he timing could not be better. We’re entering our annual season of entertaining and visiting one another’s homes. We’re preoccupied with our work life, home life, the season’s responsibilities, and perhaps at the same time, you’re contemplating a winter or spring kitchen renovation. I’m exhausted just writing this! But, let’s pause a moment and revisit your kitchen renovation. You’re considering a kitchen/great room as part of the master plan. While thinking about the kitchen design is sometimes tabled for a little while, I’d like to urge you to keep on top of a few design issues as you go through this festive season. You will surely be enlightened!

Are you hosting an event? You Will Want To Consider:

Traffic Flow – Observe the traffic flow of your kitchen when family members are present and when guests are visiting. Of course, few of our homes can adequately handle large crowds, but the question becomes: how many people do you wish to comfortably accommodate in your kitchen/great room? Think this through carefully. Many of my clients can often attach a number of guests to the typical “group” they entertain. This is useful information to remember and, perhaps, plan for your renovation. Look carefully at the traffic flow from one task/activity center to another and you will soon see where the bottle necks are and where the process flows more freely.

Activities – What types of activities do you envision that will take place in, near, or surrounding the kitchen? Will you need a seating area in the kitchen to double as a comfortable lounging area perhaps for children or young adults? Do you need space for homework or other projects? Visualize these lifestyle scenarios. Walk through sequences of events and note the impact these activities have on your current walkways and doorways. Take careful note of the space surrounding your dining table. Is it adequate or is it confining? The dining space is often an after thought…adequate space encourages conversation and lingering. A confining space does the opposite!

Kitchen Workflow – We must pay critical attention to the kitchen workflow. Are you a family of foodies, perhaps with visiting grown children? Does a spouse wish for a grilling spot, a featured wine environment, a coffee preparation nook? Are you social cooks – will you cook with visiting family members and friends? Or, would you love to have a baking center to bake with your younger children? Visualize, in your dream kitchen, what is the best distribution of countertop space that will meet your needs. Consider your guests – would it be best to “direct” your guests away from the main work center, by design?

These types of questions will help determine the size, the boundaries of the kitchen work area which are important pieces to your great room design.

Of course, many of these questions will be asked by your Professional Kitchen Designer, and they are but a start to the process, but it is important, and interesting, during this season of entertaining to observe your current habits and, most importantly, to make notes of those observations. Awareness is a fantastic first step in the process!

How “Open” Is “Open”?

Often a difficult answer to determine, it can be somewhat confusing to predict how you will feel once you are on the “other side” of the renovation…if you are truly satisfied with an open design, especially if you have not experienced it before. This fear can also prevent one from moving toward opening up the space even more, for example, to consider a “loft” type of feeling, where, perhaps, several rooms are combined. A great advantage to this design concept, especially in a smaller home, is the ability of the eye to travel longer distances, often allowing more light into the room as well. A more open concept is fantastic for entertaining, for casual living, for being together with family and friends, and to allow for multiple activities to happen at once for some, while others congregate nearby in an adjacent space. Visualize various lifestyle scenarios and the answers will reveal themselves to you in time.

One disadvantage to an open space floorplan is the ever classic dilemma – the guests see the unkempt kitchen. Frankly, I’m not so sure there remain other disadvantages to an open kitchen floorplan. Mid height cabinetry can serve as a room divider, a very wide, deep, sink can hide dishes, two dishwashers accommodate ample dish and serveware, portable room dividers can be highly decorative and functional, pocket doors are an elegant solution to privacy…these are just a few ways to conceal the newly emptied pots, pans, and more, as food moves from kitchen to serving areas. Again, visualize these barriers. Take care that snap assumptions are not made that an open kitchen cannot be flexible to your needs.

Practice visualizing, have an open mind, think about lifestyle. Enjoy (and work by observing) this festive season!

Redecorating Your Bedroom From Top to Bottom
If your bedroom doesn’t offer you a respite from the hustle and bustle of the day, then now’s the time to transform it. The time and money you invest now will definitely pay off in big dividends in your future. Your bedroom redecorating project might just mean that you’ll find yourself a little happier, a bit more joyful and most importantly, at peace with yourself and your surroundings.

Decorating your master bedroom is probably more fun than decorating any other room in your home. Why? Because it’s the one room in your home where you can truly allow your personality to shine.

Begin with three easy steps.

1: Start by visualizing and listing all the types of activities you’ll want to conduct in your “get-away” haven. Perhaps it’s writing in your journal, reading, knitting, watching movies or contemplating your plans for tomorrow — whatever the activity, it’s important to think through the specific things that will make you the happiest.

