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Thoroughly Modern Kitchen
by Charity Shumway
Modern kitchens are about more than sleek appliances and the latest trends in countertop materials. Modern kitchens are about people and space coming together for optimal comfort and utility, the incorporation of custom elements, and the creation of a beautiful and functional heart for your home. If you're looking to design a modern kitchen, read on for kitchen design elements every modern kitchen should have.
Decades ago, kitchens were designed to be tidy, tucked-away spaces where women worked alone to prepare family meals. Modern kitchens take another approach, opening kitchens to family rooms, dining rooms, and other gathering spaces. If you're looking to design a kitchen with a modern feel, this invitation to gather, which comes from the room's openness and proximity to other spaces, is priority number one.
Modern kitchen design is flexible design. Movable kitchen islands, adjustable countertop heights, and seating that comes and goes as you need it??all these design elements make modern kitchens the perfect spaces for the ever-changing needs of today's families. An intimate family dinner one night? Your kitchen has it covered. A neighborhood gathering the next, that??s right, your kitchen has it covered.
Modern kitchens can be fancy, make no mistake. From sub-zero fridges to professional-grade ovens, simple doesn't mean no frills. What it does mean, though, is straightforward design. Where kitchens may once have been designed to hide ranges, work spaces, or refrigerators, modern kitchens are much more likely to place those elements where they can be used most efficiently and to count on the beauty of cleanly-designed appliances and well-made cabinets and countertops to make their visibility a plus, not a minus.
Steel, granite, cement, and fine woods may all be part of a modern kitchen design, but what ultimately makes a kitchen design modern is the way it allows you to use the space: comfortably, flexibly, and with the people you care about gathered around you. Design a kitchen around those principles, and you'll have modernity at its best.
Charity Shumway is a freelance writer and teaches writing at Oregon State University.
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