The Psychology of Kitchen and Cooking

The Kitchen is the center of the home. It is the area where family and friends gather to interact and build stronger relationships. Hence, it is important to maintain the function and aesthetic of the kitchen. This is the traditional way of thinking about kitchen design. Before, people only considered functional and aesthetic when renovating or building their own kitchen space. Today, however, there is a growing recognition that even if function and aesthetics are undeniably the top considerations when building the kitchen, the social aspects and psychology of kitchen design strongly affects the overall space because the kitchen significantly impacts the mental and emotional wellbeing of people using it. Furthermore, because the kitchen is one of the most used rooms in the home, it makes complete sense to consider the psychological aspects of kitchen design other than the practical and aesthetic ones.

As stated above, a good kitchen significantly affects the mood and emotions of homeowners. This positive effect results in an increased interest in cooking and better food preparation outcomes. This increased interest and better cooking outcomes lead to a healthier diet and a happier home. Thus, it is important to design and renovate the kitchen according to your personality or character so that it can provide positive effects to you.

1. Lighting

Designing your own kitchen can have its significant impact on your mental and emotional health. With that, it is important to consider the psychological aside from the function and aesthetic aspect of kitchen design. Hence, in order to give you more knowledge about the psychology of kitchen design, here are the things that you must consider when designing your own kitchen:

1 Modern Kitchen Cabinet Design

Lighting is the most important element to consider when designing a space because it largely affects the mood of the room. It can significantly impact and alter the mood of the occupants of the kitchen. More than that, it can also transform the space in shape and size such that with proper lighting and color schemes small spaces can appear larger than they are.

Generally, the kitchen demands brighter and high color accurate light because it is a work space. With these bright lights, it provides homeowners the need to see and work safely. To explain further, there are different kitchen lightings that can be employed in the design to affect the mood of the whole space. Task-oriented kitchen lighting should be installed in areas of the kitchen where most of the work occurs such as the countertops and table surfaces. In this way, it provides homeowners ambient lighting when cooking. Another is under-cabinet kitchen lighting can also be utilized which is both a functional and aesthetically pleasing design element. It removes the effect you get from standing over the countertop which can result in blocking the overhead lighting and casting a shadow on the surface that requires the most even light. Furthermore, under-cabinet lights can also give an ambient accent to the room. Decorative lightings can also be used in order to improve the mood and emotions of the homeowners using the kitchen. These decorative lightings include pendant lights and chandeliers that can be placed over the table or island counter. This not only adds a design element in your kitchen but also gives a sense of center in the space, giving a feel of balance in the kitchen. Accent lightings can also be utilized as finishing touch in order to seal the whole place or alter how the space feels. This accent lighting can change the dynamics of a room, simply by directing light on or away from certain areas.

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In addition to what has been discussed above, natural light can significantly impact when in a home’s lighting plan. Aside from the obvious energy savings you can benefit from, exposure to natural light improves the mood and can help you to do tasks more effectively such as cooking. Studies have shown that Spending your day in areas that are enhanced by natural light can significantly improve the function of your circadian rhythm which can increase your happiness and energy levels. Thus, just like all the other rooms in the home, the kitchen should have access to natural light in order to benefit from the effects of natural sun exposure. Most interior designers suggest indoor light that should mimic the color of light that one experiences outside by seeking similar gradations over time such as cool light in the morning, to white light at midday, to warm light in the evening. With this, people using the space can be emotionally and mentally affected positively. However, with all these, at the end of the day, in order to make the best out of the kitchen, the most vital factor in lighting your space is what you yourself prefer.

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2. Color

Colors have a serious impact on the way you will feel inside the different rooms of your home. In order to adjust your mood and emotions in different rooms such as the living room, home office, the bedroom, and the kitchen, you can use different colors. Furthermore, being one of the most important spaces in the home where food is prepared and usually one of the first rooms you enter for the day, the kitchen must have the right color so that it can positively affect you mentally and emotionally. Hence, here are some of the colors you can choose and combine in order to communicate specific energies or mood throughout the entire kitchen:

