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How To Update Your Kitchen Without Spending A Fortune?

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For many people, the kitchen is the heart and soul of the home. It tends to be the most used room in the house as it is the place where breakfasts, lunches and dinners are prepared, meaning it is at risk of becoming the most worn-looking room of the house also.


 

Modern Kitchen
Modern Kitchen

The kitchen should be a place where your family can come together after a long day at work – but if your kitchen is looking tired and outdated, it is going to be the last place you will want to spend your free time.

If you want to add a new lease of life to your kitchen but only have a small budget to do so, follow these tips:

Deep Clean

Dirt and grease can build up in your kitchen easily and quickly. Whilst you may take the time to give your kitchen a quick clean over each day, it is likely you are going to be missing vital parts in your kitchen, allowing grease and dirt to build up – giving the impression that your kitchen is more worn-looking than it actually is.

Take the time to give the kitchen a deep clean, tackle walls, skirting boards, and electrical appliances.

Giving the kitchen a good clean is a great way to give the entire room a new lease of life without spending any money!

Leave windows and doors open whilst completing the deep clean, it will allow the room to dry out quicker whilst allowing fresh air in, totally refreshing the room.

Improve Appliances

It can get expensive when looking at upgrading and improving appliances in the kitchen, to avoid splashing out on brand new equipment, why not just improve on the things you already have?

If your cooker is looking old, tired and grubby but still in great working condition, spend time giving it a good scrub to bring out the original shine and glimmer. To give the impression that the cooker is brand new, why not replace some of the current features? It is possible to upgrade the oven door, hob control knobs and many other things on the standard cooker!

To ensure that all kitchen appliances stay in good working order in the future, it is worth getting them serviced and updating the main parts when needed. It is important that fridge filters are regularly replaced or you may end up with unwanted faults.

Regularly servicing kitchen appliances can save you a lot of money in the long run.

New Accessories

If you still feel that your kitchen has not yet got that brand new look – buy some new accessories to give the impression that you have just had a new kitchen fitted.

Buying new affordable accessories can save you a fortune whilst completely changing the atmosphere created in the room. Update tea towels, pots & pans, and maybe some new storage jars!

Don’t forget to add some personal touches to the room, maybe some photos of your loved ones on the wall and some flowers on the window sill – the little things you add to the kitchen will make a huge difference!

Kerry wanted to update her kitchen appliances, she used Cool Products to source spare parts to update all appliances. By visiting www.coolproducts.org.uk she was able to renovate her kitchen whilst on a budget.

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Get The Professional Chef Look In Your Kitchen!

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If you love cooking and are always whipping up recipes designed by your favorite chefs, or concoctions of your own design, then chances are you have high standards when it comes to your kitchen at home. Whether it is having the very best in knives and other cooking tools, the freshest ingredients or the latest and best gadgets, cooking enthusiasts relish the chance to fit out their kitchens with the best in professional quality gear. But, when it comes to the layout of the kitchen itself, you may find yourself working with something that is a little more cluttered and homely than your Michelin starred heroes might have to use. If you are a serious cook in your own home and are thinking about remodeling your kitchen, why not take some kitchen design ideas from the professionals and get that pristine, efficient top chef look?

Maximum Room to Work

In a professional kitchen, one of the most vital concerns is keeping everything extremely clean and avoiding cross contamination. While in your own kitchen you will usually not be preparing as diverse a menu on a given day as a restaurant, cross contamination between different types of food and raw and cooked food is still an issue, so one thing to make sure of is that you have plenty of work space. Don’t waste counter space on things that are purely decorative or which can go somewhere else, like wine racks or bread bins, and give yourself as much room to work with when it comes to cutting, mixing and preparing as your kitchen can afford you.

Counter Tops

When it comes to counter tops and other work surfaces, in a professional kitchen stainless steel is normally used because it is very easy to keep clean and is resilient and long lasting. If you want this look in your own home then go for it, however most people prefer the more domestic look or granite or marble. These can take a bit more work to clean, however they do look good and also offer a strong surface to work on – just make sure you are always using clean cutting boards rather than putting food directly on the counter.

