Tag Archives: kitchen decorating

5 Ways To Make Your Kitchen More Baking-Friendly

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 There is nothing sweeter than the smell of home baked goods spreading throughout your house. The candied air, thick with powdered sugar, and the delicate spice of cinnamon give you a warm, fuzzy feeling – and make your stomach rumble!

Photo: Bakes & Kropp Fine Cabinetry – Maid Sailors Home Cleaning

Baking is often presented as a scientific process with many variables that could negatively affect the outcome. Many people struggle to perfect their cakes, cookies, and pastries in their kitchens. We all know the old saying, ‘a good workman never blames his tools’. When it comes to baking, however, it could be your environment and equipment that are causing all your cakes to collapse and your cookies to melt into buttery puddles!

If you’re keen to get your baking groove on, here are 5 brilliant ways to make your beautiful kitchen more baking-friendly.

1. Change your countertops

We’ve all been there. No matter how much flour you dust onto your countertop, your dough will just not stop sticking! The surface you’re working on can either make it easier or harder to make your baked goods. If only you had a better kitchen…If you plan to experiment with pastry and bread-making in particular, you should really think about the material your work surface is made of.

Marble, whilst quite pricey, is praised highly for pastry-making in particular as it keeps cool and makes it easy to roll out your pastry dough for laminating. If you can’t afford to resurface all of your counters, you could source a large block of your chosen material to place on top of your original counter when you need it.

Pick a material that is easy to clean too, as you’ll likely be making a lot of mess while you’re in baking mode!

2. Pretty pantry

Your pantry holds the key to a world of experimental baking. To make your kitchen more baking-friendly, you absolutely must have a well thought-out pantry storage system in place. Baking ventures often flop when you use poor quality ingredients. We’re all guilty of impulsively purchasing quirky flours or bulk-buying ingredients on sale. If you don’t keep track of what you have and when it expires, you might end up with a cake that is tasteless and flat as a pancake!

Organising the contents of your pantry into categories will make it easy for you to grab and go when you’re in a hurry to whip something up. Employing handy storage solutions like lazy susans or basket containers will help keep ingredient categories together.

3. Upgrade your equipment

The last thing you want after spending an afternoon mixing dough, chilling it for a few hours, and carefully cutting it into delicate shapes, is for your cookies to stick to a grimey cookie sheet, never to be tasted. Make your kitchen baking-friendly by filling your cupboards with good quality equipment that covers you for all your potential baking needs.

If you make a rocking banana bread, make sure you have a sturdy loaf tin. Maybe you make exquisite cupcakes with the most delicious buttercream frosting – carry a decent cupcake tin, cupcake liners, and quality piping bags!

Your cupboards should include all the basic baking essentials like a mixing bowl or two, spatula, whisk, knives, and baking pans. The best baked goods are never the result of makeshift cake tins formed out of other cooking materials you have on hand.

4. Pay attention to your appliances

Crucial to moist and chewy baked goods is a good-functioning oven. If your oven is dirty, the smell of caked on grease will permeate into your cakes – yuck! The grime might also affect the temperature control which will affect the timings and rise of your baked goods.

You should carry out a monthly oven clean to keep it in ship shape for baking. This doesn’t need to be difficult and you don’t need to use toxic chemicals to scrape the gunge off either.

Simply make a paste out of bicarbonate of soda and water and lather the inside of your oven with it. Shut the door and leave it overnight. The next day, return with a spray bottle of vinegar and a sturdy cloth or sponge for scrubbing. Spray vinegar on a patch of paste and watch it fizz and dissolve. Start scrubbing it off and at the end you’ll be left with a lovely shiny oven – free of odours!

5. Easy cleaning

When you’re baking, it can be easy to become overwhelmed by the number of ingredients you have spilling out over your counter and the growing pile of equipment in your sink, waiting to be washed. Cleaning up is an inevitable part of baking so make it easy for yourself.

Install a taller faucet at your kitchen sink to make it easier to pile bulkier cooking equipment in. It’s a pain to clean large mixing bowls in a tiny sink, so this will give you a lot of extra space to work with. Always have a supply of clean cloths and surface spray at the ready to wipe down your surface at regular intervals during the baking process.

Get your bake on!

These 5 tips will make your kitchen more baking-friendly, removing the uncertainty about what your final cake will look and taste like. Making sure you have fresh ingredients and a clean and functional work environment will make the process more enjoyable and far easier!

7 Tips to Make Your Kitchen Better

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 Give your kitchen a makeover with our simple, easy, and budget-friendly kitchen decorating ideas!


