| |
There are a numerous reasons for having a small kitchen or kitchenette: guest suite, basement recreation room, vacation home, office, small apartment, dorm room, don't cook much, consciously downsizing, or that's just what works for you right now. If you're looking for a kitchenette, you can get a compact stove, fridge, and sink unit starting at $800 and larger units with microwave and pantry starting at $3,000.
| Some cooks say they actually prefer small kitchens because they're more efficient and there's less walking than in a large kitchen. The key to making your small kitchen efficient is to utilize all the space you have and eliminate any pots, utensils, dishes, and small appliances you don't really need. Be sure to take advantage of the vertical space with racks or open shelves. The good thing is that whenever you'd like to remodel, you can change the paint, flooring, countertops, and backsplashes for very little cost.
| | Here's a MCM kitchen that he loved, but she didn't. The designer updated the look by removing the soffits to open up the space and adding an island with white countertops as a focal point. By keeping the retro feel, everyone was happy. | | | There are several types of Mid Century Modern Kitchens. 1) You can start with home built during that era and keep everything as it is. 2) You can start with an older kitchen, keep some features and update others. 3) Or you can start with a newer home and pick & choose how much Mid Century Modern you want to add to your kitchen.
Post-war kitchens became multi-purpose rooms combining dining, laundry, and built-in storage features into the layout. Kitchen cabinets that were previously all wood, now incorporated steel, formica, plexi-glass, or painted wood. Colors were bright and accessories were fun. Appliances changed too--refrigerators were larger, dishwashers were more popular, and ovens were available separate from range tops. If you'd like retro appliance for your kitchen, Elvira Stove Works has stoves with self-cleaning ovens, radiant elements, and warming drawers that look like they came from the 1950's. | | | |
Here are a variety of MCM kitchens: some are originals, some are re-creations, and some are combinations of retro and modern. You'll notice that while colorful, fun kitchens were popular, so were the Scandanavian-influenced designs using teakwood, and bold, clean lines.
|
| |
Today we're looking at the final 3 countertop possibilities, so you'll have 12 different types of countertops to choose from. We've compared color & style availability along with general cost; how each looks and feels; how easy they are to clean & maintain; and whether they're heat-, scratch-, and stain-resistant. Marble is a classic countertop material available in a variety of colors, most of them inexpensive. It's smooth, cool, and easy to clean. The downside of marble is that it's soft, so it scratches and stains easily.
| |
Laminate countertops have been popular for a number of years because of their affordability and easy maintenance. These countertops are available in a huge array of colors, patterns, and textures. Their drawbacks are that they are not heat tolerant and they can scratch & chip easily.
| | | | Only a few contractors do concrete countertops. Some websites suggest doing them as an easy and inexpensive weekend project. If you try it, just make sure your base cabinets are sturdy enough to support all that weight. The best part about concrete is that it can be formed to any shape, texture, or design and you can have objects easily imbedded in your countertop. You can leave it gray or color it and put on a glossy seal coat. Once set, it's heat-resistant, but it can crack or chip. |
| | Here's 3 more perfect countertop candidates, starting with solid surface. A solid surface countertop is essentially plastic, so any cuts or scratches can be repaired. It's available in many different styles & colors and works well for large areas because it has no visible seams. The disadvantage of solid surface is that it scratches easily and isn't heat-resistant. | | Opinions about soapstone countertops seem to fall into either a love-it or hate-it category. People who love it say it has an old-fashioned, weathered look and a smooth, soft feel to it. Its natural color is gray, but oiling it regularly gives it a darker appearance that darkens even more over time. The people who hate it typically prefer a more elegant-looking countertop that doesn't change in appearance, like granite for example. They point out that while soapstone won't stain, it will scratch and dent and needs to be oiled often. | | | | Glass countertops give a very modern look to your kitchen. Glass can be expensive, but your countertop is typically made to order, so you can choose from an endless variety of colors, styles, and patterns that will make it different from anyone else's. Glass is easy to clean and heat- & stain-resistant. It's a sturdy material but acids will etch it and the surface can crack if something heavy is dropped on it. |
| | Today we'll look at 3 more choices for the perfect countertop, starting with stainless steel. It is smooth, heat-resistant, sanitary, easy to clean, and doesn't require any maintenance. The clean, shiny look of steel is very distinctive--some people really like it and others think it looks like a doctor's office or restaurant. The other down side is that it can dent & scratch easily. | |
Lava stone countertops are made from volcanic lava that's been hardened, cut into slabs and then glazed with an enamel coating. The resulting product is a durable surface similar to ceramic tile. It has the same heat- and stain-resistant properties as tile, without the grout lines, making a smooth and easy-to-clean surface. Lava stone is not a common countertop finish. It has a unique look and typically comes in either black, white or very bright colors. The negative side of lava stone is that it's expensive. Also, because it's not one of the popular countertop products, it's not readily available. That means you may have to shop online to get the color and type you want if there's not a dealer that carries it in your area.
| | | | | Granite is considered by some to be the first choice in countertops. It looks beautiful, comes in 3,000 colors, is durable enough to withstand constant use and will last a lifetime if properly maintained. Granite countertops add elegance to your kitchen and can actually increase the value of your home. On the down side, granite is expensive and requires maintenance. If you choose to use it in food prep areas, it will dull your knives because of its hardness. |
Before you try to choose your perfect countertop, you have to ask yourself 3 questions:
1) What is the primary function your countertops serve? Do you do a lot of chopping & food prep? Do you do a lot of baking? Is your island a place you entertain or serve family meals? Are there a lot of spills at your house? Or do your countertops get a minimum of use?
