Styles of Kitchen - Which One Suits You?

Kitchen styles - sleek and industrial, rustic and homely, crisp and fresh, which one suits you?

There is an expression for all the differing kitchen styles available, but they all have one thing in common.

They all have a sink, oven and refrigerator!

Most have many more appliances and this makes the kitchen the most expensive room in the home to equip.


So careful planning and attention to detail for every aspect is essential from electrical power point placement to light fittings; the kitchen is a complex space to design.

The kitchen is the hub of the home as we all have to eat regularly and it is always a constant buzz of activity. Kitchens are therefore one of the major area home buyers look at along with bathrooms when purchasing a house.



The first consideration whether remodeling your existing house or starting out with a new home is the current style of your home and your furnishings. The kitchen is often placed centrally in the home and therefore visible from most rooms, the decoration and style should flow harmoniously throughout.


Imagine how crazy a sleek single line, white marble top, lacquered cabinetry with stainless steel appliances would look in a country cottage. An exaggeration of concept but crazier style combinations have been seen, unfortunately most of them fail as the contrast is too great and the detail of the styles is broken and lost with the jolting differences in a small space.

In this area of the website we will outline the features of different kitchen styles and allow you to decide which style reflects your home and your lifestyle best.

Traditional Styled Kitchens – Timeless and versatile.

Country Styled Kitchens – Relaxed and Comfortable.

Contemporary Styled Kitchens – Sleek and Streamlined.

Choosing Colors for Kitchens - Find some easy to remember guidelines.

So follow through and find out which style of kitchen fits the look of your home.
To learn about which type of kitchen layout best suits you visit Kitchen layouts.

Remember that there is a style of kitchen out there for everyone, when you add your decoration to the space you completely create your own unique sub style of kitchen design.

The Finishing Touches

Your contractors have left you have a brand new interior, you have placed your furniture, but there is still something missing. Yes! The finishing touches. This is where, less is definately best, so select wisely. You want to create features in the room, not collections.

Here are some ways to finish your room:

1. Artwork - paintings or prints. Select pictures or prints that relate to your theme or style, make sure they incorporate colors from your color scheme. They can be used to highlight your colors or just to create a texture to the wall in similar color tonings. If you have a lot of paintings, you are best to group them together to create "one" picture, rather than spread them one by one across the wall. To find out more about placing artwork visit this article below.
Arranging Artwork
2. Artwork - sculpture. Sculpture is a great way to create a focal point in a room, find a god spot to display it and make sure you have a way of highlighting it with light.

3. Vases - Flowers, fresh or artificial. These are a great way to soften a look. Fresh flowers are great because you can always create a new look depending on the type of flowers and the way they are arranged. For example wild flowers grouped suggest randomness, tulips on their own suggest simplicity, red roses on centre stage suggest passion, spring flowers evoke cheerfulness to a room at the changing of a season, large white asian lillies express opulence. To save time and money artifical flowers are a very good option today. They are almost too real looking, and you do look a bit silly when you go to smell them and have a closer inspection! Choose flowers that suit the style you have created, if you need help with this, most florists have a good background in matching flowers to your taste.

4. Cushions - These are the greatest accessory, especially if you
have children, they just love messing up your well placed accessories! They are great as you can further enhance the colors and fabrics that you have chosen, use the same fabric in a slightly different color way or the same colo rway in a different design. Contrasting colors work well to brighten a scheme, or textured cushions in a monochromatic scheme. Fringes and tassels, buttons and beads, the world is your oyster when it comes to decorating cushions, these are a "must have" in almost every room.

5. Throws - these are a simple way to make a room feel more homely.
They are great when you sit in front of the fire at night to read a book and you wrap the throw around your shoulders and snuggle. So they are useful as well as adding color, texture and style to your room. Once again you can follow the prinicples for cushion selection to choose what they will look like.

6. Tie backs, hold backs - curtain accessories, these really add a touch of class to your window treatments. You can choose from such
a huge selection today, so I will just send you to another website to look at how these work.
curtains.interiordezine.com

7. Lamps - we touched on these in furniture placement, but I can't stress enough how these really add the finishing touch and create
versatility in mood creation to your room. You have many options with lamp bases and shades to add color and texture to your room.
8. Coffee table books - the ultimate accessory - The coffee table book. Something grand on a trendy topic like Food from Tuscany, or The History of Fashion, something that makes people want to pick it up and flick through. This is a way of making people feel welcome in your home.

9. Ornaments - keep these to a minimum, as they are the fastest way to clutter, but the odd strategically placed ornament will definately make your house look and feel like a home.

10. Mirrors - These are a simple way to make rooms look larger or
bring in more light to a room via reflected light. There are so many beautiful frames available today that you are bound to be able
to find something to suit your style or look.

How to Pull Your Decorating Scheme Together

With all the hard work over, we now need to tie up all the loose ends. Unfortunately, like every job there is the element of paperwork! I'm sorry, but it can't all be glamor and fun. You must document your scheme, so that everyone involved is following the same path. This is then able to be used to get pricing from contractors and suppliers of products, as well as making sure that you or (your client if you are doing this for someone else) knows exactly where they stand and what they are going to get for their money.
So I will keep this short and sweet.


1. Always write a finishes schedule. This lists up all there areas that you are working in, walls, ceiling, floor etc and what rooms you are working, and then what finish they will receive. This means that a contractor for example a painter can take this piece of paper and walk around the rooms and measure the quantities he needs of each product for each application.

2. Make sure your client signs this document to ensure they know what they are getting. If you are doing this for your self you obviously don't need to sign, but you do need to make sure you have a system if you change anything on this list, so that you can update it and reissue it to your contractors and you all know what is the most up to date copy.

3. With your list (and this should be done when you are selecting your products) check with all the suppliers that the products are available and or that you can get them within your time frame. It adds a lot of money onto your project if you have to courier a product to get it on time. So forward planning is essential here.

4. Make sure that you work out a time line and all your contractors
know when they have the space to do their work and when they are
expected to be finished, and make sure you are tough on this one, it is like a domino effect if you let one slip behind.

5. Make sure you have all your prices and costs in your hand before
you start engaging contractors or manufactures to start making
things for you. You need to ensure that you are within your budget before you start. You want to make sure that you can pay everyone,
if you want to get a start into the decorating industry, lets make it a good one.

6. Engage your contractors and manufacturers ie painters, carpet layers, curtain manufacturers, in writing, always refer to their quotation or estimate and confirm the agreed amount and the payment arrangements. For example a deposit and remainder on completion or
with installments, or payment in full before commencement (watch out for this one, don't ever pay the total account until you have the total amount of work completed or else you have no way of getting the job finished if they don't turn up. They have your money and you have an incomplete job.)

7. Get the work underway, make sure you keep your eyes on the time
and the quality of the work. Always be around, this keeps the contractors on their toes! You don't have to stay but keep popping in to check up on things. You don't want to have the job completed and see that the painter has misread your finishes schedule and swapped some bedrooms around!

8. When the job is completed, check all the work has been done to a
satisfactory standard before you pay the entire account. If you find any problems, write them down and get the contractor back to remedy them. It is important that you get this done ASAP as the sooner it is done the more likely they are to finish it, some contractors start another job and you just can't get them back. So be very prompt on this job.

9. Take out your camera and take some photos for your brag book!!
Well done.