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The Best Kept Secrets In Kitchen Designs
by: Guy Morris
It has often been said that the heart of the home is the kitchen. If that is really true, then why is it that some kitchen designs just don’t seem to support more than one cook or guest at a time? You can turn your kitchen into a functional and beautiful workspace and gathering place for the entire family. Even if you have limited square footage, there just may be more room for expansion, storage, and oh yeah, cooking in your kitchen than you think.
 
Counters & Cabinets
 
Storage is definitely a consideration in designing a functional kitchen. If you are limited by floor space, just look up. There is often a great deal of space between the counter tops and ceiling that just isn’t being used in a kitchen. Look at the space above the refrigerator. Is yours just collecting dust or take out menus? If so, add a cabinet and you’ve got a great place to store seldom used platters or treats you want to keep hidden from the children.

Kitchen cabinets also don’t have to be limited to one side of the countertop. If your kitchen design has a peninsula or island, you can use the ends and back side for more cabinet storage space.
Kitchen cabinets come in more styles and finishes that you can imagine. However, if your budget is limited then you don’t need to replace them for an entirely new look. Cabinet refacing lets you select cabinet patterns that are up to date and beautiful.

New countertops don’t always need to be included in this home improvement project either. Laminate countertops come with repair strips that will give new life to a worn surface.
 
Laying Out Completely New Kitchen Designs
 
If your budget calls for a complete renovation, then now is the time to really think about layouts and maybe calling in some specialist. The basic theory is that there should be no more than 2 steps between work stations. That means you should be able to go from the sink to stove in 2 steps; from the range to the refrigerator in 2 steps and so on. However, with today’s extra large sized kitchens that’s not the case any more. You still should choose layouts that consider how much time it takes to accomplish the normal tasks of putting dishes away from the dishwasher or getting foods from the refrigerator to the stove.

The newest gadgets in these mega kitchens make timesaving and energy efficiency into an art form. There are refrigerator drawers right next to the range and microwaves that brew your coffee while making your toast!
 
Fixtures and Furniture
 
The finishing touches are what make kitchen designs more inviting than ever. The furnishings, light fixtures and even the cabinet hardware can make kitchens into real living rooms. Look for task lighting that can highlight work spaces and then radiant lighting for atmosphere. You can even turn the legs of old furniture or newel posts into bases for centre islands to make you kitchen furnishings blend with the rest of the house. Get creative and enjoy doing much more than cooking in your new kitchen.

About the author:
Guy Morris is author and designer of the website http://www.kitchen-cabinets-tips.com. He is featuring kitchen cabinets and articles on kitchen designs http://www.kitchen-cabinets-tips.com/kitchen-designs.html.


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 Home Improvements – The Fun Stuff
 by: Raynor James

Planning home improvements necessarily involves addressing numerous practical matters. That doesn’t mean you should ignore the fun stuff!

The Fun Stuff

The first thing to plan for in home improvements is the practical stuff. The second thing you need to talk to family members about is the fun stuff.

Most people have colors they like and colors they don’t like. They have things that interest them and things that don’t. Get your family to talk to you about those things. Each person’s bedroom, or bedroom area, should reflect his or her taste and interests.

A boy who likes green, football, and backpacking can easily have a sage green (it “reads” as more neutral than many shades of green if re-sale of your home is a concern) room with cream woodwork, cream interior shutters, and cream ceiling. Framed football posters and wilderness scenes might be pleasant. Bedding with a rustic motif (rows of stylized pine trees?) from L.L. Bean or Plow and Hearth would work right in. Add a touch or two of a bright color like red or yellow.

Does he need a desk in his room? A chest of drawers? A bookcase? Would he enjoy having a bulletin board? Even if they’re small, most rooms need at least three lamps so that illumination is general and even. The shades are usually best in warm, neutral colors. (Light coming through green shades tends to make people look sick.) Lamp shades should be level and the seams should be toward the wall so they’re not visible. When the bottom edge of most lamp shades in a room are the same height from the floor, the room tends to look serene and cohesive.

Hanging pictures usually look best if the bottom edges of the frames are the same height from the floor and level with each other, too. There are exceptions to this and every generalization of course. A grouping of pictures can have the bottom tier follow the “rule” while all of the other pictures are higher. A picture over a fireplace often looks good higher than the other pictures in the room.

Pictures usually look best when they have a relationship to furniture or an architectural feature. Pictures centered over a chest, bed, bookcase, or fireplace are good examples. Pictures don’t tend to look good if they’re scattered willy-nilly around a room, or if they’re up near the ceiling (unless they’re part of a grouping), or if the height at which they’re hung varies wildly with no rhyme nor reason.

A girl who loves pink, the ballet, and swimming can have woodwork the same cream as her brother’s while her walls are a soft pink (a pink with a hint of yellow in it tends to go well with cream), and her art work reflects her interests. If she loves to read, make sure she has a good reading lamp near her bed, or near a comfortable chair, or both.

A cream colored dust ruffle with widely spaced pink stripes and a quilted plaid coverlet in pink, green, yellow, and blue on a cream background might look nice. Add cream fabric window shades with large pink polka dots and I’ll bet she’ll smile.

The bigger point is to simply have fun with some of your home improvements. There is no need to look exclusively at practical matters.


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