Five simple ways to freshen up your kitchen

August 11th, 2014

Appliance Talk Small Appliances

Want to give your kitchen a bit of a facelift, but don’t have the spare cash handy for a complete renovation?

Refreshing your kitchen’s look and feel doesn’t have to break the bank – here are five simple ways to give it a great new look, without tearing it down and starting anew:

Reduce your clutter

A lived-in kitchen may be a loved kitchen, but let’s face facts – it’s also a messy kitchen.

Picking up and putting away all of the bottles, dishes and other miscellany found about the place is one thing, but what if you find yourself running low on cupboard space for all of those single-use cooking appliances, like the rice cooker, slow cooker or pressure cooker?

It might be worth swapping out these various small appliances for a single multi-purpose appliance such as the Tefal Cook4Me Multi Cooker. Not only can something like this do all of their jobs and more, but it can also serve as an attractive talking point for your kitchen.

Match or Mix your colours

It’s amazing what a little colour can do in a kitchen:

But while coloured ovens, fridges and dishwashers are certainly worth thinking about as part of a renovation or major kitchen update, they can be rather hefty investments.

A few colourful small appliances, such as kettles, toasters, and food mixers, can have just as significant an impact on your kitchen’s look and feel as a large appliance.  Plus, they’re often pretty great little units, too!

The easiest way to give your kitchen a consistent appearance is to match multiple appliances of a single colour.  However, if you’re  a student of colour theory, you can try mixing it up with various different complementary or contrasting colours to reproduce a particular look and feel. Take care though, as mismatching your colurs can lead to clashing.

Update your microwave

You’d be surprised by how large an impact something as small and simple as a microwave can have on your kitchen’s appearance.

If you’re still using that grubby old plastic thing you first picked up secondhand when you moved out of home, it may be time to think about an upgrade.  Sure, it still works, but is it really doing much for your kitchen?

When choosing a new microwave (or any new kitchen appliance, for that matter), consistency is the key. If you’ve already got a stainless steel oven, fridge and/or dishwasher, a stainless steel finish on your microwave will likely look best.  Use your common sense.

Plus, a brand-new microwave might surprise you with how far the technology has progressed in recent years – one touch cooking, sensor defrosting and more could be yours!

Keep things clean

Much to my mother’s regret, I’m not a tidy person. If that sounds like you too, there are ways to overcome this shortcoming.

Something like a Bissell steam mop can give even the grottiest kitchen tiles a hygenic shine, with a fraction of the effort.

Though it does require a small amount of effort. Sorry guys.

You may also want to clean your nice appliances, such as your fridge (which is simple to clean and organise), oven (which you can clean with steam), rangehood (which is often overlooked) or dishwasher, (which you can clean without chemicals) to keep them sparkling.

Even if they’re showing their age, they can still look their very best, with just a bit of sparkling shine.

Add something fun!

Okay, so you’ve exchanged your non-essential cooking appliances for a multi-function device, and matched the colours of your remaining small appliances. You’ve upgraded your microwave to stand proudly alongside your major cooking appliances, which you’ve also given a bit of clean-up.

Time something FUN!

After all, the kitchen is a living space, and shouldn’t be purely functional at all times.  You deserve a LITTLE bit of indulgence!

If coffee is your indugence of choice, then think about adding a coffee machine to your kitchen.  Many models are one-touch affairs that don’t require barista experience to produce great drinks, and the pre-measured pods used in Nespresso machines guarantee consistently great coffee.

Plus, they can look quite classy when well-positioned in the kitchen!

If good health is more your thing (not that coffee is precisely unhealthy), a cold press juicer such as the Oscar Neo could be just right.

These great-looking appliances can extract more nutrients when juicing fruits and vegetables, and can even be used to crush nuts, mix dough and make noodles!

Whatever you choose, make sure that it’s something you’re going to enjoy using and looking at regularly, or else you may end up just restarting the cluttering cycle anew…

Your turn:

How would you like to update your kitchen?  Do you have any little tips to share?