Home design mixing styles smoothly to integrate new kitchen cabinetry | Photo credit: Pexels
Reason 1: Your style is fantastic! However, it may not be just right for the eventual resale of your home if you ever plan on moving. No buyer wants to walk into a 1920’s craftsman and see a mid-century modern kitchen. Don’t worry though, you CAN incorporate elements of texture, color, wood, etc. that YOU LOVE that will still say, “Hey, this is my space!” but also go with the home’s style. A good designer will listen to you and blend your style with your home’s style.
Reason 2: Codes. A good designer will know clearances you should have all around the kitchen for today’s code requirements. Of course, you should always check with your local building inspector if you’ll be pulling a permit, which in most cases it’s good idea. Each town has its own set of specific requirements though. You might think it’s okay to copy your old layout or something looks good on paper, but it’s not up to today’s code. The designer will catch things that can help you avoid having to reorder cabinets.
Have you ever entered a solarium full of plants and felt your body relax? Do you enjoy spending time outdoors? There is actually an innate human instinct to connect to nature — it’s called biophilia. Some people may feel it more strongly; many people may have been so cut off from nature by their manmade environment that they don’t realize the difference it would make to their physical and mental well-being to have natural elements present in their daily life.
As we’ve all had to make adjustments to our daily lives because of the pandemic, some people have been altering their home environments to be healthier for their physical well-being. The natural result is that such changes are also better for mental well-being.
Growing herbs in the kitchen has been gaining popularity with cooks who will use them.
The Kitchen Views Design Team knows that true beauty goes deep below the surface. This featured kitchen is a beautiful place to entertain as well as prepare meals. The hidden beauty of a well-designed kitchen is found in functioning smoothly. Work smarter, not harder is the ideal. Daily tasks are made easier by strategic storage placement of the necessary items, and clever storage accessories increase ease of finding what is needed quickly and efficiently.
Cabinetry Storage Accessories
At first glance, it looks like decorative fluted millwork is installed on each side of the Viking oven shown (above left). Take a closer look and you’ll find a decorative knob at the top of the panel, where shown above (right) it is used to pull out a clever storage accessory to keep cutting boards and cookie sheets tucked away until needed. Close at hand, but hidden from sight. Not only does this design look nice, it stores these items for ease of use, so one doesn’t have to lean deep into a cabinet to retrieve anything.
Pull-outs are designed in many shapes and sizes to organize all kinds of items so they can be readily retrieved and stored when needed, ideal for storing all kinds of ingredients, with special accessories to hold spices, oils, and larger utensils. Large pull-outs provide easy access to small appliances and more. Not shown here, but seen in some of our showrooms, pantry cabinets have large roll-out shelves for storing everything from dry goods to seldom used small appliances.
Drawer accessories now go far beyond silverware holders and add more convenience to your kitchen while hiding below the surface — from inserts for popular coffee pods to electric charging stations —these clever ideas streamline both storage and easy access. This defines the luxury of a well-organized living space. Click here to see a video from Schrock about their tiered cutlery divider.
Island Storage for Specific Tasks
Baking has special needs, such as a large work area and a good quality mixer. An island provides all the countertop space needed and plenty of storage for bowls, baking pans, and a plethora of ingredients. A top quality mixer is a heavy appliance, but it doesn’t need to be a chore to bring out when needed.
Kitchen Views designer, Ed Nunes, shares his thoughtful approach: “No need to carry your 30lb KitchenAid® Stand Mixer around ever again, simply release the spring-loaded shelf and lift the appliance to counter height (show above). Baking accessories are easily stored in a pull-out shelf at the bottom of the same cabinet. An electrical outlet should be fitted inside the cabinet, so the mixer always remains plugged in.”
A large, well-appointed island serves multiple purposes. This kitchen has an under counter microwave oven drawer (shown open above right) that keeps this handy appliance out of sight while being easy to use. Preparations are made on the island countertop, lowered into the microwave oven drawer for cooking, then lifted out and placed on the countertop.
Drawers hold oven mitts and utensils. Heavy mixing bowls and other cooking accessories are stored next to the microwave oven on roll-out shelves (shown above left). A dishwasher can be placed within the island or directly behind it near the sink so it’s close at hand to place used dishes, mixing bowls, etc. inside for fast clean up. Imagine how that kind of workspace planning can make your kitchen tasks simpler.
