How to Make Your Kitchen Seem New Again
A kitchen is often a central room in the home. That’s where most of the family lives and family gatherings happen. It’s also a room that’s not renovated that often because it includes a lot of appliances and heavy objects that are difficult to move.
When you notice that your kitchen is starting to feel a bit old and mundane, you should consider steps for improving it. These don’t have to be major overhauls or big projects. It’s often the small touches that make all the difference.
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Painting
The simplest change you can introduce to your kitchen is to simply add a fresh coat of paint to it. This should be done at least once every one or two years. It needs to be done more often in the kitchen than in the rest of the home, due to the conditions in it.
It’s best not to experiment too much with the colors in the kitchen since it’s the room that needs to be functional and simple. A bland, inoffensive color will also give you a chance to be more creative elsewhere when it comes to design.
Lighting
How the kitchen is lit can affect its look and usability more than any other feature. When you first purchase a home or shop for a kitchen just because you need one, not enough thought goes into designing the lights. This is the first thing to change when trying to renew the kitchen.
The key to having a well-lit kitchen is to spread the accent lights all around it. It’s most effectively done if you know how you use your kitchen, and what the most important areas in it are, when it comes to actual work.
Countertops
Countertops are the most important surface in your kitchen. They need to be firm and cleanable enough so they can be used for actual cooking, and they need to be decorative enough so that you can create a look and a design around them. When replacing them, the key feature to look for is the material you’ll use. Using decorative concrete gives a perfect mix of usability and style.
One of the things to consider is to install an island at the center of your kitchen. This will give you the main countertop to work on, and also allow you to move around it and use it in a more versatile way.
Storage Space
One of the most difficult things to solve when it comes to kitchen design is how to have enough storage space nearby and to still keep the kitchen seem compact and well kept. By changing this one thing, you may make your kitchen appear more functional and spacious.
Start by going through the things you have at your storage space now, and throw away the things you don’t need. The best places to store the items you don’t always need but want to have on hand is in the overhead space because that won’t make the room appear crowded.
Eco-Friendly
A kitchen is probably the most important room in the home when it comes to being eco-friendly. This should start with small items, such as installing modern faucets that are sensor activated. They will waste much less water and are more comfortable to use.
Replacing the appliances for those that use less electricity is a bigger change, but it’s well worth it if you can afford it. This could be done in stages, by changing one appliance at the time. In the end, they will pay off by wasting less power.
No More Walls
One of the biggest changes you could make is to redefine what kitchen is in the first place. In a modern home, the distinction between a kitchen and a dining room doesn’t have to be that clear. The same goes for the family or living room which can also be adjacent to the kitchen.
Removing the walls between the two creates an open plan set up. It’s a big project and before you go into it, you should consider how your kitchen is used and how your family life is organized. The set up should be put in place only when you know it will help you move about your home seamlessly.
How to Pay For All Of This
Some of these changes to your kitchen might end up being a bit pricey, especially if you go for the larger projects. This is simply a matter of planning. A kitchen needs to be designed at once so that it can be used in a comfortable and organized fashion, but it doesn’t have to build that way.
Figure out what projects are the most important for you and start with them. Smaller and easier items should be done last. It’s also useful to consider how much disruptions will each project cause.
It’s important to make your kitchen appear new and fresh every now and then. It can be done with a few small projects or one or two large ones. Make sure to have in mind how the kitchen is used when you do this.
