“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” - Steve Jobs
I call kitchen fittings and fixtures the functional ingredients that design your cook space to suit your style and needs.
When put together either in the home kitchen environment or a commercial kitchen, they render your space-efficient, elevate your mood and pack a punch into your space.
Ok, we know that every room in your house is important and deserves special treatment. However, considering the nature of tasks the kitchen performs, tags it the most functional room of a home and that's precisely what fittings and fixtures do. They smoothen up the sundry kitchen operations and keep it organized and going.
How does one figure out the difference between fittings and fixtures? It's simple. Fixtures are items that are attached to your kitchen. Or let me put it this way. Kitchen fixtures are the fastened equipment used for food preparation at home or in restaurant kitchens. The following elements encompass kitchen fixtures:
Faucets
Ovens
Microwaves
Sinks
Cabinets
Kitchen Islands
Hoods
Most modern kitchens, especially the modular-based models come pre-equipped with the above fixtures.
On the other hand, fittings refer to those items that are not attached unless by a screw or nail. Check out the equipment below:
Drawer systems,
Organizers
Lift-up solutions
Pull-outs
Tall units
Pantries
Corner solutions
The above concepts are termed kitchen fittings.
The following extract depicts the distinct roles these elements play together to give a meaningful structure to your kitchen. Let us start with kitchen fittings:
Kitchen Fittings
Baking a cake for your friends? Nothing can be more exasperating than having to wade through your kitchen cupboard to find the needed utensils and ingredients to bake it! You can have the best-looking kitchen with exotic appliances under the sun but if you can't find your stuff while on your culinary trip, it's a complete waste. The lesson of the day? The importance of storage in the kitchen cannot be emphasized enough. The following fittings help to meet your storage needs as they simultaneously wake up your kitchen.
Drawer Systems
Storage continues to be the topmost priority in every kitchen design with drawers taking the foremost position in this regard.
Drawers whether modular or customized form an integral part of a given kitchen design as they provide you with a score of storage options. There are deep as well as shallow drawers to take care of the sundry storage.
Drawers with well-defined internal organization systems accommodate differential storage like bulky pots, pans, and cutlery. Also, organizer trays are available that fit smugly in these drawers. These trays serve as drawer accessories to store miscellaneous items that you may need while cooking. Besides, you can also opt for drawers with wire baskets that contain inserts for plates, thalis, etc.
Many reputable brands offer a multitude of modular drawer systems that incorporate a broad range of customizable design options. These drawers provide ample storage other than adding style and substance to your space.
Drawer systems with a pallete of innovative design options are a pick of the bunch for your kitchen. Besides, the brands come with an extensive range of drawer accessories to meet multifarious kitchen needs.
Lift-up Solutions
The lift-up cabinet mechanism may be defined as a system wherein the doors of your kitchen cabinet open and fold upwards. More and more customers are looking for easy-access storage in their kitchens. Lift-up system is a huge hit in modern kitchens with its contemporary charm and easy retrieval of items.
Where traditional cabinets require enough space to open and also obstruct the adjacent cabinets and shelves in the process, the lift-up cabinets simply fold up and out of the way. The fittings are especially useful for smaller kitchens where they save up the much-needed space as they store.
Lift-up solutions by Blum, Hettich, and Ebco bring functionality and style together for a satiating kitchen experience.
Pull-outs
Pull-out storage is basically cabinet storage that's either attached to the cabinet door or the front of the drawer. The storage can be opened with a single motion as you open the cabinet. These cabinet organizers are pretty sought after for a number of reasons.
One, they make your retrieving of stuff super convenient (compare it to the experience of scrabbling around in the back of the cupboard), secondly, they help to keep your stored products sorted and classified, and last but not least, they snazz up your kitchen!
You can find pull-outs in a wide range of designs. You have pull-out storage for bottles, pans, cooking boards, and knives including small appliances.
Brands like Kaff, Ikea, Ebco, and Hettich are known for their broad ranging-high quality pull-out systems.
