Wednesday 14 August 2013

Designing Pretty Yet Functional Kitchens

Of course, you want your kitchen to be really pretty. But your kitchen also needs to be functional. So just how do you strike the right balance between elegance and workability? Here are some tips to help you strike the right balance between appearance and workability.

Do you feel stuck up with a wine theme or a fat chef theme for your kitchen? No wonder you are bored. Try something different, exciting and interesting for your kitchen.

• The easiest way to spruce up your kitchen and add a touch of elegance fast is to choose the  right kitchen backsplash. You can either design it yourself and make it your personal design statement, or hire a professional to design it for you. Either way, your kitchen will benefit. This can be very inexpensive to do, and you should be able to see the benefits right away.

• Turn your hobby in to a kitchen theme. If you like collecting pottery, antique items, old bottles, vases and the like then incorporate them in your kitchen. Anything you collect can be made in to a theme and what’s more you can be choosy too by dressing up your kitchen with your favorite color and using these elements subtly. By adding a few touches of color here and there you can change the look of your kitchen in minutes.

• Or go for country blue and white kitchen with rustic furniture and appliances. You can also run a high shelf in your kitchen which houses bird nests, vines, berries and bird houses.

• Or go with a grape theme. Make a grape stencil in your backsplash or make your own pottery with grapes painting on it.  Or try a vegetable theme kitchen with vegetable prints. Many sites like allposters.com do carry some awesome vegetable prints. For a vegetable theme kitchen you can add colors like tomato red, off white, tan or green to create a bright look.

• Or you can go with traditional themes like apple theme or try your favorite vegetable like red pepper etc. Adopt red checkered tablecloths, napkins, fabric with pepper motif and so on for a delightful kitchen. Apple theme can be easily incorporated with apple tile murals in backsplashes, apple motifs on walls, apple colored curtains and towels etc.

• Or stick with a neutral toned kitchen like white cabinets, appliances, sink and go for colorful towels, drapes and other accessories to spice things up.

• Another good place to get ideas is to hunt at thrift stores for home accessories. Beautiful glass
bottles, vintage items may inspire you to deck up your kitchen. Glass bottles are also quite popular in small kitchens as they reflect light and add visual interest in the kitchen.

• Framed art, decorative baskets, serving bowls and dishes are all inexpensive items to decorate your kitchen with. As these are all washable as well you have a sparkling new kitchen as well.

• Or you can stick with a French kitchen décor. Right from French sign boards to wall murals you can buy everything at discount rates at Amazon. You even get canister sets, glasses and wall clocks. So depending on your budget you can choose the perfect kitchen décor for your kitchen.

There are so many creative ideas you can generate really easily. Visit your local library and take a look at kitchen decorating books and periodicals. Make a note of what you like and soon you will have a lot of material to generate ideas from. One thing you would want to be careful about though is that most of the ideas in such magazines is for the upper crust of the society. For folks who do not have to worry about sticking to budgets. If that does not exactly describe you, then you will want to be sure to select ideas that suit your budget.

Here's a nice video you might want to watch. It's about creating functional kitchens.