It’s a brand new year, so we thought we’d start a new blog series. Welcome to our first ‘Get their look‘ post. A fairly self-explanatory title, each week we’ll feature an image of an interior that has caught our eye and we’ll show you how and where to copy the style.
To kick off, we’re sharing this eclectic counter-top and kitchen shelving. They contain both practical and decorative items – many of which tick both these boxes.
(ends 26 Jun, 2014 21:02:18 BST)
Our kitchen is, for the most part, free-standing. We have a couple of overhead, wall mounted cupboards and the sink unit is housed in a fitted unit with doors beneath. Other than that, we have open shelves, a couple of butcher’s blocks, food safe and a 1950s kitchenette.
This vintage, free-standing kitchen cupboard with enamel top is being sold by & in support of North Devon Hospice*. It’s just the kind of thing we’d have in our house. A pair of drawers for storing the cutlery and below double doors to shelves for plates. It needs a little cosmetic work – a good clean and new paper or oil cloth lining for the drawers and shelves. The opening bid is £75 and the buyer must collect.
*North Devon Hospice aims to be the centre of excellence for the provision of palliative care for the people of North Devon and to be the main point of contact for health care professionals requiring support with complex problems in palliative care.
(ends 6 Dec, 2013 09:26:45 GMT)
We’ve featured vintage kitchenettes in our Charity Vintage section before. They’re really popular, useful and attractive – we have one in our kitchen that stores all our baking paraphernalia.
The 1960s kitchenette featured here looks to be in very good condition – they’ve posted lots of photos. It just needs a little cosmetic attention to its paintwork. It’s being sold by The Butterfly Hospice* themselves, so they get 100% of the final profit. It has a ‘buy it now’ price tag of £150 which is very reasonable.
*The Butterfly Hospice was built by the community to provide palliative care services to patients with advanced life-limiting disease, and to offer advice and support to relatives, carers and healthcare professionals involved in their care. The inpatient unit provides care free of cost to patients and their families.
Starting a kitchen remodel can be an exciting time – it can also quickly become a time you can’t wait to just be over and done with. Many home-owners don’t realise all that is included in a kitchen renovation, but with some additional knowledge, the task can actually turn into something that can be fun!
Here are some tips to follow when starting out in selecting new kitchen cabinets.
Many home improvement and cabinet stores have great cabinet materials that can help you start measuring your cabinetry and see what options are in stock that will fit your needs. This material is typically free and can save you a lot of time in planning. It’s important to keep in mind that unless you’re doing custom cabinetry, you’re fairly limited to the cabinets that are kept in stock.
In addition to brick and mortar stores, many companies have online tools that can be very helpful in laying out a new cabinet design. Often, they will then tell you exactly what cabinets you will need to finish off your new design. It’s almost like having a personal kitchen designer to help you from start to finish.
If you like the general layout of your current kitchen, but want an updated look or wood, use the measurements from your existing cabinetry to give yourself a starting point for your design.
This can be especially helpful if you’ve lived with the existing cabinetry – you know what drives you nuts about the current layout and what improvements should be made for a better functioning kitchen. Use this knowledge to your advantage!
Another alternative is to simply refinish your existing cabinets with new hardware, stain, etc.
Often times home-owners are shocked that their existing materials can be refinished into beautiful, updated pieces to give their kitchen a whole new look. While this might not be for everyone, it’s definitely an option to consider.
If you decide to go with in-stock cabinets, keep in mind that some cabinets require an additional cabinet to sit next to it, or a separate trim piece needs to be purchased to make the cabinet have a finished look. Also, this might seem obvious, but most DIY-ers are surprised to find out that cabinets aren’t finished on the top. They are designed to have a counter top placed on top of them to finish them off. This is important to consider if you’re considering in-stock cabinetry for other uses besides traditional kitchen or bathroom use.
Also, have you ever noticed that in typical kitchens the cabinets above the fridge are actually deeper than the rest of the cabinetry? This is done on purpose. Many people learn the hard way that this isn’t just a style preference. The cabinets are designed to be deeper so that they are more easily accessible. Keep this in mind when designing your kitchen layout.
Additionally, you might want to consider adding electricity to your cabinets, especially if you’re adding in an island. This can save you a lot of headaches, and it allows you to use kitchen appliances on your island, adding to your overall available work space.
Author biography: Alex Orton is a PR and content marking professional living in Washington DC. He has worked in both the software and non-profit space and enjoys writing, politics, and running around the nation’s capital. Alex enjoys writing articles for companies like Knotty Alder Cabinets.
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