• Red – Other than drawing immediate attention to the space, the red color raises energy levels and stimulates appetite. It adds warmth to the space and can make for an active and busy kitchen environment. However, it must be noted that because it is a bold color it can also be linked to feelings of alertness and danger. Thus, using such color in the kitchen must be used with balance.
• Orange – Orange is closely linked with action and focus. It inspires people to take action and commit themselves to something such as cooking. Moreover, it is a brightening color that has expansive elements. It gives the illusion that a room is bigger than it actually is. More importantly, it is said that this color encourages communication, which can be helpful in social spaces such as the kitchen.
• Yellow – Yellow is linked to optimism, energy, and happiness. It encourages communication with the people in the space. The color yellow has a soothing quality because it has a warm tone. This results in people to feel happy due to having a bright surrounding that mimics being under the sunlight.
• Green – Green is a relaxing color which causes people to slow down and become more mindful. Moreover, it is a unique color that can link multiple elements. Because it has a natural feel, the green color can be paired with the classic aspect of wood or with the modern aspect of white in order to produce a unique aesthetic. A more calming and pleasant atmosphere for the kitchen can also be achieved through mixing the green with the energy of yellow and the calmness of blue.
• Purple – Purple color is linked to creativity and uniqueness. It is a unique color that is very striking, and adds depth, luxurious feel to the kitchen. It is said that the purple color inspires people to become more creative, unique and experimental which is beneficial especially to cooking. Lastly, purple is a color that should be used sparingly for the kitchen.
• Blue – Blue is a natural color that causes people to relax. It is said that the blue color triggers feelings of trust, dependability and assurance. This quality is good especially in the kitchen where most cooking and baking experiments occur.

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• Neutral Colors – The best neutral colors are grey and white. These neutral colors for a kitchen are more needed in order to balance the brighter colors in the kitchen. Furthermore, white colors give a very clean and fresh look, and it balances the energies given off by the other colors in the kitchen.

3. Sociability

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Kitchen designs have traditionally focused on work spaces such as the cooker, the skin, and the fridge. Before, the economy of movement was usually only the top consideration in kitchen design. However, in recent years, rather than just giving it an afterthought, there is an increasing recognition for sociability as an integral factor of the overall appeal of the kitchen. Thus, there is an increasing demand on creating kitchens which facilitate interactions between families and friends and other people in the home. Today, other than functionality, sociability greatly affects the kitchen design because it can significantly affect the mood and emotions of people in the space.

Benefits of Cooking In Your Kitchen

After establishing your kitchen using the guide above, you are able to set up the right mood of your space that affects you positively. This, in exchange, gives you a more productive boost and interest when cooking. After all, cooking has several mental health advantages that you can benefit from. Here are some of the benefits of cooking in your own kitchen:

• It gives a mental rewardCooking and baking in your kitchen provides therapeutic benefits because it gives you a tangible reward for your efforts which satisfy you mentally as well. This is termed as behavioral activation which means finding meaning in the things you do rather than just drifting through them. Hence, when you cook and it produces a good food that the people at home enjoy, it gives you a mental satisfaction that your actions have resulted in something real.
• It makes you feel goodCooking does not create anxiety especially when people follow easy recipes. Rather, cooking encourages focus and boosts creativity and happiness. Studies have shown that people who bake are more calm and feel more grounded and capable. This can be linked to the creative juices being produced when cooking in your own kitchen. This creativity helps produce happiness, making you feel good more about things and life in general.
• It improves quality of lifeFood is a basic necessity that people cannot live without. Hence, cooking is self-care at its most basic and nourishing sense. Nourishing the body with the right food through cooking your own meals is one of the most fundamental ways in improving the general quality of life. Moreover, studies have shown that therapeutic cookery yields positive influences on socialization, self-esteem, quality of life, and affect. Hence, cooking in your own kitchen can significantly boost your overall capability and life in general.

In summary it is indeed true that having the right kitchen design which includes lighting, color, sociability, and other elements and factors in the kitchen, affect your mood and emotions in the space. Therefore, designing a kitchen is not anymore all about aesthetics, ergonomics and craftsmanship. Factors that are something else less tangible which amounts to understanding what kind of environments make people feel happiest at home must be considered. Hence, Psychology, architecture, design, and ergonomics overlap in the complex processes of putting a kitchen environment together. Practical and aesthetic considerations must always be linked with the psychological aspect of the kitchen space. With these, it is assured that you can feel more inspired to use your kitchen to cook which can produce the multiple mental health benefits such as improving your mood and emotions and improving your quality of life in general. Now that the psychology of kitchen design and cooking have been discussed, it is important that you must take and apply these concepts when building your own kitchen space.

References:

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