5 Tips for Designing a Kitchen for Empty Nesters

The kids have finally moved out, so it’s time to splash out!

Hooray, no more school lunches! Create the kitchen you’ve always dreamed of, create features to make entertaining easy and treat yourself with what’s more important now – wine fridges, espresso machines, amazingly clever ovens and ice-maker fridges. With 12 years experience, Jag Kitchens can bring to life your design ideas and install your ultimate dream kitchen.

Here are 5 top tips to consider to create the kitchen of your dreams:

1. Splash out and Spend the Kids Inheritance

The hustle and bustle of raising children creates wear and tear on any kitchen – is it time to give yours a new lease of life? It’s your time of life now, so enjoy it. Splash out on the things that make your life easy and enjoyable – without needing too much consideration for small sticky fingers.

Invest in a well-designed kitchen, specially tailored to your needs and quality appliances that will stand the test of time. This will make day to day meal preparation and entertaining easy.

Where possible try to open up the space to create a kitchen that flows well and is ‘entertainer friendly’. A wine fridge is a nice luxury to add if space permits, and will keep your special purchases in top condition for longer.

2. Keep it Kid Friendly

Whether it’s a long visit or short, the kids usually come back home at some point – and often with their own children, so it’s a good idea to keep the design workable and as kid friendly as possible.

A bar with barstools doubles both for entertaining guests and visiting children. Keeping glassware up higher makes it accessible for friends but not the little people. These are just two design elements you may want to consider.

3. Design for your new lifestyle

Your new care-free lifestyle means you will have more opportunities to entertain friends and family. Make it effortless by considering some of the clever mechanisms that maximise storage in corners or allow shelves to move right out of the cabinetry for great access. All of these save bending (and often even stretching).

Your guests will love helping themselves in your new kitchen just to test these new ideas out. Allow space for a well-placed wine or bar fridge for your guests to help themselves. These keep your beverages at the ideal temperature.

Consider adding a showpiece feature – special lighting, an exquisite benchtop or a feature splashback would all add that wow factor. Express your creativity, make your home more modern and enjoy showing off the new modern space we can tailor make just for you.

4. An opportunity to declutter

Now is a good time to declutter – how often are you going to be baking and cooking for a crowd now? Often those previously invaluable kitchen gadgets are no longer needed – the milkshake maker, the pie maker, now cluttering up your cupboards and haven’t been used in years. Investing in a modern kitchen allows you the opportunity to rethink and review whether to keep those underused gadgets. These can go to the next Bric-a-Brac sale , or consider donating them to a New Zealand family in need.

5. Utilise Technology

Designing a new modern kitchen is an ideal time to utilise technology to maximise your free time and help make entertaining and life in general a breeze.

Utilise the latest in cooking technology and where you can, have us built it in for you. Dish drawers are efficient space savers, the new ovens have fantastic features, induction hobs are amazingly fast, safe and responsive, whilst steam ovens cook an amazing array of dishes in often half the time. To see how easy it can be check out Fisher and Paykel’s kitchen range here.

The beauty of choosing Jag Kitchens is that our experienced designers know what works and what doesn’t – and can help you make choices you can be confident in to give you your dream kitchen. We’ll be beside you all the way – turning your dream into reality!