For most of us, the kitchen is the central hub of the house. We tend to spend significant amounts of time eating, chatting, and living our lives in the kitchen. This attribute makes it essential to maximize the kitchen’s function using some clever storage, organization, access, and aesthetic-related decisions. How can you ensure your kitchen works for you?
When you walk into a room, the interior color palette is undoubtedly among the first things your eyes notice. Different colors evoke different moods and emotions, which are some of the top factors that you should consider when choosing a kitchen color scheme.
Typically, your kitchen should be a happy, calm, and warm place. Having the right color combination makes it easy to feel relaxed when preparing, serving, or sharing a meal. If you are confused about what colors work best, you may want to start with neutral colors. These include tan, white, and cream. These colors are barely distracting and complement common kitchen objects, appliances, fixtures, and fittings.
Additionally, ensure that your large appliances are neutral-colored to avoid drawing too much attention towards them. If your kitchen lets in a lot of light, consider using dark neutral colors. If your kitchen is naturally dark, consider lighter neutral colors.
How many times have you found yourself sipping on your glass of wine in the kitchen while engaging your friend in happy talk? The kitchen is unarguably among the best spaces for friends and family. However, this also means that you have to put up measures to ensure that people in the kitchen can move and interact freely without making the space look crowded.
You can do this by positioning the seating area away from the cooking area. Additionally, you can use flowers and magazines to highlight the designated seating space and naturally encourage people to move towards that side.
It is easy to have numerous appliances, utensils, gadgets, and other objects lying on your kitchen counter and other spaces. At times, these items are easy to ignore until they have filled up your kitchen surfaces and left your kitchen a mess. Look for anything you never use and store it in your designated storage area. If you rarely have guests over, you may not need several cupboards full of utensils. Instead, consider having only a single drawer.
Additionally, consider different storage and organization methods. These include dining tables with extra storage, plate racks, and shelves.
While your favorite recipe books, flower vases, ornate sugar bowls, and other items might make the kitchen homier, they can easily take up valuable space. As you might imagine, cluttered surfaces make it harder to clean and use your kitchen and, quite frankly, do not paint the best picture of you as the kitchen owner.
You could try optimizing your kitchen storage by incorporating hanging storage for your utensils and retractable storage for other rarely-used items. Declutter and leave only the bare essentials on display.
Give your kitchen an extra touch of neatness by organizing your food storage. Start by sorting the food items into groups. For example, you could store the sugary treats on top shelves to prevent your little ones from getting to them. Store canned foods on shelves right about the eyes level so that you can quickly tell what is about to run out. You can then store cereals, legumes, breakfast items, and pasta on the bottom shelves.
If you have a lot of storage shelves, you could group the food items into even more categories. For example, place your sugar, cocoa, coffee, and tea leaves in storage spaces close to the cupboard with cups, kettles, and tea strainers. Additionally, try storing food items close to utensils with which they are closely related. Doing this makes it easier to access all the things you need for a particular meal or beverage without having to go around the entire kitchen.
If possible, consider using labeled clear glass jars for specific food items. These include different flours, sugar, salt, rice, and legumes. Not only will this keep them fresh for longer, but it also makes it easier to monitor the remaining amounts.
Some seemingly minor changes can make life in your kitchen significantly easier. For example, if you have hard-to-reach storage spaces, have them refitted to suit your height, or better still, invest in a small kitchen ladder. If you have back pains or spine-related problems, avoid using low-lying storage spaces since they will force you to bend regularly.
If you have children at home, look for ways to make the kitchen safer for them. For example, you can ensure all surfaces that can become dangerously hot are out of reach for children. Additionally, avoid hanging objects from positions where they can easily fall due to minor movements. If you can do something to make life easier for any kitchen user, feel free to try it.
Window blinds are definitely among the most helpful window accessories. Blinds help you regulate the light that gets into your kitchen, making it easy to carry out different tasks at varying times of the day. However, for all the convenience, regular blinds can also be a pain. From the open-and-close mechanism to the difficulty in cleaning, conventional blinds are not precisely the simplest light-blocking accessories to use. Some people have even had pets tangled in the window blind cords.
This is where windows with built-in blinds come in. These blinds are positioned between two glass panes instead of the conventional over-the-frame design. The built-in blinds are designed using the magnetic system, the solar-powered system, or hard-wired systems. If you constantly fuss over the downsides mentioned above, feel free to remodel using the built-in tech.
Your kitchen does not have to feel messy, cluttered, or uninviting. By considering the decisions mentioned above related to color palettes, organization, light-blocking, decluttering, and space management, you can easily make your kitchen a great space.
About the Author
Jennifer Bell is a freelance writer, blogger, dog-enthusiast, and avid beachgoer operating out of Southern New Jersey.
