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Wood Kitchen Cabinets- A Worthwhile Investment
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The guest post below is written by an author who lives in London. So often, design trends begin in Europe and then filter over to the United States. With more and more downtown revitalization projects happening across the U.S. metro areas, urban living is once again becoming more popular for younger adults as well as active retirees who want to be close to the ‘vibe’ of downtown living. Take a read of some of the kitchen design trends that fit the urban living profile.
TOP 5 URBAN KITCHEN DESIGN TRENDS
While some homemakers have transformed their kitchen into bistro-style hangouts, others have made them look like art galleries. And even more people have redesigned their kitchens into culinary studios. Whatever style you choose for your kitchen, popular design trends can help you make a bold statement. With the selection of different textiles these days, everyone is going for a ‘transitional’ design rather than a traditional one. So here are my top five urban kitchen design palettes that will help you create a functional and entertaining hangout.
EMERALD
A stark white kitchen with bold hues of emerald is a striking choice this year. You can play with white, shades of grey and incorporate emerald into your seat cushions, a set of vertical drawers or cabinetry, or an accent wall. As a vibrant backdrop, the emerald trend will look refreshing against white walls but also add invigorating warmth to your kitchen.
BLUE SERENE
If you’re inspired by waterfront bars or cafés, you’ll enjoy turning your kitchen into a coastal retreat. This year the colour blue is on everyone’s renovation radar and never fails to impress.
Pastel shades like powder blue can feel smart and sophisticated against a crisp white canvas. Modern details like recessed spotlights, stainless steel fridge freezer, contemporary bar stools and a painted pantry door keep the overall look fresh. Have a look at Wickes doors online for a variety of styles to add doors and dress your windows.
Wooden floors with a woven blue Persian rug, sanded furniture and minimal décor helps you achieve a tranquil atmosphere.
NEON STUDIO
A fluorescent touch is all the hype this year, so if you’re high-tech kitchen could use a splash of colour, don’t be shy to accessorize with neon placemats or even include yellow, pink and green bar stools on a grey backdrop.
This trend complements kitchen technology enthusiasts so you can turn your kitchen into an internet café. A deep stainless steel basin with tall faucets built-in to your marble island counter is a contemporary and practical design. Mirrored sliding doors for your food pantry and suspended single-track lighting like built-in LEDs will enhance the neon theme.
NEUTRAL TONES
Neutrals like shale, flannel grey and pewter also take dominance this year. So if you can find nice suede wallpaper and layer your kitchen with chrome hardware. You can sharpen the overall design of your kitchen with stained, painted or frosted glass cabinetry.
Incorporate wood and copper elements such as tables, stools, frames or décor pieces.
ENERGIZE WITH BOLD GRAPHICS
High energy colour palettes including bright yellow, red chilli and electric blue add character to your kitchen. Install stainless steel cabinetry and a unique countertop like marble, basalt, glass, steel or limestone instead of the typical granite.
Whether its bold geometric patterns or botanical prints, you can create a fun retro space and further experiment with contrasting wallpaper, cushions or backsplashes.
With inspiration from India’s roadside kitchens or Lebanon’s bustling street counters, you can use bold colors like tango orange, purple or green along with printed backgrounds for a lively look. A popular design element is the accent cabinet so you can add a vertical accent column by painting a set of drawers or selecting colo
red cabinetry.
Author bio: Amna Alam is a London-based freelance writer who enjoys film, fashion and interior design.
Do you live in an apartment? An older home? A condominium? If so, you may have a small sized kitchen. Not to worry, small does not mean that your kitchen cannot look great and function well. What it does mean is that a little extra planning and creativity needs to go into your overall design planning process. Professional designers are trained to make the most of a space regardless of the size. Below is a guest post from our neighbors in Canada describing how they optimized the design of their small kitchen.
Bring out charm and efficiency to your small kitchen
Earlier on, I used to reside in Las Vegas with my parents. I used to be extremely proud of my house. We had a three-storied house with large rooms and huge courtyard in the front. It was extremely well-decorated with art and architecture from olden days. However, as the fate would have it, I fell for a professional home re-modeler from Orillia who was considerably less well-off than my family. I started residing in Orillia. The apartment was small, especially with a very small kitchen. The work area was much less than what I was used to working in. Initially, of course, I faced a lot of difficulties in cooking, serving, and cutting vegetables. However, the professional expertise of my husband finally came to the rescue. He suggested me a few handy tips to remodel the kitchen and give a new charm to it.
