A relaxing afternoon spent dining with your family in the breakfast nook of your newly-decorated kitchen presents a beautifully vivid image of leisure and fun social activity. We need a few more of these images to fill our lives within this seemingly impersonal and highly urbanized society. Modern kitchen designs are promoting this idea of open planning to accommodate an easy and accessible social setting that will induce people to spend more time in the kitchen and enjoy the company of people that occupy their lives. The designs are set in a more interactive mode and the elements tend to be more attractive to persuade people to relax and stay.
Kitchens nowadays not only deal with food preparation but they have expanded their function into more social and interactive activities such as dining and entertaining. They have bar counters incorporated in their designs to provide extra dining space and conversation area for the people who frequent the kitchen. The styles vary from traditional tavern-like ones that reveal a more formal setting, contemporary ones with tiled top surfaces and framed glass cabinet faces beneath, to very sleek and modern ones that only have granite or similar surfaces and stainless steel tubular vertical support. The breakfast nooks are even more adventurous in their designs with amazing sculpture-like dining chairs and elegant pedestal tables. Most breakfast nooks are permanently situated near a window or a large corner of the kitchen. They either use window seats for the built-in chairs or customized seats that are attached to the walls. The loose chairs usually have matching fabric upholstery as that of the built-in seats and the table design complements the chairs so as to appear as a cohesive and unified dining area.
Modern kitchen design still has room for improvement. Newly discovered materials that are more durable and long-lasting are gaining popularity. Some of them are quite expensive yet but only because they cater to an exclusive clientele. Less costly materials that will replicate these materials will soon reach the market. As the demand for more modern materials grows, it can be expected that higher quality kitchen design materials will become for affordable for the average homeowner. Home stores and showrooms are the primary source for materials for kitchen design, but the internet is also pushing forward for a wider audience which equates to more people being able to find the products they want. Every possibility for change and enhancements is being looked into so that kitchen layouts and designs will be easier to plan, construct and achieve in the future.