Today’s kitchen is part of the living space, often incorporates an indoor-outdoor flow and day to day family life revolves around it.

As more and more kitchens are unshackled from the confines of four walls and let loose into open plan designs, they are becoming the central point for family and guests. 

Below are some top tips on designing a kitchen that’s great for all occasions.

The space

The best kitchens for entertaining have plenty of space with the kitchen and dining areas opening up to living rooms and alfresco areas. Incorporating your dining area allows you to cook and spend time with your guests and many modern kitchens include a dining area instead of having the two separated.


Kitchen island benchtops

A kitchen island bench gives you plenty of work space, storage space and is ideal for those big family gatherings. Kitchen islands are an easy, effective way to increase your bench space and can be used to house a sink and dishwasher or even an oven and cook top.

The island benchtop can be used in place of the family dining table for relaxed dinners, or when entertaining guests they can enjoy a glass of wine and a chat while you prepare.

Wine racks

Incorporating wine racks into your kitchen helps to keep people away from where you are cooking and invites people to help themselves to drinks. Check out our kitchen gallery for some examples.


The working triangle

When planning the layout of your kitchen, try and focus on functionality and the positioning of sinks, ovens, cook tops and refrigerators in relation to each other. This makes it easier to move around a busy kitchen, which is essential when entertaining! The working triangle is a good tool to assist you in your planning – for more information visit our kitchen layouts page.


The finish

Installing plenty of kitchen cabinets gives you the storage to hide appliances away and creates more space when you have guests around for dinner.

Lastly, finish your kitchen with soft close hardware and eliminate unnecessary slamming of doors and drawers.


Check out our kitchen gallery and note down some of your favourite ideas before using our 3D kitchen planner to design your next kitchen.

+Shangju kitchen