What Do You Need?

It may seem incredibly basic, but you’d be surprised at the number of new home owners that design their kitchen only to find out that they haven’t left enough room for all of the appliances that they want. Take the time to map out what appliances you will really use in your new kitchen. You’ll need the two essentials: a range and a refrigerator. Beyond the essentials, your choices are vast. From microwaves to wine coolers; from dishwashers to counter top grills, you can find dozens of appliances designed to make your life easier.

Style

Do you want a traditional, homey kitchen or a more sleek and modern one? You can find appliances that will suit your style, no matter what that style is! Fitted or built-in appliances, as the name suggests, fit into your cabinetry, giving your kitchen a seamless look. Free-standing or portable appliances are easily moved should you decide to rearrange your kitchen in the future.

Colour

The most popular colours for appliances are by far white, black and stainless steel. No matter what colour you prefer, purchasing all of your appliances in the same colour will give your kitchen a pulled together look. Stainless steel tends to give kitchens a modern look while black and white can lend themselves to all manner of kitchen styles.

Remember that stainless steel and black appliances will cost more money than the same style in a white or bisque finish. If you trust yourself with a can of paint, home improvement stores sell special appliance paint that can transform white appliances into virtually any colour you desire. This may be an option for those wanting higher-end appliances with the not so high cost.

Budget Concerns

You can easily spend tens of thousands of dollars on appliances for your kitchen. If you choose to outfit your kitchen with the latest in appliance design, you should expect to pay anywhere from $1,500 to $5,000 for each appliance. If you are on a tighter budget, consider buying appliances without some of the bells and whistles or choosing the appliance that is the most important to you and splurging on that one.

For instance, if you do a lot of cooking and baking, you may want to concentrate your budget on a top-of-the-line range. If you have a large family, you may want to buy a refrigerator with several compartments, LED lighting and an in-door water and ice dispenser. Decide on a budget for your appliances and then sit down and decide which appliances are the most important to you and how you will divvy your budget among them.

When designing your new kitchen, don’t forget to consider your appliances. From colour to style to budget, there are a number of things to think about when choosing appliances for your kitchen. Do your research, shop around for the best price and you’ll soon have the kitchen of your dreams.

Author’s Bio

Marcia Read is a freelance blogger for Refrigerator Headquarters, a site that provides loads of helpful reviews of refrigerators such as GE refrigerators to help you make a more informed purchase.

What Kind of Sponge to Use

While a synthetic sponge (the kind you clean your house with) can be used, a natural, sea sponge usually provides the most attractive patterns. Sea sponges can be purchase at most hardware stores and come in a variety of sizes and types. You can even get a few to bring a little more variety to your sponge painting project.

Paints to Use

While you can sponge paint with any kind of paint, glaze paints are recommended. Glaze paints are a great way to bring out subtle details in your existing base colour or to highlight other design elements of a room. There are literally thousands of glaze colours that can be used. You can go with a very thin coat of glaze for subtle looks, or get daring and try thicker, or varied colours of glazed coats.

Technique

To get a feel for sponge painting you can use the glaze on a piece of poster board or paper. Experiment with the amount of paint used, the positioning of the sponge, and pressure applied. Each of these will have an effect on how the final job will look. Once you have your technique down, start on the walls and have fun.

Sponge painting is fast and easy to do. You don’t need a lot of paint and the sponges are inexpensive. Sponge painting a living room is a nice weekend project. Once you see the final results, you may want to tackle some of your other rooms. Sponge painting also has the added benefit of covering up wall imperfections. You’ll be stunned when you see what a great look this painting technique achieves.

Get Ideas At The Fabric Store

The first thing you should do is put the project in the back of your mind, as much as you can. Go to the fabric store with no preconceived notions. Don’t look for ideas, let the ideas find you. Begin browsing and see what catches your eye. You can even cloak your efforts by telling yourself that you are shopping for a fabric for a new pillowcase, or some smaller project. Let your subconscious work with the surroundings of the store until you find something that makes you say, “Aha!”

When a particular colour or pattern catches your, eye ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I like the pattern, the texture, or the colours?
2. Where would I use this idea – furniture, curtains, paint, etc?
3. Can I build a theme around this idea?

After you have answered those questions, write down the answers. You may want to buy a small piece of the fabric to keep you motivated. Or, if you’ve decided to use that fabric for throw rugs or furniture coverings, go ahead and buy what you need. Then head to the hardware store and get paints and any extras that you need to get moving. Don’t sit around and mull over your decision, just run with the creative momentum. Start your work and incorporate your new ideas. You are guaranteed to have a room with a fresh, interesting design. Best of all, you will have beat the cursed ‘designer’s block’.

• Red: Maintaining health, strength, physical energy, sex, passion, courage, protection. This colour is widely used in defensive magic. It is the colour of the element of fire. Red is associated with blood (and thus, life and death), birth, volcanoes, and intense emotions.
• Pink: Love, friendship, compassion, relaxation. Pink is symbolic of calm emotions and of emotional unions. It’s less powerful then red.
• Orange: The colour of general attraction and energy. Orange is a lesser aspect of red.
• Yellow: Intellect, confidence, divination, communication, eloquence, travel, movement. Yellow is the colour of the element of Air and is the colour of royalty.
• Green: Money, prosperity, employment, fertility, healing, growth. Green is the colour of the element of the Earth and symbolizes our planet’s fertility (it’s the colour of chlorophyll) as well as life itself.
• Blue: Healing, peace, patience, happiness. Blue is the colour of the element of Water. It is a symbol of the ocean, sleep, twilight, and the sky.
• Purple: Power, healing severe disease, spirituality, meditation, religion. Purple was once a European symbol of royalty; today it symbolizes the divine.
• White: Protection, purification, all purposes. It is the Symbol of the Moon, freshness, snow, cold, and potential. Adds to spiritual strength, breaks curses or crossed conditions, represents faith, truth and sincerity.
• Black: Banishing negativity, absorbing negativity. It symbolizes outer space and the universe. Black is the absence of colours. In some cultures, black represented fertility (as in quite fruitful black earth); in others, wisdom. In our culture it has been curiously linked with evil, due to religious associations.
• Brown: Animals. Brown represents soil and, to a lesser degree, fertility of the Earth.

So what is the best colour for your home? Here is your chance to express your own taste and style and see which colours work within your life!

Have you ever tried looking at the small details in your house? A lot of factors should be considered when choosing the kind of colours that you need in your home. Depending on what you want to focus on, you can select various colours to be painted on your walls, ceilings, windows, columns, dividers and decks. However, take note that using too many colours can be distracting to the eyes. Most interior designers will tell you to stick to one colour family when painting your house. Be aware of using contrasting colours that can clash the look of your house. If you think blue is perfect for you, try using lighter or darker tone of blue for an accent instead of having a completely opposite, dissimilar colour.

The right home colour for you does not necessarily go by any rules. The bottom line is that you can express your taste and personality through these colours.