A stainless steel sink is always the best sort to have in a kitchen, however, and even if you use a dishwasher for the main washing up work, it is good to have a large one where you can quickly rinse off knives and other tools between uses for the same meal. A large sink is also a good place to defrost things and do various other food prep tasks, and will also give your kitchen more of the professional look you want.

Storing Equipment

Storing all your pots and pans in cupboards is the obvious way to keep the kitchen looking tidy, but you can create a cool ‘chef’ look by having some of your most used things out in the open, hanging on hooks over your oven for pots and pans or standing, ready to be used in a nice knife block for some of your other utensils. This not only makes the kitchen look like it belongs to a serious cook, but also makes it easier for you to grab the things you need as you prepare food.

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Richard Maxwell works for AB Restaurant Equipment, a restaurant supply store. He enjoys interacting with people and helping them out with his useful tips and suggestions.

Top Tips That Will Make Your Kitchen Easier To Work In

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Day 180 - Bloody washing up

How many times has someone said to you ‘the trick is to wash up your dishes right after you’ve eaten?’. It sounds like good advice sure, but what these smug friends don’t seem to take into account is that it’s not always quite that simple. For instance, it might be that you often watch TV while you eat and that you want to watch the rest of the program before you do the washing up. Alternatively it might be that once you’ve sat down, you suddenly feel too tired to get up and do the washing up after your long day of work and cooking.

Finally though, it might just be that you don’t enjoy washing up because your kitchen is too crowded to make it easy. If you have a small or badly designed kitchen, then what’s already a tough and unpleasant job can become unbearable. Here we will look at some of the ways you can make your kitchen more conducive to work, including washing up.

Work Zones

No matter the work you are doing in the kitchen you will find you need work zones. Work zones are areas that you can stand to work and ideally you should be able to reach more than one surface as well as some kind of appliance. In other words a good work zone might enable you to reach two or three bare surfaces and the hob. This way you can chop vegetables, stir a broth and drop things into a bowl all at once. When you first come up with your kitchen design you should try to think about where the work zones are going to be and how you can include more if possible. Using a kitchen island is one great way to add reachable surfaces at multiple points around the kitchen.

Organize Your Small Appliances

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Blenders, toasty makers and coffee machines are all great things to add to your kitchen that can help you to get more from it and provide better for guests. However they also have a downside which is to clutter your surfaces and make it harder to keep things clean. Keep them organized by providing storage for them, and make sure that there aren’t too many wires draped across your surfaces.

Have a Good Draining Rack

For washing up specifically a good draining rack is important and you should make sure that this provides enough space to keep all of your items on easily without it becoming overcrowded. A bowl in your sink can also help with the washing up.

Make Everything Accessible

While you should try to keep things out of the way and off the surfaces you should also ensure that you can quickly access anything you need to from the appliances to crockery and utensils. If you have to root around for ages to find a knife or climb up onto a step ladder to get the tinned beans then you’ll find that more often than not you end up just making ready meals instead…

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Gary Mint ia an interior designer. His area of interest is the kitchen. He loves to come up with new ideas for kitchen remodelling and is a firm believer in the concept of a spacious kitchen. His other interests include cycling and swimming.

How to Make Your Property Into a Pad

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Every guy I know has a secrete yearning to own a ‘pad’. When you’re young, successful and single, having a bachelor pad that shows off your success and your sense of style can serve not only as a great way to impress friends and potential partners, but also as a reward for all your hard work and validation of your success. Having a great flat that has all the bells and whistles means you’ve ‘made it’ and it’s a sure fire way to be the envy of all your friends and colleagues.

But how do you make a flat or a townhouse into a real bachelor pad? Here we will look at the secrets to making your flat say ‘success’ and ‘style’ even if you aren’t actually bringing in the mega bucks yet.

Minimalism

The first thing you need to focus on is creating a minimal design that doesn’t feature too much clutter or crowd out your spaces. Many people who want to have the best looking homes will make the mistake of decorating them with as much as they can find and stuffing them full of trinkets and items, but all this does is to dilute the impact of each thing on display and make the space look untidy.

Living Room with Bamboo Garden

By having just a few items on show instead you can make sure you choose only your very favourite belongings to display which means the average quality and value there will be greater. Furthermore this will create more open space which makes the rooms look larger and thus more luxurious (and more relaxing to spend time in).

