8 family-friendly kitchen ideas to inspire a practical, sociable hub for the whole family

If you're searching for family-friendly kitchen ideas, chances are that your cooking space isn't feeling up to the daily challenges of busy family life. Keeping on top of kids is hard enough, so you need an equally hardworking space that helps your home life run smoothly.

When it comes to layout, storage, materials and seating, family life might require you to consider your kitchen choices a bit more thoroughly. Regardless of whether you have a small kitchen to contend with or a bigger room, you'll need to make the most of every inch of space so that it's utilised as efficiently as possible.

Of course, with children comes an increase in risks too. Whether it's innocent spillages, knocks on sharp corners or slips on hard surfaces, it's important to think carefully about how child-friendly your kitchen is to minimise any accidents.

1. Focus on casual seating

In a family kitchen, creating dynamic seating will make it much more likely that kids and adults alike use the space to socialise. No one wants their children holed up in their rooms, so adding casual seating via a kithen island idea will encourage after-school catchups and communal weekend brunches.

Bar stools are great for impromptu dining that allow whoever is cooking to chat to everyone else. To make the layout as streamlined as possible, great a gap underneath the island worktop where the stools can tuck under.

2. Make life easier with non-porous surfaces

Life is too short to worry about spillages, so choosing practical worktops is key to making your kitchen family-friendly. If you love the appearance of luxurious stone surfaces but want to minimise the chance of ruining them, opting for quartz will be an excellent compromise.

Quartz worktops will allow you to showcase a statement veined effect but they're also easy to keep clean as it's non-porous, so can't be stained. For added protection to walls from cooking splashes, take the same surface up onto your walls.

3. Minimise accidents with smart flooring choices

'Slips account for a large proportion of accidents in the home, especially among older generations and teeny tots. Make this your first consideration when tile shopping for your kitchen,' recommends Grazzie Wilson, head of creative at Ca’ Pietra.

Kitchen flooring can be a tricky choice and if you don't love the look of wood-effect surfaces, then tiles are an easy-to-clean alternative.

'Narrow down your search to designs that have an R rating of 10 or above. This basically means that the surface has been tested to ensure it has sufficient resistance when used as flooring. We advise a minimum of R10 in kitchens,' Grazzie continues.

'Also, for most people, choosing tiles that are easy to clean can make maintaining a family kitchen all that bit easier. Our tile material of choice would be porcelain as it is the most resistant to wear and tear and comes in a huge array of designs – from wood-effect to natural stone, to so many patterned options.'

4. Include clever storage solutions

If there's one thing you need in a family kitchen, it's storage. And lots of it. Finding kitchen storage ideas that work for your kitchen layout (no matter how big or small) will make the space much easier to navigate, which is essential when dealing with the stresses of busy everyday life.

Pantries are high on most people's kitchen wishlists for good reason. They offer an abundance of space for dried goods and you can easily see what you have stocked, minimising last-minute trips to the supermarket to buy more of what you already have. Plus, you can create a shelf for small appliances, such as a kettle and toaster, so kids can help themselves to breakfast.

5. Create banquette seating

While kitchen island seating is great for impromptu coffees and morning chats, having a dedicated seating area within your kitchen will create a hub for the entire family. Banquette seating will ensure there's space for everyone and by using a wall, it takes up less of your kitchen floorplan - essential in busy homes.

Open plan kitchens are one of the best layouts for a family as it forms the natural heart of the home, so including a less formal dining area will make weekly dinners a dream.

'A kitchen opening onto a garden, maybe reconfigured with a dining table taking centre stage close to a patio makes it easy to converse, and eat together and ensures easy access to the outdoors for children to play,' adds Sophie Devonald, designer at Lifestyle Kitchens.

6. Double up on appliances

Unless you're one of the lucky ones whose children eat exactly what you lay in front of them, you might find yourself cooking two different meals from time to time. Doubling up on appliances will make this far less frustrating than it needs to be, and will ease the stress of coordinating timings when cooking big Sunday lunches.

If you have the wall space, stacking two built-in ovens will work wonders when it comes to hosting. For large families, this is a no-brainer for streamlining daily tasks.

7. Utilise open shelving for family memories

When planning a family-friendly kitchen, practicality often takes priority - but it doesn't have to. Including stylish touches will make your kitchen feel inspiring to spend time in, and like a reflection of yours and your family's taste.

Open kitchen shelving takes up little to no space, especially if you have some walls without cupboards, and serves as a handy spot for showcasing your favourite cookbooks, family photos and artwork brought home from school.

8. Choose a double Belfast sink

Even if you have a dishwasher, washing up can pile up extremely fast in a family kitchen. Whether it's large pots and pans that won't fit or kids' plastic crockery, having space to hide dirty dishes will be a lifesaver when it comes to keeping your kitchen looking stylish on the surface.

Belfast kitchen sinks tend to be deeper than under-mount styles so are handy for keeping dirty dishes well and truly hidden from seating areas in your kitchen. For added space, choose a double Belfast sink so you can separate the dirty zone from the washing area.

FAQS

What type of kitchen is suitable for large families?

If you're starting from scratch or planning a kitchen renovation, then deciding on a kitchen layout is the biggest and most daunting part of the process. And if you're either planning to have a family or already have one to contend with, you'll need to think about the kind of kitchen layout that will benefit a busy lifestyle with high traffic around the home.

When planning a kitchen layout for your family, think carefully about your daily movements. Do you like to chat over breakfast? Do you need a separate utility room for muddy sports kit? All of these considerations will make it easier to decide on a kitchen that works for your large family.

Open plan kitchens tend to be best for families as they create a casual living and dining space that is large enough for everyone to co-exist in at the same time. This also means that those cooking can keep a watchful eye on kids and join in on conversation.

Planning a family-friendly kitchen will require more careful planning, but by taking into account storage, seating and practical materials, your kitchen will end up doing the hard work for you.