Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs places physiological considerations at the base of its pyramid, followed by safety, belongingness, esteem, and, lastly, self-actualization. It could be argued that a well-designed home kitchen covers all of Maslow’s human needs. Eating falls under the physiological, of course, and who doesn’t feel safe in a comfortable kitchen? A sense of belonging is often associated with shared cooking projects, and preparing a good meal can be tied to self-esteem and self-actualization, the last of these having to do with creativity.
Whether or not Maslow had kitchens in mind when blueprinting his hierarchy is anyone’s guess, but he may as well have. The smallest of homes and their sprawling counterparts are all anchored by the one common area —the kitchen.
It is often a place of shared activity and culinary projects, and is rightly associated with energy, nourishment, and even culture. Kitchens, more so than any other section of a house, invoke imagination and contribute to a sense of identity.
Here are a few reasons why a stunning kitchen typically anchors any luxury Las Vegas home:
1. Blending the Outside with the Inside
Based upon climate and other regional factors, kitchens need not be limited to a home’s interior confines. After all, our earliest ancestors cooked almost exclusively outdoors. Doing the same in a posh community is merely returning to ancient traditions, albeit with far better equipment.
Given the right design and a suitable home layout, your kitchen can either be positioned wholly or partially outside the home, with the latter option being popular for seasonal purposes.
2. The Ultimate in Customization
Cookie cutter floor plans were once a fixture of major housing developments. Those days are no more. Customization is essential and doubly so in higher end communities. And where customizing one’s home is particularly important is in the kitchen design. There, more so than anywhere else in the house, a unique style, or personal signature is achievable.
Cutting edge appliances, clever lighting configurations, and streamlined layouts are not just in demand—they are requisite to acceptable home living. Both functionally and cosmetically, if the kitchen is well conceptualized, it will tie the house together beautifully.
Alongside living rooms and restrooms, kitchens are the most frequented of rooms by guests, neighbors, etc. And visitors to one’s home are more likely to develop an understanding of your tastes from your kitchen than from any other single area of the house.
Shiny kitchenware juxtaposed with antiquated cabinetry? Terrific. Now your guests know you like to blend new with old. Polished surfaces and stainless steel appliance faces? Brilliant. You have successfully showcased your taste for the sleek and elegant.
3. The Go-To Island
The age-old questions about desert islands and the books, friends, and foods you would bring along might be modified to include kitchen island scenarios. Why? Well, as it happens, the kitchen island is central to home activity.
Dynamic household fixtures, the island can include cooking surfaces, sinks, storage, and eating surfaces. If kitchens can be rightly said to anchor a home, the island is perhaps the anchor’s anchor; without it, the kitchen might drift away. And what family morning ritual is complete without sharing breakfast around the kitchen island? There is a good reason this feature is so prominent in cereal advertisements.
Though extremely functional in nature, an inspired design like those found in many of my listings can fuse practicality with artistic beauty.
4. Open Designs
Enclosed kitchens are the domain of the restaurant, not a stylish, modern home. Increasingly and with every passing year, innovative house designers are envisioning the kitchen not as an isolated room, but as an open continuation of the traditional common areas. Whether you spend a good deal of your evening hours in the living room or the neighboring office, having a stylish kitchen immediately adjacent and broadly visible from either space will enrich your home life experience notably.
Likewise, friends and visiting family are certain to appreciate the sight of both the creatively designed kitchen and whatever culinary activities might be underway at any given moment.
5. Efficient Designs
A common trend in 21st century home building is that of engineering so-called “dead spaces” out of the floor plan. The idea therein is to produce interiors, which appear open, inviting, and breathable. Long hallways, bizarre nooks, and curious crannies are the stuff of haunted house lore. In the present day, clean and fluid architecture, devoid of wasted square footage, is the standard.
Included in this engineering philosophy is the prioritizing of the kitchen. As the home’s sole anchor, keeping the kitchen’s shiny surfaces and unique characteristics clearly in frame goes a long way towards generating an inviting and charming interior atmosphere.
6. A Legitimate Common Area
Many are surprised to learn just how much time they actually spend in their home kitchen. Once the numbers are broken down by meal and by time of day, they tend to make perfect sense. But the initial response tends towards skepticism. “We spend that much time cooking or organizing the cupboards?” More than those typical activities, the kitchen has evolved socio-culturally into a central forum of grazing and socializing.
It’s difficult to argue with the logic behind carrying on conversation in close proximity to a well-stocked pantry. There was certainly a time when the kitchen was the domain of the cooks and the help, but things do indeed change. Keeping your kitchen comfortably equipped with a handful of chairs or, better yet, bar stools is not only practical, it is in keeping with the modern age.
7. Electronic Enhancements
It is easy to recall the days of clunky, precariously situated television sets and undersized radios populating kitchen countertops. Placing aside the fact these generally did not offer the best viewing or listening experience, they also took up valuable countertop square footage. But nowadays, kitchens can be cleverly outfitted with cutting edge screens to allow for background media engagement or catching up on the latest sports scores, and all without sacrificing a single square inch of countertop space.
Given how many hours in a typical week one can expect to find themselves cooking, dining, or socializing in the kitchen, an electronic spread is not a bad idea in the least.
8. Advances in Lighting
Lighting is everything to setting the mood of a room or any large interior space. And how you go about illuminating the anchor of your home, the kitchen, will communicate a great deal to guests and visitors. Not to mention, the very mood of your home itself hinges in large part upon how your kitchen’s light fixtures are situated and what sort of illumination they emanate.
If your tastes lean towards sunniness, terrific. Cast a bright glow across your countertops, appliances, and cupboards. In an open floor plan, the brightness will radiate throughout the interior.
However, if you prefer a softer interior look and feel, cast an artful and restrained glow upon those surfaces with a somewhat dimmer lighting configuration. This effect can lend itself to a sense of poetry while cultivating a degree of cosmetic sophistication. Regardless of how you ultimately go about illuminating your kitchen, the end result is certain to contribute to the home’s overall feel. The room is, after all, your home’s anchor. Make certain it is lit and showcased accordingly.
9. A Plethora of Cabinet Options
Cabinetry is arguably a kitchen’s most important component from a visual standpoint. While larger appliances such as the refrigerator and dishwasher might be more individually prominent, the cabinets tend to be expansive in their dimensions and catch the eye immediately.
Function is the foremost priority in selecting or conceptualizing a kitchen’s cabinetry arrangement, as they exist to store dishes, foods, goods, and so on. But a very close second place to functionality is aesthetic quality, as the very style and essence of your kitchen rest in such large part upon the wood used, the door and handle designs, the finish applied, and the overall placement.
Fortunately, a simple application of paint or the donning of a new finish is usually enough to completely re-invent your cabinetry’s look, to say nothing for its feel. Wood grain appearances are a straightforward approach to channeling a sense of the old and the traditional, while a coat of well-selected paint can graduate the panels into a truly modern state of being. No matter the decision made, cabinetry is uniquely customizable and has the potential to entirely shift a kitchen’s identity…and by extension, the home’s.
Find a Las Vegas Luxury Home Today
A home without a kitchen is akin to a body without a heart. It is the very pulse and vitality of the house itself. The preparation and sharing of meals can conceivably all take place within the kitchen’s confines, as can the hosting of a spur-of-the-moment friendly gathering. Food, family, and friendship are the bedrock of a life well lived. For that reason, above all others, the kitchen is undeniably the space that most firmly anchors a home.
When you’re ready to find your Las Vegas dream home, complete with a luxury kitchen as its anchor, do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you and to helping you make your luxury home dreams a reality.
