Planning a kitchen remodel ? Read this first

 

A kitchen is more than just cabinets and crockery, which is why remodelling the hub of the home is a big deal and not something to be approached rashly. Think about how you use your kitchen. Is it more for cooking or congregating? Is it family-friendly or a relaxed hangout for you and your friends? Next, consider what it is you want from your kitchen, whether that's more space or simply updating the decor.

Although a kitchen remodel can seem extremely daunting, when it's done to the highest standard it can instantly raise the value of your home, provide you with a more functional cooking space, and make you the envy of all of your friends. These tips are the first steps to green-lighting your project.

Be Inspired

This is the fun part. Look for pictures of your dream kitchen in magazines and on the internet such as websites like Houzz or Pinterest. Then, analyze the existing space by taking plenty of measurements to get a clear idea of the dimensions of your current layout. Consider every aspect of the room, from architectural details to the materials you wish to incorporate.

Consider these factors

The number one factor you should always keep in mind is your budget. Are you looking for a full-scale renovation or a surface-level kitchen update? Decide how much you can spend, not forgetting to save 10% of your budget for the unexpected, and set up an Excel document to keep track of your expenses, making sure to check it regularly.

This will help you differentiate between needs and desires, so you can decide where to splurge and where to save. As an example, a must-have might be new kitchen cabinets as your current ones are hanging off their hinges, and on your wish-list could be an eco-friendly induction cooktop to replace an energy-hungry ceramic hob.

Talk to an expert

Visit a studio and get advice from a professional designer. Hiring a pro is well worth the investment as they'll be able to help with space planning, choosing fixtures and finishes, ordering products and managing your project from start to finish. Plus, their remodel expertise can save you a lot of money, time and frustration.

It's important to spend as much time as possible getting the design right from the outset, as this will limit the amount of majors changes made during the project itself. A quality designer will sit down with you, listen to your ideas and if they can't put all of them in place, then they will be able to provide alternative solutions.

Not sure where to start ? Then why not take a look at Luxury for Living's ' Our Customers ' section to see if any of our kitchens make your wish your list.

Richard Marc Anthony

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Richard Marc Anthony

What do kitchen designers mean by 'clean lines' and what are the benefits of this ?

 

One of the terms frequently cited in kitchen design is 'clean lines'; this is often in union with reference to a 'minimalist' and/or 'flowing' kitchen look. But if you are new to kitchen planning it might not be immediately clear what this means, or more importantly, the benefits that clean lines can bring to a kitchen in respect of both looks and function.

So what are clean lines for a kitchen ?

This phrase typically refers to a run of kitchen units where the arrangement, dimensions and finish are the exact same, so all units line up in a straight and seamless fashion. The doors and drawers are perfectly aligned, and this smooth and even finish creates an uninterrupted or 'flowing' look. Essentially, this styling is very clean and minimalist, and that which is not needed is not present, or else is removed from sight.

Adopting the ethos that 'less is more,' minimalist kitchen designs tend to favour a handleless kitchen finish, a limited colour palette, and integrated appliances with unfussy facades. In many cases, and where possible, the units will employ symmetry, achieving proportion and balance. The end result is typically a modern or contemporary kitchen look. But the same minimalist principals can certainly be applied within traditional kitchens too, and provide the same benefits. The benefits of a kitchen incorporating clean lines are as follows:

Kitchens with clean lines offer excellent storage options

Kitchens with clean lines will exude an uncluttered and tidy kitchen appearance. But without sufficient storage space in a kitchen, this look would be extremely difficult to maintain. So minimalist kitchens are always very carefully designed to ensure everything within the kitchen has its place and can be easily tidied from sight when not in use.

For example, cutlery inserts, secret drawers and integrated storage racks will each provide a neat home for utensils, knives and spices. This means they won't clutter up a worktop and spoil a kitchen's look. Similarly, sophisticated storage systems such as le mans corner units, carousels and larder pull outs offer excellent use of kitchen space. This includes tandem or swivel pull-outs, integrated rails and shelving on the inside of cupboard doors. These options can be especially useful for tall items such as cereal boxes or fancy cooking oil bottles. Similarly, rather than hanging above a cooker, saucepans, as well as small appliances such as mixers and bread makers, can fit comfortably in pan drawers and cupboards. This makes them very easy to see and access, whilst ensuring they don't interrupt the clean lines of a beautiful kitchen design.