Here in this article I would like to discuss some of those tips with my readers, so that they can also make their kitchen more warm and cozy.
Add storage unit: Jack (my husband, in case you wonder) suggested me to make the kitchen efficient and functional. To do so, he asked me to incorporate a lot of cabinets while planning kitchen design, he actually suggested me to check rock wood kitchen design, in Orillia. To choose some innovative designs, we went through magazines and visited many showrooms of kitchen cabinets in Orillia.
While the floor space in the kitchen was small, he suggested me to create cabinets on the walls and under the sink. These helped me a lot in storing jars, containers, utensils, cleaning product and many others. He also advised me to install open shelves on the walls to stack plates and mount hooks behind the door to hang frying pans and cups. Being a professional home re-modeler, of course, my husband has amazing taste of colors. While the tiles and other accessories in my apartment were Grey, he suggested me to choose ivory color for the cabinets that added a special charm to my kitchen.
Create efficiency: Earlier my kitchen was quite inconvenient to work in. There was hardly any space to perform the task. Every time I had to go out to the dining area for cutting vegetables and serving food. However, now after incorporating counter tops, my kitchen has become a little more functional and efficient. I incorporated a rectangular shaped counter top as suggested by my husband. The counter top I chose (rather us, my husband and me) was made out from stainless steel, because we thought that stainless steel would really complement our small kitchen and give a modern look to it.
Mirror the kitchen: My husband told me that mirrors work magic in a small kitchen. I listened to him and installed a big framed mirror on a wall. Trust me, the illusion of the mirror made my kitchen look more spacious and large. Besides that, it added a new charm to my kitchen and made it look more appealing.
Bring in more light: It is always necessary to have a free passage of fresh light and air in a kitchen, especially when it is small. So, we decided to give a new treatment to windows. Are you thinking of broadening your windows? No, certainly not! We did not do any such thing. We simply added a new drape and curtain in the window made of lighter material. If you think that this sounds little inane, then try this and see the effect. Our kitchen now looks more bright and fresh than ever before!
Kitchen walls: Special care needs to be taken for kitchen walls, specially the area near the gas burners and oven. These parts are exposed to heat and water, and requires easy cleaning surface. Glazed Tiles are used as covering along with stainless steel wall panels to reinforce it and make it reliable option.
These are some of the handy ways we adopted to make our small kitchen efficient and make it look charming and appealing than before.
Kitchen design seems to be on a lot of people’s minds right now. Perhaps it was this last holiday season’s cooking and entertaining experience that has put some folks at that point of –that’s it, I need to update and upgrade my kitchen NOW!
Below is a guest post that addresses some basic kitchen remodeling topics that should be thought through before the project begins in earnest.‘
Thoughts on remodeling designer kitchens
Why do homeowners remodel their kitchen? It’s usually after they get frustrated with the designs of the previous owners. ‘Why is that there?’ and ‘I don’t see any reason for this’ are thoughts that usually set them on the path of new kitchen design. Since it’s this frustration that drives the change, it is very important to know what you want to change right from the start.
Before you even think about getting down to the nitty-gritty of planning designer kitchens – with CAD, blueprints, and designers – there are some basics to get through first. Considering these will save you a huge amount of time and money later.
Functionality…
Arguably, the kitchen is the most important room in the home. These days, it’s not only a room for cooking but doubles up as a family meeting point and an area for social gatherings. It is important to design everything around your preparation, cooking, refrigeration, and dishwashing zones.
Don’t tamper with…
There are some appliances in kitchens that are extremely difficult and costly to move. These include vented range cooker hoods, sinks and dishwashers.
You can move…
Fridges can be moved fairly easily, as can cabinetry, so take these into consideration.
Sensibly placed cabinets…
Remember that putting cabinets in places that are difficult to reach will result in crockery never getting used. You should, therefore, mostly aim to put your kitchen cabinets at eye-level and above your worktops.
