Top Kitchen Layout Ideas for Your Remodeling Project

Your kitchen sees more foot traffic than any other part of your home. Whether it’s to cook a full meal or to sneak in for a midnight snack, everyone in your home uses your kitchen. If you’re wondering how to make a small kitchen look bigger or how to combine your kitchen and dining spaces, you have many kitchen layout ideas to choose from.

Check out these layouts with Winnipeg’s kitchen remodeling experts.

Full Kitchen Layout Ideas

Planning the overall footprint of your kitchen depends on the space you’re working with and what features you want your kitchen to have. Explore common kitchen layout ideas to find something that works.

1. Open Kitchen

A completely open kitchen typically sticks to one end of the largest space in your house. The room might join with the dining or living room, sometimes sharing the same flooring with no walls, doors, or counters in between.

2. Open Kitchen With an Island

Some open kitchens include a kitchen island. Islands offer storage and counter space, and construction can include sinks or space for appliances. The island floats in the center of the kitchen, allowing you to walk around it.

3. One-Wall Kitchen

Small spaces do well with a one-wall kitchen. With all appliances, cabinets, and water features against one wall, your kitchen won’t take up a lot of floor space while offering plenty of functionality.

4. Gallery Kitchen 

Galley kitchens operate with kitchen appliances and counters on both sides with an open wall at the end of the counters. These types of kitchens maximize small kitchen spaces and typically work well for a single person to use.

5. L-Shaped Kitchen 

L-shaped kitchens literally form a letter L, with the kitchen counters and appliances featured on two walls that meet in the corner. Many homeowners with L-shaped kitchens like to place a dining table in the center.

6. U-Shaped Kitchen 

The construction of a U-shaped kitchen takes up three walls and ends up shaped like a U, leaving plenty of space on, under, and above the counters for kitchen storage. With all the extra work surface space and plenty of room to move around, serious cooks prefer the U-shaped kitchen.

Kitchen Layout Feature Ideas

While choosing the right layout for your kitchen, you also want to consider exploring different features.

1. Install a Second Island

If you have an especially large kitchen, having two kitchen islands maximizes your counter space. You can use one for bar seating or use both for countertop appliances, preparing meals, and otherwise utilizing your kitchen.

2. Add a Peninsula Counter

Add extra counter space without having to install an island with a peninsula counter. This type of counter comes out from the wall instead of standing alone, forming a half-wall.

3. Open Kitchen Cabinets

While not directly affecting your kitchen’s floor space, open kitchen cabinets can make your kitchen feel bigger. You can also create a beautiful and lasting impression of your kitchen by utilizing the open shelves to show off your organizational skills.

4. Combine Dining and Kitchen Spaces

Having limited space in your home can make it necessary to cook and eat in the same room. Some of the most popular types of kitchen seating areas include:

• Table and Chairs: Many kitchen floor layouts allow enough space to set up a table and chair independent of your countertops.
• Banquette Seating: Usually placed in the corner of the kitchen, banquette seating has a formation similar to that of a corner booth set up at a restaurant. These types of seating arrangements take up little space and provide a comfortable option for a dining area.
• Island or Bar Seating: Whether you have an island or a peninsula, you can utilize that space by placing bar stools along the counter, effectively turning them into a part-time dining table.

How to Choose a Layout

The layout of your kitchen determines its functionality and ease of use, both of which affect everything from how often you use your kitchen to how quickly you can prepare meals. When choosing the right layout for your home, consider these three aspects before setting in stone your kitchen’s footprint.

1. Keep Space in Mind

Placing your refrigerator directly across from your stove in a galley kitchen might make it difficult to safely use either appliance. Make sure that you plan large appliance placement strategically to make them easy to access and use on a daily basis.

2. Design for Efficient Functionality

Regardless of the size of your kitchen or what type of layout you choose, you want to ensure that you can utilize every inch of your kitchen efficiently. Placing appliances too closely together can make it difficult to use them when you need more than one at a time.

3. Imagine Sharing the Kitchen With Others

Are you likely to cook side by side with someone else in your household, or want to regularly hold family get-togethers in the kitchen? Use a kitchen layout shape that makes sense with the size of your kitchen while creating a space conducive to multiple people in the room.

Design Your Dream Kitchen With TENTEN Kitchens

Creating your ideal kitchen should excite you, not leave you confused as to which of the many kitchen layout ideas works best for your home. When you work with TENTEN Kitchens, you can trust that our kitchen renovation specialists can help you find the right kitchen for you. Our experienced home renovation team can help you with everything from figuring out appliance placement to the distance between the kitchen counter and island. Learn more about kitchen layout ideas by calling TENTEN Kitchens, in Winnipeg, at 431-813-7757.