Monday, February 21, 2011

Out Door Kitchen

Out door kitchens are a good way to add value to your home. It adds extra square footage and beauty to your home. In places with the majority of warm climate this space could be used almost year round. Having this place to entertain inconjunction with other things makes this a very desirable addition. Putting an outdoor kitchen next to a hot tub or pool area makes for added convienance for summer entertaining. Having an outdoor kitchen eliminates going inside to cook the food for a party making it easier to entertain your guests while preparing the food.
The outdoor kitchen island can come in many different sizes and varities. You can customize them however you want with whatever brand of products you would like. Depending on the size of the backyard, you can have any size of set up. You can even make it a whole bar. The appliances that you can put in your outdoor kitchen are endless and can have a full kitchen set up outside.

Having an exotic functioning outdoor space is really a good investment on every level. The options are endless to make your backyard a great place to have fun and relax.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Home Office Inspiration

One of the most important things when designing your home office is organization. Having you work space all cluttered makes for a very stressful work situation. No one wants to work when they have a million things cluttering their space. This is something I still struggle with even when the rest of my home is spotless. I never get much work done in my home office because its overwhelming. 








When a couple lives together and both are working and need home offices, it is a good idea to split up the work space so that it is not too cluttered and things don't get mixed up. 
Having separate areas for each person eliminates possible confusion and fighting. Both will have the ability to work at the same time if need be. 




Some homes have enough space to dedicate a whole room to having a home office, other homes are limited on space and have to have little areas designated to be a home office. That doesn't have to be an unsightly thing though. There are creative ways to even "hide" your office space. 


One way to do this is getting a piece of furniture made to be a desk that closes up to hide the computer and organization. This can fit in almost anywhere and when closed looks pretty. 


Another place that people put home offices is in the attic. Since there is usually weird shaped rooms in the attic space that can't be used for just anything, people usually use that as the office. Home offices are a convenient thing to have in a home if you can make the space for it. Especially when they dont have to be big elaborate offices. 



Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Lowes kitchen

On my trip to check out Lowe's kitchen department, I saw a few things that would make kitchens a little easier to maneuver around in. In one of my previous blogs I talked about the cabinet built-ins that have shelves that pull put so you don't have to bend down to assess what's on the shelves in the bottom cabinets. Also they have drawer organizers to keep the random utensils from rolling around in the drawer.



Another thing I saw was the pull out drawer trashcan by the sink. When people opt to pit their trashcans under there, usually there's not a lot of room and you kinda gotta tilt the can to the side to put anything in there, scraping your hand on the top of the cabinet, with this thing you avoid all of that bc the can comes out to you with minimal effort in case your hands are full making this incredibly convenient.


Keeping with that same theme, for smaller skinny cabinets they also have a shelf that pulls out to get the most use for those small spaces.


Another idea I saw at Lowes was that they placed the dish washer up on a platform to making loading it less stress on the back.


Having a trash compactor or separate wine chiller is usually a luxury that isn't standard in many homes. But I think it makes this kitchen set up look more beautiful.



Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Kool Kitchens

 
 I think Kitchens have a lot of potential for making a home really stand out. When I had my real estate licence that would be the main thing that buyers would want updated and if the house had an updated kitchen, then the houses seemed to move faser. Kitchen upgrades seem to be more and more popular with new features being added all the time such as roll out shelves, appliance garages, softly closing drawers, and even under cabinet lighting.
 Kitchen are becoming more modern and colors are being used more and more often. Granite counter tops are amoung the most requested in new homes no matter what style. Custom appliances and cabinets are used to get more of an edge. Cabinet panel appliances are popular to disquise the appliances.

Lofts are a place where I have seen a lot of unique kitchens being used in. They tend to go with the loft feel an be a little more contemporary and modern. Like this kitchen to the left, it uses some features that are not seen in most traditional homes like pink cabinets and the ceiling beams as part of the decor.