The Kitchen is the Heart of the Home: 5 top tips for planning and designing your luxury kitchen

The kitchen is the heart of the home; properly designed it can be the favourite family living place while, at the same time, making the necessary utilitarian functions of a kitchen a pleasure instead of a chore.

Here are five of our top tips in planning and designing your luxury kitchen.

Size matters: the size and layout of your kitchen space will depend on your lifestyle.  The current trend for home life is to be more casual in dining and entertaining with the kitchen often the informal gathering place for family and friends.  If this is your taste in living you will want to be sure your kitchen is big enough to accommodate a cooking area, a dining area and a sitting area so that everyone can socialise together.  Open plan has been popular for many years, but families sometimes find that a layout which is suitable for a young family may not work so well for noisy or studying teenagers.  Having the option of partitions may be something to consider for all stages in a growing family.

Circulation and movement: If you have the luxury of designing your kitchen from scratch, why not size everything just as you like it to make movement around your kitchen as easy and efficient as possible? The kitchen work triangle is a design concept that can help create efficient use of kitchen work spaces. The idea is that a line drawn to the refrigerator, sink, and range should create a relatively even-sided triangle within which the major kitchen activities take place. The triangle layout can reduce unnecessary movement in the kitchen, making your use of the space more efficient. You can also look at counter height, counter depth and the clearance of upper cabinets and shelving to suit your particular needs. Having a kitchen island can be a great way to make use of extra space in your kitchen, as well as provide you with an accessible and comfortable place to prepare meals. Many kitchen islands also double as a place to have a quick bite to eat.

Ventilation system: Cooking produces heat, smells, grease, smoke and steam.  So while you are focusing on the enjoyment of designing the appearance of your kitchen, remember it is vital to incorporate top quality ventilation systems so that cooking does not have an undesirable impact on the pleasure of the kitchen as a gathering place for friends and family.  A major facet of ventilation is a hood to absorb all cooking smells and vapours. With so many options on offer you can choose to minimize the hood’s presence or make it the focal point of the room, whichever suits your taste and style.

The designated cooking space: Your kitchen may be the hub of the home but there is no getting away from the fact that its main purpose is as a working environment to produce meals for the family.  Therefore the ease-of-use of the cooking and clearing-up area of the kitchen and the way it relates to the social areas of dining and family relaxation requires careful planning. 

Your kitchen as a workhorse: You want your kitchen to keep its lovely new look and yet it takes such a lot of punishment on a daily basis it is worth thinking through which surfaces will keep their appearance.   

Dont miss our next article, published on October 15th which will focus on the range of surfaces available for worktops, cabinets, quality appliances and flooring. Have a look at some of the luxury kitchens on our website which Richmond Homes has created for their clients

The Herald Property Awards for Scotland

Short listed Richmond Homes Bespoke Home Street Facade

Short listed Richmond Homes Bespoke Home Garden Facade

The Herald Property Awards for Scotland honours the achievements of Scotland’s most innovative and successful house builders, developers and registered social landlords.

Since their inception in 2007, the awards have gained the respect and support of the new build industry as a result of the thorough judging process, and the high calibre awards evening which celebrates the winners and nominees in a range of categories.

As publisher of Scotland’s most comprehensive property guide, Scotland’s Homes, The Herald has a unique understanding of the new build market. There is a range of categories recognising all styles of properties and developments, from bespoke luxury homes to innovative social housing developments, from practical family homes to sympathetic renovations. For 2014 there are 14 categories and Richmond Homes is delighted to be shortlisted in the “Individual New Build or Small Development” category for their individual Bespoke Home in Barnton, Edinburgh.

The focus in the past has been on domestic homes, although in 2012 the Woodhouse Coffee Shop at Kippen carried off an award.  Some of the most innovative solutions have come from the social-housing sector, including in 2013 when Port of Leith Housing Association won  ‘Affordable Development of the Year’.  However, this year, the 14 categories represent a much wider view of the new build industry.
A new award for 2014 is ‘Best Commercial Property’ in a category all of its own. A further three new awards will also seek to recognise those in sales and service roles within the industry. They are: Residential Sales Agents of the Year; Residential Letting Agents of the Year and Commercial Property Agents of the Year.

Within two categories, the judges will scrutinise more than just individual homes, but the whole environment in which they sit. In deciding on the winners of the ‘Development of the Year’ and the ‘Affordable Housing Development of the Year,’ the judges will be scrutinising streetscapes, the way in which properties within the development relate to each other and the sense of community, as well as the design of individual homes.

The winners for 2014 will be announced at a gala awards dinner on Thursday, September 25, 2014, which will be a great celebration of the best of the Scottish home building industry.  We’ll be there and keeping our fingers crossed!

Tips on building orientation in choosing and developing a building plot

It seems obvious, but it is sadly often too true that new homeowners make some classic mistakes when orienting their new luxury home within their building plot or in choosing a building plot which offers the essentials for good orientation.  In particular it is vital to think carefully about building orientation and energy consumption when building your new home.

Building orientation is important in reducing energy consumption and keeping the interior temperature comfortable.  When designing and siting your new home within your building plot, it is necessary to think about using the sun to your advantage.  As we all know, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and is higher in the summer sky and lower in the winter sky.  Therefore the orientation of the whole building should be planned and constructed to capture free heat in the winter and minimise too much heat in the summer.  Since you live in your home through summer and winter, you should design it for the entire year. The ideal house orientation is that the main long axis (the ridge line) of the building runs from east to west. It is generally agreed that you can move this orientation  by as much as 20 degrees without ill effect, but that the most glass finishes on the building should face towards the sun.

