilst the chef is in the kitchen when entertaining.
Should the island be large enough, consider positioning either the sink and dishwasher or the cooktop inside the island to create an efficient working triangle. Spacing out the major elements of the kitchen; being the sink, dishwasher and fridge, makes for a better workspace by avoiding congesting areas.
Colour scheme
How light or dark the finish you choose for your cabinets will be dictated by the area of the kitchen. If the kitchen area is small, consider keeping the cabinetry light, blending with the wall colour to increase to sense of space. Add colour by way of the bench tops or splashback for a little wow factor.
Should the kitchen area be larger, darker cabinetry can be added. Two tone cabinetry is effective by having a darker shade of cabinetry for the floor cabinets and a lighter shade for wall cabinetry. A fantastic feature for medium sized kitchens is to keep the wall and floor cabinetry light on the perpendicular walls and add a darker cabinetry for the kitchen island, or vice versa depending the look you’d like to achieve.
Lighting
Lighting is something that is quite often overlooked in the kitchen until it is too late to add without undoing some of what has been done. Lighting in the contemporary kitchen needs to be more than just a practical type of lighting. Layers of lighting is ultimately the best way to add brighter lights for preparing and cooking meals and soft, ambient and feature lighting for entertaining. If you have glass wall cabinets, consider adding a down light to them. Under cabinet lighting is a must, inexpensive and can really make the kitchen pop in the evening. It also is the perfect ambient lighting for those all important winding down hours. Under cabinet lighting is most often installed under the wall cabinets, but can be added under the floor cabinets for an effective feature and also serves as a soft and safe lighting to light the floor of an evening.
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