Feng Shui tips for your kitchen

Here’s what you can do, according to Feng Shui, to ensure that your Kitchen is positive and lends out vibes of health and happiness to people of the house. In order to promote positivity in your kitchen, add an element of wood in your kitchen. According to Feng Shui, adding wood provides a harmonious balance between otherwise incompatible water and fire.


You should also add some green in your kitchen by painting one of the kitchen walls green. Green colour helps in regulation of energy and gives a fresher appeal to the area. Add some green crockery, a green painting, a green plant…if you do not want to paint the kitchen walls green.


Make sure that your kitchen area is used only for preparing and cooking food. Place the oven at the focal point of the kitchen. Avoid using square designs or angular designs, in general..in your kitchen to prevent any restriction in the free flow of energy. Sharp angular designs of kitchen furnishing and appliances restrict positive energy flow in the kitchen. If positive energy is not flowing in the kitchen, we may find it difficult to digest food.


Ensure that there are no furniture items that point to 90 degrees straight, inside your kitchen. Sharp 90 degree angles disrupt the flow of energy. Incase you have designer stands and things that point to 90 degrees, you should hide the angle. Basket full of plants, herbs, fruits is a good way to lessen the effect of the disturbing angle, according to Feng Shui.


Also, according to Feng Shui, it is not good and desirable if your kitchen is visible from the front door! Keep the kitchen door shut if you can’t remodel your home. 

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Keep the dining area natural and colourful

While browsing through an e-catalogue, I came across this tastefully done dining area. I couldn’t help but appreciate the beauty that a minimalist décor did to their dining room. The owner of the house chose yellow colour and its shade to play with on the walls. Although the tones are not starkly different from one another, you can make out warm colours from the brighter ones. Yellow moss, raosted mustard and bianco have been used in this particular picture and the furniture has been kept dark oak with white seats and cushions. A combination of yellow and brown gives a warm, earthy feeling to the area, a rather welcoming ambience. Yellow is the colour of positivity and brown exudes natural elegance. The white rectangular lamps hanging from the roof add drama to the space, however not overdoing it. A hint of green in form of vase does good to add vitality to a place where the family will get together for meals. 

I
f you think that the picture lacks colour, think again. The cabinets on the right give enough options for splashing the room with myriad colours if you grow bored of yellow and brown. If you keep a colourful fruit basket in the centre of the table, you’ll have a dash of colour right where you are eating. If you are the funky types, then you might want to jazz up the wall behind the dining table with pictures of family or artwork by kids. However, refrain from overdoing it as too much colour will distract the calm and soothing ambience. It is a dining room after all, a place where you want your sense to calm down to the healing effect of healthy meals!

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GRANITE KITCHEN COUNTER TOPS

There are a variety of options available for countertops for kitchen. You can choose from wood, marble, granite etc. as per your taste and colour requirement in your kitchen. Wooden countertops were very common in past years, however, nowadays; granite and marble countertops are more desirable as they are easier to take care of.

There are nevertheless some of the issues with marble and granite slates. For instance, if sometime the slate gets broken, then you are required to replace the entire slate. However in case of granite tiles, the tiles are cheaper. These granite tiles are available in many colours and patterns. The size of these tiles are small and you can always mix and match different tiles to form a pattern to make your kitchen countertops appealing.

Granite tiles are resistant to heat and are easy to maintain. If any one of the tiles is broken then you do not need to rebuild the complete countertop. You can just replace the damaged tile. Replacing one tile will not be costly to your pocket unlikely with granite or marble slate.

Granite tiles are scratch proof. Also, these tiles do not soak any material due to which they are more hygienic to use in the kitchen. They can be cleaned easily using wet cloth, soapy water or any cleaning agent. These are durable options for kitchen countertops.

