Kitchens are much more than just a place to cook. And if you enjoy hosting and sharing your home with guests, you’ll no doubt want to capitalise on your kitchen’s potential to elevate entertaining. Here at John Ladbury, we’ve helped hundreds of clients transform their kitchens into beautiful and versatile spaces for cooking, socialising, and relaxing. From multifunctional islands to luxurious wine chillers, there are plenty of elegant and practical design features available to help you create the perfect space to dazzle friends and delight your family. Below, we’ll explore these options in more detail.
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7 Design Features To Elevate Entertaining
An Open Kitchen Layout
In the past, kitchens were kept separate from our living and dining spaces. However, if you love socialising and hosting, you may want to consider opting for an open-concept layout. As well as allowing you to prepare drinks and meals whilst chatting with your guests, going open plan will make your space feel much airier and more inviting. To ensure your new layout works for you and your guests, there are a few things to take into account. Firstly, you’ll want to think about dedicating different areas of your room to different uses. For example, you might want to include a casual seating zone, a formal dining area, a dedicated food prep surface, a cooking space, or somewhere to prepare drinks. Next, you’ll need to assess how these zones interact. They should be arranged in a way that promotes a practical flow so that, whether you’re cooking for your family or sharing a bottle of wine with friends, everyone can enjoy your kitchen safely and comfortably.
A Versatile Kitchen Island
Incorporating an island into your design is a great way to improve the layout and flow of your kitchen. It can help establish a boundary between your cooking and social areas, encouraging guests to gather and relax and preventing them from getting under your feet. Islands also offer a fantastic place to position appliances. Installing a hob on your island can make hosting so much easier, allowing you to socialise without taking your eye off those hot pans. An island can even make the perfect place to serve nibbles or starters. Providing plenty of storage, worktop space, and the potential to introduce seating, islands offer an excellent way to elevate entertaining and enhance your kitchen.
Plenty Of Seating
From being ushered out of the way by your host who’s frantically trying to find utensils to having someone awkwardly squeeze past you mid-conversation en route to the bathroom, mingling, glass of wine in hand, doesn’t always feel quite as effortlessly chic and sophisticated as perhaps it should. Incorporating casual seating into your design is a great way to put your guests at ease. Adding a breakfast bar to your island is one option. Alternatively, banquette seating makes an excellent comfy choice. Seating has the added benefit of enhancing a range of other occasions such as home working or having lunch with the kids.
Practical Yet Stylish Worktops
The last thing you need to be doing when catering to a crowd is running around asking everyone to use coasters. Investing in durable and stain-resistant worktops means you won’t have to worry about watermarks or red wine rings ruining your surfaces. Instead, you can focus on making sure everyone has a great time. Non-porous materials offer the best stain resistance. These include quartz and solid surface products such as Corian and Dekton. When properly sealed, granite is also highly durable and stain resistant.
Ingenious Appliances
Kitchen technology is always evolving, and these days, there are plenty of innovative appliances available to help make hosting much easier. Here are just a few appliances that really come into their own when entertaining. A luxurious wine cooler is a real must. Not only will it add a glamorous touch to your space, but it will also free up room in your fridge for those entertaining essentials. Boiling water taps have significantly grown in popularity in recent years. As well as speeding up everyday tasks, they can make cooking for guests and preparing after-dinner drinks quicker and safer. If you regularly enjoy a post-meal beverage, a built-in coffee machine could also make a great addition to your kitchen. Another appliance set up well worth considering is an island-mounted induction hob. When paired with a discreet and efficient extraction system, you can chat and cook until your heart’s content. Plus, you don’t have to worry about the dangers of a burning hot cooktop!
A Luxurious Drinks Cabinet
Who wouldn’t love the opportunity to impress guests with a stunning custom-made cocktail cabinet? Complete with integrated LED lighting and removable walnut serving trays, the beautiful bespoke mirrored drinks cabinet below undeniably took our client’s Cheshunt kitchen to the next level. It makes a stunning centrepiece to any celebration.
Atmospheric Lighting
Creating a sophisticated and relaxing ambience is essential when inviting guests into your home. And, of course, lighting is key to achieving that sumptuous and cosy mood. Soft accent lighting, such as undercabinet, plinth, or internal cabinet lights, can help establish a beautiful, inviting atmosphere. Pendant lights can also add a real wow factor to your space, allowing you to build up different layers of lighting for a stylish, glowing look.
Whether your summer calendar is chock-a-block with BBQs and dinner parties, or you prefer to take turns hosting family get-togethers throughout the year, incorporating a few entertaining must-haves into your new kitchen is a fantastic way to enhance your space. If you have any questions or wish to discuss your upcoming project, please feel free to get in touch. You can contact us by calling 01707 262966 or emailing sales@johnladbury.co.uk.