Kitchen Island…
Do I need a kitchen island? – I hear your ask. Well, they certainly do add value to a property, and are an absolute must for some homeowners. They are great for the ‘social kitchen’. Many designer kitchens have this feature. But it comes down to space really. After all, it’s just a trend, and you can do without one if necessary.
Don’t scrimp on worktops…
High quality designer kitchens need worktops to last for a long time and must be durable and ensure daily usage. It really is worth paying that bit extra to get a granite or quartz surface. Spend some time thinking about what you want and make absolutely sure you get it right.
Space is key…
This is the real reason you need to hire a designer – since they are experts at proper spacing. Any space problems will be worked around in a way that computer software just can’t manage.
Is it a tomato or tomatoe? A sofa or a couch? Sometimes different words can mean the same thing. This is NOT true for hand made/bespoke kitchens versus a made -to- measure kitchen which is essentially stock items specified in certain dimensions, and finishes . S Interior Design often combines semi-custom kitchen components with bespoke, and therefore unique design elements when we do kitchen remodels for our clients. The guest post shown below (from across ‘The Pond’ for my United States readers who may not recognize some word spelling), describes some key differences between a true Bespoke/Handmade kitchen and other kitchen design options
Defining a bespoke kitchen:
Bespoke design is a term that is bandied about casually by a number of trades, as well as kitchen and furniture fitters. The word has been adopted by many large kitchen companies who offer little more than ‘made-to-measure’. A bespoke kitchen can be best described as ‘handmade kitchens’. Read on find out about handmade kitchens.
Bespoke versus made-to-measure
Between the extremes of ‘bespoke design’, and ‘pre-produced’, sits ‘made-to-measure’. Often made-to-measure means taking pre-existing designs and customising them to suit a certain type of room. In terms of kitchen design, this will often mean giving customers the choice of colour, work surface material, or door handle etc. Bespoke on the other hand, refers to something that is individually cut or designed to meet specific individual requirements.
Defining bespoke kitchens
As a concept, bespoke refers to custom-made products, without any pre-existing sizes and patterns. Many kitchen companies will offer ‘made-to-measure’ and think that it qualifies as bespoke. A true bespoke kitchen designer will be able to design and build unique kitchen furniture, tailored to meet specific requirements. These are not pre-produced, but are made specifically on design request. A better phrase to use would be a ‘hand-made kitchen’, as the value is in the expert design and production process.
The Design and Production Process
Handmade kitchens are defined by their design and production process. Some companies will allow you to customise designs to fit your individual kitchen, but the process is not truly bespoke. When choosing a handmade kitchen, it is the designers job to take a customers vague ideas and concept of a ‘dream kitchen’ and turn them into reality.
Going bespoke
Purchasing a handmade kitchen will begin with an initial design consultation whereby the designer will try to establish the following. Is it solely a place for preparing food, or does it have a multi-purpose function as a living and a socialising area? These underlining principles will shape the design of a kitchen.
The designer will also ask the customer if they have any specific aesthetic requirements, including a the type of material used or style of design. One way that kitchen designers can ascertain their customers needs, is by asking them what they liked and disliked about their past kitchens.
After establishing what you are looking for in a kitchen, and choosing a design style and other elements such as the type of cooker, the designer can then produce technical drawings or CAD drawings to bring your ideas to life.
Tips:
Request for bespoke designers to show you past work to help to give you an idea of what they can produce.
A truly bespoke kitchen company will own a workshop whereby individualised furniture is made. The value of a handmade kitchen is in the specialised design process, and the highly skilled craftsman employed, to the trusted fitting team. The difference between a top kitchen design company and a poor standard product can often be found out by looking at the production process. If you are serious about purchasing a handmade kitchen, I would advise you enquire into the production process or even request to see the workshop.
Article submitted by Richard Davonport, Managing Director at Davonport who offer bespoke kitchens with practical design features which can be tailored exactly to your needs. Founded almost 20 years ago, Davonport combine the latest technology with traditional woodcraft and finishing skills, to create cabinets of the highest quality. Meet our high skilled team of kitchen designers at www.davonport.com