You can also experiment with cabinet options in your kitchen. The colour of your cabinet can be complimented with the walls of your kitchen. You can choose from the Dulux trends, Dulux colour inspiration, the colours of your choice. Match your wall colours and kitchen countertops, cabinets, lighting, the colour of your refrigerator, curtains, window frames etc. in your kitchen and let it be a coordinated area with bright and colourful décor!

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CABINET OPTIONS FOR YOUR HOME

Cabinets can really affect the look of any room. You have to experiment with the look, material and colour of cabinets you use in order to give your home a fresh touch. There are a number of options depending on your requirement, taste, your budget, your room décor etc, that you can choose from! 

You can choose from stainless steel, corian, parapan, glass etc as per your taste and availability of the material. 

Stainless Steel is industrial material and is favourable to make appliances. Corian is a solid surface resin material mostly used to make countertops. It is silky and matte finish. The doors, drawer fronts, appliance panels, countertop, and slat wall system are all manufactured from Corian. 

Parapan is a solid surface used to manufacture cabinetry and is an acrylic based material and is extremely high gloss shine. It comes in an extremely varied array of colours! Aluminum framed glass doors can also be used to give your home a nice and modern look. Mixing glass with wood and warm finishes is a very innovative option for cabinets! 

Blackened Steel finish fridge panels, oven cabinets etc are good options to give a normal kitchen, a fresh look. The dark wood tone and textural effect renders this material a very unique look. 

Wood is very popular, still, to make kitchen cabinets and amongst the many types of lumber used to make kitchen cabinets, maple remains the favourite option. You can choose from cherry, hickory, oak and pine. Natural tones and colour tinted wooden cabinets look amazing! 

Melamine can be used for kitchen cabinets and is available in many different colors and hues and different surface finishes. PVC is a durable material made up of wood fibres covered with a sheet of PVC which is said to be tougher than both laminates and melamine. Laquered cabinets are good to give your kitchen an ultra modern or even the oriental look. Store in style!

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DECORATING YOUR IDEAL KITCHEN

Kitchen becomes an important area of the house as it is a space for family sharing. A family sits over and shares the normal meals, coffee jokes or celebrations with food at occasions big and small. Therefore, you need to put an extra effort into decorating your kitchen by experimenting with styles, techniques, paints, storage area etc. Therefore, it is immensely important to decorate your kitchen in a way which adds to the warmth and feeling of ‘home’ to it and also makes it a refreshing and creative place to be in!

Kitchen space is such a stocked and full area of the house that it is very difficult to give it an organized look and be able to give a feeling of space to make it look beautiful and large. A modular kitchen thus becomes a popular option to increase the section wise storage area in the kitchen and give the kitchen a modern touch, just like other areas of the house. Using light colored cabinets with glass doors and having deeper counters that can accommodate more appliances and increase work space.

Choosing an efficient kitchen shape to ensure easy movement and enough space for sink; counter for food preparation, cutting and chopping; and cooking area is very important. The most popular shapes are galley kitchens, two-way galley kitchens, L-shaped kitchens and U-shaped kitchens.

Choosing a combination or texture paint for the kitchen area is a good idea as it gives creative edge to a conventional cooking space. Instead of painting every wall in the kitchen, wall decals can be used, with bright colors. Having the chimney area painted with plastic emulsion paint is a good idea as it provides a matt finish and is easy to clean. Flowers on fridge, microwave or some empty spaces will give positive energy to the kitchen. The dustbin should be kept in a separate area under the dishwashing area in a cabinet, so that your kitchen surrounding doesn't lead to foul smell. Proper ventilation points and daylight should be kept in mind while designing a kitchen as it ensures a feeling of life and freshness in the area. Bright flooring tiles can be used in the kitchen to give it a cheerful look and feel.

Experimenting with theme based décor for the kitchen, colourful combination paints, texture paints for a wall or two, shape of the kitchen, storage ideas etc provides an edge to your kitchen as well gives you a rejuvenating feel as you spend time in your dream kitchen!! Get started and build your ideal kitchen to suit your personality and have fun even as you do mundane work!!

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