Tall Units
I call tall units or larders what kitchen dreams are made up of! On top of that, you don't even need loads of space to slip the unit into your design scheme. The tall unit cupboards give you enough food storage and fit seamlessly into your kitchen interiors fostering a minimalistic look in the kitchen interiors. Those with storage racks on the inner sides of the cabinet doors are the ones that work best at giving you a place to group like things together easing your culinary load.
That said, having a tall unit frees up your counter space leaving you enough space to cook. Since the idea is to place all your groceries together, it will relieve the other cabinets of the load they may have been carrying so far.
Kessebohmer, Ebco, and Hettich are a few reputable brands in this product segment.
Corner Units
Want to maximize storage in your kitchen without compromising on aesthetics?
If so, then it's time to deco your kitchen corners with corner units. They use up the dead corners with differentially styled corner structures that you can use to store your crockery, cutlery, cooking appliances and so much more. What is most appealing about these units is that not only do they create storage space with easy access but also add subtle design accents to your kitchen.
For example, the magic corner-the corner storage system with roll-out shelves provides easy access to the contents stored in the kitchen counter's blind corner besides lending the structure numerous organizing possibilities.
Godrej, Hettich, Spitze, Kaff, and Ozone are the leading brands that bring you corner solutions in a variety of features and finishes.
Kitchen Fixtures
Fixtures are probably the hardest working elements in your kitchen. Consider the number of times you use your sink and the dishwasher in a day. With technology progressing by leaps and bounds, choosing the right fixtures for your kitchen can be overwhelming. Make sure that you opt for products that are both functional and in harmony with the rest of your decor. You will find below a selection of fixtures from high-tech to the classic versions in matte or gloss finish that you can try out:
Faucets
Touchless kitchen faucets continue to seek attention. The reasons may be attributed to a growing sense of hygiene other than a penchant for hands-free technology. In addition to hands-free faucets, voice-enabled faucets and pull-down faucets too have caught on.
Smart faucets let you control the water temperature and much more. For instance, touchless faucets embrace IR sensors that turn on the water as soon as you bring your hand near the sensor. Voice-enabled faucets are a perfect instance of smart technology where you control the faucets using voice commands. Although pull-down faucets aren't exactly smart, they help you to wash away stuff by pulling down easily the spray head which wasn't possible earlier.
Try black faucets for a richer warmer feel in place of the traditional stainless steel. It will add visual interest to your kitchen interiors.
Delta Faucets, Kohler, Moen, and Kraus are the go-to brands for the best kitchen faucets.
Sinks
Sinks are the most important work zones in any kitchen. When selected carefully, they can be the focal point of your kitchen. A huge variety of sinks are available in the market to choose from. Though it is usual to see single bowl sinks in kitchens, do not hesitate to resort to double and triple bowls if needed. For instance, compact kitchens ask for single bowls while spacious cook rooms are perfect for double bowl sinks. Triple bowl sinks are available with two huge bowls on both sides as well as a narrow bowl in the center.
Double bowl sinks are pretty popular as they are multifunctional. They let you prepare food and wash dishes in the same go. They come in a variety of configurations enabling you to pick your choice from various basin sizes and depths. Kitchen sinks are available in materials like stainless steel, natural stone viz cudappah, copper, cast iron, porcelain, marble, or granite other than the trending composite sinks.
Kohler, Crocodile, Jindal, Futura, Kaff, Franke, Hindware, Nirali, Roca, and Cera India are the leading sink brands that bring you the best quality products that complement the best of designs.
Kitchen Islands
As the name suggests, kitchen islands are located in the center of the kitchen. Because of their strategic location, they tend to be the focal point of any kitchen. However, a perfect island needs to be hardworking; provide storage and enough counter space in addition to seating.
An island can do loads for your kitchen. It serves as an extension of the work surface and dining area, anchors the space, and as mentioned above, can embrace lots of storage other than be a stunning addition amplifying the style quotient of your culinary space.
