Child Friendly Kitchen Design Cooking with your kids can be a really fun and rewarding experience. It’s also a great way to teach them about cooking, sharing, cleaning up and responsibilities and more. If you have kids and you want to make a more child friendly kitchen, there are a few design options you should be considering when it comes to your kitchen remodeling project. For additional advice on building a child friendly kitchen please read below and if you are looking for a top kitchen contractor for a kitchen remodeling project in Dunwoody there are many great contractors for you to choose from.
Child Friendly Materials Most people will agree that when it comes to materials, there are ones that are not child friendly and ones that ARE. You will want to stick to the ones that are, mostly because they are prone to less scratches, dents, things breaking, etc. For example, engineered stone counter tops tend to be scratch and stain resistant. Or darker wood for your cabinets – a darker wood is going to conceal more dirt, but its also going to conceal things like light dents as well. For flooring you might want to think about linoleum. This is flooring that has changed quite a lot over the years in terms of style. There are many colors and designs to choose from AND its shock absorbent which means if a plate falls to the ground, it’s less likely to break the plate and wont break the flooring than something like tile. When something is dropped on tile, marble, granite even wood, you can guarantee the plate will break, but it can also nick, tear, break, crack and splinter those other materials. Counter Heights Most kitchens are not designed with kids in mind. The counters tend to be pretty high, much too high for a kid, let alone a smaller child to be able to reach them. A standard
counter tends to be 36 inches tall – pretty perfect for adults. But, when ordering your cabinets, why not consider something lower, about 6 inches lower. Obviously you don’t want ALL the cabinets to be this size – where would you work! But, you can make it so certain parts are lower so you and your child can both cook comfortably. Storage Another thing most parents will agree on is that certain tools in the kitchen just aren’t for kids. At least for now. For example, that processor with the really sharp blades, those Korean knives you got last year for Christmas, etc. These might be things you don’t want your kids to touch, for now. For these things it’s a good idea to create storage up high – very high, so that they have no chance of touching them. You can create floor to ceiling cabinets – the lower parts can be the items you are willing to let them work with, but the higher options can be where certain other items are placed. Once your child gets a little older and you want to teach them to use those items properly, you can begin to bring those down more toward a level they can reach and start putting those child-friendly tools up to the top because they aren’t as useful anymore. Another cool option for storage, especially if you want them to learn things like serving themselves drinks or setting the table (once they get a little older) is to create a cabinet, down low, that is shallow. This way they can reach in to where it’s low enough for them, but also shallow enough to where they don’t have t reach over a lot of items in order to get to their items. You can create a really cool hutch style cabinet specifically for this right under the counter space. Designs and Colors A really great way to create a child friendly design? Get your kids involved in things like colors for the walls, cushions, any cool art work, etc. You might be surprised at just how amazingly creative they can be when it comes to these things. Heck, even if they say something like, I want lime green in the kitchen, there is probably some way – big or small (whatever YOU are comfortable with) to add lime green into the room – accessories and gadgets tend to have colored handles, like garlic presses, spatulas, whisks, etc. Find ones that are lime green. Or make an accent wall lime green if you dare! Let them put a little bit of their personality into the space as well. Maybe they made a really innovative, cool, or artsy picture in school, you can create a collage of their best pictures (according to them!) and place those on the walls or whatever else. Just get them involved and let them make some decisions as well.