Light

To further make your space look larger you should try and open it out as much as possible and use large windows and light colours to ensure lots of light gets around the room. This will make everything look instantly cleaner, instantly bigger and instantly more relaxing.

Using an open plan layout can also help with this and that’s a great way to make a space look modern while enabling you to entertain. An open plan kitchen that is nevertheless separate from the main room will allow you to cook and prepare food while guests relax on the sofa, or to eat your cereal on the counter while you watch TV before work.

Flooring

A wooden floor or concrete floor is a great way to avoid patterned or coloured carpets which date and stain and also a great way to make your home easier to keep clean.

Technology

Having lots of technology in your property is a great way to make it seem more luxurious, more automated and more modern. A big TV has long been a mark of success, but other smaller elements like having a tablet computer on a coffee table or a more advanced shower with multiple shower heads and settings can also sell the fact that you’ve spared no luxuries.

Taste and Variety

Wall Plates

To have a real pad you shouldn’t just be trying to demonstrate your resources but also your taste and lifestyle. Choose some items to display then that will show off where you’ve travelled and your hobbies and interests, but again keep these more minimal – so that means one piano or guitar, or just one tribal mask from your gap year. These also serve as fantastic conversation starters.

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  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source

Susan Lewis is a home maker and has bought her first home recently. She says that Investment in Property in Melbourne is on a high these days as a huge number of houses have been sold and bought.

Transform Your Room Into The Greatest Place Even With An Extension

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Everybody always has one special room in the house where they love to spend all their time. If you love watching sports then it’s probably the living room. Cooking fanatics never seem to be out of the kitchen. But everyone always wants more. They want bigger. It’s just who we are. Once you have had something for a certain amount of time it gets boring. Mom wants all those big fancy appliances in her kitchen. The ones you can’t fit in at the moment and probably won’t use anyway. Dad wants somewhere more than a tiny corner of the living room to work.

Why don’t you just admit it. You need more room in the house. And the last thing you probably want to do is move to a different neighborhood. You don’t need to. Not if you add an extension onto the side of your house. Apart from the hassle of getting planning permission it’s quite a smooth process. As long as you use a reputable company they can have it finished quite quick. It will cost you a bit money, but just imagine all the things you could do with it. Let’s have a look now at a few things you might be interested in.

Have your very own office space

The trouble with working from home is that it’s hard to get anything done if you don’t have your own office. It’s unfortunate if you don’t have any free rooms in the house. You have to work where there will always be people around. Maybe you are scared of leaving stuff on your tiny desk in case someone moves it and you have a heart attack. That all changes when you have somewhere to call your own. You get more done and the business improves drastically. That’s why an extension onto your living room would be great.

Entertaining guests

Everyone loves to entertain guests in their home. It’s a great way to socialize with friends when you become older, because it’s just not the same hitting the bars anymore. You need somewhere to feed people and have a good drink. If you only have a small dining room then it can be a problem. It can get a bit squashed when you try and fit everyone around a small table. If you add an extension onto the dining room that all changes. You finally have somewhere that’s perfect for entertaining and your social life definitely improves.

Keep the kids happy

It is really annoying when you want to relax in the living room and the whole place is a tip because the kids have left their toys lying around. A solution could be adding an extension to the living room to turn into a playroom. Somewhere dedicated to the kids where they can keep all their toys. You will have a lot of space and the living room will be much nicer. You can have a partition so the kids can play in their room and you can play in yours. And they are right next door so it’s always easy to keep an eye on them.

Give your kitchen a Michelin Star

If anyone in the household likes to cook then you would love an extension onto the kitchen. Just imagine all those wonderful appliances you can install. You’d have room for anything you wanted and would have the space to leave it lying out. Turn your kitchen into Starbucks by having an amazing coffee machine. The kind that makes coffee so good you think you’re in heaven. Add a stone baked oven and make better pizzas than Domino’s. The possibilities are endless.

Julia Watson often blogs and provides suggestions on various home improvement techniques. She is the proud owner of lean to conservatories – a firm excelling in providing instant price comparision quotes.

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