Kitchen

A Different Style: Black Kitchen Ideas and Designs

To really create a designer and luxurious black kitchen space, try and avoid having any other colors in the space. Take out any colorful pieces from the kitchen. This doesn’t mean you can’t add some warmth and shades into the space – they just need to be handpicked pieces. Here are some black kitchen ideas to help you design your space.

Use Neutral and Natural Colors

Add pieces into the kitchen that have a natural or neutral color. So use natural materials like metals (brushed stainless steel, copper, brass), wood, and stone (tiles, marble), or even brick.

Check out the great combination of black cabinets and an exposed brick wall in the kitchen in picture (2).

Or see how the wood really stands out and adds warmth to the black kitchen in picture (1).

Try to balance the amount of black you have. All black cabinets, with a white backsplash and countertop is an example of good balance – just like in picture (3).

Then again some people might like an all black kitchen (4). You can add some style to it by infusing different textures. A stone wall (6), a wooden one like in picture (7), or glossy tiles (8) adds a design element to otherwise flat dull black walls.

Making Sure It Is a Bright Space

The black decor and walls of the kitchen will make the space feel quite dark. So you’ll need to make sure you have enough lighting, especially around the work areas (countertops, cooker, over the kitchen island, over the kitchen table, and over the sink).

Kitchen Lighting Ideas Mood Board and Inspiration

Some elegant lighting ideas include black pendant lights, but the inside of the light shade is another color like gold or silver.

Here are some other kitchen posts to get ideas from:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8

Style Guide: Black kitchen ideas and designs

April 12, 2016 in Color Palettes, Kitchen

The Right Style: Modern Kitchen Design Ideas

Here are some tips and ideas when it comes to creating a modern kitchen design.

Color Choice

Stick to a strict color scheme. This means taking out colored pieces that don’t align with your color scheme, or you can store away these pieces out of sight.

Take a look at the pictures in the mood board above. There really is no color in the kitchens. They mostly use natural and neutral modern kitchen colors like white, grey, black, wooden shades, and stone. Use plants to add some greenery and warmth to the space, along with using wooden features (flooring, countertops, bar stools).

Clean and Simple Design

Avoid patterns. Instead go with textures – like a marble countertop or backsplash. Notice how in the pictures in the mood board, you have very clean cut straight lines – there are no rounded corners and that includes the sink. Take a look at the small modern kitchens in pictures (1) and (3) as good examples of this.

A Different Style: Black Kitchen Ideas and Designs

What Do Modern Kitchen Cabinets Look Like?

Most modern kitchens will have flat cabinet doors with no handles or doorknobs. Instead they push pop to open, or you have a groove cut out to open. This creates a sleek design, and makes the space feel more spacious.

Also the cabinets will be glossy. This helps makes the kitchen feel bigger as the light bounces off of the shiny surfaces.

A Modern Home is Well Lit

Recessed lighting is the way to go for modern kitchen lighting. Have them placed all around the kitchen.

When it comes to work areas, you’ll want to have light fixtures that bring the light closer down from the ceiling.

Countertops – use kitchen under cabinet lighting
Kitchen islands – use pendant lights
Around the sink – recessed lights can work here or pendant lights
The cooker – a hood with a light built in it will work
You can even have the inside of your kitchen cabinets light up. Either for displaying items, or if it is for storage you can install a doorjamb so the lights come on when you open the cabinets and search for items

Keep it a Clutter Free Space

A modern kitchen will be clutter free. The only things decorating the space are the elegant cabinets, and special materials you use for the countertops and backsplashes. And all of this elegance will be brightly and well lit.

Have a look at these other kitchen posts for more ideas:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6

April 9, 2016 in Kitchen, Modern

Design Your Space: Outdoor Kitchen Ideas

Are you looking to build a full on outdoor kitchen, with food prep countertops and a sink? Or are you picturing a simplier, small outdoor kitchen that you could build yourself? In this post you’ll find all of the ideas you’ll need to design and build your own outdoor kitchen, large or small.

How To Design Your Outdoor Kitchen

When thinking about building your own outdoor kitchen, you will need to balance what you want with the space you have to build it on.

For example if you want a sink, will you be able to hook up your outdoor kitchen space to the house utilities?

Cookers can easily use gas tanks. And you can place a grill anywhere.