2: Look at your bedroom space with a critical eye. Can your bedroom accommodate all the activities you listed?

3: As with most all decorating projects, one of your first priorities is locking in a color scheme. Color sets the stage and is truly the backdrop for all your furnishings, fabrics, accessories and lighting.

Make Color Considerations

* Use color unequally for better proportion and balance. While this sounds like a complete contradiction, it truly works. Consider a deeper, more dramatic hue to create an accent wall behind your bed. Then, by coloring your adjoining walls in a lighter shade of the same color, you’ve created a more visually interesting space.

* Use lighter colors to create a feeling of spaciousness. Paler shades naturally reflect light rays instead of absorbing them. A lighter color palette would be particularly important if your bedroom isn’t quite as large as you’d like.

* Use bright, strong colors to create a warm, cozy feeling. If your bedroom is large and spacious and has very high ceilings, warmer colors will help “humanize” your space, making if feel more livable and welcoming.

* Pay attention to your room’s architectural features. If you wish to emphasize interesting architectural features, enhance them with stronger contrasting colors. And, conversely, if your desire is to camouflage architectural defects, then a more neutral paint color of the same tonal value will help blend your walls, ceiling and floors and hide those unhappy features.

Light Up Your New Room

Now that you’ve got some great color ideas for your new bedroom retreat, the amount of artificial and natural light in your room will be the defining factor in your ultimate color choice.

“Lighting plays such an important role in any redecorating project,” says Sue Pelley, national spokesperson for INTERIORS by Decorating Den. “I recommend that my clients take stock of how much natural light is entering the room, and for how long a period of time. If their room is bathed in sunny natural light, I recommend working with a cooler color scheme. And conversely, if a room doesn’t enjoy a lot of natural light, a warmer color palette will help eliminate a feeling of coldness.”

Bring in Fabulous Furnishings

Bedding ensembles come in a variety of sizes and designs. From the uniquely custom-designed, outline-quilted bedspreads, to the sophisticated and luxurious duvet covers, your bedding ensemble should definitely take center stage. No bedding ensemble is complete without multiple pillow shams and decorative accent pillows.

Incorporating a custom-designed window treatment, will help your windows take center stage. Once you’ve determined privacy and room darkening needs, the design possibilities are only limited by a decorator’s creativity.

Uncover the Possibilities

Uncovering the possibilities as you begin redecorating your master bedroom is an exciting undertaking, when you plan ahead, and focus on making wise choices along the way. Remember, you spend more time in your home than anyone else. So be sure your ultimate decorating choices reflect your personality and your unique sense of style. Sweet dreams.

Image Courtesy of Skona Hjem.

By Susan Serra CKD, Decorati Contributing Guest Blogger and author of The Kitchen Designer blog.

To talk about trends this year is especially interesting to me, as it is the end of a decade. I think back over the start of the “new millennium” and it almost seems like the covered wagon days in kitchen design! Looking back gives us perspective as we contemplate the future. So, where are we headed as we look at the kitchen design landscape today and in the foreseeable future? Give me a moment, while I search for my crystal ball!

I’d like to discuss five of the most important trends that I feel are, or will be soon, in our consciousness as we consider how we want to live in our kitchens. These are lifestyle trends, not the color of the month trend! Kitchens are once or twice in a lifetime projects, typically. We want to pay attention to new ideas, absolutely, but seek longevity in design and materials as well. Here’s what I see:

Open Floorplan (Rooted In Love) – An open floorplan design concept comes to mind first, and quickly! We’re busy. We want to connect with our family and friends while we perform the sometimes mundane tasks we need to do in the kitchen. We’re also feeling more relaxed, less formal, yet desire more control of our spaces. Rooted in love, this lifestyle trend has influenced a further awakening toward an open floorplan. Taking charge of our family connections in our own home means designing our kitchens for easy, efficient, communication across disparate spaces. A loft-like design concept is gaining momentum as a coordinated “designed” response to the need for communication in our homes. Products of quality to better relate (as well as to better serve their purpose) to surrounding living areas are seriously considered for their longevity and classic design, be they modern, traditional, or artisan.

Image courtesy of Hotel Lupaia.

