Green Home!

Archive for the ‘Kitchen’ Category

The finishing touches to your bathroom or kitchen renovation project is the selection of your tap and should be given the same consideration when purchasing other bathroom furniture. Since mixer taps now come in a wide variety of styles and finishes to incorporate the latest in technology, choosing the right taps either for the bath, shower, kitchen or basin mixer taps can add charisma to any room. Whether you are trying to achieve an ultra modern or a traditional look choosing a design that is relevant to your taste and will be significant to the rest of room creates both harmony and balance.

A Modern or Traditional Tap

What defines beauty and elegance in today’s selection of bathroom and kitchen mixer taps are the ultra modern sleek architectural designs. From curvaceous to modular geometric styles or the combination of both in brilliant chrome finishes can create a statement of authenticity and enhance the atmosphere and mood of your design. The array of choices out in the marketplace can be somewhat baffling, ranging from revolutionary and ornate Laser bathroom basin taps in tubular designs that are triggered by touch for a distinctive contemporary appeal. Traditional cross head taps have been have been brought up-to-date into the 21st century with a more angular construction and is the perfect accent to adorn any basin or bath, whatever your design needs are always go with a style that is pleasing to you and fits into the existing design of your room.

Looking for a tap that is both practical and functional also plays a role in the selection process, mixer taps are the ideal solution for the bathroom or kitchen available in single or dual lever controls providing a consistent water temperature and flow. Subtle and elegant traditional bath and shower mixers are a distinguished way in trying to emulate a bygone era, with ceramic accents these types of mixer taps are a favored choice for making a design statement.

Designer Taps

While the scope of kitchen remodeling is on a much grander scale, choosing the right style of tap should be of the same deliberation as in the bathroom. If the kitchen incorporates stainless steel appliances and other modern furnishings a traditional style tap would create an unbalanced look. Opting to go for a trendy minimalist mixer tap design would be more preferable for a complete modern ambiance. On the other hand if your kitchen has a country rustic appearance, traditional styles such as the Dual-Flow High Bridge sink mixer tap or Bib Tap style that can add a genuine touch of charm in a traditional setting.

With stainless steel kitchen sinks still leading the way in popularity and versatility, there is a broad range of complementary taps in metallic and colored finishes to co-ordinate with your design motif and to co-inside with your kitchen accessories. Deciding whether you want a dual-flow tap which provides independent hot and cold water flow or a single lever taps which combines hot and cold water temperatures with one adjustment at the initial design stage will help ease and narrow the selection process as well as avoiding costly mistakes.

Written by Shelley Murphy on behalf of www.victoriaplumb.com an online retailer of bathroom furniture, steam showers, shower enclosures, whirlpool spa baths and bath related products serving the United Kingdom.

When I was growing up as a child in the sixties, kitchens were always a hidden affair. If it was not separated by a wall from the other rooms in the house, then a divider had to be installed to hide it from the rest of the world. Inviting friends over to the kitchen to show off your new kitchen island or cooktop was not the thing to be done.

But not anymore. The kitchen of my adult years has now become the focal point of the house and the people who live in it. There is still the obligatory lounge room to receive guests but it is now just a little room on the way to the grand, open space of kitchen, family and rumpus rooms combined.

This is where most families now gather after a long days work – the parents preparing the family meal while the children (if they are in their schoolyears) do their homework in the family dining table or (if they are already young adults), sit and chatter around the breakfast nook or family room couch. Kitchens now exude warmth and welcome helped by the oak or teak oil-finished kitchen cabinets that usually line the kitchen walls, as well as mahogany or red cedar curio cabinets housing revered family treasures such as photos and bowling trophies.

I have long used my kitchen as my lounge – one of the rooms in the house that I consider most comfortable, functional, tribal and welcoming . My husband and I and anyone of my kids who occasionally fancy themselves as the new Jamie Oliver can showcase our gourmet talents as we gracefully move around the red and brown speckled granite kitchen island or benchtop to the glistening stainless steel sink to the brown flattened glow of the ceramic cooktop. All these in view of the rest of the family, and often times friends and guests who we show in straight to the kitchen/family/dining room area to sit in our beloved dark aubergine brown no-nonsense, yet sumptuous and very practical “Virginia” sofa.

Gone are the days when you felt you needed to detain your guests in the comfort of the Italian velvet sofa in the lounge while you excuse yourself and slave away in the dark, hot and steamy recesses of the kitchen preparing their food. Now there is no shame or cringe to invite friends over to the kitchen because kitchens have become the hub of family life and social entertaining. Architects, home builders and appliance manufacturers have all taken heed of the new trend and have made kitchens not only functional and efficient but also overwhelmingly stylish. Even whitegoods now come in different colors of stainless steel, earthy brown, luminous orange or buttercup yellow to suit everyone’s desire and taste.

Friends are invited to hover around stylish marble-topped kitchen islands as they continue with their socialising, talking about nothing and maybe even lending a hand in washing the vegetables and peeling the potatoes. Even wine bars are now in the domain of the kitchen (not the basement or the lounge) as friends sit down and relax in the midst of kitchens sipping their favorite red or white.

Even when alone, my kitchen has always been a delight and a quiet refuge from the hustle and bustle of the outside world. When I wake up in the morning, I find no greater joy than seeing the sun streaming through the beige voile curtains of the northeast facing kitchen window into the deep purple flowered african violets and tall and lanky chinese fortune plants that brighten up the farthest end of my granite kitchen benchtop. And when I come home from work in the evening, I open the very same northeast facing kitchen window to be greeted with the sweet scent of the orange jasmines that line the backyard fence.

My kitchen has certainly come a long way from its hiding place in the sixties and I intend to enjoy it and keep it that way for a long, long time more to come.