- Advice
How to Design a Kitchen That’s Ideal for Entertaining
Besides being a place for food preparation and cooking, your kitchen can be a prime social zone where your friends and family can gather to feast and spend quality time together.
If you frequently entertain guests in your home, or love holding long leisurely dinner parties on the weekends, it’s a good idea to keep these points in mind when designing or remodeling your kitchen. Here are some tips on how to turn this functional area into a space that's fit and fun for gatherings.
Consider an Open Layout
The eye-catching tile backsplash is by Popham Design.
Courtesy of Popham Design
When there’s a crowd in your kitchen, it’s important to ensure that people are comfortable and can move around and mingle with ease. Avoid claustrophobic layouts with tight corners or islands that are placed too close to the walls. A doorless, open-plan kitchen is best, as it creates an inviting and spacious atmosphere.
Create Circulation and Connectivity
The resident of this home wanted to be able to use the space as a fun gathering place for parties, so the architect set a DJ booth at the edge of the kitchen. Custom plywood shelving holds vinyl records.
Photo by Ye Rin Mok
Think about how you and your guests will interact within and around the kitchen. It's important to ensure that people can effortlessly transition from the kitchen to the living room and dining areas, and vice versa. If you have a patio, garden, balcony, or courtyard, site your kitchen next to (or near) these areas so that dining alfresco can be an option. By designing a kitchen with good circulation and connectivity, you won’t have to worry about it being too cramped, as the crowd will naturally spill over to other areas of your home.
Make Sure Your Kitchen Island Is Multifunctional
The open kitchen and living room space provide ample opportunity for entertaining.
Photo: John Clark
As a defining feature in many modern kitchens, the island counter shouldn’t just be a surface for preparing food. When it’s party time, clear out the counter top and bring out some stools so that guests can sit around the island and enjoy their beers and snacks—or even a casual buffet meal.
Shop Our Favorite Kitchen Island Stools
Kartell Masters Bartool
Philippe Starck and Eugeni Quitllet pay homage to three different midcentury-modern masters in one sleek, versatile indoor-outdoor seat. The Masters Barstool (2010) weaves together the back silhouettes of Jacobsen’s Series 7™ Chair, the Eameses’ Molded Shell Chair and Saarinen’s Tulip™ Armchair to create something entirely new. Lightweight and durable, the Masters Barstool has a wide, roomy seat, with a backrest that allows you to feel supported on a historic level as it echoes the lines of the very first ergonomic innovators. The iconoclastic Starck has been working with Kartell since the 1980s, mixing the company’s desire to develop eco-friendly, contemporary plastic furniture with the designer’s unmistakably edgy and innovative style. Made in Italy. Photo Courtesy of Design Within Reach
ShopCherner Stool
Constructed of laminated wood of graduating thicknesses, from 5 ply at the seat edge to 15 ply at the slender waist, the Cherner Stool (1958) possesses exceptional structural strength and dramatic sculptural beauty. It's braced with a solid steel crossbar that also serves as a comfortable footrest. This is the authentic Cherner Stool made by the Cherner Chair Company. Made in U.S.A.
ShopMenu Afteroom Stool
Minimalism maximized. The Afteroom Stool by Menu offers a brilliant combination of simplicity, quality construction and uncompromised comfort. With a round seat, a flexible backrest and a convenient footrest ring, it's perfect for casual dining areas or bars. A choice of colors, upholstery and sizes allows you to customize this contemporary furniture to perfectly suit a space. Menu, headquartered in Denmark, partners with designers to develop and produce a broad assortment of Scandinavian living accessories for the dining room, living room, kitchen, and garden. Photo Courtesy of Menu
ShopAdd a Wet Bar
Shown here is the wet bar in Apartment G, designed by Takenouchi Webb.
Courtesy of Jovian Lim
The merry making isn't complete without refreshments, whether it's cocktails for the adults or homemade lemonade for the little ones. So, consider including a wet bar where guests can linger and chat. Because most wet bars are equipped with storage for glassware as well as a sink, you can wash glasses quicker, which will shorten the waiting time for beverages. It can also be used as a place to make some post-dinner espressos.
Shop Our Picks for Your Wet Bar
Picnic Time Complete Home Bar Set
This bar walks into a box... Some might say you need a pool table, stools aplenty, and 30 different varieties of whiskey to own a bar. We beg to differ: This handsome cherry wood box is everything you’ll need to be your own favorite local hangout. Just prop open the lid and you’ll find (wait for it), nineteen sleek tools, including a stainless steel jigger and a marble cutting board (because what’s a gin and tonic without a wedge of lime?). Set includes: acacia box, cocktail sticks, cocktail stick caddy, Hawthorne strainer, tongs, bar spoon, double-sided jigger, muddler, corkscrew, two-piece Boston shaker, paring knife, bottle opener, ice bucket, mixing glass, and a cutting board.
