A kid-friendly home: Tailor your kitchen to your family
The kitchen is often the most popular room in the house. With the amount of foot traffic the kitchen gathers, it makes sense to make it the most ergonomic and comfortable environment possible. Whilst the kitchen is often the place that brings a family together, it can also contain objects and appliances that can pose a danger to little ones and pets. Ensuring your kitchen is family friendly will put your mind at ease, knowing that your children can run rampant around the home without the risk of injury! Here are our top tips on how to tailor your kitchen to your home life, keeping your children in mind.
Consider the layout of your kitchen
During the design process, you could tailor the layout of your kitchen to ensure that your primary standing position in the kitchen will allow you to maintain an eye over the rest of the house. Therefore, if your kids are playing in the living room, you can supervise them from the kitchen while you are cooking and preparing snacks.
Incorporate kitchen seating
Seating in the kitchen is a feature that can bring your family together, and this may be more effective than you may suspect at first. Seating allows your family to gather whilst the cooking is going on, with children completing their homework while seated, and partners or friends chatting over chores or a cup of tea. More seating can make the kitchen the heart of the home.
Deliberate over the materials you choose
Having a young family, you’ll be aware that a lot of mess is created. With spillages and cooking mishaps with little ones, there will be a lot of cleaning. To make your life that much easier, the materials you select for your kitchen worktops should be easy to clean up and durable within your home, meaning they will require less maintenance. This could be laminate for example, or quartz.
Choose carefully between an induction and gas hob
There are many advantages to both induction and gas hobs, but there are extra requirements to consider when there are children involved. Induction hobs are often the best choice for a family with children, as they cook without an open flame, which can often pose as a danger to kids. The surface of an induction hob is also easier to clean, decreasing your workload!
Make the most of storage
To make sure any dangerous equipment is out of reach of children, such as sharp knives and graters, make the most of internal components within your drawers and cupboards. The metallic knife holders might look sophisticated, but they aren’t safe enough! You could consider having a secondary cutlery drawer, or a cupboard with built-in organisation for your pots and pans.
Implement child locks
There are bound to be things in your kitchen that you simply don’t want your children getting a hold of – this could be sharp knives, or chemicals. By implementing child locks in your kitchen, you can rest easy in the knowledge that your children will be safe from the things that could cause them danger. These are easy to install, and you can limit them to certain cupboards if you desire.
It takes an expert to design a kitchen that suits your lifestyle, including your small children in the layout and ergonomics. At Jeff Allen Designer Kitchens, our team finds out everything we need to know about you to design and provide a kitchen that is tailored to you. This ensures minimal kitchen mishaps for your kids! To get in touch with us and discuss your kitchen needs, give us a call on 020 8224 7173 or email info@jeffallenkitchens.com.
