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Ways to Make Your Home Kitchen Pro-Functional

Ways to Make Your Home Kitchen Pro-Functional

Professional chefs and other people who cook for a living design their kitchens to be practical. In a restaurant kitchen, this especially makes sense, but it also does in home kitchens. And although practical isn’t always beautiful, many of the same professional, practical elements can be brought into your home kitchen with attractive appeal and great functional effect.

Here are a few ideas to make your home kitchen a bit more professional and practical, while keeping it beautiful.

Optimize the workspace – Every professional kitchen has one thing that many home kitchens don’t – lots of counter space to work on. Furthermore, in a pro’s kitchen, the counters are always stainless steel because this material helps maintain a sterile surface. No matter what type of countertop you choose (whether it’s steel, marble, laminate, etc.), be sure you have lots of it. (Where a cutting board is needed, a wooden or plastic board is set on the countertop.)

Choose commercial appliances – As with professional kitchen countertops, commercial appliances are almost always stainless steel. The best part is that they are also designed to be cleaned every night, so they are easy to take apart and wash.

However, even though commercial appliances are all the rage in home kitchens, many aren’t truly commercial. Most are simply stainless steel versions of a household appliance. Luckily, even though you likely don’t need a 12-burner monstrosity of a commercial gas range, it’s still relatively easy to find genuine, used commercial appliances that do offer practical kitchen upgrades.

And if you don’t want to buy genuine commercial appliances, consider going for a similar effect by getting an oversized oven, a large stovetop, and a large, spacious refrigerator (to make storing lots of food much easier).

Create an open floor plan – Every commercial kitchen is wide open (or should be). Likewise, your home kitchen should have an open floor plan with wide walking spaces that provide easy access to everything in the room. Some homes can’t accommodate this, but if you can redesign your kitchen, this is the ideal way.

Try to give yourself as much room as possible to make it easier for you move about and to accommodate family in the room. An open floor plan is also conducive to housing a bar where family can sit, chat, and drink coffee. Think about creating as much space as you can muster. It will make all the difference.

Add light, light, light – Another feature that most commercial kitchens have and most home kitchens don’t is sufficient lighting. Lots of lights are needed for you to see what you’re doing and cooking. (A brightly lit kitchen is also an invitation to everyone to sit and chat.)

A dark kitchen is actually hazardous. Many knife accidents and broken glasses at home are often caused by a lack of lighting. Under-cabinet lights, can lights in the ceiling, and hanging lights are all necessary to keep your cooking space bright and safe. You can even look for lights that will automatically turn on in opened cabinets and drawers.

Install high-quality fixtures – The faucet on your kitchen sink and other kitchen accessories (like an instant hot water heater or a garbage disposal) should all be the highest quality you can afford. A tall, flexible faucet hose, for example, will make it easier to direct water onto dishes and into pots, and a high-quality instant hot water heater makes preparing tea and even pasta much faster.

Improve convenience – Mise en place refers to the practice of setting up the ingredients you need before you start cooking. This represents the mentality that you need to approach your kitchen with. Think in terms of being able to get to the refrigerator, sink, oven, countertop, and trash all without having to dance around obstacles. The easier it is to simply reach out and grab what you need, the nicer the kitchen will be to work in.