Wednesday 25 July 2018

Kitchen Ideas: Inside, Overhead And Down Below


The kitchen is where you do a lot of manual labour. Okay, it's not really labour, but it's a place where you’re using a tool, and moving things around all the time. Think about a simple task of chopping garlic. You need to open your fridge or cabinet, get out the garlic, shut the door, open a drawer, get out a knife, shut the drawer, grab a chopping board and then you can cut up the garlic. Doesn’t seem like much, but you’re constantly moving, looking around for things, moving pots and pans out of the way, rummaging through piles of cutlery and opening and closing doors. You don’t have this kind of rapid activity anywhere else inside the home. The only thing that beats the kitchen for a hive of activity is perhaps the shed outside where you do DIY projects. So surely your kitchen should have a practical design that makes life easier and quicker.



Inside internal lighting

When we open the fridge and the microwave, a little light turns on to show us what we’re doing, especially in the dark. None of those items are dangerous though. But the cabinets and drawers are potentially hazardous. Cabinets are full of wine glasses and ceramic plates, and drawers are filled with knives and forks. If you wouldn’t venture into the fridge or microwave in the pitch black, then why do you allow cabinets and drawers to do so? You should, therefore, fit LED lights to the insides, and have them triggered to turn on when a door or handle is pulled to open.


Off the rack

Over the years various pots and pans will be collected. Sometimes you just want to buy a new type even though the one you have already worked. But the new one works better right? Where do all these kitchen utensils go when they’re still fit for purpose but usurped by another item? They get stuffed into drawers and forgotten about. Until one day you actually need them and then you need to move all the other stuff out of the way, and then get to it. We’ve all heard about kitchen lighting over the island, but why not fit an overhead rack? You can hand you spatulas, pots, sieves, frying pans and more. The racks are designed to be strong and hold a lot of weight, so they’re safe and practical.

360 degrees washing

If you call taps that can be moved 360 degrees from the base to have the fixed tap move around practical, you need to think again. Maybe once they were modern but now they’re a dying breed of a relic. Pull out spray taps are the true 360 degree kings of washing. Get deep into pasta sauce stained pots, and drench a large plate all over without having to move the plate itself. You have the basic spring style or the sophisticated smooth stem pull outs that are less resistant. They make clean so much easier than conventional taps.

More households have got to put lighting in their cupboards. Opening the doors late at night to find something you need, doesn’t need to be a squinting test anyone. Pull out taps are stable in their resting position and flexible when you need to move the tap water closer to a tight spot.

This is a collaborative post.