You sleep in your bed and relax and watch TV in your living room, but the kitchen is actually the most important room in your house. That’s partly because the kitchen is where you cook your food, and assuming there’s a dining area in or near your kitchen, it’s also where you eat the food. It’s where you socialize with your friends and family. In short, it’s a key part of your physical and emotional well-being, more so than perhaps any room in the house.
Sure, your bedroom is important, since you spend a few hours a night there sleeping, but what you eat can actually go a long way towards determining how well you sleep. A healthy meal full of nutrients will likely help you rest better than a burger from the fast food joint down the street.
So since your kitchen is such a big mood-setter, you need to make sure you have a tidy, clean (or clean enough) space to cook and dine. You need kitchen appliances that you can rely on. If your oven burns one side of the dish and leaves the other side raw, then it’s going to be hard to cook a meal that requires an oven. The same is true of your stove. If the high heat burners never work, cooking things like stir-fry using only low heat will get frustrating fast.
Think of the last house party you went to: People probably congregated around the kitchen area, right? There was likely food spread out over the counters and kitchen island. Guests could sample a few things or just grab a plate and dive right in. Attendees also stuck close by the kitchen in case they needed to grab another beer from the fridge or get some ice from the freezer. The kitchen is a bit like the engine room of a ship in that regard: It’s the room that keeps everything else operating smoothly. Even the smallest studio apartment will almost always at least have something resembling a kitchen. The stove can be tiny, but it better be there, and it better be operational.
If you want to, you can certainly upgrade everything so that you have a room full of luxury kitchen appliances. Add a dishwasher with fancy sensors and a wine cooler that can dispense a glass of chardonnay with just the touch of a button (your guests will really love that). But even if such luxuries aren’t quite in your budget just yet, you should be able to depend on every single appliance in your kitchen. You have to use the kitchen every day (or most days, depending on your propensity for ordering take-out from your favorite restaurant). The fanciest backsplash in the world won’t mean much if you don’t feel comfortable cooking and baking in your own home. Buy all the bells and whistles if you want, or don’t. But your kitchen should be capable of helping you create dishes you’re proud of, regardless of if you’re hosting a dinner party for twelve or a midnight snack for one.