Storage for Clean Up Work
Waste containers are essential but preferred to be out of sight. That makes this cabinet storage accessory one of the most popular. Whether holding one large container, or a pair for collecting waste and recyclable items, they are easily accessed when needed — typically installed near the sink or preparation area — then put quickly out of sight when the task is completed.
Pet Friendly Kitchen Storage
Pet lovers will enjoy this clever setup designed to store treats and food stylishly. Seen above, the drawer has a window to give a glimpse of the treats and the storage area below cleverly hides pet food and bowls until mealtimes.
For anyone who simply wants to improve the function of their existing kitchen, you’ll be happy to know that many new storage accessories can be installed in existing cabinets and are available in a variety of sizes. Have you ever before seen these solutions for a blind corner cabinet? Click here to see a video from Schrock to see how this pull-out works. You can make previously difficult to reach areas useful with modern accessories like these examples.
Cabinetry Storage for Every Need
These are just a handful of examples offered for today’s cabinetry. Many other options are readily available for just about any application, even bathroom vanities have special storage options available now. So, it is important for you to discuss your needs and wants during the design process.
An experienced designer will know the range of organizational accessories that can be placed inside cabinetry for every room in your home. You can rely on the Kitchen Views Design Team to exceed your expectations of how your new cabinetry will improve your everyday tasks.
Kitchen Views is committed to providing great customer service while protecting our clients and ourselves during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using teleconferencing by computer, our designers can meet with clients virtually and present kitchen designs to review together. If the designer is in one of our showrooms, rather than working from home, they also wear protective masks and gloves. When the time comes to select materials in our showroom, clients come by appointment to one of our thoroughly clean showrooms with proper social distancing.
Kitchen Views designer, Bob Russo, in our Newton showroom wears protective mask and gloves while having a teleconference with a client
Kitchen Views’ Designer Blog is dedicated to offering you the best advice on kitchen remodeling and additional cabinetry uses from our design experts here at Kitchen Views. From contemporary to traditional cabinetry, countertops, decorative hardware and more, our designers will even come to you. We serve the Greater Boston area and all of New England.
Kitchen Views is a kitchen & bath design company with eight unique design showrooms; located at five National Lumber locations in Massachusetts, at National Building Products in Warwick RI, National Building Products in East Hartford CT and at Oxford Lumber in Oxford CT.
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Now that most of us are spending more time at home, have you been noticing things you’d like to improve?
Rather than escape into binge watching shows and other such distractions, there are positive things to think about now that you’re not rushing around as usual. Think about a better future, where you don’t take “normal” things for granted, where you enjoy time with loved ones, and “stop to smell the roses” instead of running past them.
Perhaps you’ve been thinking about how you’d like to simplify your surroundings, to be more peaceful. Or, with your family spending more time at home, maybe you realize your kitchen needs help to work better. Maybe you need more storage solutions to keep your countertops clear and easy to clean? Our designers have solutions for beautifully designed, better functioning kitchens, mudrooms, and more.
Helping people improve their lives is at the center of what our designers do every day. Our talented team is eager to help you get the process started by phone, email, and by using many tools that are available online such as Facetime. You could begin by visiting KitchenViews.com. Check out our “Getting Started” section and browse through our designers’ portfolios. Then look through our various social media sites for inspiration.
You’ll discover our designers have the solutions you need with their experienced insight and beautiful products to improve your living space so it works better for your needs.
When it’s time for a face-to-face meeting to select cabinetry and countertop materials, we’re making our showrooms the best place to meet. By scheduling appointments to minimize the number of people in our showrooms at any one time, and having all surfaces are conscientiously cleaned, you can relax and enjoy your time out of the house.
It’s all about you, making your design journey enjoyable, and your home a happy place to spend time.
While looking forward to the end of this public health crisis, we hope that each one of you see and embrace the good things in your lives.
So, you have a brand-new white kitchen and you splatter some pasta sauce on your cabinetry. What now? Do you grab a bleach wipe? Do you spray it down with all-purpose cleaner and wipe it off with a kitchen towel? Do you let it sit on there until you are done cooking and then spray a water-vinegar solution on the cabinets and then wipe with a sponge?
If you do any of these things, you are going to damage your cabinetry finish immediately and the damage will get worse over time. As a seasoned kitchen designer, I am appalled to find that many homeowners are being sold new cabinetry without being properly educated on the care and maintenance of their purchase. I am here to give you some tips on what to do (and not to do!) with regards to cleaning your cabinetry.
