Curved or straight lined design

When you come to design your kitchen space, you need to think about so much more than just furnishings and your colour palette. Design elements such as curves and straight lines also have a huge role to play – impacting the layout, functionality and overall feel of your kitchen space. While both curved and straight lined designs have their perks, they create completely different environments.

Curved lines: Modern style and relaxed spaces

Curved kitchen design is said to be key in creating that relaxing kitchen space. As there are no sharp corners it means your eye doesn’t have to pick out obstacles to avoid and everything just appears to flow.

When it comes to practicality, curved designs also offer many benefits. Furniture placement maps your route around the kitchen and divides the zones, making the curved kitchen a relaxing and efficient one to navigate and use. Curved designs are also great for ergonomic storage potential and suit many of the modern materials a lot of us like to use in our kitchen spaces. Corian is just one of the materials suited to curved designs, allowing homeowners to create a unique design for their kitchen space.

What’s more, a lot of seem to prefer the rounded corners that curved kitchens give us. While we may just think it’s just because they look more comforting, science actually shows that these rounded edges take less cognitive effort to visually process – something our brain will always favour.

Curved design is organic to the environment and world around us – from the waves of the sea to the countryside hills. There’s something about soft curves that just feels natural. On the other hand, sharp edges are often associated with danger – for example knives or blades.

Finally, curved says sleek and stylish – a must in any modern kitchen. It’s chic, trendy and promotes a sense of togetherness, which has become increasingly important for the multipurpose social kitchen space.

Straight lines: Fully functional and space saving

While curved design fits with many modern kitchen designs, straight lines depict a more traditional style, like that of the popular German style kitchen. This type of design is more about practicality than the overall psychology and feel of a kitchen.

Straight lined design is also much more about functionality than it is about style – but we’ve got to admit it still looks pretty good too. It ultilises the space for higher functionality and maximises storage options with reasonably sized and shaped cupboards and cabinets. This makes it the ideal choice for narrow and small spaced kitchens that don’t have a lot of room to play with. It’s also easier to install and less expensive than the modern curved kitchen.

While straight lines may not offer the most modern kitchen design, they do allow for modern features that add a touch of sleek and sophistication to your kitchen space. Handless designs, for example, are a great way to bring your straight lined kitchen design up to date.

To browse our range of straight and curved edge designs, visit your nearest designer kitchen showroom in the North West. You can find our location details here.

What design would you choose for your kitchen – straight lines or curved? Tell us which one you’d pick and why in the comments below, or tweet us @ModernKitchens