How You Can Create A Perfect Family Kitchen

If you have a family, chances are, you all spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It’s one of the most important spaces in any home – it’s often where you eat dinner together, where you teach your kids to cook, and where you gather together at the end of the day. Here are a few tips on how you can ensure that your family kitchen is one of the best spaces in your house.

Make It A Multi-Functional Space

First, you need to remember that any kitchen usually has multiple functions, so you need to consider what you really need. Maybe you need a space where you can put your baby in a playpen while you cook, maybe you need a table where your preteen can work on their homework, maybe you need a corner to keep dog and cat food dishes so your pets can snack during the day.

Of course you will need an area where you can prepare dinner that isn’t too crowded and worktop space where you can keep all the appliances that you need. Once you have figured out what you need from your kitchen, it’s going to be easier to take the next step.

Keep It Warm Through Winter

It’s easy to think of your kitchen as a naturally cosy space – in the evening the cooker is often on and there are people and pets passing through all the time so it gets plenty of heat. But the evenings aren’t the only time of day that your kitchen gets used so it’s important to make sure that it’s comfortable on Saturday mornings when your kids sneak down early to get themselves some cereal, and when you have your mid-morning coffee break.

Insulating your home is the best way of keeping the heat in, so make sure that there are no gaps in the door or window frames. If your floor is tiled or wooden, a kitchen rug is a good choice, particularly under the table, so nobody’s toes get cold when they’re eating. Just make sure you fix it carefully to the floor so it doesn’t get tripped over.

Keep Safety In Mind

Of course, safety should be one of your absolute top priorities in your kitchen. You spend a lot of your time in there with pans of hot food and holding sharp knives, so naturally you need to make sure that the space is as safe as possible. It may be a good idea to put up a baby gate if there’s space to keep toddlers and pets out while you’re cooking so they don’t end up getting underfoot – they could get badly hurt or scalded if you trip while holding the wrong thing.

Keep your food preparation area away from your seating areas – for example, if you have an island, don’t prepare food on there while your small kids are sitting on the stools there. Put childproof locks on the doors and make sure that you don’t leave food on the surfaces if you have pets – there’s a long list of food that dogs are deathly allergic to, so keep those pups safe.

If you follow these tips, your kitchen should be the best room in your house.