Tips On Modular Kitchen Design And Materials.

Next step after constructing a house or buying a flat is to convert it into a home. A place were we would like to come home to,after a long and tiring day. For some of us like me own home should have the furniture,furnishings and appliances of particular choice. And its then setting up a home becomes a real challenge. Here am going to give out all the tips,ideas and some facts I learned on setting up your own home.

Modular kitchen : 90% of urban homes have modular kitchen.For me any kitchen with cabinets,chimeny and a hob was of the category modular. Little did i know the difference between modular and just like modular kitchens. A modular kitchen has drawers or baskets,special units like cutlery tray/thali unit/cup and saucer unit/corner units etc,bottle pullouts, flap doors for upper storage,grain trolley for storing grains.Also all appliances have fixed place.We wont have just one or two plugs and then take whichever is reuired and plug in for use. MW oven, mixer grinder,dishwasher,toaster,fridge all have fixed places in kitchen.But ofcourse the number of appliances we keep in our kitchen depend on the space we have plus the amount we would like to spend.

Once you decide to put in modular kitchen for you next step is to identify the ply to use in kitchen. Best one to go for is water proof marine ply (BWR 300).Now to cover the ply we have different options like veneer,laminate and membrane. Veneer looks like our real wood but is not recommended in kitchen as its not water friendly.Next is laminate ,which is opted by most due to lesser cost and easy maintenance.Laminate itself has 3different varieties(as per my knowledge)- glossy finish,matte finish and wood grain.Guess you got to know how is their appearance from the name itself.Membrane is the best I liked is membrane, the edges are very fine ,kind of curvy.But all carpenters wont do this as there is a risk of bubbles getting caught inside if he is not an expert on that.

Next in line is selecting a layout and design.Layout of your kitchen depends on the plan of kitchen.L,one wall,U,parallel are the different layouts.
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image courtesy : http://www.archiq.net

Depending on the space in your kitchen you can decide if you need an island or not.Once the layout is selected, we can choose a suitable design.Its easy to design a modular kitchen since most will be units,drawers,pull outs.

While choosing a design/appliances a few things to keep in your mind are:
1.whether you are left/right handed.
2.Place your bottle pull out on the left side if you are a left handed person and on right otherwise.
3.Place cutlery tray,basket and thali unit below your cooktop as its easy to get your utensils while cooking.
4.I have got more positive reviews for cooktops rather than hobs.
5.If you cook non veg in home go for any chimney whose suction capacity is 1000cmh.Else <1000cmh will suffice.
6.If you are placing oven inside a built-in unit,get the exact measure of MW oven you want to buy.
7.Your sink,cooktop and fridge should be in a triangle.The shorter the base of triangle the more time you save while cooking.

PS: Will post more tips if I remember any more.