Top Kitchen Designs for Your Home

Consider how much time you spend in your kitchen—whether you’re preparing a snack or feeding a crowd, cleaning up, or enjoying one of those rare, quiet moments sitting at the breakfast bar with only your thoughts and a cup of coffee. When prospective homebuyers are looking at homes, the kitchen can be the deal-breaker. It’s not the right size. There’s not enough workspace or storage. The cabinets are not appealing. It just doesn’t flow. To make the new home search a bit easier, Baker Residential has some suggestions to help you determine the top kitchen designs for your home. 

Start with function.

Fundamentally, the kitchen is a functional space. It’s the room where all the cooking takes place, which means all the prep, storage, and clean-up tasks, too. You need a refrigerator, freezer, stove, oven, dishwasher, sink, microwave, cabinets and countertops. The challenge comes in how you organize these key features so you can move efficiently from task to task.

The work triangle is the flow from the sink to the cooktop to the refrigerator. You can achieve this optimum flow with any type of kitchen design—center island, L-shape, galley, for example—just by the correct placement of these utility points. Aim for efficiency by keeping the total distance from point to point at 26 feet or less, so you’re not spending too much time walking around your kitchen.

Choose your style.

Your kitchen should reflect the style of your home, like modern, country farmhouse, or cottage. The combination of colors for the walls, cabinets, countertops, flooring, and backsplash will contribute to the overall look and feel. The cabinet doors and hardware make a big difference, too. You have seemingly endless choices for kitchen light fixtures—overhead and task lighting—to complement the rest of the décor. Your kitchen designer can guide you through the selections to create the combination that fits your home style. 

Fit your lifestyle.

Do you like to cook? Do you entertain often? Do you have a big family? These are questions that will also help you determine the best kitchen design for your new home. If your kitchen is going to be as busy as Grand Central Station, incorporate more room for traffic. Don’t exceed the maximum space of your kitchen work triangle. Instead, widen the space to accommodate the extra bodies milling around and then bring the appliances a bit closer to avoid a long walk from fridge to sink to stove.

People who entertain should consider the value of a center island—and a large one. You can use this for additional prep space, casual dining with a breakfast bar, and storage under the island’s countertop, possibly locating your sink (or a second sink) on the island. Add drawers to store dishes and serving utensils, making it easy to set up your buffet or serve people at the breakfast bar.

Add the extras that feel like kitchen essentials.

You can customize your kitchen design and kitchen floor plans to give you more convenience, style, or both. Add a wine fridge, pizza oven, warming drawer, or pot filler faucet, to name just a few custom kitchen options. Create an appliance garage—a cabinet to store your small appliances, with a pull-out drawer to make it easier to access them. Mask your dishwasher and refrigerator doors with panels that blend them into your cabinetry.

The investment you make in your kitchen will not only increase your comfort, convenience, and enjoyment of your home but will also contribute to the resale value.

Baker Residential builds single-family homes and townhome communities that provide luxury living. We currently have communities in some of the most desirable areas of New York, New Jersey, and Cary and Apex, North Carolina—including a selection of move-in ready homes. Talk to us about your wish list for your new home, and let us make them come true!