While most designers would recommend an open kitchen for a small New York apartment, those who love to entertain at home might prefer a closed kitchen instead. When you live in a small space with an open floor plan, everything is exposed in plain view and when you’re busy prepping and cooking meals for a dinner party, an open floor plan can be huge disadvantage. You’d naturally want to conceal the mess in your kitchen and keep the smell of food from enveloping your entire home. While the smell of food cooking will most certainly entice your guests, they probably don’t want to come out with the smell of dinner all over their clothes. If you want to close off your kitchen without making your apartment look even smaller, the following ideas might help you out when you undergo kitchen remodeling:
Consider Large Sliding Doors
Installing sliding doors that open up to your kitchen is perhaps one of your most versatile options for closing off an open floor plan. You can close off the doors when you’re preparing meals and don’t want to be disturbed by kids running around or if you want to conceal the mess inside when you have guests over and leave it open when you want to enjoy the feel of an open floor plan. If you have provisions for sliding doors, you probably won’t need to undergo complete kitchen remodeling, as you can just have the doors added on its own but if this addition requires a major change in your kitchen’s layout, then calling an expert in might be a good idea.
Conceal the Work Area
If you don’t want to completely close off your kitchen, you can opt instead to just conceal the parts where you do most of the work while preparing meals and leave the neater parts open. This way, you won’t have to worry about exposing the mess when you have guests over.
Consider Glass Enclosures
Want to keep the smell of food cooking from getting out of the kitchen but still want the feel of an open floor plan? Opt for glass wall enclosures or doors instead. This way, you can still get enough natural light in during the day.
Kitchen Island Bar
If you want to keep your open floor plan but you still want to conceal the mess when preparing meals, you can opt for raising a part of your kitchen island to keep focus away from the mess on your counters. The raised area can also double as a breakfast counter or kitchen bar.
Most of these ideas don’t entail major kitchen remodeling, as you can easily incorporate them in your main kitchen’s design to increase functionality and keep your kitchen’s aesthetic appeal.