TRADITIONAL KITCHEN DESIGN

TRADITIONAL KITCHEN DESIGN

Most homes here in the States are traditional in design; therefore, traditional kitchens would be the perfect choice since it blends well with the entire home. Traditional kitchen designs often include 5-piece cabinet doors, meaning that they have a frame (made by four pieces of wood) and then a center panel, thus, the 5 pieces to make the door. This is not unlike the doors to rooms that you find in a traditional house, with raised or flat center panels.

A really good traditional design is a "period style" kitchen. Throughout history, there have been many influences that have driven house design. For instance, there is Colonial, Federal, Victorian, Farmhouse, Prairie Style, just to touch on some traditional architectural styles. If you want a traditional kitchen design that blends well with your house, try to define what type of house you have by doing a bit of research or asking an architect. Look at the details in your house, like, columns, brackets, arches, molding, beams, and try to use some of these details in your kitchen. A traditional Victorian kitchen will have very different details than a Colonial kitchen. A kitchen design professional can quickly assess all of this for you and lead you in the right direction.

For traditional kitchen designs in general, it's a good idea to go for an "unfitted" look, meaning that the cabinets on either side of the range or sink are a little deeper than the rest of the run of cabinets, using a column of the right period to enhance this detail. Also, the hood can clearly dictate the style of the kitchen, and, it can go all the way to the ceiling where the rest of the wall cabinets are about 12" from the ceiling. Unfitted means that there is more interest by breaking the lines of cabinets to add more interest. Traditionally, kitchens were designed based on need, so, if they needed a pie safe, they would make that cabinet the size needed for the amount of pies produced, not because they wanted it to go to the top of the wall cabinets, or, if they needed a hood, the hood would go to the ceiling since the exhaust pipe had to go up and through the roof..just a couple of examples.

Molding is important in traditional kitchens. Molding is used in a lot of traditional houses, so, you want to choose crown molding and door style details with the right molding that blends with the rest of the house.