Kitchen interior with bay window – design ideas

A kitchen with a bay window has two attractive qualities – increased glazing area and additional space. A bay window is a specially organized protruding part of the building, which is carried outside the walls with the help of special constructions. This is achieved by increasing the area of the kitchen. But the design of the kitchen with a bay window – not such a simple task. It is necessary to arrange the furniture and organize the space to emphasize and fully exploit the advantages of this element of the interior.

Shapes and sizes

Bay windows come in six shapes – semicircular, square, trapezoidal (with different angles and number of edges), triangular.

In private houses, usually these decorative elements are made semicircular or polyhedral, but in shape very close to semicircular. The size is chosen arbitrarily – at the will of the owners. But kitchens with a bay window in a private house are not often made. This architectural “excess” is usually saved for the living room, rarely – for the bedroom, even more rarely – for the study. It is just the living room that allows you to spend time looking out the window. After all, it is a large window – one of the main advantages of this decorative element.

If we talk about high-rise buildings, then kitchens with a bay window are realized in houses of the P-44T series.

Reference. House P-44T is a further development of the predecessor series P-44. It is distinguished by increased thermal insulation of external curtain panels, higher ceilings inside the apartments (2,7-2,75 m vs. 2,64 m), bay windows and half bay windows on the facade. Due to the low cost of production and installation, and at the same time quite comfortable for panel houses apartment sizes, the series became very widespread and is still being built today.

The smallest bay window kitchens in the houses of series P-44T – for one-room apartments – have an area of up to 13-14 square meters. This is not bad at all and there is room to spread out. For apartments with two or more rooms – an area of 16 square meters and more. Such rooms allow you to come up with and realize interesting projects.

Free access

The simplest solution is to leave the kitchen bay window free. Here you can put a couple of comfortable chairs and a small table like a coffee table. By hanging translucent curtains on the windows or installing roller or Roman curtains, blinds, we achieve the look and functionality that you find more acceptable.

The disadvantage of such a solution is obvious – irrational use of the room. If it is not critical for you, the solution itself is not bad: you can admire the view. In other cases, the design of the kitchen with a bay window try to develop so that it was not only beautiful, but also functional.

Cooking area in the bay window

One of the most rational ways to equip the kitchen with a bay window is to make a working area. In the ledge install work tables without wall cabinets, and gas stoves or other gas equipment can not be installed here. Electric appliances can be installed, but hardly worth it – you can not hang an extractor hood here, otherwise it is difficult and costly to organize the removal of polluted air. So it is a good idea, but difficult to realize.

If the layout allows, here you can take out the table with a sink, but usually you have to pull the water and sewer pipes – the risers are located far away. The result is a rather long route, which is also expensive in the device and not too convenient in operation: if the pipes get clogged, cleaning them is not the easiest and most pleasant work.

So in the ledge in the kitchen have floor cabinets with countertops. Work, looking out the window, it is pleasant. Without problems in this area you can put a mini-fridge or freezer with a height of up to a meter. At this height, they fit under the countertop. Refrigerating equipment of this size is enough for one or two people. This option can be seen in one-person apartments. There is nowhere to turn around and this is probably the best kitchen design with a bay window for such a case.

The disadvantage of organizing a working kitchen area in the bay window is two. The first – access to the windows is closed. The main advantage of the bay window is a wider view. When organizing a working area in the kitchen bay window, the view can be enjoyed only during work. Sitting at the other end of the room will not see much. This is also not bad, but…

The second disadvantage is the complexity of the realization of most ideas, and this is an additional expense. Even if you just put the furniture, it will have to be made to order. Assemble a modular kitchen will not work – the layout is non-standard, you need corner cabinets with non-standard angles and filling. So only to order, and this is a lot of money.

Dining area

Another opportunity to make the design of the kitchen with a bay window functional – to arrange a dining area here. If you put the table so that half of the space remained free, it will be convenient and beautiful. The table is not necessarily put close to the window, but if necessary – you can do so.

Pluses – free access to windows, the possibility to make zoning, ease of implementation. With the size and shape of the table will have to be determined additionally, but it is quite possible to find a ready-made dining table. You can look for folding / folding tables. In this case, it will also be possible to increase functionality.

Bar counter

For young people to sit at the dining table is boring – you can make a bar counter along the bay windows. It and the view from the windows does not block, and looks modern, and the functionality is normal. This is, of course, if you like to sit on high chairs and try to squeeze into a small space.

For those who plan to sit at the table periodically, and not just at the bar, there are folding or folding dining tables. When folded, they take up very little space. There are tables in the form of a pedestal, there are even very similar to a picture or a mirror in a frame. In general, there is room for fantasy, and decent size.

By the way, you can also combine – to make a rack on one half of the bay window, on the other – a table. It will be necessary to choose the levels, think about the width/depth, do not forget about safety (not to hit the edge of the bar).

Sofa: comfortable or not?

If you really need extra sleeping space, you can think about installing a sofa in the bay window. At first glance, this idea seems very attractive – you can admire the view from the window while sitting on the sofa. This is plus the fact that there is an additional sleeping place. If the sofa is folding, sleeping places can be two and three.

But there are disadvantages: in practice it turns out that it is not so convenient – you can not approach the windows, and most of the panorama is covered by the backrest. And if you add to this the high cost of a customized sofa and a rather small probability of selling it due to limited demand, it turns out not such a rosy picture.

Therefore, even if you need a sleeping place, try to design a kitchen with a bay window to make it so that at least half of the windows were free. Because the sofa, closing everything, just eats up space and at the same time is inconvenient.

Window design in the kitchen bay window

Developing the design of the kitchen with a bay window, you will definitely face the problem of window design. The choice of curtains for the kitchen is standard, but depends on the chosen way of using the bay window area:

• With free access to the windows or if the bay window in the kitchen is used as a dining area, you can hang any curtains at all, including – long classic up to the floor with tulle.
• All other options are limited to short versions:

In any variant it is desirable to choose fabrics that are well washed. But the selection of colors, shades, textures – it is a matter of purely individual and depends on the chosen style of the kitchen.

Photo of interesting options

For self-development of kitchen design with a bay window, the source of ideas can be any photo. To have more ideas, in this section we have collected the most interesting options.