Reflecting You: Why Your Kitchen Is The Heart Of Your Home

Gone are the days when kitchens were just a place to prepare food. Today, kitchens are multi-functional rooms that play a variety of pivotal roles in our homes, often in ways that they never have before. This week, we’re taking a moment to explain exactly why the modern kitchen is truly the heart of the home.

Food As A Way Of Life

The most obvious place to start is with function. You don’t have to look far to get a taste of the many different styles and layouts of the modern kitchen, which is almost endless. The precise, cold definition of a kitchen used to be simply a place where we prepare food. But today it’s so much more than that, and in many ways it always has been. “You are what you eat” is a common maxim in the fitness industry, but it’s true on more than one level. Our diet forms a crucial part of our lifestyle, meaning that the room we use to prepare it invariably ends up being a reflection of the way we choose to live. To the casual observer it shows not only what we like to eat, but how we eat it, and who we choose to eat with.

To use some tangible examples, a passionate twenty-something vegetarian will have different food, spices and utensils scattered around her kitchen than a busier mother of four – whose styles, recipes and techniques are more likely to be geared toward getting the most amount of cost-effective meals from the minimum amount of ingredients. And it’s not just obvious lifestyle choices like vegetarians versus meat eaters – but also about how spicy you may like your food, how much time you typically have to cook it, and how much you enjoy doing so. For some, the food is the reward, and the cooking is simply the necessary prerequisite, whereas for others, the joy is in the preparation. Each approach, each style, each choice will shape a kitchen accordingly.

A Place To Get Together

Kitchens are increasingly becoming more than just places to prepare food – but also social spaces for people of all ages and creeds. For people like students, inhabiting smaller rented properties, the kitchen can sometimes be the only communal space they have. Meanwhile, activities like baking can always be wonderful mother-daughter bonding experiences – however old they each may be!

Modern kitchens find themselves in increasing demand as not just places to prepare food, but as entertaining spaces too. They often see a high volume of foot traffic from guests at casual events and formal dinner parties alike – indeed, often there will be more people congregating in the kitchen than in the living and dining rooms at such events. Therefore, modern kitchens have become showpieces, statements, and talking points all in one.

Families are another good example. The kitchen continues to be a place where the family congregates for mealtimes, as it has been for centuries. It provides a crucial opportunity for children to practice their communication, and promotes family values and unity. With the children at school and the parents at work all day, the evening mealtime is often the only time of day all their paths intersect, making it a valuable space for all the family.

Reflecting Your Lifestyle and Personality

As we’ve touched upon, even those who live alone see their kitchens as a space of untapped potential – not just a place to prepare food, but also to express themselves. The kitchen often acts as the centre point for the style of the home – whether that’s a traditional or contemporary theme, or something else entirely. For visitors, the kitchen is often the first thing they look at as a representation of the house, and the same goes for buyers too! What’s more, our interest in cooking is growing as a nation; you only have to look as far as programmes like Masterchef and the Great British Bake-Off to see what a dramatic impact they’re having in our national culture.

With all these factors combined, it’s easy to see why kitchens are often the most scrutinised aspects of any home for potential new buyers, and why it’s such a point of pride for many homeowners. Personally, we at Kitchen Design Centre live and breathe kitchen design, and pour every ounce of our passion and creativity into the kitchens we build for our customers. Why not book a free design visit to see how we can help you start building your own dream kitchen today? Alternatively, visit one of our designer kitchen showrooms across the North West including our kitchen showroom in Manchester, Blackburn or Colne.

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