CHOOSING APPLIANCES FOR THE KITCHEN
Your kitchen has to be functional and a fun place to work. The right appliances can help you with that.
Use our 5 tips to find the best appliances for your kitchen.
5 TIPS FOR CHOOSING HOME APPLIANCES
Choosing the right appliances is absolutely essential for enjoying your kitchen. We have gathered our knowledge and experience into 5 tips for choosing new appliances – whether for your current kitchen or for a brand new one.
1. Choose appliances that match your needs
Do you live on the move, taking a quick cup of coffee in the morning and holding parties on weekends? Or do you have a family, with lots of traffic in the kitchen and a fully stocked fridge?
Life is constantly on the move and needs change, but before you choose appliances it is a good idea to think about what you need most in the kitchen. This allows you to prioritise your appliance budget and cover your needs in the best possible way.
2. Get smart kitchen helpers
If you want to make daily life simpler and more comfortable, you can choose intelligent appliances. Whether you want appliances from Siemens, AEG or Miele, you can choose beautiful and clever solutions that you can control from your mobile.
For example – a dishwasher that tells you when to buy new tablets, a cooker and cooker hood that talk to each other, or a refrigerator that can send you a picture when you are at the supermarket and cannot remember if you need milk.
3. Keep your old appliances, or buy new ones?
If you already have appliances, you might consider whether you can re-use them. Be aware of the size of your current appliances, as you might have to adapt your new kitchen to your old appliances.
You often cannot re-use appliances if you want integrated appliances behind kitchen doors. You should also consider power consumption, as new appliances use significantly less power than appliances that are even just a few years old.
Conversely, you save money in the present moment by re-using your appliances, and help reduce resource consumption.
4. Positioning appliances
Think about how to get a good workflow in the kitchen. Make use of the work triangle. This is an invisible line between the sink, hob and refrigerator that forms a triangle. The sum of the sides should not exceed five metres when designing your kitchen.
Consider whether you want your oven under the hob as a classic cooker, or built-in at a good working height. Many people want their oven at worktop height, but if you have a small kitchen, this should not be at the expense of worktop space. You should have at least three metres of worktop you can work at.
Remember also that it is best to place the sink and dishwasher side by side.
5. CHECK THE NOISE LEVEL OF YOUR APPLIANCES
Many of us turn our back on the events of a busy day when we begin preparing dinner. So always take note of the noise level of the cooker hood, dishwasher and refrigerator so that talk is not drowned out by the sound of your appliances.
If you live in a small apartment, or the appliances are in a combined kitchen/dining room, the sound of appliances can be annoying beyond the kitchen itself. Here you need to pay special attention to the noise level. Appliances with a noise level of around 40-60 dB are considered silent.
YOUR KITCHEN APPLIANCES SHOULD FIT THE STYLE OF YOUR KITCHEN
When choosing appliances, you must also decide whether they should be integrated or visible. The two solutions give the kitchen a different look:
