Seasoned With Style: Creating a Gorgeous Kitchen

There’s one thing that home buyers value possibly above all others, and that’s a great kitchen. With it being such a well-used room, a space that’s practical and beautiful is needed to truly become the heart of the home. So if your home has a fantastic kitchen, not only is it something you can enjoy in the here and now but if you come to sell your house later down the line you’ll make an incredible profit too. So if you’re deciding on what area to spruce up next in your home, it should be the kitchen! Here are some of the things to consider when you’re creating your perfect space.

Water flows from the tap to sink

[Photo courtesy of Kaboompics // Karolina/pexels.com]

Clear Out The Old and Rejig Any Walls

Ripping out your old kitchen is sure to be satisfying! Pull out the old worktop and units, rip the tiles off the walls and get everything into a skip. Unless you already have a large space, you might want to remove a wall or move it to a different place to open up the room and give you more space to work with. You could go with a full open concept design or have a stud wall put up in another location.

Talk To a Kitchen Designer

The thing about kitchens is in order to get the best out of your space they actually have to be cleverly designed. One trick is to keep the ‘working triangle’ in mind. This keeps you in the middle of a triangle with the refrigerator, stove and sinks at the three points. This allows you to move around the space in the most efficient way. If you want an island, you need to work out how big you can go with it and the kind of features it will include. Talk to a kitchen designer who will help turn your plans in reality and advise you on what will and won’t work.

Choose Your Units and Appliances

Possibly the most fun part of buying a kitchen- picking the units! While you want your kitchen and home to be personal to you, it’s worth bearing in mind that some styles will be more timeless and age better than others- meaning that if you sell in a few years, the kitchen doesn’t look dates. Avoid anything too trendy which will fall out of style quicker- while high gloss and stainless steel might look cool now once the trends change (which they will) your kitchen will be stuck in a time warp. White or wood units stand the test of time, a wooden or granite worktop will again always look classic. If you choose solid wood as opposed to veneers, they will last for a much longer time and also mean you can paint them in the future if you need to. For appliances, going with integrated pieces will make your kitchen look far more streamlined. Do your research into each piece so you know exactly what you’re getting.

Plumbing and Electrics

Once your space is clear and you know exactly where everything is going to be put, you’ll need to get plumbing and electrics in. If you’re having extra sockets or an island you’ll need an electrician to install these in the correct places. If you’re having things like an American fridge freezer with a plumbed in water and ice machine, you might need some additional plumbing put in. The same applies if you’re completely changing the layout, or adding things like a dishwasher chances are you’ll need new pipes installing, A company like Brentwood plumbing could tackle jobs like this, or you could look at tradesmen in your local area. You should have all of this done before the units, and tiles things go in, to make the job easier and avoid having to remove and redo certain jobs.

Think About Wall and Floor Tiles

Again choosing a plainer design will stand the test of time with style, although if you don’t mind getting your tiles redone in a few years, you could go with something cool and trendy. Plain White is an easy choice, if you want to keep on trend right now, gray is a very popular choice. For flooring, a real tile looks smart and will be long-lasting and easy to clean. Avoid wood and laminates which can warp and rot if they get wet which is a possibility in the kitchen.

Don’t Overlook Lighting

Lighting can be trick in the kitchen, after all, fittings like chandeliers as well as table lamps certainly don’t look right. Go with a sleek light fitting or have some spotlights installed. Another cool way to light the kitchen is to have led strip lighting installed under cupboards and kick boards. A nice modern touch and another way you can light up the kitchen in the evening without lamps.

Find The Right Window Treatments

Curtains rarely look right in kitchens. Go with something more simple and sleek- blinds and shutters make a good choice. You can add privacy without blocking out that all important natural light. If your kitchen feels dark and dingy, you could even consider having your window extended and made bigger. Other alternatives would be replacing any doors with glass doors, or in some kitchens, it might be possible to add a skylight.

Splash Out on Fixtures and Fittings

Finally, your fixtures and fittings really area everything in the kitchen. These will finish off everything and can be the difference between a kitchen which looks ok and one that looks incredible. Spend a little extra on your sink, taps and drawer handles. You could also upgrade your outlets from the white plastic to stainless steel for a more expensive look. All of these little touches all up massively.

Kitchenware

[Photo courtesy of Kaboompics // Karolina/pexels.com]

Decorate

Using light coloured walls and keeping the decor homely and simple will make the most of the space while bringing it to life. A textured house plant, some checked tea towels, a clock and a fun plaque for example would show your personality without adding clutter. Add a couple of key pieces that showcases you.

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How Kitchen Appliances Affect Your Home

The kitchen should be an enjoyable space that inspires you to cook. In recent years, the kitchen has developed into a space which is used not only for cooking, but also for eating and entertaining. As we spend more time in the kitchen, it’s becoming more important to us that it should be an aesthetically pleasing environment. Creating such a space not only requires a lick of paint and some desirable furniture, but a change to your appliances, too.

Here, we take a look at a few appliances and consider how they can improve your home life.

Washing machine

We used to do our best to keep appliances like the washing machine away from the kitchen. They were large, noisy and unsightly; while their introduction to the home was welcome, we weren’t keen to be reminded of them.

Today, it is a different story. Washing machines not only look sleek, but they are far less intrusive than ever before in terms of size, shape and sound. The result is that we can gladly incorporate the machine into our kitchen environment to make life a little easier.

Kitchen, Home, Interior, House, Kitchen Interior

[Photo courtesy of Elena1957/pixabay.com]

Cookers

The kind of cooker you choose for your kitchen is, of course, a matter of personal choice. With so many to choose from, it’s now possible to tailor our cookers to our cooking style. This means making decisions on looks, size and power options. If you’re unsure of what might suit you, it’s worth researching belling cookers to understand what each style of cooker can offer you and your kitchen.

Dishwasher

If you’re using your kitchen as a space for entertaining, the last thing you want after dinner is a pile of washing up. Dishwashers can transform a kitchen, allowing us to tidy away the dirty dishes immediately, without that lingering feeling that we’ve got something to do.

Kitchen, Open, Home, House, Interior, Design

[Photo courtesy of landersb/pixabay.com]

Fridge freezer

One effect of the changing way in which we use our kitchens, is that the rooms are getting bigger. As such, more of us are opting to include large American style fridge freezer combinations into the room. Not only are these stylish, but they can offer us plenty of cooling space, not to mention the host of smart features included on top-of-the-range models.

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Easy Ways to Stage Your Home for a Quick Sale

Selling your home is perhaps one of the most stressful things you’ll ever have to do, so to say making the sale in a quick, easy, painful and profitable fashion is in your best interests is a monumental understatement. Contrary to popular belief though, you don’t have to spend a small fortune to get your house looking its best for sale. The most important thing you will need to do is find a balance between revealing what the home means to you and what it could potentially mean to somebody else. This means making sure that your personality is present, but not overbearing. Here, we’ll take you through your home room-by-room, examining in each, exactly what needs to be done to ensure that the positives are played up, and the negatives are played down.

The Bathroom

Coloured bathroom suites go down with most viewers about as well as a bacon sandwich at a bar-mitzvah. There’s something ever so slightly ‘dated’, and ‘dirty’ about coloured baths and sinks that immediately puts people off. Buying a whole new bathroom suite might seem like a drastic move, but its importance cannot possibly be overstated. It’s also important to make sure that your bathroom is as clean and polished as possible. Clean the surface mold from between your tiles and wipe down your shower doors with steel wool to get rid of any excess ‘gunk’. A fresh coat of paint is also an option for the walls and your tiles if they are looking a little dated, if you’re painting tiles though, make sure you’re using a ceramic epoxy covering instead of conventional paint.

The Kitchen

The area of your home where you’ll be spending a significant proportion of your time, how much the kitchen impresses viewers will largely come down to its  surface aesthetics. Older cabinets and units can be lent new life with a simple lick of paint or varnish, but an old oven or washing machine could give off a bad impression. You don’t need to upgrade them if they work perfectly fine though. A great low cost trick would be to swap out any exterior panelling with a stainless steel, stick-on covering for a more elegant, modern look. Of course if your appliances are seriously dated (and barely functional) you might want to think about installing some new equipment. Spending a little today, could net you a lot more in the long run.

Living Room

The Lounge/Living Room

The beating heart of your homestead, as its name suggests, the living room is where you have no doubt spent the lions share of your free time and where potential buyers will spend most of theirs. It is imperative to make the room seem comfortable, clean and adaptable, so clean, bright colours are ideal. The living room is possibly the most personal room of the house and as such, personal touches should be kept to a minimum. Family portraits and personal heirlooms don’t necessarily need to be put away (after all, it’s important that the house feels ‘lived in’) but they shouldn’t be too noticeable. If you have hard wood floors, make sure they have been freshly stained with a rich, inviting colour and if your floor is carpeted, be sure to vacuum regularly and hire an industrial carpet cleaner if necessary.

The Garden

If your home has a substantial garden, it could very well be the clincher that ‘seals the deal’. This is especially important if the viewing is during the Summer. The garden is perhaps one of the cheapest areas of your home to maintain so make sure the lawn is freshly cut for each viewing and that all the most attractive vegetation and plant life is well fed and placed out front and centre. If you have an attractive patio area that catches the light well meanwhile, try purchasing some new garden furniture or accentuating an already existing, attractive patio feature.

Bedrooms

The bedrooms need to remain as blank as possible. A bedroom should be a place of comfort and relaxation so first and foremost, any unnecessary clutter needs to be dealt with. Simple, relaxed colour schemes (soft greens and blues for example) are popular with most modern buyers and it’s important that every aspect of the room adheres to this scheme (from the walls to the pillows). Remember, with the bedroom more than any other room you’re not just selling your home, you’re selling your lifestyle.

The most important thing to impart on any buyer is a sense of ‘space’. Clutter is not attractive and whilst it might pain you to strip away some of the personality and ‘soul’ that made your house your home, remember that nothing worth having comes easy and there’s nothing stopping you from making your new home even more special!

Crispin Jones has written this post on behalf of Internal Doors. With a wide range of internal and external doors you can be sure that checking out their websites is worth 5 minutes of your time today.

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Home Remodeling and Repair

Remodeling your home is very important because you will not just maintain the beauty of it but also improve the value of your house. By remodeling you will also improve the quality of your house and keep it from pest infestation, the kitchen is one of the place you need to consider remodeling because this is the place which is prone to heat.

Kitchen remodeling is quite  a large job but a simple repainting will do but if you want more than this you might as well consider changing your kitchen doors, moving the furniture’s and position of appliances, changing the lights and restructuring your entire kitchen.

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This could be quite expensive especially if you are planning to hire a contractor but with the help of further research online you could find site like AccentBuildingProducts.com  that sells affordable but best quality materials that could help you to start your project.

They have wide selection of kitchen cabinetry, drawers,  vinyl products that you could use in your patio and windows,  shutters, woods for flooring, aluminum products for railings and many more. They also offer cabinet layout and design service if you are looking for a design that will fit and compliment your kitchen.  Pay them a visit now to request color samples and to see what else they could offer for your house beautification.

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