How to get the most from your kitchen

Have you ever worked out how many hours you spend in your kitchen every day? Even more revealing, how much of that time is spent on unnecessary work caused by poor design?

Simple things, like continually criss-crossing the kitchen to prepare food. Or double-handling your crockery.

It’s possible to cut the time you spend in your kitchen by up to half… time you could spend doing the things you never seem to be able to find time for in your busy day.

Over the next week or two I’ll post a series of simple steps to ensure that you have a kitchen that does the work for you – not the other way around!

#1: Refuse any compromise on quality

Don’t be fooled by the notion that quality costs more. It’s usually the other way around.

Poor quality doesn’t last.

You have to work harder to offset the deficiencies as things fail or fall apart. And it robs you of any lasting enjoyment. You end up having to replace or repair things in a very short time. Any savings you gain by cutting quality are illusory.

The old saying “quality remains long after price is forgotten” is just as true of poor quality at a cut price.

Quality materials and craftsmanship are backed by innovative design features, often exclusive to Décor Kitchens. Our compliance with SIDA* Standards and Code of Ethics also helps ensure the quality of your new kitchen.

(*Society of Interior Designers of Australia.)

#2: Make sure your kitchen designer is certified

This is no joke. If your kitchen designer isn’t a Certified Kitchen Designer (by either the Kitchen & Bathroom Designers Institute or the National Kitchen and Bathroom Association) you could end up feeling like you should be certified!

Inexperienced sales people can be trained to place pre-fabricated cabinets around your kitchen walls. But that’s not true kitchen design.

Design is all about solving problems, not creating them.

The design of your Décor Kitchen is supervised by a Certified Kitchen Designer to ensure that your family’s needs are met properly. It’s a vital safeguard.

#3: It’s all in your kitchen layout

When you boil it all down, the ultimate difference between a great kitchen and an ordinary one isn’t the finishes or the styling. It’s the kitchen layout — whether or not it eases your work load, streamlines your work flow and helps you achieve satisfaction and enjoyment.

It’s not the appearance of the various doors, but what’s behind them, that really counts.

And it’s what’s behind your kitchen doors that sets Décor Kitchens apart from the rest, with innovative features like…

• Roll-out shelves
• Metal-sided pot drawers with full-height sides that prevent handles protruding
• Rotating corner shelves
• Double-layered cutlery drawers
• Bulk storage units
• Display cabinets for best crockery, glasses and favourite china (to protect them and reduce dusting)
• Microwave recesses
• Mixing centres
• Shelving for your cookbooks
• Concealable appliance centres
• Waste sorting systems
• Shelves, drawers and doors geared to your personal height and reach
• Corner pantries with glide-away doors to help the busy cook
• Pull-out benches to expand bench space when needed
• Kick plate drawers under cabinets for storing wine, platters, baking dishes or other sundry items (see below)

… and lots more. You’ll find more about work-saving features like these in upcoming posts on this blog. And we’ll explore some of these features in more detail as well, so you can see for yourself why they’re so important — especially when you add them all up.