Designed By: Craig Veenker

Once in a while, your kitchen needs some improvement. As time goes on, you might discover you need more functionality, a better way to stay organized or some features of your kitchen just need updating. This article will show you 7 tips to make your kitchen better, whether your kitchen is for family or commercial use.

Freshen Up Your Cabinets

However, here are a few simple, affordable ideas to do to your cabinets. One idea is to paint your doors or the entire cabinets a totally different color. Another idea is to replace the pulls and knobs on the doors. One last option is to simply take the doors off and have and open shelf look.

Get Organized – Or Reorganized

A kitchen can easily become a haven for clutter. Some storage areas become catch-all’s for unnecessary stuff. You can start by first thinking about what you actually need. Then try to gain some space back by getting rid of clutter. If that is not enough, find some storage choices that will help you get organized.

“Light” Your Way to a Better Kitchen

It may be time to say goodbye to the old lighting scheme. More and more people are switching to LED lighting. It costs more upfront, but in the long run, it will pay for itself. If you can’t afford to modify your wiring, consider an LED fixture. The cord is already installed. All you need to do is hang it with the included chains, and plug it in.

Shut the Valve On Your Old Faucet

Replacing your kitchen faucet can make a huge improvement. It will give your kitchen a new look, and the water bill savings are sure to manifest themselves in due time. Many people okay with the DIY option for replacing the faucet. However, if you’re not comfortable, it’s also okay to get help.

Unique Countertop Improvements

If your countertops are worn, you could replace them – if your budget allows it. But some have found a way to conceal the small, but obvious damaged spots. For laminate tops, you can get a touch up kit from a countertop manufacturer. Or you could just hide it. Microwave ovens could work well here if your top has the room.

Use An Area Rug For Accent

You could take a long, narrow runner and place it by an opening to another room, on the kitchen floor. If you have your dining table in the kitchen, place the table, chairs and all, over an area rug that will accommodate the arrangement.Be careful when choosing. You’ll want to avoid these mistakes when choosing a rug.

Install a Backsplash

Consider subway tile as a replacement. It’s inexpensive and looks great.This is a very common DIY project. Those who have attempted it have been pleased with the improvement to the kitchen, sand gratified by the experience.

Summary

We hope you found this article helpful and were able to find a good idea to make your kitchen better.

Spotlight on Go Haus – Makeover your Kitchen with Vinyl Plank Flooring

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Jump into a new kitchen-flooring trend this season and watch yourself bake like a professional!


Photo: Home Bunch

Baking doesn’t only start with your skill and tools; it also starts with your surroundings. You are more likely to bake better in a modern, trendy, and organized kitchen then a dark and gloomy one.

This spring, we are so excited to learn more about the latest kitchen trends that have hit the interior design scene. According to new kitchen flooring trends, vinyl plank flooring is gaining steam and looking super sleek and stylish. Thanks to our favorite flooring supplier, GoHaus we are going to round up some of our favorite reasons we love vinyl plank flooring and let you know why you should consider installing this type of flooring at home.

So what is vinyl plank flooring?

Vinyl plank flooring is made to look and feel like real wood without the high price tag. It’s durability and longevity makes it the perfect flooring option in high traffic areas such as your kitchen. Water and humidity prone areas such as your kitchen require something solid and low-maintenance, which makes vinyl plank flooring the perfect option.

Photo: Old Seagrove Homes – Cynthia Rice

Make your home look bigger!

Installing tiles in your kitchen isn’t that trendy anymore and it gives your home a “choppy” look making your home look smaller. If you already have hardwood or vinyl plank in your living room and hallway, installing it in your kitchen will give it a seamless looking, making your home run for miles.

Vinyl plank flooring suites any design style.

The look for hardwood in your kitchen is classic, timeless and durable. There are tons of different luxury vinyl plank flooring colors and finishes that you can choose from, according to your current decorating. Go Haus has a ton of different choices, from waterproof click vinyl flooring options to dark cherry colored vinyl plank floors, light oak, to a grey driftwood type finish. Whatever your current decorating style is, you will surely find something to suite your home.

Photo: Old Seagrove Homes – Cynthia Rice

Consider rolling out a small rug.

Vinyl plank flooring looks beautiful, but it may not be the best surface to stand on for long periods of time. Just like with tile flooring, I would suggest laying down a padded mat near the kitchen stink to help put less stress on yourself while cooking and cleaning dishes.

Vinyl plank flooring is less expensive!

