Being able to entertain friends and have people over is one of the greatest joys of adulthood. When you have your own home, getting everyone together to enjoy food and drink makes for some amazing times. One of the rooms to really focus on if you like entertaining is the kitchen. So whether you’re completely renovating your kitchen or just looking to spruce up and update what you have, here are some awesome features you should consider.
Wine Storage
It’s always handy to have wine in the home. If you’re throwing an impromptu dinner party, you have a couple of bottles ready to go, or if you need a last minute gift for a friend, you’re all set. Plus it’s nice to relax with a glass every now and again, especially sat out in the garden in the evening now the weather has warmed up! So a good place to store it all is essential. If you’re planning your kitchen and have a little nook that’s a little too small to fit another cupboard, a wine fridge would be the perfect option. The ideal place to keep your white and rose wine chilled along with a cheeky bottle of champagne or two to pop open whenever a time to celebrate crops up! To store red wine, a wine rack would work well. Again you could consider having this built as part of the kitchen in the design process. You’ll always be ready to entertain and host friends.
A Plumbed Fridge Freezer
Making ice is a pain, you splash yourself while filling up the trays then have to balance it somewhere in the freezer without sloshing it everywhere. Plus the average ice cube tray only makes a few cubes so not exactly ideal. A fridge freezer with an ice and water machine which is plumbed into the main supply gives you a never ending supply of ice and cold water. They usually come with a big drawer which the ice falls into, so you’re never running out, and there’s no hassle of refilling. A company like http://www.plumberrozelle.com.au could install this within a couple of hours, maybe less depending on the main plumbing in your kitchen is located. When you’re hosting a party, it just ensures everyone has plenty of ice for their drinks!
An Island
If you have the space for it in your kitchen, an island is such a fantastic feature. It’s a great informal place for the family to eat breakfast and is great for guests to sit when you’re throwing a get-together or dinner party. Modern dinner parties are far less formal than they once were, so having your guests in the kitchen when you cook is widely accepted and actually the preferred style. It gives you additional storage, and you can have an extra hob or sink installed in it too. Great for busy family life as well as entertaining.
Light and Bright
When you have a lot of people over, you want the room to feel as spacious, airy and inviting as possible. Along with your overhead lights you could have some LED strip lights installed under cupboards and along kick boards. If possible, large glass sliding doors will flood the space with natural light- and having skylights installed will brighten the space further. At the very least, you could look into having your kitchen window made bigger if the room feels a little dark and dingy. Another way to maximize the space in any room is to paint it a light color. You won’t go far wrong with plain white, you can always accessorize it with a fun color if you feel it looks a little stark.
Open Concept
Speaking of light, bright and spacious, one of the best ways to achieve this is by making the space open plan. It allows you to have friends over without feeling cramped between a few separate rooms. Plus this is the preferred style of living now, so making your home open plan will make it more valuable if you come to sell. You may need to knock down a wall or two, it’s a big job but well worth it. Speak to an architect or builder to see if it’s possible, in some cases walls are supporting walls, meaning it’s an even bigger job to remove them. You may need to add things like beams to ensure the house remains stable, so always speak to a professional rather than try to remove them yourself.
Cool Appliances
The best appliances will make your job far easier in the kitchen, especially if you’re hosting a crowd. A double oven, for example, is ideal for making large meals. A good quality coffee machine is another kitchen gadget that’s always going to go down well with guests. The pods you buy ensure a perfect cup every time, so stock up on lots of different varieties. If you invest in things like coffee syrups and things you can make a proper coffee shop style drink to really impress your guests. A stand mixer such as the KitchenAid will allow you to whip up fantastic cakes and baked goods, these would work well for afternoon tea style parties which are especially nice now we are into spring and summer. Even features like a pasta arm or a boiling water tap make cooking and preparing food that bit quicker and easier if you’re putting together a bit of a feast.
These upgrades will not only make your home more practical for the family and day to day life but whenever you have friends over entertaining will be a breeze too. Whether you’re hosting a barbecue, a birthday party, a cocktail party or a dinner party your guests are sure to love hanging out at your place.
Do you entertain at home very often? What kinds of things would your dream kitchen include for hosting guests?
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