Handleless white gloss and bronze offers excellent storage solutions

Integrated appliances will enhance a seamless look

Similar to storage solutions, appliances can integrate with kitchen furniture's clean lines, and in so doing further enhance the kitchen's look. In fact, appliances are increasingly being redesigned to exact a perfect and seamless fit, with unobtrusive exteriors. The new Siemens IQ700 Appliance Range is a perfect example of this. E.g., apart from being easier to use and offering multi-functional cooking options, the new oven range exude a slimmer profile door than its predecessors for a sleeker look. Similarly, induction hobs can be fully integrated to form an entirely flush fit with worktops. Integrated microwaves save space on a worktop and avoid spoiling the clean look. And a discreet extractor might be incorporated above an island, or else hidden from view entirely with a model such as the downdraft extractor:

The new IQ700 Siemens Ovens integrate with the furniture to offer a seamless look

Clean lines make a space seem bigger and brighter

Clean lines can impact on how we perceive a room's size. Within a kitchen design they can enhance the look by creating an added sense of height or depth. This might be the inclusion of streamlined tall cupboards, making a room seem taller. Alternatively a continuous run of identical units might make a room look longer.

Combined with the uncluttered worktops, walls and shelving that storage options easily allow, the lack of 'stuff' upon surfaces will easily make a room seem both bigger and brighter than it really is.

Clean lines make a kitchen more user friendly

Clean lines can make a kitchen more user-friendly and functional. An example of this is that a lack of door handles mean you can't bang your hip or snag your jumper as you brush past kitchen base units. Similarly there is more 'free' preparation space for working at without a microwave or utensil pots cluttering your worktop. And simpler controls and dials on appliances make their use much easier and more accurate.

Clean lines will let kitchen features stand out

Be it a richly textured kitchen door finish, a beautiful marbled worktop, or else a vibrant splashback colour tone, if you have included a 'feature piece' within your kitchen design then you want this to stand out!

Clean lines and a clear surface area will ensure this can happen, as there is nothing to compete with, and detract from your kitchen's intended focal point.

Clean lines embrace a clean colour palette

Clean lines are entirely harmonious with a clean kitchen colour palette. 'Unfussy' is key to the success of this style so the less 'busy' a colour palette, the better for achieving simple elegance.

Clear colours such as white and pale grey tones are ideal for a fresh and beautiful look. Alternatively a classic black and white contrast can also show off a kitchen's stunning design, including those carefully engineered clean kitchen lines. For any questions or assistance with planning your new kitchen, please contact us

Richard Marc Anthony

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Richard Marc Anthony

Choosing Colours for Painted Kitchens

Choosing just the right colours for kitchens can be tricky. If you're like most people, you'll spend a significant part of your day in the kitchen, so it's important to pick colours that you like. We offer you a vast array of painted kitchens, so you can get the perfect look you're going for. We offer beautiful painted kitchens not only in a wide palette of colours, but also in a variety of styles.

When we design kitchens, one of the questions we often hear is, “What colour should my kitchen be?”

Of course, there’s no single answer to that question. In large part, it depends on the colour schemes used throughout the rest of your home. Beautiful painted kitchens offer a great deal of versatility when it comes to colour schemes. You can go with a simple, monochromatic look, or you can layer colours on top of one another.

Here are some basic tips for choosing colours for painted kitchens:

If you have a small kitchen, avoid dark colours. Dark colours will make the space appear even smaller than it is. Instead, choose clear colours. A crisp white is always a good choice and you can even have the choice of a handleless kitchen, providing clean, uncluttered lines throughout the room. Of course, other light colours work as well. Adding accent colours is a good idea, but stick with fairly bright, clear colours.

If you have a larger kitchen, especially if it is highly visible from other parts of the house, avoid stark colour contrasts with the rest of your home. Doing so tends to detract from the living spaces in your home. Choose a colour scheme that is either neutral or that blends well with the other colours in your home.

You’ll undoubtedly want more specific advice regarding the colour and design of your painted kitchen. Every home is different, and it’s important that your kitchen design works well with the home while still representing your preferences and tastes. It’s also important that everything from the appliances to the worktops be designed for best functionality.

At Luxury for Living, Richard & Teri know how to get the most out of the kitchen space available to you. We can help with all aspects of kitchen design, from colour schemes for beautiful painted kitchens to worktop and cabinet layout. Contact us today and inquire about our free kitchen design.

Richard Marc Anthony

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Richard Marc Anthony

6 Tips when creating your dream kitchen

In our years of designing, selling and installing quality kitchens and appliances, working with a major kitchen company as Mereway and appliance manufacturers like LUCE, Neff, Siemens & Miele we've grown used to prospective customers asking all kinds of weird and wonderful questions.

