Much More Than Linoleum
In the days of yore, linoleum was kitchen king, revered for its inexpensive, water impermeable and easy-clean qualities. Desired for its design aesthetic? Maybe not so much. Over the decades, though, technology has caught up with the hard-working home kitchen, allowing us to move beyond drab squares of linoleum into a wide-range of attractive, durable and easily-maintained types of kitchen flooring. If you’re lucky enough to be remodeling a kitchen—or even designing from scratch—take the time to explore today’s selections of kitchen flooring. You may be surprised at what you find.
For The Green-Conscious
There’s the option of bamboo flooring. Exceptionally renewable (bamboo grows even faster than a weed), incredibly durable and hard-wearing, this engineered product lends an elegant organic touch to any kitchen, while standing up to the dirt and abuse that’s part of kitchen life.
For The Perennially-Barefooted
Cork flooring may be the answer. A post-consumer and post-industrial product, this green option provides exceptional cushioning and water-resistance. Those with lower back-problems, or anyone who has difficulty performing standing activities like cooking, may find cork to be a sustainable and comfortable choice.
For The Classicist
The dreams of hardwood flooring in the kitchen have come true. With the advent of proper sealants and tough outer-finishes, hardwood floors in the kitchen are not just beautiful, but practical as well. While hardwood floors do require more maintenance than some other types of kitchen flooring, the extra work more than pays off through the material’s aesthetic appeal and timeless design.
For The Retro-Mod Designer
There’s always—gasp—linoleum! Far from the frumpy designs of the old days, modern linoleum designs are resurging with stylish colors and innovative prints that are perfect for homes inspired by the mod designs of the 1950’s and 1960’s. All the best aspects of linoleum are found in these products—price and durability—along with refined decorator options that match today’s discerning tastes.
In short, choosing a new type of kitchen flooring options may not be as simple as it once was (“grey linoleum or white?”), but today’s material options mean that your new kitchen floor design is limited only by your own imagination. Now head to your nearest kitchen flooring store, and start checking out the possibilities!
The Most Challenging Room In The House
The kitchen is perhaps the most challenging area of your entire home to choose a wall paint color for. The reason for that is there are many fixed/permanent finishes already present in a lived in kitchen (tile, countertops, cabinets, flooring), and the colors of those finishes have to be taken into account when selecting paint for the walls.
Think About Your Cabinets
One of the first things you should do is look at your cabinets, and make sure the color you are considering for the walls will complement them. Keep in mind that some colors may clash when juxtaposed; others may blend too much and make your cabinets "disappear" against the wall color background.
As a rule of thumb, light colored cabinets work better with lighter wall colors, and dark cabinets can handle bolder shades. But if you fall in love with a paint color that does not work with your cabinets, remember you can always paint the cabinets too.
Likewise, examine the existing colors in the tile and countertops - it's actually considered best practice among designers to "pull" one of the colors from the stone pattern and repeat it on the walls. That usually results in a well coordinated color scheme.
How Much Light Do You Get?
Another thing to keep in mind when picking kitchen wall colors is the amount of light your kitchen gets. If you have a bright, open kitchen, consider yourself lucky, because your can go as dark or as light with the wall color as you like. Owners of northern-facing kitchens or kitchens without windows should stick to light and mid-range tones and avoid deep, rich shades (those can look great on a paint chip, but will turn your kitchen into a cave, guaranteed).
As far as particular colors, reds, yellows and oranges are the most popular shades for painting a kitchen. Green is also appropriate - it looks natural and even makes a kitchen seem "healthier". Blue shades are the least popular, because they work as appetite depressants - but might be useful if you are on a diet!
Quick Refresh On A Budget
Finally, if you are not ready for a full-blown painting project, but want to do something about those blank walls, painting an accent wall a shade of your favorite color and leaving the other walls white is a viable option. Incorporating the chosen shade into decor with napkins, flower arrangements, and tablecloths can help bring out the accent wall and pull the entire color scheme together.
This article was contributed by Yelena of House Painting Tutorials. For more, see this interior paint color guide and the room color scheme tutorials.
Kitchen Remodeling On The Cheap
I know the feeling...you want to update and refresh your kitchen but you're not interested in dropping big money right now. I completely sympathize with you on that. I feel the overwhelm myself when I look at my kitchen and start listing the things I'd like to change. It doesn't take me long before I just get disgusted and quit. The main reason is I start looking at the big ticket stuff first which is very limiting. Instead, I should be starting from the simple stuff and work up. The cool thing about doing this is that you can quickly see how to make an impact without ending up on the streets.
One of these simple and inexpensive things is your kitchen faucet.
Wide Range Of Styles And Prices
Faucets are one of those things you've got a dizzying array of choices that run the gamut from very simple and sophisticated to incredibly elegant. The cool part is it's all up to you. Just take a look at a site like eFaucets.com and you'll see what I mean. They've got every make and model I've ever heard of at great prices and many with no shipping charges. Bop on over there for a quick peek.
It's All Up To You
Take a second look at that kitchen refresh project and see if you can't start off on the lower end of the price rainbow. You'll be amazed at how much a new kitchen faucet by itself will improve the look of your kitchen and inspire you to make even more inexpensive upgrades.
We at Dream Kitchen Spaces realize that not every kitchen remodeling project will be or needs to be a big one. Sometimes, just changing minor details can make all the difference in today's tight economy. This is why we've created a new section called Kitchen Refresh for our site.
When A Full Kitchen Redo Isn't Feasible
We understand that you can get sick of your kitchen even when you don't have the money to completely renovate it. Don't be discouraged. There ARE things that can be done a little at a time that can get you enjoying your kitchen again. Whether it's small changes that transform your kitchen or just things you can do until you do have the time and money for the major kitchen remodel. We want to help you with them.
Our goal is to add one kitchen refresh idea per week to get you going. Feel free to leave us a comment and share any tips you've had success with so we can all learn from them. Either way, make sure to stop back often to see what we've come up with in the lab.
