Some say home is where the heart is. Others might say the kitchen is the heart of the home. I am a firm believer in both philosophies. Ever since I was a wee ankle-biter, a love of food has been a recurring theme across my nearest and dearest, with some of my fondest memories sharing one familiar backdrop: the family kitchen. Sure, days out to the seaside were great but the times that make me smile most are baking an apple pie with my nan in the kitchen or spooning the raw cake batter out of the bowl before my mum turns round and condemns me with death by salmonella. It’s safe to say I come from a family of feeders and the kitchen has always been the heart of the home.
Nostalgia out of the way, let’s get back to the point – how on earth do you best decorate the place where are all the best memories are made?
Top kitchen interior design tips
I’ve just recently started a new job at a commercial interior design brand so I’m into my space design right now. On the back of this, I thought I’d throw a few pieces of advice together on how you can can make your kitchen both functional and fabulous…
Make it personal
Remember those battery powered glue guns you used to use in school? Well it might be time to take a trip down memory line and get crafty with your kitchen decor. When you’re spending a lot of time somewhere, even if its just making a cuppa, it’s nice to do it in a place which feels like your own. As you would with any other room in the house, put your own personal stamp on the aesthetic.
Of course the kitchen is an inherently messy and chaotic place but if you just go for low maintenance design features, you’ll be golden. Swap fresh blooms for some felt flowers, for example. All it takes is some rudimentary tools, some imagination and a little patience and your kitchen will be a work of art.
Keep the essentials close
There’s nothing more frustrating than rifling round in a drawer for a wooden spoon as your soup bubbles its way to boiling point (except maybe when you lose the end of the bloody cling film). To combat this, create a shortlist of utensils that see regular (we’re talking more than 2 or 3 times a week) use and make sure that they’re always somewhere close to hand. Whether you favour the traditional or the contemporary, organising your kitchen ‘stuff’ this way will make sure chaos is reduced to the bare minimum.
Know how to maximise space in the kitchen
Any artist needs their space in which to work, and this is particularly true of the culinarily gifted. Most of us keep a load of stuff and nonsense on our countertops for the pure sake of bone idle convenience but it would be much more efficiently stored on a shelf. You could also consider getting rid of your cookbooks and replacing them with an iPad holder and an array of digital cookbooks or recipe apps. These come at a fraction of the cost of their paper counterparts and leave you with a whole lot more usable space.
If you’ve got any of your own kitchen interior design advice, leave it in the comment box below for people to pinch your pearls of wisdom too.
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This is a collaborative post