ShopNathan Yong Line Wine Bar
"I have always been inspired by the language of turntables and entertainment units from the 1960s," says Singaporean designer Nathan Yong. Which is a remarkable statement when you learn that Yong grew up in a wooden hut by the sea, where he and his brother made their own toys and "waited for low tides so we could pick up treasures from the shore." Growing up with the beach as entertainment, Yong has developed into a resourceful designer, whose work captivated us with its quiet elegance. At Salone del Mobile, the annual furniture fair in Milan, Yong showed his Line Media Console, inspired by "the fluid streamlined forms of 1960s stereo components." We liked the aesthetic so much that we asked Yong to expand the collection. He responded with one of the best-looking bars we've ever seen. The Line Wine Bar (2010) has two drawers with leather pulls, one open cubby, two storage racks for stemware and two storage racks for a total of 24 bottles, twice the storage as the Line Bar. (The bottle storage racks are removable.) Photo Courtesy of Design Within Reach
ShopGo Discreet Where You Can
Integrated built-in refrigeration unit with smart-touch controls from Sub-Zero.
Courtesy of Sub-Zero
To create a more relaxed "living room" feel, keep your kitchen from looking too much like a place for cooking. Install discreet or streamlined cooktops, ranges, hoods, ovens, or "hidden" kitchen appliances like this built-in refrigerator with wood-finished doors from Sub-Zero.
Install Smart Storage
Bulthaup kitchen tool cabinet.
Courtesy of Bulthaup
Keep your kitchen clean, neat, and clutter-free with smart storage so that pots, pans, small appliances, and utensils are out of sight and out of mind. Bulthaup’s kitchen tool cabinets, which can be shut to hide all your kitchen essentials, help ensure that your kitchen isn't a mess when guests arrive.
Shop Our Favorite Kitchen Storage
Yamazaki Home Tosca Magnetic Organizer
Rack and never look back. What has your fridge done for *you* today? Put that under-utilized surface to use with this multipurpose rack. Keep frequently used items off the counter, yet quickly accessible. Hand towel? Stat! Kitchen wrap, tin foil, olive oil? Voilá! The best part is that the strong magnet of this kitchen attaches in seconds and *stays put*. Anything you might need, available at a moment’s notice.
ShopJK Adams Wall-Mounted Pot Rack With Shelf
How’s it hanging? This rack is giving us room to stretch out once again thanks to its 3-foot-wide shelf and hooks aplenty for pots, pans, and lids (six of ‘em, to be exact). This superstar holds up to 75 pounds of cookware or whatever you wanna display, and with two stunning finishes to pick from, our eyes can’t get enough. Oh, and yes—all the hardware you need is included!
ShopIntroduce Cool Backsplash or Bold Lighting
This dark and bold kitchen features Beat Pendants by Tom Dixon and a black-and-white tile backsplash by Popham Design.
Courtesy of Popham Design
Interesting pendant lamps and backsplashes with bright colors or bold patterns can add character to your kitchen, transforming it from a utilitarian space to an area for fun.
Shop Our Favorite Kitchen Pendant Lighting
Andrew Neyer Chime Light
Keeping the spotlight where it belongs. The aesthetic of the Chime Mini Pendant by Andrew Neyer is purposefully minimal, sporting an earnest cylindrical luminaire that allows light itself to take center stage. This gives the pendant an intriguing dual nature: it serves as a cool modern accent when switched off, but once lit, reveals its underlying personality as a source of warmth and charm. Photo Courtesy of Andrew Neyer
ShopTom Dixon Beat Tall Pendant
The design and inception of the Beat Lights originated from a field trip to India that Tom Dixon took his Royal College students on. Their mission was to investigate how design affects the livelihood of different cultures and peoples. They spent days with local tinkerers, brass beaters and marble workers. It was there that they discovered a method of metal manufacturing that appealed to them because of its heritage and unique aesthetic. The Beat Tall LED Pendant Light employ these traditional techniques in their production.
ShopGubi Semi Pendant
The Gubi lighting Semi Pendant is both a funnel and a vortex, channeling strong down light from its flared shade. Designed in 1968 by Bonderup and Thorup, the Semi is a functional light based on geometric principles; the silhouette emerged by placing two quarter circles inversely together. The original shape is spun from aluminum then heavily lacquered or polished for pristine reflective light. Photo Courtesy of YLighting
ShopMake Sure Your Kitchen Fits Seamlessly With the Rest of Your Home
Although it mimics the appearance of rickety mining shanties, the home is airtight. Triple-glazed windows and highly insulated walls contribute to its overall net-zero status.
Photo: Kat Alves
A good entertaining space should have a look that's consistent with the overall design of your home. Use the same (or similar) finishings and colors as the rest of the space. If you want the kitchen to stand out, you can introduce different materials or colors, but make sure they complement the overall interior concept of your home.
Related Reading:
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Kitchens
19 Ways to Use Track Lighting for a Streamlined Kitchen Design
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