How to Decorate Your Kitchen With a Farmhouse Theme
If you spend a lot of time in your kitchen you want the space to be friendly and inviting. A sparse, minimalistic kitchen just doesn’t create the warm and cozy feeling you get when you gather in a farmhouse style kitchen. A farmhouse style kitchen conjures up warm memories of the past when times were simpler but you’ll still have modern day appliances and conveniences to make your life easier. It’s the best of both worlds. Here are some ideas for farmhouse kitchen designs:
Old farmhouse kitchen idea: Add farmhouse character to your walls
One way to give your walls a farmhouse flair is to sponge paint the walls of your kitchen to give the look of old enamelware. To do this, apply a base coat in a white or cream shade and allow it to dry. Choose a shade for your sponged walls. Mix one part of your chosen latex paint color shade with one part latex glaze. Use a damp sponge to lightly pounce the surface of your walls to create a spongeware design. Other ideas for giving your walls a farmhouse look is to use country themed wall paper borders or stencil a quaint border.
Old farmhouse kitchen idea: Accessorize your walls
A farmhouse style kitchen needs character and one way to get is to add farm accessories to the walls. You can do this by hanging old fashioned, weathered wood signs, vintage pots and pans, frames holding old farm recipes. You can also hang, old vintage spice hooks and iron hooks on the walls to add interest.
Old farmhouse kitchen idea: Don’t forget the floors.
A beautiful braided rug provides a cozy accent for old farmhouse kitchens. You can also add floor mats in country colors or rag rugs to add character to your farmhouse style kitchen. Strategically placed gingham patterned floor mats can play up the vintage farmhouse look you’re trying to achieve.
Old farmhouse kitchen idea: Add some furniture
Strong, sturdy pine pieces in the form of tables and chairs can add character to an old farmhouse kitchen. Country cabinets for displaying farmhouse collectibles add a nice touch if you have sufficient room. Before paying a fortune for pine furniture for your kitchen, check local yard and estate sales and see if you can find some inexpensive pieces you can refinish.
Old farmhouse kitchen idea: Accessorize your windows.
How about adding some curtain swags in a country colored plaid pattern? You can also use country colored curtain valences to give your windows that farmhouse country look. Hopefully the sun will shine brightly through your country decorated windows making your country kitchen warm and homey.
Old farmhouse kitchen idea: Other accessories
Some other ways to accessorize your farmhouse style kitchen is to decorate with country style plaid tablecloths or place mats or even placemats with a farm animal theme such as a rooster.This can be played up with rooster salt and pepper shakers or plates with a farm animal design imprinted on them. Groups of vintage cookbooks prominently displayed on shelves add an old fashioned touch to a farmhouse kitchen design. Don’t forget about placing a hanging pot rack on the ceiling to hold vintage cookware.
The possibilities for creating a warm farmhouse style kitchen are endless. You spend the weekends searching yard and garage sales for unique pieces to give your old farmhouse kitchen character. Then you can enjoy inviting friends to share a cup of tea with you in your cozy new quarters.
How To Decorate A Breakfast Nook
The breakfast nook is a small area next to or off of your kitchen where most families eat a majority of their meals. It is an informal dining area for everyday use because most people do not want to eat in the formal dining room for every meal. If you have an eat in kitchen or a breakfast nook area in your home then there are some tips on how to decorate it that are important. It is different than decorating or furnishing a formal dining room for several reasons. Kitchen furniture often has style that you would not find in regular dining furniture. There are also some decorating techniques that are useful in a utilitarian room such as the kitchen that you wouldn’t use in other parts of the house.
The first step in decorating a breakfast nook is to pick out your breakfast table. This is usually the largest piece of furniture in the room so it is one of the most important decisions. Of course sometimes the table comes as part of a breakfast nook set, but most people choose the breakfast nook furniture set based on the table because it is the largest piece and the most important in terms of fitting into the room. The first characteristic you need to look at to make sure you find the perfect kitchen table is the shape of your breakfast nook. If the breakfast nook is just a continuation of the kitchen and extends out in a square or rectangular shape, then a rectangular breakfast table is probably your best bet. If, however, the breakfast nook has an unusual shape like half of an octagon or even circular, than a round kitchen table is a good choice. The next characteristic that you must look at is size. Obviously you cannot have a table that is too large in a small breakfast nook space. However, you want to breakfast table to be as large as possible. A good rule to use is to measure the dimensions of the kitchen nook area and then subtract three feet from each to find the maximum dimensions of your kitchen table. The three feet is to allow for eighteen inches of clearance between the table and the walls for chairs or benches to be pulled in and out. Even though most people want to maximize the seating capacity at their table, some homes have only one or two members and they are quite content with a small kitchen table regardless of the shape of the room or how much extra space there is. They can fill the extra space with other kitchen furniture.