There are some key things that you need to bear in mind which will help you through the whole process, here are 6 Tips when creating your dream kitchen:

1. Budget

Remember, you get what you pay for. It may be tempting to save money by purchasing from builders merchants or some of the larger retail chain outlets but some of these companies do use inferior raw materials resulting in a poorer quality product. They may not also offer the detailed specialist advice and service that you are more likely to find with an independent showroom. Investing in things like good quality hinges can make all the difference. The best designers work for specialist kitchen companies as they are given a broader range of products to work with.

2. Layout

Before designing your kitchen, plan how you will use the space. Consider how much space needs to be dedicated to storage, working surface, and seating if you are looking at it from a more entertaining perspective. In particular take into account the impact of food preparation and serving areas on dining space.

3. Don't rush

Allow time to get the design exactly how you want. You will need to talk to your builder if you are constructing an extension or new house. He will need to know about services for the kitchen in good time. Our kitchens can take up to 4-6 weeks for delivery and installations typically 1-3 weeks so allow plenty of time. Having somebody to project manage will ensure that everything is as it should be when different workmen arrive and that sockets, for example are all in the right place.

4. Waste Bins

When designing your kitchen, it is easy to forget about the basic daily needs of the space. If space is limited, Le Mans corner unit & Integrated Recycling Bins are a clever use of space.

5. Lighting

Lighting is a very important element of kitchen design which is often overlooked and specialist kitchen companies can advise on the kind of lighting which will make a real difference to your kitchen. You will need to consider ceiling lighting as well as task lighting above worktops, display areas and as a feature as required. It's better to have light fall in front of you than behind you, so that no shadows are cast.

6. Appliances

Appliances can be a significant part of your kitchen budget, but remember they are the engine of your kitchen and do all the work, so they must be fit for purpose. So whilst you might not want to choose the most expensive, a kitchen specialist can offer you a broad range of products so you get the right one for you.

Follow these tips while working in collaboration with Teri & myself to help create a stunning Luxury for Living Kitchen within your own home.

Richard Marc Anthony

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Richard Marc Anthony

Could you live without a Quooker in your life ?

If you ask anyone who has a Quooker they'll often say it's their most useful and used appliance. When you think about all the myriad tasks that a Quooker tap can perform it's really not surprising. On average a kettle uses the same amount of energy to boil a litre of water as it takes to run a fridge for about seven hours and in the UK we boil our kettle on average four times a day!

A Quooker tap on the other hand, will only use 3p worth of energy a day. In contrast using a Quooker, is quick, efficient and instant meaning you use only what you need because the 100°C boiling water is there, 'on tap'.

Unlike the energy-greedy kettle, the eco-friendly Quooker is so much more than a hot beverage maker and can actually economically replace some of the functions that other appliances in the kitchen perform.

Logically, therefore, if you don't yet have one, you'd better make sure that when you do buy your next kitchen and we'd love it to be from Richard & myself, that you ask us about the Quooker Tap and how it can benefit you.

 

Teri-Joanne Anthony

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Teri-Joanne Anthony

Hello and welcome

Hello and welcome to the brand new Luxury for Living - Fabulously British Kitchens website and blog!

We hope you're just as delighted as we are with our all new website which we believe showcases our products in a very effective and simple way without the jargon and technicalities that we know can be confusing and stressful.

It has taken time to get this site exactly as we wanted it which is why we're now so pleased to be able to launch this website and show off our carefully selected British kitchen and bedroom collections.

We love the clean, easy-to-navigate layout and it should help you get to the kitchen or bedroom you want quickly. Alternatively, if you're not quite sure what you want yet, it is very simple to contact us through the contact form.

This blog will be updated frequently with news, inspiration, offers and trends, so make sure you check back regularly to keep up to date with all the exciting new ideas happening at Luxury for Living. We are always happy to receive feedback, so if there is anything in particular you would like to see in this blog, please email us with your comments.

Richard & Teri-Joanne Anthony

Richard Marc Anthony

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Richard Marc Anthony

Richard has studied both Architecture and Interior Design and has been working within the Design Industry since 2001. From this experience he has come to recognise that good design has a huge impact on your quality of life hence what LUXURY for LIVING strive to deliver.

Get in touch for your free home design consultation
Due to unprecedented demand, it would be highly recommended that you book in advance your design consultation with Richard at a time suitable with you.