The kitchen as the new center of the home
Poggenpohl, Orea, Next125, Siematic, Veriset: there is hardly a kitchen manufacturer whose exhibition we have not visited and been inspired by. And of course, Instagram also proves to be an almost endless source of good, and not so good, example kitchens during the search process. Surprisingly, we were quicker to agree on the choice of kitchen than we were when it came to choosing a play kitchen for our daughter.
However, we quickly agreed that the kitchen should be more open than the planned standard kitchen; it should be minimalist, timeless and functional. We have already described in our previous reports that two central reasons for deviating from the standard were also decisive: More daylight and gaining space in the living room area.
An „oversized“ kitchen island
The kitchen island is not just the focal point of our living room purely from a floor plan perspective. Rather, it is a place to get together, cook together and, of course, enjoy an aperitif on Saturdays. As enthusiastic amateur chefs, all of these aspects are important to us and had to be taken into account during the planning stage. At 320 cm long and 123 cm deep, it fulfills the most important criterion: sufficient work surface and storage space. We opted for the Bora X Pure hob. The sink is large enough at 50 cm (instead of 55 cm). This gives us a work surface of over 125 cm.
The cooking island also houses a dishwasher, waste garbage can and, as our personal highlight, a wine cooler. This means you can keep your working distances and reach for a glass of wine as short as possible. We opted for Dekton for the worktop. Dekton looks like natural stone, but has much more resistant properties.
The mixer tap is from Gessi. The Su&Giu model is particularly exciting because this tap can be lowered when not in use. At the back, nine drawers provide space for pots, pans and cooking utensils. We equip the topmost, „representative“ drawers with cutlery inserts made of natural oak. As an added luxury, we equip the drawers with servo drive. Once you have experienced the difference to conventional closing mechanisms, it is virtually impossible to do without them. The drawers open and close as if by magic and as the entire kitchen is handleless, this is well worth the investment. Expect to pay around CHF 200 extra per drawer. We will save this elsewhere. And don’t forget enough sockets at the cooking island if you want to use kitchen appliances such as a mixer or food processor. However, two single sockets at the back and on the side are more than enough for us.
Highlights at second glance
The kitchen unit itself is nothing spectacular. We have deliberately dispensed with a kitchenette. The coffee machine is elegantly concealed inside a cupboard. We had a triple socket installed inside the cupboard for this purpose. We would have liked to have placed the oven and steamer with warming drawer at the same height. Unfortunately, we had to sacrifice this in favor of the function of the individual cupboards. An open shelf to the left of the dining room forms the end. We don’t want to have to look at a wall when eating. The shelf now gives us the opportunity to bring in a little more homeliness where we want it. For example, there should be space for crockery and cookbooks. The top and bottom ends of the shelves also have sockets – in case a decorative lamp or a Sonos box needs power.
Black, anthracite or another color? But certainly no fingerprints.
The trend is clearly recognizable. At the moment, many people are tending towards a black kitchen. Including us. Matt black is the clear favourite at the moment, but we don’t really want to commit ourselves yet, even though we really like the first visualizations. But as we still have some time, we will leave the decision open for a while. We will certainly opt for an anti-fingerprint surface when considering the materialization. After all, we don’t want to spend most of our time cleaning.
We recommend that you wait to select the kitchen color and match it to your parquet and wall color. Basically, the more daylight your kitchen receives, the darker the color can be. We have now had a total of two appointments with our kitchen builder. Another one will certainly follow at a later stage for the final design.
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Michel N. (37) and Michèle G. (36) live in Lucerne with their daughter Lilou (1). The two communication specialists with a flair for beautiful living are fulfilling their wish to buy a condominium near the city limits of Lucerne. Bruno Wickart accompanies and advises the couple on their project from day one – from the floor plan design to the fully furnished property.
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