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Everyone knows the backsplash is an important element in kitchen design. What you may not know is that, considering its high degree of visual impact, tiling a backsplash is surprisingly easy for DIYers. Before you start, here are five points to consider:
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Banquettes have a nostalgic charm about them, whether you sat at one in your grandmother’s kitchen or you shared a diner booth with friends in college. But is this distinctive seating right for your home?
For insight, we reached out to kitchen and bath designer Susan Klimala, CKD – CBD and owner of The Kitchen Studio in Glen Ellyn, IL. “Banquettes allow for a cozy, intimate dining experience with a casual feel, but they’re not for everyone,” says Susan, who has designed numerous banquettes, including one in her own kitchen. She cites several good reasons to consider a kitchen banquette.
Related: Trending Now: Banquette Seating
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Thinking about giving your dated kitchen a new appearance? Fortunately, there is a cost-effective alternative to replacing your cabinets completely—you can reface them. Refacing is a quick and relatively inexpensive way to achieve a refreshed aesthetic with minimal disruption to your kitchen and daily life.
The sleek look of stainless steel lends sophistication to any kitchen. But keeping those surfaces gleaming takes care and some old-fashioned elbow grease.
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Listen to BOB VILA ON CLEANING STAINLESS STEEL or read the text below:
A range hood can blend quietly into your kitchen cabinetry or make a dramatic architectural statement. But whether it’s a wallflower or a showstopper, your range hood still needs to do its job, which is to get rid of cooking odors, heat, and grease. Here’s how to make sure your next range hood has what it takes.
Photo: thecopperworks.com
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Listen to BOB VILA ON RANGE HOODS or read the text below:
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Under-cabinet lighting can vastly improve the workability and appearance of your kitchen.
For starters, under-cabinet lighting facilitates cooking tasks, such as chopping veggies or reading from a recipe book. Aesthetically, it helps balance the room’s ambient light, eliminating shadows in parts of the kitchen that would otherwise be dark.
An added convenience is that under-cabinet lighting can serve as a nightlight if equipped with a dimmer.
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If you’ve ever designed or remodeled a kitchen, you know there are an overwhelming number of decisions to make with regard to cabinets. Keep the old, or buy new? Reface or repaint? Adjustable or fixed shelves? Even once you’ve made what may have seemed like a million decisions, there’s still one more consideration: the hardware.
Slideshow: Cabinet Hardware: 10 Styles to Invigorate Your Kitchen
Formica's 100th Anniversary Collection
Formica, the colorful laminate used in American homes for generations, turns 100 this year.
It was back in 1913 that Daniel J. O’Conor, a young research engineer at Westinghouse Electric, first discovered that layers of resin-coated fabric, when pressed together, made a laminate that worked well as an electrical insulator.
O’Conor partnered with fellow Westinghouse associate Herbert A. Faber to start a new business, Formica, named for the insulating properties of the new material that acted as a substitute “for mica,” a mineral often used for electrical insulation.
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Now that the new year is in full swing, it would be easy to lose the resolve with which we started 2013. But let’s keep up the momentum and train our thoughts (within reason) on cultivating better versions of ourselves… and our kitchens.
Few things are more satisfying than having a place for everything and keeping everything in its place. Right now—before it suddenly becomes 2014—revolutionize life in the busiest room of your house with these simple kitchen organization tips.
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Your kitchen gets a lot of use. So it doesn’t take long to begin seeing signs of wear and tear on wood cabinets. Soon you may decide that some changes or updates are needed. And sometimes the simplest remedies are the best—and the most budget-friendly, too.
If your stained or painted kitchen cabinets are in need of a facelift, you can give them a fresh new appearance with only a minimal investment in tools and materials.
