Optimise your office kitchen space with these space saving designs

When working in an office, regardless of how large or small the office is, a well-designed kitchen is essential. You need to have adequate space to move around in, but you don’t want to be wasting space. Kitchen design is always important as you’ll want to provide visiting clients with a uniformed look to the entire office as well as making things more comfortable for your staff. A good looking kitchen reflects well on all those involved, particularly in offices where appearances matter.

However it can be hard to find the right balance between a practical and attractive kitchen and an extravagant kitchen. The former is considered professional in business situations, whereas the latter feels a little over the top and may come across as gaudy. By keeping your kitchen style and themes in keeping with the rest of your office as well as providing minimalist features and accessories, you can help to design a functional, fashionable kitchen.

We’ll take a look at four exceptional space saving kitchen designs that have been flawlessly incorporated into their respective companies, and how each style can benefit your business – with the expert advice of interior design specialists.

Minimalist Features

By keeping it simple, you stick to a fundamental design that won’t overwhelm or overcomplicate any other design features of your kitchen. While your home kitchen may be extravagant and elaborate, office and business kitchens need to have form and function, so elegant features and accessories are really unnecessary in this environment. Stick to a simply colour palette; white or cream is always a good option to choose, and blend it with a slightly darker colour so that it doesn’t have a ‘sterilised look’, depending on what style you are going for.

You will also want to invest in minimalist appliances and cabinets, In order to keep the overall style of the kitchen. Many appliances come in a variety of sleek designs, so they are easy to find to decorate your kitchen with. Keep the essentials in mind! Every office kitchen needs a fridge, sink, microwave and kettle.

Slim Kitchens for Slim Offices
Sometimes you can get caught up designing a kitchen before you realise that it may be impractical for your workspace. Slim offices are normally caught out with encroaching kitchens so it is important to consider the width of your kitchen. Kitchens are versatile areas and unless your employees are planning on cooking three course meals at work, they don’t need to take up a lot of space. However they do need to be able to fit several people in the kitchen at once, otherwise you will end up having awful congestion come lunch time.

Take measurements of your current kitchen  area and decide whether or not you can saver any more space by making the kitchen slimmer. Make sure there is still enough room to pull drawers out and open the fridge door, otherwise you might end up with a fairly frustrating kitchen to work with.

Match your Office Décor

There is no use planning a colourful, spotted or patterned kitchen design when your offices are designed to look modern and minimalistic. It is important to make sure that your new kitchen design is in keeping with the layout and the décor of the entire office, otherwise it will look out of place and jarring to any visitors. You can certainly have a kitchen that stands out and is unique, but it is important not to stray too far from the office theme that it becomes ridiculous.

Take tile samples and colour samples with you to the office, or get a professional interior designer to draw up or even create a 3D image of what your new kitchen might look like in your current office. Never leave anything up to chance and always compare samples and pictures as your memory is not perfect. We may have spent years and years in one office, but our minds are programmed to tune out certain details i.e the colour of the walls. One might think they are pale blue when in fact they are a more vivid blue and this is essential when choosing a theme and colour scheme for your new kitchen design.

Adding a Kitchen to an Open Plan Office

In the case of open plan office, space is not always an issue, but it is important to be aware of the space you use. By placing a kitchen in the corner of an open plan office, you eliminate the need for the kitchen to be small and compact and also provide a space accessible to the entire office. Another benefit of having an open plan kitchen is that this discourages people from stealing food (it is an unfortunately common fact).

One downside of having a kitchen in an open plan office is the smell. Some colleagues like to have a tuna sandwich or a boiled egg for lunch and they are well within their rights to do so. However in doing so this can lead to a bad smell pervading throughout the office and this can be quite off-putting. Installing a good ventilation system will help to disperse some of the stronger smells.

If you are unsure on a certain style of kitchen, perhaps taking a vote with your employees might help the situation. After all, chances after your staff will be using the kitchen more often than yourself and they can better advise you on the accessories or features that they would like to see in the new kitchen design.

It may sound strange but ensuring a well-designed and functional kitchen is sure to leave a lasting impression on any potential future employees and business partners, very much like a telephone system or a reception area would also leave an impression. If you reflect quality and professionalism in everything you do including the little design details such as kitchen design and décor, it shows your dedication to detail and quality all round as a company.