Cooking up a treat

Well-designed kitchens can make a massive difference to the value and appeal of any development. CID talks to the experts to formulate a recipe for successful kitchen design.

As one of the key social spaces in a project, a kitchen can make a vital difference to a prospective client, potentially acting as a deal breaker. As a result, designing a kitchen that truly meets a client’s needs is becoming increasingly important.

However, with the changing nature of the modern kitchen, creating a truly attractive cooking space now requires considerably more planning than simply selecting beautiful units.

“In the past, the kitchen served a utilitarian role where people gathered for the basic purpose of cooking and eating. The kitchen will continue to be a central gathering place in the future, but on a more social level. For example, it has become the room of choice to entertain guests, featuring all the equipment you need,” said Anamika Priyadarshi, retail manager for Better Life, which distributes SieMatic kitchens.

As a result, it is becoming increasingly important for developers to ensure that a kitchen is designed as a ‘feature’, a selling point in itself. Experts recommend the use of well-known brands as a way of increasing the appeal of a kitchen design, since brands can act as a guarantee of quality, something which may have been lacking previously.

“The market has evolved and people are more educated with regards to quality, both in the material and the design. Putting bad or inappropriate products in a project that titles itself as ‘luxurious’ is in many cases no longer accepted by clients,” said Kathryn Pratley, project manager of Kitchens and Beyond.

“Both the bathroom fixtures and the kitchen are the main elements of apartments and houses – if the developer uses brands, the client immediately connects a certain level of quality to the overall product,” she suggested.

“Budgets are constantly going up, mostly in the high-end sector, as it’s no longer possible to sell luxury estate with ‘no name’ interior components, as was previously the case in the Gulf,” agreed Daniel Gianni, brand manager for Bulthaup distributor Al Tayer.

Some kitchen designs can spend several years in development, such as the PWS Metris kitchen, which was distributed in the UAE by Permaglaze after two years of research and development.

READERS' COMMENTS

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM