Open-plan or separate kitchen: which to choose
An open-plan kitchen and a separate one are two different answers for the same apartment. The room decides: where the ventilation runs, how much space is left between the runs, and what can be seen of the kitchen from the room. That changes the furniture itself: how many wall cabinets there will be, where the tall block goes, whether there is room left for an island.
Open-plan kitchen and living room
In an open plan the kitchen stands in the shared room: light from the living-room windows reaches the kitchen run, and whoever is cooking stays with everyone else. The fronts and the countertop are seen from the sofa just as the table and the chairs are. In the Ken project a peninsula reaches into the room, and the kitchen run and the lit display cabinet stay behind it.
Where the kitchen ends
The border is held by an island or a peninsula: the working area on one side, the room on the other. Besides the furniture, the floor shows the border too. In the Norman project the kitchen tile gives way to the light oak parquet of the hallway, and the line where the kitchen ends is visible without a wall.
Where the storage goes
In an open kitchen we almost always take away part of the wall run: a whole wall of cabinets above the worktop looks heavy in a room. The dishes then move down — into the deep drawers of the island and into a tall cabinet with the appliances. In the Gerli project an island with handleless grey drawers runs the length of the kitchen, and the dining area begins right behind it.
Separate kitchen
A separate kitchen allows what an open one does not: the wall cabinets run the length of the wall, and the dishes, the appliances and the food supplies stay behind fronts that are not seen from the room. In the Artur project the U-shaped kitchen stands along three walls of one room: the base run, the wall run and the window above the sink.
What decides the choice
The choice comes down to the extractor outlet, free clearance and the view of the kitchen from the room. The extractor above an island has to be taken out somewhere: if the outlet runs along one wall only, the hob stays in the run against the wall and the island takes the sink or a worktop. Free clearance is needed between the island and the run — otherwise two people cannot pass each other in the kitchen. And if the whole kitchen is seen from the room, the choice moves to the fronts: what stays in sight and what goes behind doors. The measurement and the apartment plan give the answer.
Come to the showroom
Bring the plan of the room with you: from it we will look at how much clearance is left, and on the samples, at how the front looks from the room side.