What’s Your Style? – I see a continuing movement toward tapping into one’s inner creativity, finding one’s personal expression. The gift from the internet gods to those redesigning a room or a home is the ability to find the nuance of our personal style online. Finding those nuanced products, ideas, methods, that speak to us, is a direct result of a fresh and new confidence, built up over recent years (with the help of the internet gods) and a trend that has recently accelerated in light of our very difficult last 1 1/2 years. It tells us that our unique aesthetic sensibility is interesting as opposed to odd, that “mainstream” is not the be all end all to aspire to, to feel “safe.” Personal expression IS mainstream. Your personal style rules…and rocks. Personal expression aside, what many of us also seem to be moving toward is a warm, modern, feel with clean lines and simple design elements with an appreciation for design that is inspired by nature, and offers easy care as one advantage. We used to have one or two clear trends in kitchen design. Now we have quite a few trends, sub trends, mixed trends. The trend landscape has changed dramatically, a good change.

The Chef’s Kitchen – We’re loving fabulously fun cooking equipment, appliances designed in countless configurations offering any feature you can dream of, including cool high tech features and lots of color and finishes. We’re going to local farmer’s markets, and a desire for healthy foods of quality is also responsible for the renewed enjoyment of cooking. The grill pans, specialty knives, panini presses combined with an appreciation for the classics such as Le Creuset ovens as one example, bring us to a more sophisticated level in our culinary lives. We’re cooking at home again for family and friends with gusto! The “Healthy Kitchen”, connected in philosophy to the “Chef’s Kitchen” will include aging in place design/universal design principles (it’s own enormous trend/topic), non toxic surfaces, and appliances for healthy foods and homes such as steam oven, air scrubbing refrigerators, ventilation that automatically turns on/off, adjusting its speed, electronic on/off faucetry and many more innovations designed to create and enhance a healthy lifestyle in the kitchen.

Image courtesy of GE Monogram.

The Social Kitchen – More than ever before, we want our kitchens to be social. So social, that I see islands becoming larger as walls continue to come down, even taking center stage to include a sink and a cooking appliance, and seating. I see soft furnishings (the kitchen sofa for example, a concept that I strongly believe in, which is raised to meet the breakfast room table) in the kitchen and is all about comfort. I see finishes and colors which do not match, but blend. Fireplaces and larger windows in width and height create an open feel and add architectural interest as they do in surrounding rooms. Alternative finishes, textures and products add sophistication. Good artwork, sconces (and other non-typical kitchen lighting) and mediamediamedia of any size/shape/type contribute to the feeling that one is truly in a living/social area. Multiple work stations providing optimal function for various social lifestyle situations will be designed into the space. A desire for real comfort is strongly connected to the social kitchen trend.

Environmental Awareness – No list, even a short one, would be complete without mentioning the importance of sustainable living in our everyday life and thinking sustainability in the products we select. Appliances have made enormous strides in energy conservation in recent years, and faucets and cabinetry, flooring, tile, and countertops are made with recycled or certified environmentally safe materials. Conserving water and energy is our collective goal. Energy saving lighting fixtures has made great strides as seen in CFL and LED fixtures. Yes, you can still have your glam touch with (energy saving) lights in your sink or countertop! Green design, in my opinion, does not work without longevity built into products. Longevity built-in, equals quality. More than a trend, real quality, as it always has, simply makes sense. Environmental awareness brings with it a desire to experience the natural character of wood species, natural textures in metals, stone, and fabrics. A parallel to this trend is enjoyment of hand crafted, artisan, items, an easing up from perfection, toward organic shapes and joinery.

The word for 2010 and for the foreseeable future just may be “Authenticity”. I’d love to hear your thoughts…what you see in your upcoming kitchen renovation, or in your dream kitchen.

atricle by Sussan Serra

Ceramic kitchen décor is made up of bisque. This are materials composed of thin slabs of clay, in the form of shale, gypsum or sand converted to make the make up the material, bisque.

The bisque is then hardened through firing in the kiln at temperature of 250 deg F. This ensures their durability. Other than them being durable, they are cost effective and add beauty to the place placed. This in most cases is due to the fact they can made in various shapes and colors. As for the kitchen, they well fit floors, walls, countertops as well as backsplashes providing the best ceramic kitchen décor.

Preference for ceramic

Some of the reasons why ceramic is always considered as the best décor for ceramic kitchen decor, among others include; they can match any decorating style. Also they are cheap compared to tiles, one can lay them by themselves, they come in a wide variety in terms of color, shape and size, they are durable and easy to clean. The only problem is their maintenance as they are difficult to maintain compared to paint, vinyl, wallpaper or fiberglass.

Tips

When doing the purchase it is always good to buy more than you will need as some may crack or break, hence the need for more. It’s also good to go for smaller tiles if your kitchen is small as the big tiles tend to overshadow a small kitchen. If you want to add some visual appeal to your kitchen. It is also good to go for a diagonal ceramic kitchen decor.