When choosing a plot or deciding the building orientation of your new home within a plot it is important to take into account the location of landscape features on the building plot, for example trees and walls, which may impact on how you harness the sun for your home. Ideally you do not want landscape features blocking the sunlight as the sun tracks across the sky.

When planning your building, think about where to locate your living areas.  The rooms most used must be on the side of the house orientated towards the sun, i.e. the kitchen, lounge, dining etc. The least used rooms such as garage, laundry etc will be on the more shaded side of the house.  These shaded rooms can also act as additional thermal mass, if properly insulated. (Thermal Mass is material that absorbs heat from a heat source, and then releases it slowly  - such as concrete or bricks).  Thinking through how your home will relate to your garden is also vital, providing sun-filled sheltered areas adjacent to house interiors to allow seamless indoor/outdoor living spaces.

When buying a building plot and planning and designing your new home, a sustainable, whole house approach to design and construction is essential.  For more information on passive solar design click here>

Location is more than spectacular views (although we have those too!)

It will seem an obvious point, but if you talk to any experienced professional in the property sector you’ll always hear the following three words as the most important criteria for buying and selling a home: location, location, location.  When investing in a bespoke luxury property this is even more vital, but it is not always easy to find plots in the ideal location.  We continually research the best locations for our clients which is much more complex than simply providing spectacular views .   Ultimately the location you choose for your home will not only have the greatest impact on its value within the market, but also the pleasure and convenience of living in the best location for you.   You can always change what’s inside your home but you can never change what’s outside of it.  Finding the correct location for your new home will affect both its future value and the pleasure that you have in living there.

Finding top quality locations is very much the key to our success for both our developments and bespoke homes and we have a set of criteria which we follow. Our main aim is to identify beautiful country locations which are also within easy reach of major cities and transport links, allowing the best of both worlds. Being close to a main road and rail artery or an airport can have far reaching consequences for the value of your home as well as the convenience and pleasure of a relaxed lifestyle.  We identify thriving village communities which can offer many lifestyle benefits including speciality shopping and eating out, outdoor recreation, community activities and nature and wildlife.  Other more practical aspects include local facilities such as health centres and schools.

A further vital aspect of location is the position of the building plot within the neighbourhood or community.  Whether the site is within or on the edge of a town or village, the surrounding landscape, the views on offer and the orientation of the building to the sun are also vital considerations.

Working with architects and other professionals, Richmond Homes has identified some excellent sites for bespoke homes in Fife and Perthshire, click here for more details>.  We are currently in the process of finalising new development sites south of Edinburgh so please let us know  if you would like to be kept up-to-date.

Local collaboration is the key to a sustainable luxury home

In the 40 years since Richmond Homes first started out building luxury homes, our long-term partnerships with specialists in the building trade have been crucial to delivering top quality homes for our clients. The companies we work with have the high level of expertise, reliability, innovation and professionalism which we need for our projects.

A new and exciting development in the building industry is in “green” energy and sustainability. Ecological solutions for environmentally-friendly living are becoming increasingly important to our customers and our partnerships with local specialist firms help us to deliver high quality energy efficient homes for them.

One of our long-standing partnerships is with Rob Roy Homes, a timber frame manufacturer based in Perthshire. Rob Roy Homes were established in 1974 supplying top quality timber frames for self builds and commercial use.  Since then they have developed a strong “green” focus, using sustainable timber to create energy efficient frames for homes. Rob Roy’s excellent timber frames essentially form the backbone of a new home, from the inside and outside, providing the structural support for all the essential building elements that follow. The company has developed an innovative high performance insulation system named ULTRAwarm thermal and acoustic performance specification.  Their enthusiasm, expertise and high quality product is the reason we return to them time and time again when building a new Richmond Home.

Another valued partnership is with Glendevon Energy, based in Kinross, a key provider of micro-renewables in Scotland for Richmond Homes. Hugh Wallace and Jamie Adams of Glendevon have a proven track record of excellence in their field, supplying, installing and servicing biomass, solar and heat pump systems. Their technical knowledge of eco-energy solutions is of the highest standard, and the company can design systems which are tailor-made to customer’s requirements. Richmond Homes owners benefit from low carbon luxury living, resulting in a reduced impact on the environment and lower home running costs, two factors that are important to our customers.

Working with excellent local companies like these, we are able to provide sustainable luxury homes for our clients. Together we deliver a top quality home that will withstand the test of time, respect the local environment and meet the individual needs and desires of our customers.

Premier Guarantee Excellence Awards

Premier Guarantee is one of the UK's leading providers of Structural Warranty and Insurance Services, having now arranged cover for over quarter of a million housing units across the UK and Europe.  Every year the company also highlights excellence within the building industry looking for the buildings that go above and beyond what is expected. The Premier Guarantee Excellence Awards scheme has been designed to recognise the UK's best developments covered by their a Premier Guarantee schemes and reward the highest quality projects with the credit they deserve. The Excellence Award covers building projects from single units, to all sizes of housing developments through to commercial projects and multi-story buildings.

What is particularly valued by ourselves and others in the industry is that you cant apply for a Premier Guarantee Excellence Award, you have to be nominated by their surveyors.

So we are delighted to be nominated for our individual bespoke house in North Berwick, currently nearing completion.  We are in competition with one other Scottish house-builder and ten based in England, but are hopeful that we can get through the next three stages of judging to make the final.  We were very pleased to win an Award for Small Development of the Year in 2012, beating 34 other shortlisted developments throughout the UK.