Forget the living room. Kitchens are the center of the modern family. We all love food, and the smells coming out of the kitchen can be amazing.
We’ve spent too long trying to hide our kitchens, and now it’s time to take charge. Making a centerpiece kitchen doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive either.
With a few hundred dollars budget, you can transform your kitchen into the showpiece it deserves to be. Here are a few tips to get you started.
Paint the Cabinets
Expensive wood looks nice, but it’s not practical for most families. They’re costly, environmentally destructive, and can’t be fixed when inevitable accidents happen.
Parents know that life needs to be crayon-proof. Enter the painted cabinet.
Modern kitchens are often painted dark blue, green, or white. What you do depends on the rest of the room’s existing decor.
Try to contrast the cabinets with your walls and countertops. Dark cabinets provide contrast if you have white walls, while white cabinets brighten a dark room.
Replace the Drawer and Cabinet Pulls
Replacing drawer and cabinet pulls is an inexpensive way to give cabinets a new look. The drawer pulls are the differentiator of whether you’re going for chic modern or a farmhouse look.
Or you can just go for a couple of basic designs by experimenting with color and accessories. You can find lots of unique and exciting designs at hardware stores.
Kitchen redecorating is a lot of work, but shops like Dean and Deluca make decorating your kitchen and filling up your pantry very easy. You can even have them shipped internationally.
Change the Lighting
Lighting is another easy fix. A couple of modern hanging lights or spotlights will take your room from average to wow.
Lighting is having a renaissance because of new LED options. It’s easy to choose from various color temperatures, and they use a fraction of the energy that older lights used to have.
Since they’re not producing as much heat, you can feel free to use lights in ways that were impossible before.
Add Some Thoughtful Art
The ceramic cows might have to go, but that doesn’t mean art is banned from the kitchen. Thoughtful kitsch is very much in style.
Pop culture naturally dominates the art scene because we spend so much time in front of screens. But there are other options.
A shelf of books looks great, but so does an interesting spice rack.
Remove the Clutter
Clutter, trash, and junk are the enemy of every great design. Anything you add should be thoughtful and not used to fill up space.
Empty space is an essential element in art. It’s a pause that gives room to the other components. There’s a limit to how much information our brains can process, so make your choices count.
Designs usually start simple and then get filled in with life. Put away your toys when you’re done with them and don’t add extra useless things.