Will you want electricity out in your outdoor kitchen, for:

A cooler, fridge
Lighting (there are also non electrical lighting ideas, which I list out below)
A fan or mister

How Much Space Do You Need?

Another question to ask is how much space will you need? Do you want to be able to do food prep work outdoors, or will you be doing that indoors. Does that mean you’ll need a sink, and more counterpace then?

Near the House

Keeping the outdoor kitchen near, or even attached to the outside of the house, makes it easier to light the space, hang up a fan, has better access to the utilities, and it is easier to keep the space covered.

Keeping it Covered

Will you want your kitchen to be covered? Most of the outdoor kitchens in the mood board above use a more pergola like roofing structure. This provides enough shade when it is too hot. But you’ll want it covered if it rains a lot where you live.

For more ideas and pictures on how to cover your kitchen, have a look at my post here: Pergola Roofing Design Ideas: From the Natural to the Motorized

Going The DIY Route

There are much simpler and budget friendly outdoor kitchen designs.

Building your own countertop for a simple outdoor grill is a simple 1 or 2 weekend project.

It could be built out of pallets.

Or use bricks/hollow blocks for a base and build a countertop using wood to make a concrete mold. You can find the step by step guide to the DIY build shown below here.

Or how about the simple wooden frame in picture (3)

Or a simple low cost IKEA kitchen cart can be used as a portable outdoor kitchen. This can be used to bring out all of the ingredients from inside the house out to the grill, and can be used as a simple food prep counter, or outdoor kitchen island.

How To Create A Magical Evening: Outdoor Movie Night Ideas

Modern vs. Traditional Styles

If you want to create a more traditional styled outdoor kitchen, then make heavy use of stone for the base, and a tiled or stone curved countertop – just like in picture (4)

For a more modern outdoor kitchen design, look to use concrete and create clean straight lines – like the kitchen in picture (5).

Outdoor Kitchen Lighting Ideas

When it comes to lighting your outdoor kitchen you can either go with permanent light fixtures that will need to be wired up. Such as wall lights attached and wired to the house pointing towards the outdoor kitchen, just like in picture (6)

A Bright Safe Space: Modern Outdoor Lighting Ideas

Or there are more basic ideas that can be installed and used within minutes. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Tabletop candle lanterns
Tabletop fire pits
Tiki torches
Solar stake lights
Solar string lights

For more ideas and some pictures, have a look at these posts here:

Have a look at these posts for more inspiration and ideas for your outdoor kitchen build:

1/2/3/4/5/6

Outdoor kitchen ideas to create a relaxing space

March 25, 2016 in Kitchen, Outdoors

Style Guide: Blue Kitchen Design Ideas

How much blue do you want? That is the question you need to ask if you want to create a blue kitchen design. The options range from an all blue kitchen, to a white kitchen that is lightly decorated with blue kitchen decor pieces.

Painting the Walls Blue

This is for a people who want a bold look in their kitchen. There is also the option of tiling the walls blue, instead of using paint, just like the kitchen in picture (1). The tiles can be made up of different shades of blue to create a more interesting look.

You can break up all of this blue by having white cabinets, white curtains or wooden blinds, or use a white kitchen tablecloth.

Paint the Walls a Neutral Color

If you want a more toned down blue kitchen, then paint the walls a neutral color (white, cream, grey). This lets you style the space in blue, without overdoing it.

See if you can keep the blue color theme going throughout the kitchen:

Blue cabinets with white walls is a great look, just like the kitchen in picture (2)
Blue glass bottles can be used as elegant storage (3)
You can get tiffany blue kitchen appliances. You can get the baby blue mixer stand seen in picture (4) here.
Blue curtains will help break up a plain white wall.

Or how about just covering your kitchen table with a decorative blue table cloth

Both – Blue Walls and Blue Decor

To make the kitchen look a little more interesting, why not pick different shades of blue. Use a light blue for the walls and a darker blue for the cabinets just like the kitchen in picture (5).

Different Shades of Blue

Using a light blue palette will make the kitchen feel bright and spacious (6). While a dark blue, navy blue, will create a more luxury feeling space. Check out the dark blue kitchen in picture (7) with the marble backsplash and countertop.

Here are some more kitchen posts to get ideas from:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8