Melbournians have become enamoured with the trend of open plan kitchens. This motif integrates the kitchen with adjacent living and dining spaces. It resonates across the city, from modern apartment living to ample suburban homes. But why move to open plan living? The directions behind this current popularity are worth exploring. After all, home design in Melbourne—like the city itself—is a world unto its own.
Enhanced Social Interaction
A kitchen with an open layout is a huge plus when it comes to one of the main reasons most people want to remodel—a space that allows for social interaction. In a traditional, closed-off kitchen, the person preparing meals often feels isolated from everyone else. An open-plan kitchen makes the cook part of the happenings in the next room, whether the folks in there are eating or just chilling, as it were. That cardinal kitchen virtue—"Thou shalt allow for social interaction"—is as important for a space one's likely to potlatch as it is for a space one uses for family dinners.
Maximizing Space and Light
Living in Melbourne's tightly packed inner suburbs, homeowners must cleverly use every inch of their limited real estate. One glowing review of the open-plan kitchen might read as follows: "By removing the flimsy walls that box in traditional kitchens, this flexible layout brings together living, dining, and cooking areas. The result feels together, not stuck together, with the clear demarcation of areas you'll wonder why anyone ever thought to wall off. It also lets the natural light available in Melbourne's often wholly ridiculous climate travel freely. We may not be averse to walling off parts of this room, but in this case, we make it and leave it open to the generous embrace of the sun."
Modern Aesthetics
Open-plan kitchens have a modern, stylish look that aligns well with contemporary design sensibilities. In the homes of Melbourne, where the clean, uncluttered open-plan kitchen is often found, the aesthetic usually stems from modernism or minimalism. These are forms of design at both furnishings and interiors that have a style of being uniformly and consistently coherent, flowing very seamlessly from one element to the next; one room to the next.
Flexibility in Layout
When it comes to layout and design, open-plan kitchens offer a considerable amount of flexibility. Homeowners can work with the basic structure—usually comprising a large, central space that flows into adjacent rooms—to come up with different configurations that better suit their way of life. If an island bench is the centerpiece in a kitchen that happens to be open, then there's almost an assumption that the area nearby can be for prepping food and cooking. But this doesn't mean that the kitchen should be completely separate from the dining room. For homeowners who enjoy entertaining, the space should flow into the dining room where the hosts and guests can interact.
Increased Property Value
The open kitchen is much loved and can substantially boost the allure and worth of your property. The star of so many property showcases, it tends to catch the eye of even the most jaded potential buyer (and jaded they are after walking through countless homes). No doubt about it, if done well, an open kitchen can do well for your property.
Conclusion
Open-plan kitchens have become the norm for many homebuyers in Melbourne, and there's a good reason for it: they work. In a city where the design sensibility leans toward the pared-back, the kitchen's openness is its statement. It's not just that the plan is open; it's how well the kitchen integrates into the daily lives of the cooks and their families. The open plan also invites the host's guests into the kitchen, making it not just a personal space but also a social one.