Home Improvement Articles

Kitchen Stori Launch Fabulous New Range

Giving the kitchen a facelift with some of the contemporary kitchen gadgets that are currently available is a great idea for the modern home. While many people find it easy to update a TV, DVD player, Blu Ray player, computer or mobile phone or any of the other different gadgets that are so popular right now, sometimes the kitchen for by the wayside. There are any number of great things you can do to help the kitchen improve in terms of hygiene, productivity, or to simply what can be done.

Wooden worktops have always been a popular feature of any kitchen area, bringing a certain rustic, warm and homely feel to even the most modern home environment. In this article we’ll look at the various types of wood available to those considering their kitchen designing options. There are a great many wood types to choose from, and it can be a confusing business choosing the right one for your needs. It is not only a question of practicalities, but also one of aesthetics. If you’re going to invest in what is quite a costly item, then you should ensure that it looks as good as possible – as it is likely to be in place for many years to come.

If you want your kitchen to look dazzling and pricey with clean lines and an uncluttered look, then you might want to consider upgrading your cabinets. To achieve this specific look without fail, you need to look no further than contemporary kitchen cabinets.

The kitchen has become more than just a functional room and more of a hub for the entire house, it is the visual point of many modern kitchens, homeowners are looking more and more for unique ways to add stylish touches to their homes, to make it uniquely their own. The ideal place to add your own personal touch of design is the kitchen backsplash and it is a very affordable part of the kitchen to remodel.

Are your kitchen chairs modern kitchen chairs?  Do you know to tell the difference?  Aren’t you pretty sure that all kitchen chairs are technically considered modern?  Is there a difference between modern chairs in your kitchen and contemporary kitchen chairs?  If there is, should you choose one over the other?  How do you make all of these decisions?  When did choosing kitchen chairs become so complicated?

For the purposes of this article, we will use the terms modern and contemporary interchangeably.  While in terms of art history the two are very different, when looking at furniture, there is not a lot of difference between the two. 

Modern art is made up of everything from the last of the impressionist paintings to Andy Warhol’s soup cans and everything that came between them.  Something that got painted five minutes ago could be considered modern.  Thankfully, when it comes to figuring out whether your chairs are modern chairs in your kitchen. There are just two criteria to keep in mind:  are the chairs multi functional and are they artistic enough to be appreciated on their own while not serving any practical purpose?  What does that mean? 

If the chairs in your kitchen can serve many purposes while still being chairs they are modern chairs.  If the chairs can be used as works of art, they are modern/contemporary chairs. 

Most modern furniture serves more than one purpose.  This is not just because the modern art movement calls for this, it is because humans are creative!  Do you use your coffee table to store blankets or games?  Do you use bookcases as places to display your photos and plants?  You have just helped your furniture become modern furniture!  To consider your chairs modern kitchen chairs, they need to pull double or triple duty:  do you use them as stepstools or as small tables?  You have modern chairs in your kitchen!

Some people might scoff at the idea of a chair being a work of art but contemporary kitchen chairs are often exactly that.  The sign of the modern kitchen chair is that it does not have to serve any real purpose for people to appreciate it on an artistic level.  Are your hairs artistic enough to fulfill that requirement?  Could you sit one of your chairs in the living room, not put anything on it and still have people admire it for its artistic merits?  If so, then you have modern kitchen chairs!

Believe it or not, once upon a time, furniture was purely functional.  Furniture designers did not make an effort to put any sort of artistic design into their furniture-the furniture was strictly utilitarian.  Today, however, modern kitchen chairs are works of art!  Some people assume that modern chairs and contemporary chairs need to be painted in certain ways and be made from specific materials.  The truth is that as long as your chairs have artistic merit and can be multifunctional they can be considered contemporary chairs and modern chairs..

The internet is full of articles and sites that are crafted by people claiming to represent the luxury kitchen market.  However, “luxury” is an over-used word these days.  Now that “luxury to the masses” is a common marketing concept in everything from handbags to kitchen tile, it has become difficult to wade through the plethora of information to find what the true luxury consumer is really looking for….to be set apart from the mass market.  As a kitchen designer for a high-end British company, I seldom engage in projects that cost less than $100,000 (often the cabinetry alone surpasses that amount).  Therefore I consider myself to be on the front lines of engagement with the real luxury consumer.  If you are building, remodeling, or designing a luxury kitchen, (or perhaps you just want to emulate one), then consider these suggestions.

1.  Understand the difference between a framed cabinet with an inset door and a cabinet with an overlay door.  A framed cabinet with an inset door is considered to be the higher-end option while cabinetry with overlay doors are the more common type seen on the market today.  Many of my clients are not familiar with this difference when they visit my studio and if you are unfamiliar as well, I encourage you to view cabinetry from both categories in person.  It is a little bit difficult to visualize, but essentially a framed cabinet with an inset door is  a cabinet box with a stationary frame mounted to the front of this box.  The cabinet door then sits inside (flush) the frame.  Traditional English cabinetry was bench made in this manner and it still holds appeal today.  An overlay cabinet can have a frame or be frameless, but regardless, the door overlaps the frame or box.    A frameless cabinet with overlay doors can be very desirable in a contemporary kitchen where clean, smooth lines are desired.  However, in terms of traditional cabinetry, this is seen as an inexpensive way to produce a lot of cabinets.  A framed cabinet with an inset door is a lot more work to manufacture and requires a great deal more craftsmanship to get everything properly aligned in its aperture.    If your home value is over $1.5 Million, you really should be purchasing framed cabinetry with inset doors.  There is simply a perceived quality associated with it.

2. Spend your money on high-end refrigeration. Most of my clients still opt to conceal their refrigerators behind custom cabinetry panels.  However, even if you want the professional look of stainless steel, I would encourage you not to skimp on your refrigerator.  A few years ago, Sub Zero had a firm corner on the market for fully integrated refrigeration.  By “full integration”, I mean that the refrigerator can be designed to sit flush with the cabinetry (24″ deep) without the need for a stainless steel grate above it, and without an exposed stainless steel frame.  Now, however, there are several more manufacturers offering this feature, including Miele and Thermador.  While not all of my projects utilize a fully integrated refrigerator, the vast majority of them do.  Luxury kitchens frequently feature a pair of refrigerators that are paneled and trimmed out to look like an armoire or beautiful piece of furniture.  In fact, this can be your kitchen’s best focal point if done well.

3.  Design a space to conceal all of your counter top appliances, such as coffee makers, toasters, blenders, etc.

Redesigning one of the places in your house can be very taxing and although the kitchen is one of the most frequently done, it can still be puzzling to know where to begin at the start. With many out there and traditional styles to select with plenty of good choices, often a modern kitchen is selected as it is both functionally and aesthetically pleasing, 2 items which are hard to ignore.

A modern design is mostly thought of as a simple, uncluttered and clean look with the use of simple lines in the design and some geometric themes. Many designers find balance in contemporary design along with a minimalist style, because of the clean and uncluttered look that modern design gives.

Kitchens are a focal point of any house. It’s where people congregate. As if they were drawn by a magnet, people always seem to end up in the cooking room.