That said, you can also have an open island for a suave minimal appeal. Imbibe drawers, cabinets, open shelves, and plenty of storage add ons to the island to keep your den uncluttered and organized.
Microwave Oven/Convection Oven Combination
All those looking for greater functionality are increasingly switching to these ovens. And they have valid reasons for the preference. For instance, a convection oven can beat a traditional unit with a flexible cooking solution that combines both micro oven and traditional oven into a single product. Microwave/ Convection ovens not only cook food quickly but also bake, broil, fry meat, roast, and microwave, all with the same unit.
We place Godrej, IFB, Samsung, Philips, and Whirlpool at the top of our list for the best microwave/convection ovens available in the market.
Kitchen Cabinets
Kitchen cabinets form the framework of your kitchen and are often referred to as carcasses. Whether your kitchen sports a classic style or a contemporary one, the cabinets always take the center stage. They are essentially the built-in furniture in a kitchen. Their role is to provide storage for food items, cookware, utensils, and china. We call them fixtures as most modern kitchens have them pre-designed and pre-fabricated as a part of the kitchen structure. Kitchen cabinetry is designed to accommodate different kitchen layouts and styles.
Since homeowners connect with their kitchen cabinets very often, it's important to have cabinets designed in a manner that blends style with functionality to suit the homeowner. They are available in a plethora of colors and textures.
The major modular kitchen brands include Godrej Interio, Ebco, Haecker, Johnson Kitchens, Kohler, Evok, IFB, Hettich,and sleek.
Range Hoods
Also known as an oven hood or exhaust hood, a range hood is a device that makes use of evacuation and filtration of the air to get rid of the grease, smoke, fumes, and heat left after cooking in your culinary space. These hoods are used in both residential as well as commercial kitchens. In the case of commercial kitchens, the hoods are more than often combined with fire suppression devices to put out the grease fire fumes quickly and to vent the place at the earliest. Standard hoods may be installed 18 to 24 inches above the cooking platform whereas high capacity hoods may be installed 24 to 30 inches above the cooking surface.
Faber, Elica, Glen, Kaff, Whirlpool, and Hindware are a few amongst the many popular picks for the best brands in the market in this segment.
Microwaves
Though we all are familiar with the device, let's try and define the same. A microwave refers to an electric oven that makes use of electromagnetic radiation already set in the oven frequency range to heat and cook food quickly. It is popularly used to reheat cooked food. However, a microwave cannot fry, brown, or caramelize the way a conventional oven does. Size-wise, microwaves vary from 25x46x36 cm for smaller models to 36x61x51 cm for bigger ovens.
Godrej, IFB, Samsung, Whirlpool, Panasonic, Haier, Morphy Richards, LG, and Bajaj are a few big names with a reputation for manufacturing the best micro ovens.
Other than the ones discussed so far, kitchen fixtures include dishwashers, sink drains, water tanks, garbage disposals, tables, and wine racks.
The Kitchen Triangle
No matter what fittings and fixtures you imbibe in your residential or commercial kitchen, it's imperative to follow the kitchen triangle rule for practical reasons. The rule necessitates positioning the three most important elements in any kitchen-the fridge, the cooktop, and the sink in a triangle. The idea is that by placing these three entities in a triangle- you cut down on foot traffic, enhance the work comfort and be safe when working with sharp or steaming hot items.
The Conclusion
Kitchens are the heart of a home where fittings and fixtures are the essential elements of your Cucina. The elements you choose for your kitchen will decide how functional and aesthetic your cooking space will turn out to be. A little deliberation and planning beforehand will go a long way to bring out the best in your cooking space.
That's because each one of us interprets our space differently. For instance, how you perceive your kitchen, your needs, your expectations from your space and most importantly, the space available to realise these factors will eventually decide the blueprint of your aspired kitchen.
So that at the end of the day, you have a den that's functionally savvy, trendy, and one that ends up being a comfort zone for yourself and your family that's sure to last for years. You know what they say, “Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.''
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