The Straight Line Kitchen

Space must be very much at a premium, should you opt to go for a straight line kitchen layout. In many cases the kitchen’ area will be part of a much larger, sometimes open plan layout, especially in bachelor pads or the more compact house or apartment, and you want to ensure you maximize floor space.

 

This, after all, may take in your living/TV area or even your sitting/dining area, so you want to leave as much space as possible for dining and relaxing, devoting the minimum space possible for the more ‘boring’ stuff.

 

Whatever it is, the end result is that your sink, oven/hob and fridge are all going to be in a straight line, with your kitchen cupboards and/or storage units ranged on the same side in a line. From a theoretical perspective, the imaginary triangle (cooker/sink/fridge) is going to be flattened out and, instead of moving a step one way or the other, you are moving parallel to your cupboards in a straight line.

This means you may be limited in the options available but, probably, because you are so stretched, you are going to make an extra effort to get optimum use of the limited space available. My first bit of advice relates to work space: try to allocate as much uninterrupted work space as possible.

 

Think of the appliances that clutter our cupboard tops (in many cases on a permanent basis), like food mixers/blenders or microwave ovens. Put your tall cupboards at the edges and resist the urge to go for an eye-level oven in this type of kitchen.

 

Secondly, think about the width of the room – of the space in front of the cupboards generally. Keep in mind that you will need a minimum 1,400 mm of floor space to move around in comfortably and be able to open cupboard doors and room doors.

 

A good place to start with is your sink. If you put it in the centre of your line, you can then position the cooker and the fridge on either side. Ideally there should be some worktop space between these appliances and the sink. Otherwise the sink’s drainboard should ideally be on the side of the cooker because this gives you some extra space to put hot pots and pans on temporarily while cooking.

 

Both the fridge and cooker doors should open away from the sink (although most oven doors nowadays open downwards) for easy access. Very often, appliances’ hinges are interchangeable, so (don’t despair) you can get them to open in the way that suits you best.

 

If you have a washing machine/dishwasher, tuck it under the sink’s drainboard. This will enable you to share the sink’s communications (minimising plumbing costs) and (in the case of a dishwasher) makes it easier to transfer things from the sink to the machine.

 

The remaining ’empty spaces in your straight line kitchen (not taken up by appliances) should be devoted to storage. Incorporate space-saving accessories like pull-out baskets, door racks and rotating carousels. Incorporate a small cupboard on top of the extractor machine with two 300-mm wide doors or a long 600-mm door.

 

If a window interrupts the run of overhead cupboards, consider linking the two sides with a pelmet incorporating downlighters and place open shelves on either side of the cupboards to enable as much light to come into the room as possible.

 

Finally, always think about how you can shrink essentials into a smaller space, using the smaller appliances and maximising on whatever limited space you have available.