Kitchen Designs — Now, You’re Cooking!
They say kitchens often sell a house; renovating a kitchen often persuades you to stay put. If you’re wondering whether to stay or move because your kitchen needs an update, these ideas might give you some answers you need. Traditional at heart? Try a white table and multicolored chairs — pale blue, vivid red — for “pop.” (Chair styles don’t all have to match; the mix is part of the charm.) Need more color? Paint cabinets blue, yellow, or another favorite hue — or paint your wall poppy-red, creamy salmon, sunny yellow, moss green, or sky blue. And colored tiles aren’t just for backsplashes anymore: edge your appliances with them, use them as a border on countertops, or go straight to the flooring section of your decorating store and put something wonderful beneath your feet.
Kitchen accessorizing has come a long way, too. Love an earthy, natural look? Go for pale oak or walnut cabinets, a center island with granite or marble tops, and chairs with polished, smooth seats for comfort. If you love modern style, the sleek reflective surfaces of stainless steel might be just perfect — paired with a breakfast bar and high stools. Have a wood grain exhaust hood — or paint it pastel to match the wallpaper. Finally, if you’re fond of old English country houses, fill your kitchen with mahogany cabinets, tables and chairs, and marble cabinet and countertops — and feel like you’ve never left your favorite Victorian “study.” Whether you love cherry wood or cherry-red gingham…your kitchen choices are wide open. Take a look here, and start dreaming.
Living and Lounging Furniture that Doesn’t Just “Sit Around”
Do you live in your lounging room, or lounge in your living room? All kidding aside, if you had a “lounging room,” it might have some of the furniture shown here — furniture that can do double duty as lounge furniture, or a slightly more formal application in a living room. The Herman Miller folks put it this way: “As the lines blur between how and where we work and live, people are redefining their perceptions of what a space can be. This reality [was] remarkably envisioned in 1952 by George Nelson as ‘a daytime living room where work can be done under less tension with fewer distractions.’” Many of us do a portion of our work in what we normally call a “living room” for precisely that reason: more of a leisurely feel and fewer distractions. Here are some options for equipping that living/working/lounging space with furniture that plays multiple roles.
Reclining chairs are a standard part of living rooms — but a sleek, streamlined white model is a whole new take on “reclining.” Paired with a dove-gray couch, it’s accented nicely by a furry rug; you can easily picture it as a favorite place to take in a ball game on TV. For open, modern living spaces, round stools with colorful cushions, paired with small round tables, are great for kids doing homework, Mom doing the budget, or anyone having a snack. Chrome-and-leather chairs can invite curling up with good books; no-nonsense square tables can suit home study sessions or hold popcorn for movie nights. The selections are wide and the potential almost infinite — limited only by your imagination, and what you need your “living/lounging” area to do…for tonight
