5 Top Tips when designing your Open Plan Kitchen and Lounge

Designing your open plan kitchen and lounge for comfortable, flexible and harmonious living can be a real challenge, so you’ll want to follow our 5 top tips:

  1. Planning

It’s easy to create an open plan kitchen/lounge if you designate each area its given use and functionality. Planning the space will depend on your lifestyle, whether you have children, pets, enjoy entertaining, or prefer a quiet area to relax and watch TV when you get home. Create a budget based on your plan, and get all the advice you can from your architect and design team.

  1. Flooring

Using the same type of flooring throughout can link the two spaces. Gone are the days of lino in the kitchen and carpets in the lounge. If flooring needs to be practical, go for wood or stone and use rugs to add comfort in the living area.

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  1. Lighting

Maximise space and flow between the kitchen and lounge with clever lighting options. While you might need bright overheads or downlighters in the kitchen, you’ll want still something both functional and atmospheric. If floor space is at a premium in the living area, you can use wall lights. If you’ve plenty of room, standard lamps can provide warmth and softness, while dramatic pendant lights could mark out a specific area or highlight a design feature, or work of art.

  1. Décor

Linking the two spaces can be achieved most easily with a unified and harmonious colour scheme, which will set the tone throughout. For a timeless, airy feel, choose a soft white or neutral shade. Once you’ve got your base, why not add some bold accents? You could even try out some designer wall art.

  1. Furniture

Using shades from a similar colour palette to the walls works best in an open plan layout.  Think about the different scales and shapes of furniture and how they might affect the visual flow of the space. You might choose high-sided armchairs or divide the space with an L-shaped chaise. If you’ve got a lot of floor space you can experiment with over-sized furniture designs or a statement sofa.  You could include a dining table to link the two spaces, giving you somewhere to eat and entertain as well as an added prep area when cooking. You could also use open shelving as storage space or room divider.

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