Installing vinyl plank flooring in your kitchen is actually less expensive than tile flooring. Don’t be fooled when going to the store and seeing that tile flooring has a cheaper price. This is the cost for the materials only and not the labor. The labor costs to install tile flooring is much more expensive that vinyl plank flooring, and this definitely adds to the cost.

Your floors will be warmer.

Tile flooring draws heat away and actually makes your floors feel colder, especially in the winter. Tile plank flooring will be warmer on your feet and will make a big difference, especially if you spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

So what are you waiting for? If you are planning a kitchen makeover this spring, first take a look at your floor and ask yourself if you could use a flooring makeover. If you have any before and after pics, post them below. We would love to see you baking up a storm in your new and improved kitchen!

Make Baking Easy with these DIY Kitchen Upgrades

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Now you can bake like a pro with these easy kitchen makeover ideas you can do yourself!

Photo: Homedit.com

If there is one room in modern homes that is central to family life, it is the kitchen. The kitchen is where we prepare, cook and eat the meals that bring the family together. For those of us who find cooking and baking to be more than just a means of refueling, the kitchen needs to be a room that not only looks good but also functions well. Fortunately, many existing kitchens only need some careful and clever upgrading to turn them into a dream.

* WHY UPGRADE AND NOT REMODEL? 


Photo: Tamsynmorgans.blogspot.co.uk

Some might argue that creating a dream kitchen needs to start from scratch, but kitchens are expensive beasts. Even a small galley kitchen built from scratch could cost upwards of $10,000, and the framework of a kitchen is often still more than serviceable, even after a decade or more of use. It makes sense to save money wherever possible. After all, this will leave more in your budget to spend on all those tools, the best oven and other gadgets that will make your baking and cooking more fun, more professional, and more satisfying.

* START WITH STORAGE 

Photo: AnneMakeup.com

When it comes to upgrading your kitchen, the first thing to do is determine which parts of it are still perfectly serviceable. There is a good chance that the elements that are constantly in use and on show are the parts that will be showing their age, such as the flooring and the cabinet frontages. However, if you take the doors off your kitchen cabinets, you will probably find that there is nothing wrong with the carcasses. In that case, all you need to do is replace the doors and handles to get an entirely new look for your kitchen. If this seems like too much expense, consider painting your existing doors. There are plenty of paints that are suitable for kitchen cabinets.

* ADDING STYLE


Photo: Bloglovin’

What you put up at the windows will have a big impact on the look of your kitchen. Curtains are a poor choice for a kitchen as they can present a fire hazard and be unhygienic, collecting dust and retaining odors. Blinds are a better choice because they have a minimal physical presence but can be used to inject color and/or patterns. Venetian blinds are another good option, although these can be a tad annoying as they have a tendency to sway a little in the breeze. If you like the flexibility that Venetian blinds offer but are not a fan of their movement, a far better choice would be to install shutters that are fixed to the window frame. For even greater flexibility, opt for café style window shutters.

* EASY ELECTRICAL ACCESS

While you are getting the cabinetry up to date, you might want to consider enhancing your worktops by installing integrated plug sockets that are situated beneath the worktop and pop up when needed. These can be especially useful when using tools for baking like a handheld whisk and you have run out of wall-mounted plug sockets. You should also consider replacing your old wall-mounted plug sockets with ones that have USB ports built into them. These can really help if you regularly use your tablet to work from online recipes because you won’t need to worry about your tablet’s battery running low while you are in the middle of baking a cake.


Photo: Jadorejcrew Tumblr

* APPLIANCES

If your kitchen upgrade includes buying new appliances, you should give particular consideration into buying which coffee maker and to the oven, especially if you are a regular baker. A single oven may not fulfill all your needs, so think about making room for double ovens instead of one unit that has a main fan oven and a smaller conventional oven. You should also think higher up for wall-mounted ovens instead of going for ovens that are at knee level as it can be a real pain to bend down all the time to see how your cake is rising. Convection ovens are also good choices for bakers as their fans recirculate heat to give cookies and pie crusts a lovely golden color, adding a nice crust to croissants and other pastries.

* LUXURY EXTRAS


Photo: Instaliga.com

If your kitchen enhancement allows it, there are a few items that will make your baking better, like a standalone pastry table or workstation. A pastry table is usually a little lower than a standard worktop so it is easier to roll out pastry, and its cold, solid surface – usually marble – is great for keeping pastry at a manageable temperature.

Improving your kitchen can be achieved relatively inexpensively by working with what you already have, or you can spend a little bit more and invest in some tools and gadgets that will improve your cooking experience.