5 essential appliance elements you need to consider in your kitchen design

There’s nothing quite like cooking in a calm, clean kitchen. Groaning work surfaces piled with appliances and accessories seem to attract even more clutter. As a clean Scandinavian sensibility continues to take over our homes, so does it enter the kitchen with clean, linear lines, and a minimal aesthetic. Here are the five main appliances to consider when changing up your kitchen.

Extractor Fan

As with most things on this list, each item needs to function well on its own before it can work well in the space. For this reason, it’s best to mount your extractor against an external wall where it can circulate fresh air through your kitchen rather than reusing the same air as it does when placed on an internal wall. It should also be as close to the wall as possible, ensuring it’s above head height and does not intrude on you as you cook on the hob. It’s best to get one that visually pairs with your hob, so it doesn’t look out of place floating above it, and make sure you get one that can be cleaned easily – never a pleasant job.

Hob

Professional chefs will demand only a gas hob, but if you’re a nervous cook, have small children or live in an environmentally-powered home, an induction hob is an excellent choice. Induction hobs are one of the fastest heating hobs on the market, and they give you much greater control and accuracy over the temperature versus ceramic or gas. Whirlpool’s new W Collection Suite induction hob‘s simple glass display hides some seriously high tech: behind its flush surface is its patented 6^th Sense technology, allowing you not select not only what you’re cooking but how you’d like to cook it, from fish to simmering sauces. Place any sized pot or pan on the surface and its Flexifull surface adjusts its ring size to perfectly heat it. Once you’re finished just turn it off and the integrated screens will disappear behind the seamless glass finish.

The Oven

The oven, whether slotting under your hob or in a taller cabinet and more than any other piece of equipment, should work with how you like to cook. It can’t be hidden behind a cupboard door for safety purposes either so make sure you like how it looks too. It’s worth taking the time to understand an oven’s tech capabilities and cooking combinations, from the essentials of time and temperature to monitoring the humidity for the perfect roast chicken, little details can make all the difference.

Steam Oven

If you’re someone who lives on-the-go and likes to prepare meals in advance to preserve your weekday evening time, then a steam oven is for you. Allowing you to reheat food quickly and easily, it doesn’t give that watery taste that inevitably follows a microwaved dish and keeps it as juicy as fresh as when you first prepared it. It’s ideal for preparing vegetables when you have a crowd around for dinner too.

Microwave

If you absolutely could not live without a microwave, ensure you select one with a Dual Crisp technology to ensure pastries and other goods stay exactly that as you warm them. Whirlpool’s built-in microwave looks almost identical to its oven so they’d sit perfectly next to one another and it includes the same patented technology, recognising your food and setting the correct temperature and time without you needing to program a thing. Look out for Jet Start technology that boosts the temperature and humidity for the first 30 seconds, ensuring your food is reheating quickly and evenly.