Filed under: Beautiful Home
What does a kitchen look like in 2011? That's up to you. For the sake of spicing up life with some variety, we recommend mixing things up in the kitchen.
Try a Different Kind of Island
For starters, ShelterPop recommends experimenting with nontraditional kitchen islands. Before you invest in an expensive, custom-built kitchen island, you may want to consider these creative possibilities.
Here are some suggestions:
Rolling Cart
There are lots of inexpensive microwave and beverage carts on the market, and if you're looking for something on the smaller side, a tiny cart is just what you need! Plus, most of them are on wheels so they can move around the kitchen with you as you perform your tasks.
A Desk
Maybe you just upgraded your office furniture or found a great vintage desk at a garage sale. If you're crafty, I bet you could come up with something creative, like adding a beadboard to the front and lumber to the top.
A Dining Table
Although the table might be a little lower than your standard kitchen island, a solid wood table acts like a butcher block and takes a pretty decent beating. If you don't mind bending over a little, you can slap some cute mismatched chairs around it, or try adding a bench to one end and use the other end for rolling dough or chopping onions.
A Bookshelf
If you're mostly looking for more storage, try a bookshelf. It's a great place to stash the cookbooks, mixing bowls and dishtowels if you have limited counter or cabinet space. You can also use two bookshelves as table legsand add a counter top.
Technicolor Countertops
So long, neutrals! Color is making a comeback in the kitchen, and countertops are leading the charge. To add a quick pop to any modern kitchen, ShelterPop recommends playing with colors.
For anyone renovating a kitchen, choosing a kitchen countertop has been as easy as deciding which neutral you'd go with: crisp white marble, slick black or gray granite, maybe tan Corian. But kitchen countertops are getting a major makeover. Think: fiery reds, soothing aquas -- In other words, color.
It's easy to see why these counters, like Red Dragon, are so alluring -- they can brighten up the dullest of kitchens -- but kitchen designer Stephanie Pritchard says to think it through before settling on something so bold. "Color is great, but it has to be in the right home or setting," she says. Still, it's an exciting development in kitchen countertops, especially since designs needed some shaking up.
If you do live in a colorful setting or just fancy yourself a home design risk taker, we say go for it! Joining the ranks of other colorful trends like red refrigerators and cobalt blue dishwashers, many of these punchy possibilities are also made from eco-friendly materials, making them stylish and smart. Check out ShelterPop to see some favorites.
Sprucing Up With Wine Storage
Wine isn't only good for drinking. Here are a few budget-friendly ways for using your bottles as a design element. Substance, meet style.
Many wine lovers have gotten pretty creative when it comes to storing their bottles. One of the quirkiest ideas we've found is this Mailing Tube Wine Rack project from ReadyMade magazine.
The tubes were cut to fit the space and carefully layered under a shelf to ensure maximum support. While it may not be the most attractive options, we give the genius behind this idea props for making use of such a mundane material.
See ShelterPop for some other tips and tricks, like how to use stainless steel rods or vertical wine rack.