Most spills can be cleaned up with a dry or slightly damp microfiber cloth. What could be easier? These versatile cleaning clothes are available everywhere in many colors. You could have some designated for the cabinetry, another color for other kitchen uses, a different color for the bathroom, and still another color for general dusting around the house.
Regularly dust off your cabinetry with a dry microfiber cloth. Most cabinet grime doesn’t appear overnight but is the result of buildup of dust and food particles over time. Removing this dust and debris before it has a chance to settle into the grooves of your cabinets will help prevent staining and mitigate the need for heavy duty cleaning.
Keep your cabinets dry. Almost 70% of new cabinets sold now have a painted finish. Those doors are made up of wood and medium density fiberboard. If water is allowed to sit on the cabinets for a period of time, it will inevitably penetrate the finish into the wood underneath and cause bubbling, cracking, or peeling of the painted finish. This is particularly important to pay attention to on your sink cabinet and your trash cabinet, as those get the most exposure to water and wet items. When you are done washing dishes, make it a habit to just wipe down the front of your cabinet with a clean microfiber cloth to keep that painted finish looking nice as long as possible.
If a deeper cleaning is needed, use only a clean damp microfiber cloth to wipe the cabinets and then dry them off really well with a second microfiber cloth. Kitchen towels and sponges that you use for many things are not good to clean the cabinets with since they typically have soap residue or cooking grease on them. Beware a sponge with textured material intended for scrubbing because it could remove any protective coating your cabinets have on them.
Don’t use any type of cleaning agent on your cabinets, such as furniture polish, soap, dishwashing liquid, so called cabinet cleaners, bleach or ammonia-based wipes, all-purpose cleaners, beeswax, or anything that has not been specifically approved by the cabinetry manufacturer. Cleaning agents have chemical compounds that can change the color of your cabinets and make them more prone to blistering or peeling.
Don’t leave a spill to linger. If you spill or splatter tomato sauce, wine, coffee, fruit juice, or condiments wipe it up immediately. Acid-based foods in particular can corrode your cabinet finish quickly!
Don’t neglect to use your range hood. When you are cooking, it is very important to turn on your range hood to remove food, spice, and oil particles from the air, so they do not settle on the surrounding cabinets.
Prevention is the absolute best way to keep your cabinetry clean. It’s easy to clean up any spills or splatters when they happen with a handy supply of microfiber cloths. This good habit also saves you time in the long run as it protects your cabinets from damage.
PRO TIP: Ask your designer to order you an extra touch up kit, so you can apply it to any cabinet scratches or dings that occur with normal use and keep that new kitchen looking beautiful for a long time.
Visit a Kitchen Views showroom to see and feel the quality of the cabinetry you’re purchasing, an important aspect missing from an online shopping experience. What looks good in a picture can be disappointing when seen in person. Kitchen Views sells quality brands that will impress you when you experience them in our showrooms. The construction quality of cabinetry differs, and you want your investment in this foundational element to stand the test of time with solid construction.
While the current heat wave in New England has everyone either running into the air conditioning, or jumping in a pool, this extreme heat is not the norm for our area. Outdoor spring and summer days in New England are long awaited and usually beautiful.
If you enjoy entertaining in your backyard, you may already have a deck with a casual dining area and a grill to cook traditional summer meals like hamburgers and hot dogs.
As you’ve been enjoying your backyard this summer, have you been wishing you had a real outdoor kitchen for al fresco family meals and summer parties? Kitchen Views now sells Wolf Endurance cabinetry, specifically made for outdoor kitchens.
When the homeowners purchased their new Canton home, they knew they needed to make it their own. With a dated kitchen layout and a floor plan that simply did not work for their family, the owners contacted Lisa Zompa of Kitchen Views to help transform their new home to fit their needs. Together with National Millwork, Lisa and the homeowners added cabinets and other storage to multiple rooms along with renovating all of the bathrooms and the kitchen. The final result – a stunning modern, yet classic, design that is perfect for this active family.
A 2015 Houzz report showed that over 50% of homeowners age 60+ are planning to age in place. As the baby boomer generation begins to enter the golden years, home construction and renovation contractors are seeing an increase in accessibility modifications being made. With more spending power than the younger millennial generation, the boomers are also a large player in the interior design industry; frequently updating their home to incorporate the latest design trends. Combining the need for accessibility with the desire to keep the attractive appearance of the home, these modifications are not only practical but stylish as well. Read below for some simple yet important modifications to make to your home accessible for any generation.
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