Modern kitchen has completely changed over time. The Kitchens are no longer relegated to the rear end of the house. Contemporary kitchen designs place the kitchen at the forefront rather than limiting at the background. Designing an open-faced kitchen has become a challenge in kitchen design for merging kitchen as part of a greater room, dining areas or even a family room.

So, if you want to design your kitchen, you have to decide whether you want a modern kitchen or feel more contended with traditional design. Factors like lighting, required appliances and need for an island significantly influence your kitchen design. The following guidelines will help you in your kitchen remodeling project:

1. Kitchen as ‘Great Room’

If you are planning your kitchen remodeling or designing a new kitchen for your new home, creating an island or peninsula as part of the kitchen will allow you to connect your kitchen with adjoining dining area or even family room and thus, provide a great room. This kitchen design idea can significantly improve the ambiance of your modern kitchen. The kitchen island or peninsula will help the cook or family member to engage in wholesome conversation and visual contact with guests or other members of the family in the dining areas or the adjoining family room.

2. Create a Kitchen Canopy

You can incorporate a kitchen canopy in your kitchen design for creating visible kitchen borders without hampering the views from the kitchen. Raising the height of your kitchen ceiling will improve its ambiance by creating the perception of spacious kitchen.

3. Set The Tone of Kitchen Design by selecting the right cabinet color

The color and tone of Kitchen cabinets significantly influence the ambiance of the entire kitchen. Your wood selection will also determine the tone and finish of your cabinets and thus, overall ambiance of your kitchen. Cabinets made from woods like ash, beech, birch, chestnut, maple and oak produce a lighter look while cherry create medium tone. If you want to design your kitchen with darker tones, use cabinets made from wood with some color.

4. Determine required storage and suitable cabinets or drawers in your Kitchen design

You should analyze your storage requirements and include clear blueprint of suitable drawers and cabinets. The counter surface area should be the first thing that has to be decided. If two or more cook or family members are supposed to cook together, you will need more space for your kitchen counter. Consider your current kitchen storage, placements and cabinets to get an idea about the required placement structure in your kitchen design.

5. Use The Galley-Type Kitchen Design

Kitchen designers have persistently strained their minds to come up with new ideas in kitchen design, but most of them consent that galley-type design can significantly improve cooking efficiency and provide the best counter arrangement. The arrangements with single aisle and both side counters make it possible to simply turn around for managing things right from the sink to cooking range.

6. Under-Cabinet Kitchen Lighting

Proper lighting is probably the most ignored areas in kitchen design. Most of the kitchens do have good lighting, but areas under the counter areas remain relatively dark. Kitchen design that incorporates proper lighting under the cabinet provides better working condition in the kitchen. You can use spots or fluorescent lights under the counter areas to create a more spacious look and perfect ambiance for your kitchen.

7. Looking at Countertops

Your choice of countertop will determine the elegance of your kitchen. You can use natural stones like marble, granite and limestone for your kitchen countertops. These natural materials occur in many colors, but ceramic tile kitchen countertops may be more versatile if you want specific shape, pattern or finish. The shape, style and pattern of Solid surface countertops are equally impressive, but these countertops go one step further to provide stain and heat resistant surfaces with flawless acrylic faces.

Concrete countertops are strong and versatile. Laminate countertops can be economical, but they are not durable. Wood countertops can be durable if they are not exposed to household chemicals and water. However, wood countertops can be easily cleaned and repaired. Stainless steel countertops can be tough, but they are very prone to scratches. They are not very impressive like granite or tile countertops.