Top Ten Kitchen Tips: Organizing, Design, Entertaining and More!
Custom cabinets, granite countertops and state of the art appliances add great value to your home – but if your space isn’t organized or inviting, you’ll spend less time in it, and consequently, spend less time reaping the rewards of your investment.
Here are our Top Ten tips for 2012 to make the kitchen a friendlier place for you and your guests:
1. Make it a space you want to enjoy. When you love your kitchen, you’ll spend more time in it creating, entertaining and gathering. If you like the look of stainless steel appliances and metal cabinetry because it makes you feel like a master chef, but find it isn’t a place where you want to spend much time, warm up your style! Pair those stainless appliances instead with textured wood cabinets (consider paint or physical distressing finishes) or exotic veneers to create a mood that is still professionally sleek and clean but more likely to beckon you to the kitchen.
2. Open it up - or just take a peek. Miss USA Judi Anderson loves her French door cabinets and we know why. When it comes to organization, glass panel doors make everything visible and easy to find. They open up the space while creating an elegant feel and allow you to make your decorative bowls, china and pretty plates part of the kitchen décor while keeping them out of your way.
3. Store with purpose! A place for everything and everything in its place is the key to an organized kitchen. But if you want to take your organization to a new level, try storing items by theme. The more storage space you have the better, but when you have lots of items to store in those spaces, grouping them by how you’ll use them together helps to know where things are without searching.
4. Make it a space your guests will enjoy. People love to graze. If you know you’re entertaining, make your kitchen inviting to the random grazer. This makes your guests feel at home, with the added benefit of company while you’re putting the finishing touches on the meal. Bowls of fresh fruit like grapes and cherries that are easy to grab, or easy, colorful appetizers on the island or countertop (rather than out on the coffee table), will lure guests to your culinary showplace.
5. If you don’t need to refrigerate it, don’t. Providing you have the room to display without feeling cluttered, arranging fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts in colorful bowls and containers will remind you of what you have to snack on throughout the day, prevent items from going bad in the fridge because you forgot about them, inspire meal ideas, and serve as organic decoration.
6. Engage other rooms. If you’re renovating and have the option, open the space between the kitchen and the living room. A view into the living area will make the family chef feel part of the action. It will be a pleasure to be in the kitchen, not a rush to get out of it. Half-walls, breakfast bars, or even fully glass door cabinets that allow you to see all the way through to the next room are all great options for staying part of the fun or for keeping an eye on the kids.
7. Don’t forget to be eco-friendly. 2012 will continue the trend toward environmental awareness. When designing the layout for your kitchen, remember that while your décor may be traditional, you can still add modern touches, like space for sorting recyclables. Whether it’s a secret place to stash your recycle bin or an open spot for containers for waste, plastic, paper and cardboard, plan ahead. Set aside a space for the environment in your environment!
8. Lighten it up. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – good lighting is king in the kitchen. Whether you invite natural light from big windows or from recessed lighting in the ceiling or under your custom cabinets, a well lit kitchen is more inviting, feels more modern, and encourages you to stay in the area longer. Great lighting has the added benefit of helping you to see areas that need extra attention when cleaning!
9. Keep items you need at the ready. No matter what type of cuisine you love prepare, it’s likely that there are several tools you always use for everything you do. Don’t stash those away in a drawer or cabinet. Instead, keep them at the ready for quick prep work. Items like spatulas, whisks and big spoons are perfect to keep in a caddy or decorative container to be there the moment you need them.
10. Design for you. Don’t follow trends; follow your needs. If you have dreams of a trendy kitchen you saw in a magazine, but the design doesn’t make sense for your lifestyle, go with what works for you on a daily basis. Kitchens designs look great when they are perfectly staged for a magazine, but be realistic with how you’ll use the space in real life. If you have a busy kitchen that serves as mission control for your family, and things like ease of cleaning and maintenance, places to dump mail and school bags, and easily reachable cabinets and drawers are important to you, skip the fantasy kitchen and design for you.
2012 might be the year you re-imagine your kitchen. Knowing what you love and what you need will give you direction as you start on your remodel journey. Understanding that the “enjoyability” of your kitchen will make all the difference in whether your remodel is worth the effort is equally important in maintaining that direction, from start to finish!
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