Once you have decided on a table, the next most important kitchen furniture decision is the breakfast nook seating. You basically have three choices to choose from including chairs, benches, or a combination of both. There are benefits to both chairs and benches so that is why many breakfast nook sets have a combination. Chairs are good if you do a lot of entertaining because they offer your guests there own personal space. Bench seating encourages an intimacy that many strangers do not wish to share. In addition, chairs are more comfortable for people of a larger size than benches because they offer more support. Benches however, have other advantages. You can seat more people on benches than on chairs. For example, a three person bench takes up the same amount of room around a table as two chairs. The general rule is that you can fit one and a half people on a bench for every chair you replace. If you have a large family, then at least one breakfast nook bench makes sense. Another advantage a benches is that they often come in breakfast nooks with storage. The space under the seat of a bench can be a large chest like storage compartment. You can use the space for storage of anything from table linens to small appliances, to food. Some families even use the space to store board games, art supplies, or school supplies. Because both breakfast nook chairs and benches can be good additions to your breakfast nook set, they are often combined.
Once you have decided on your breakfast nook dining set, there are other kinds of kitchen furniture to consider for the breakfast nook. Depending on how large the space is, you could add several other furniture pieces. For example, you could add a small console table under the windows to hold plants or a small herb garden. The table could obviously not be very deep, but even a small surface is handy for displaying small tabletop decorations or pictures. Another possibility is a pantry cabinet. If your kitchen cabinetry does not include a pantry, then you need a free standing pantry cabinet and often the space where the kitchen bleeds into the breakfast nook is the perfect place for such a piece of furniture. If your breakfast nook is especially large, you might even have room for a sideboard or storage cabinet.
Once you have furnished your kitchen with a breakfast nook set, you need start thinking about ways to decorate the space by adding color and texture. The easiest way to do this is with window treatments. Most breakfast nooks have many windows since that is one of the characteristics of such a room. The window treatments are necessary to block out direct sunlight while people are sitting at the table and they offer a large canvas for a decorator. You can add both color and texture to the room as well as hep tie the breakfast nook to the kitchen easily. First, most homeowners choose blinds rather than curtains for their main window treatments, so they must use valances to add their color and texture. Window valances come in many shapes and you are sure to be able to find one that matches your decorating style in the rest of the house. The other decorating benefit that valances have is that they can help with lines to tie the breakfast nook to the kitchen. If you hang your valances so that they are level with the top of the kitchen cabinets, then the eye can flow easily from one room to the other.
Other than window treatments, there are several other utilitarian items in the breakfast nook that can be used as decorations. Chair cushions and place mats can also add color, texture, and personality to the room. You can change the cushion covers and place mats often with the seasons or holidays because they do not take up much room in storage and small changes can make a big difference in how a room looks. You can also use the breakfast nook furniture itself as a possible decorating outlet. For example, accent tiles in a tabletop or the paint color on wooden furniture can be decorating elements.
Decorate Your Kitchen and Redefine Cookery with the Aid of Some Good Kitchen Cabinet Hardware
Article by Benedict Perez
The kitchen is supposed to be always a place of gladness and delight. It should encourage a favorable vibe to those who enter it. The explanation for this is simple: It is a location where we prepare or steam our chow. It is where we exert our culinary skills and make some tricks so that whatever dish we are making will give sheer bliss and contentment to all the people who will partake in it. If we are not in the good spirits while we are processing chow, chances are, the meal will not be as sumptuous as we want it to be. But if we come across ourselves singing and humming along while cooking, we can anticipate a mouthwatering food that is perfect to everyone’s appetite.
How do we refashion this little space called kitchen into a room of pleasure and charm? One infallible mode is to redecorate it. It surely is not a low-cost project, but there are many measures by which we can settle the expenses. Reasonable kitchen cabinet hardware is offered in the market. Just be patient and scour and you will surely find a set that will match your taste and style. You can shop online for a wider set of choices.
Choosing a kitchen cabinet hardware that meets your specifications and needs is of utmost significance. It can either polish your cabinet or put it in disarray altogether. No matter how simple a cabinet is, if you fix the correct pulls, knobs, and hinges, it will appear exquisite and classy. In other words, these frills bring out the aesthetic worthiness of your cabinet. If you fix badly chosen and incompatible items, on the other hand, the end result will be a unit that is not likely to mix well together with the other implements in the kitchen.
Before you begin your remodeling, you must sketch your full design. Go over the minutest details and get down to the fundamentals of your project. For example, determine where you want to fix the pulls and knobs. Do you prefer them to be attached at the middle, or you would instead have them located at the side of the cabinet? You would not want to drill unnecessary holes, as it would spoil your furniture piece. Choose also what colors you would like to employ. It is not necessary that the color of the cabinet and the hardware is the same. It is, however, advisable that they are of complementary hues.
Another aspect that you have to put into consideration is the overall motif of your decor. Of big impact here is the style and architecture of your abode, especially the kitchen, of course. If you live in an old house that has a classic or antique architecture, get pieces that would harmonize with this form. A kitchen cabinet hardware that has complex details and a rustic or copper color would be a perfect pick. On the other hand, if your kitchen has a contemporary or modern frame, you would not go wrong with lustrous and simple designs.
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Cabinet, Cookery, Decorate, Good, Hardware, Kitchen, Redefine, Some | 
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