Lifestyle of Open Plan Living
An open plan kitchen design is on top of many homeowners’ list to have. This is because open plan living is the new way of life, everyday living that brings your family congregating together.
What is Open Plan Kitchen Design?
Open plan kitchen design is being referred to when the kitchen is combined with the dining and living area creating one large space. The opposite is a kitchen that is tucked away in a separate room.
Why is Open Plan Kitchen Design so popular?
Even being on kitchen duties, an open plan kitchen includes you into the family life. Allowing you to keep an eye on your kids while preparing meals makes this design very popular with families.
If entertaining is your favourite weekend activity, an open plan kitchen is a must. You can finalise the food preparation while chatting with your guests. More often than not the kitchen island bench becomes the centrepoint of the party where everyone congregates.

How to achieve an Open Plan Kitchen Design?
Lucky you when your house has already a large kitchen-dining-living area. If not, you might wish to consider removing or relocating an existing wall to open up the space.
Open Plan Kitchen in Willoughby: Case Study

Our clients in Willoughby wanted to create an inviting atmosphere in their home. So we developed an open concept kitchen in their desired style of simple, modern and sleek. The end result is a kitchen that promotes a warm and welcoming atmosphere while being functional and practical.
What makes an Open Plan Kitchen Design?
Kitchen Island Bench
In this kitchen design we made the island bench act as the focal point of the space. The space in which the eye is naturally most drawn to. The island bench is not only a feature to be looked at but very practical for everyday use. It acts as a preparation area, breakfast bar as well as creating space for additional storage underneath which comes in handy in this mid-sized kitchen.
Benchtop and Cabinetry
The benchtops in this particular kitchen design are made from Caesarstone. Caesarstone is a man-made manufactured quartz stone that is durable providing its surface with exceptional properties of heat, stain, scratch and chip resistance.
The cabinetry has a Polyurethane finish (also called two-pack) in a light grey and a charcoal tone for the island bench.
Practicality
As well as creating a beautiful kitchen design practicality must also be implemented. In an open concept kitchen, the elevated dishwasher goes easy on the back while packing and unpacking the dishes. Therefore creating a beautiful looking kitchen while also making an everyday task very simple.
Lighting

Kitchens can sometimes come across as hard and harsh due to the abundance of hard surfaces. All this means is that you need to create more atmosphere. In this design we added texture in the shape of Abaca pendant lights to hang above the striking island bench. They are a beautiful texture adding lots of warmth to the space. The light globe adds a soft glow as well as the organic shape of the pendants creating character in the form of free flowing art.
These are all great elements that go into creating a great kitchen design.
If you have any questions about your open plan kitchen design, please call me on 0434 498 450 or email to martina@martinahayes.com.au. If you prefer, you can also this contact form.