The good and bad of an open kitchen

When we bought our apartment, the kitchen and living room was separated by a wall and a sliding glass door.

We decided to knock down the wall separating these 2 areas and remove the sliding door to make our place look brighter and more spacious.

Inspired by a showflat that we visited, we installed a kitchen island with cabinets where the wall used to be. This gives us more working and storage area for our kitchen.

To give the illusion of a bigger space than it actually is, we selected a glossy off-white laminate for the kitchen cabinets and a very white kitchen table top. Our kitchen floor is a dark grey stone. The intention was to give a contrast to all the white that we have.

When we first saw our finished kitchen, we were really pleased. The whole apartment looked a whole lot brighter and bigger.

The good thing about having an open kitchen is that it really makes the whole house look a lot more spacious. And because we have a bright wet area beyond the kitchen, knocking down the walls bring in a lot more light to the house. It is also nice to be able to cook and watch TV at the same time. And when we have guests over, I don't feel left out even if I'm cooking because I get to interact and talk with them whilst slaving in the kitchen.

The bad thing about having an open kitchen is that whenever I fry stuff or worse, deep fry stuff, I kind of have to do a mini "spring-cleaning" after that. The smell from the frying gets to almost everything. I've tried opening all the windows and doors when I cook.. turning on the fan, switching on the electrical kitchen hood (which unfortunately is not that powerful). So far, I find that cleaning up after cooking is still very essential.

Fortunately, I don't cook that very often.

Oh.. I don't regret having an open kitchen. If I get to choose again, I will definitely still choose to do my kitchen the way I've done it. Except, I would probably opt for a more powerful chimney-styled kitchen hood.