Your kitchen is one of the most important rooms in your entire home. For many, it’s the room in which people spend the most time each day. Because of the fact that kitchens get so much wear and tear, it’s important to ensure that they’re functional as well as stylish.
As trends and styles are constantly changing, choosing your dream kitchen design and layout can be tricky. Some people prefer rustic, country cottage chic, whereas others prefer uber-modern, minimalist. Whatever your preferences, in order to ensure that you get the same amount of joy from your new kitchen as you used to, your kitchen needs to look great and prove efficient and practical in equal measure.
Rather than ripping your entire kitchen out and starting again, why not go with a few simple remodeling upgrades instead? Whether you’re installing new lights, fitting soft closing cupboard doors, or setting up an instant hot water dispenser, a few tweaks here and there can make a huge difference.
Here’s a look at the best remodeling upgrades for kitchen efficiency and style.
Get Cozy with a Seating Nook
If your kitchen will allow it, a great way to completely transform your kitchen and make it a more welcoming and practical space, a seating nook is ideal.
Seating nooks are ideal because you can make them as large, or as small as you’d like. Simply find a corner of your kitchen that doesn’t get used very often and use that to create a small seating space for you, your family, your friends, and anybody else.
An L-shaped corner seating area with a small table, for example, will not dominate the room and take over. What it will do, however, is provide somewhere for you to sit and eat. You could even match the upholstery to your kitchen’s décor. A few pictures on the wall, maybe a lamp or vase of flowers and you have the perfect spot for you and your loved ones to sit and eat breakfast on a lazy Sunday morning.
Brighten Up Your Kitchen with New Lighting
Having a bright and well-lit kitchen isn’t just nice for the overall aesthetics, it’s also important from a practical aspect.
A well-lit kitchen ensures you can see what you’re doing when you’re preparing, and cooking your meals. The last thing you want to be doing is trying to chop vegetables in a dark and gloomy kitchen where you can hardly see. One slip with the knife could spell disaster.
To help lighten up your kitchen, go ahead and install new lighting. You can go with spotlights in the ceiling, chandeliers, wall lights, lamps, and perhaps even LED strips or integrated lighting above your cupboards or on the floor.
You can go as bright as you like, though to help reduce energy costs, and do your bit for the environment, energy-efficient bulbs will work best.
Install an Instant Hot Water Dispenser
Instant hot water dispensers are becoming a staple in kitchens all over the globe.
As the name implies, these devices dispense hot/boiling water almost immediately. This means you will actually save energy as you can bring pans of water to a boil in a matter of seconds, or immediately make yourself a cup of tea or coffee.
Hot water dispensers are practical and stylish, making them this year’s must-have kitchen gadget.
Replace Tired Cupboards, Cabinets, and Drawers
One of the most effective ways of completely transforming your kitchen, without having to have a brand new one fitted, is to fit new kitchen cupboards, cabinets, and drawers.
By replacing these things, you’re able to improve the way your kitchen looks, without ripping everything out and starting from scratch. One of the best things about doing this is the fact that you have so much variety to choose from.
You can go with rustic wooden cupboards, modern brilliant white PVC cupboards, vinyl wrapped ones, textured ones, different colored ones, and so much more besides. New cupboards, cabinets, and drawers, complete with new handles, will make your kitchen look completely different. It will also help make it a great deal more practical as well.
Add Soft Closing Cupboard Doors
Soft closing cupboard doors are inexpensive, easy to install, and are an extremely practical fitting for any kitchen.
Specially designed to close softly and gently rather than slam closed, they’re not only quieter and more relaxing, they’re also practical as they save general wear and tear on the hinges.
Spruce Up Your Worktops
Having stylish and practical worktops is an absolute must when it comes to any kitchen remodeling project.
Your worktops are where you will store appliances, accessories, and even foot itself. They’re also where you prepare your food.
As far as worktops go, you’ve so much variety to choose from. You can go with composite or laminate to keep costs down, or go with more expensive materials such as quartz, granite, or marble, which are heat resistant and easy to clean.
Lately, we’ve also seen an increase in the amount of people going with less-obvious worktop materials such as wood. Woods like beech or oak for example, look lavish and stylish and require very less maintenance. Concrete is another material that’s currently very popular as far as worktops go, and if you know what you’re doing, you could even make them yourself.
Invigorate Your Flooring
One of the most effective ways of dramatically improving the look and feel of your kitchen is to change the flooring.
People assume that a new kitchen floor has to be expensive, and requires extensive tiling. In truth, you can choose all manner of different materials and achieve fantastic results. You can opt for wood, laminate, vinyl, or tiles.
A new kitchen floor is like adding the finishing touches to a project you’ve spent hours on creating. Not only is it practical, but it also looks great and will really help to tie everything together.
