Kitchen cabinets: custom-made, perfect for the living room too

Contemporary interiors often feature open-plan spaces, and the most popular is undoubtedly the living room-kitchen combination. At Arredamento Pari Cucine in Rimini, we offer an innovative solution: custom-made kitchen cabinets, perfect for perfectly furnishing an open-plan living room, including the kitchen area!

Kitchen cabinets in Rimini, custom-made open-plan furniture

The open kitchen area is the bane and blessing of every couple starting to furnish their home. Meanwhile, the primary need for storage space can trump everything else, even aesthetics. At Pari Cucine in Rimini, we try to prevent this from happening, as it's sad to see small spaces furnished in a way that's nothing short of amateurish.

It's important to remember that the kitchen is one of the most important parts of the home, precisely because it determines its value over time, and making the wrong investment could be detrimental. That's why we offer our clients an alternative solution for furnishing an open-plan kitchen/living room: kitchen cabinets! These aren't the modern IKEA kitchens that, while often attractively designed and affordable, are limited by their lack of customization and lack a perfect fit for every space.

Kitchen cabinets, on the other hand, can allow us to glimpse these very clever design solutions to complete islands or peninsulas and unify the space without major upheavals.

Typically, they're positioned along the walls and even make the cabinets in the center of the room stand out. They're not pantry units, but they can't be called buffets or sideboards either, but there's no denying they're the evolution of the species when it comes to kitchen furniture. They pair beautifully with both freestanding and built-in appliances , and can have pull-out trolleys or tops to provide additional worktop space. Column units also perfectly conceal the refrigerator, dishwasher, and even the washing machine, if space is so limited that there's no other option.

It's not uncommon for kitchen cabinets to house a mini laundry room, but the designer must carefully calculate the volumes and depths, consider corner solutions if necessary, and come up with special designs to optimize the layout and essentially include a third room. Custom projects typically require time, precisely because our designers must meticulously craft one or more solutions to propose to clients, drawing inspiration from the works of art our artisans create with their own hands. These truly unique pieces are a proud display in your home.

Tall cabinets, sideboards, and cupboards for a fabulous open space

One thing must be said, however: at Arredamento Pari Cucine in Rimini, we strive to please all our customers as much as possible, first turning their dreams into a design on paper and then bringing it to life in person, with custom-made furniture and accessories entirely made in Italy. It's a daunting undertaking, but we enjoy challenges, and they inspire us to design different solutions based on the space and actual dimensions we're working with. Our goal is to design furniture that perfectly reflects the personality and lifestyle of the person ordering it.

The living room and kitchen furniture available on our e-commerce site is proof of this. Altacorte, Tonin Casa, and Bontempi , top-quality Italian furniture brands for which we are honored to be official retailers, are a guarantee of materials and finishes suitable for any type of open-plan living space. The Amsterdam sideboard by Bontempi, available in various finishes, has a wooden frame with two hinged doors with a push-pull opening system.

Another noteworthy feature is the clear glass internal shelves and one or two central open compartments in matt lacquered wood, with tops, sides, and doors in various finishes. This product from Altacorte 's Easy line features one or two brushed fir doors in a choice of white, black, cappuccino, or ash, for those who love a rustic style even in the living room.
Tonin Casa's Goya line, on the other hand, embodies modernity, featuring glass shelves and matte lacquered MDF doors in a choice of finishes. Its key feature is the option to include an LED lighting kit, providing optimal illumination for quicker storage and retrieval. Those with more space can also opt for a unique combination by adding one or more sideboards. Altacorte and Napol exemplify two completely different styles.

Altacorte's Easy line is identical to the sideboard, featuring the same brushed fir wood in the four finishes described above. It also features two low doors made entirely of wood matching the frame, and two tall glass doors for storing cups, glasses, or food. This product is suitable for both classic and rustic styles. Meanwhile, Napol's low, long sideboard has metal feet and doors made of matte white lacquered wood and Briccola Venezia, a wood recycled from the characteristic poles of the famous Venetian lagoon, used to demarcate the waterway. Truly versatile, it can fit into a modern or industrial-style living room, even as a sideboard in the entryway, or as a bridge between the kitchen and living room.

Open-plan living area design: mistakes to avoid

There are some common mistakes when trying to design your home, especially the open-plan living area. Unfortunately, the images in glossy interior design magazines, both print and online, obscure the reality. All it takes is overuse of Photoshop to make everything perfect. The reality is different, and blatantly copying an interior design example seen in a photograph isn't always appropriate. Above all, it makes sense to turn to professionals like us for free advice, rather than completely breaking your head. We repeat, even for an interior designer, it's difficult to harmonize the furnishings of an open-plan space and make it a unified space, so there's nothing wrong with seeking help from someone who's studied and will do everything possible to please the client.

The living room is where you spend most of your free time, so it's essential that it's not just perfect, but harmonious. The secret is finding the perfect balance between the living room and the kitchen: no need to have white walls, different woods for the floors, ceiling beams, various furniture and cabinets, straw or wicker accessories, modern wallpaper , a fluorescent sofa, steel appliances that clash with the ceramic knobs on the kitchen cabinets, or various small, colorful appliances.

Not to mention the table and chairs, different styles and materials. A real horror movie for us interior designers, it gives off a sense of sloppiness and conveys the impression that whoever designed the furniture was really cheap. The general rule is to establish a style and then decide what to buy. Measurements are also important: a beautiful kitchen doesn't always mean spacious.

Yet, many people persist in wanting large islands and useless accessories that take up only square meters of space, making cooking a torture rather than a pleasure. The example above: catalog kitchens are there to showcase the product to the customer, but they would rarely fit into the open-plan kitchen area of a typical apartment.

This is why custom-made furniture is available, and this is why kitchen cabinets were created—a mix of tall units, wall units, and doors that can also be transported into the living room, perhaps integrating with a wall unit or bookcase . A question we often get asked: is it possible to unify the two spaces but keep them in different colors? The downside of an open space is that it lacks dividers, but these can ideally be created with LED lights or by using color and materials. For example, the cooking area could have cherry countertops, stainless steel appliances, and doors and wall units, like tall units, in an ivory color, except for one element.

Like a mirror, in the living room you could do the opposite: keep the material and cherry color as the common thread, but paint the doors a different color from that kitchen element and isolate a tall cabinet or cupboard, choosing ivory, the color of the cooking area. The suggestion is to avoid bold contrasts; instead, opt for neutral colors, such as ivory and dove gray, or gray and ash, or white, and keep a glass and metal door. Of course, everything will also depend on the color of the walls and tiles, the type of flooring, and other elements already present in the space being renovated. Get an idea by browsing our products on Arredamentopari.com!