2) What appeals to you? How do you want the countertops to look . . . feel? Is it important that all the countertops match? Do you want them to blend in or stand out?
3) How much are you willing to spend? How long do you expect your new countertops to last?
Now that you've answered those questions, it'll be easier to judge all of your choices. Today we'll look at ceramic tile, wood, and engineered stone.
| |
Ceramic tile has been a popular countertop over the years. On the plus side, it's durable, easy to clean, stain- and heat-resistant, offers an endless range of colors, designs, and even sizes. Another reason it's been so popular is that it's very inexpensive compared to some of the other choices. On the down side, the surface is uneven for activities like writing or rolling out dough, the tiles can chip, and over time the grout will stain.
| 
Engineered stone is typically 93% quartz and comes in a large choice of colors. It resists scratching and staining and is easy to maintain. It doesn't require any of the sealing that natural stone does. The biggest drawback to this countertop is that it's expensive.
| | Wood offers a warm, distinctive look and is available in a number of different wood types and finishes. The surface is smooth and easy to clean. If you do a lot of chopping, you can do your island in butcher block. It will show the knife marks, but you can sand and reseal it as needed. Over time, wood countertops can show water damage and may need maintenance. |
| | The second step in making the most of your kitchen (after identifying your work centers) is determining which of those areas need additional storage and what type of storage will serve you best. Of course, the easiest way to get a perfectly organized kitchen is to win a contest for a kitchen makeover, but we can't all do that. The next easiest way is to tackle each area, one at a time. Just keep in mind that there isn't a right and wrong way to organize--it's what works best for you. This woman's kitchen may be fabulous for her, but could be all wrong for your family. | | Let's start with spices as an example. Because they're part of the cooking center, you want them close to the stove. But you have a choice of a wall-mounted rack, pull-out racks by the stove, a drawer rack, a countertop rack, a rack inside a cupboard door, and an under-cabinet pull-out rack. Again, the correct choice is the one that's most convenient for you. | | | | Food storage is an important area that is sometimes overlooked. This "before" picture shows a pantry that's not being fully utilized. There just aren't enough easily accessible shelves to properly store everything. You need to be able to see what groceries are on hand so that you don't buy an item thinking you're out of it or that it doesn't spoil before you can use it. | Some ways you can add more storage space to the rest of your kitchen are installing more cabinets, using wall-mounted racks, or making the most of the cupboard space you currently have. Manufacturers like KraftMaid, Rev-a-Shelf, and Smart Cab offer all kinds of shelves, trays, racks and containers to handle all your storage needs.
Kitchen designers tell us that if we want to get the most efficiency from our kitchen, no matter what size it is, the first step is to identify our "centers". A kitchen should have a minimum of 3 centers: refrigerator/food storage, sink/cleanup, and stove/cooking. In order to maximize the best use of each center, the items we use in that area should be only a few steps away. In the kitchen shown here, pots, spices and knives are in easy reach of the cooking center. While the kitchens shown in decorator mazagines may have immaculate countertops, it doesn't make for the best use of our kitchens to keep everything hidden in drawers or cupboards. By the way, the owner of this user-friendly kitchen is Madonna.
Kitchens have come a long way from the days when June Cleaver stayed in the kitchen for hours and only came out to set dinner on the dining room table. Today families are diverse and no longer have a designated cook. Mom can cook; Dad can cook; or Mom, Dad, and the kids can cook all at the same time. To handle multiple cooks in the kitchen, kitchen designs had to change. Modern kitchens are open and airy, with lots of cupboard space and counter space. To accommodate several dishes being prepared at the same time, these kitchens typically have two ovens and a large island with a second sink and lots of space to clean and cut ingredients without bumping into someone cooking at the stove. A well-designed kitchen is versatile enough to serve many functions at the same time: cooking meals, doing homework, working on a laptop, playing games, and eating to name a few.
 Elmira Stove Works' slogan is "for true originals" and their products definitely are. How much fun would it be to a have an 1850's style stove with high-speed radiant elements and self-cleaning oven and get it in bright red to match your dishwasher? Elmira can provide it for you. Or how about a 1950's refrigerator in classic turquoise to match your microwave and equipped with either a keg dispenser or an ice and water dispenser? They're definitely not inexpensive so you might just order one unique appliance or you can go all out and equip your entire kitchen with matching pieces.
 When Elmira first introduced their retro appliances about 10 years ago, some people were critical of the concept, reasoning that if it looked like Grandma's stove it should cook like Grandma's stove.
Personally, I'm sure that if we asked Grandma, she would have loved to have a self-cleaning oven, a microwave and maybe even a keg dispenser. Elmira isn't trying to be authentic or historically correct; so if that's okay with you, you can order a custom-made appliance that looks like it came from the 1850's or 1950's but has all the bells and whistles of any of the most modern appliances.
|
RSS Feed