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THE KITCHENISTA

Expert advice on kitchen design,
trends and innovation

Archive for May, 2010

Fresh Colours for Summer

27.05.2010

If you’re looking to brighten up your kitchen this summer, check out these colourful glass, melamine and ceramic tableware from the Bohemia collection by BHS.

We love the striped dinner plate which costs just £3 and the tea pot is just delightful and a bargain at £10.

Adding some bright accessories is a great and cost effective way to add some colour to the kitchen. Even something as simple as adding a bold tea-towel can be very effective.

For more prices and other great kitchen accessories check out www.bhs.co.uk

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No. 10 Gets a New Kitchen

24.05.2010

Swapping a modern townhouse in Notting Hill for dowdy Downing Street can’t seem too appealing but Samantha Cameron is making the best of it by demanding a kitchen overhaul at No. 10.

The Camerons aren’t happy with the ’60s style’ kitchen and are looking to upgrade to a more minimalist look with plenty of gadgets.

The PM’s current kitchen at the £2 million Notting Hill home has been seen in his web cam chats to the public and features wooden and white units with stainless steel appliances.

In her memoirs, Cherie Blair agrees “My heart sank at the sight of the kitchen. It might have been state of the art in the Sixties but that was then.”

We wonder if we’ll see the Camerons at the Kensington Magnet store…

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Home Enthusiasts Flock to Grand Designs Live

21.05.2010

If you’re passionate about interior design and home improvement as we are, you probably attended this year’s Grand Designs Live event.

This year saw an average 9% rise in the number of visitors per day from 1 – 9 May. The show was reduced from ten to nine days, but still attracted 103,000 visitors.

The organisers increased the exhibition space by 14% making it the biggest show ever.

“This year’s London show was once again a resounding success. Grand Designs Live, London is our flagship show and continues to go from strength to strength, demonstrating even in the wake of a major election, there is still a huge appetite for home improvement, design and self build advice,” said Media 10 managing director Lee Newton.

“We’re thrilled that our visitors keep returning and continue to enjoy the features and content from our exhibitors and sponsors,” he added.

We’re excited about next year’s event already!

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Electrolux Unveils Four Exciting New Products

20.05.2010

Top home appliance brand Electrolux unveiled four exciting new products at this year’s Grand Designs Live event this month.

These innovative new appliances could be commonplace in homes of the future:

Electrolux Naturewash is a concept for a waterless washing machine that uses what are called negative ions to clean or refresh materials. This machine is horizontal in shape and a person would lie or sit on Naturewash to clean or refresh the clothes they are wearing. If you were after more thorough clean, clothes can be placed flat on the washer.

Electrolux Renew is a smart steamer that refreshes and cleans clothes by blasting garments clean with steam blades using information from an infrared scanner and radio frequency identification that collates data from specially designed clothing tags on each piece of clothing. Renew would be about a quarter of the size of a regular washing machine and conserves space and also to bolster its eco credentials is made of recycled aluminium and glass.

Electrolux Water Catcher seeks to tackle possible water shortages, a topic which will of major importance in the future. Water Catcher is a flying appliance that is a rain catcher and water purifier that releases small flying balls in the air to catch raindrops. When the raindrops are collected, the water catcher purifies the water for drinking even adding additives to the water specially tailored to the individual’s health requirements.

The Electrolux Cocoon tackles the problem of how to provide meat and fish in a sustainable way to a growing world population. The Cocoon is designed to prepare genetically engineered and pre-packaged meat and fish dishes, essentially using science to create food, lifting a major burden on the planet by reducing the requirement of intensive farming and fishing.

We hope that these innovative Electrolux appliances make it to the shelves!

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Innovative Kitchen Design… In a Roundabout Way!

14.05.2010

This year the international Design Boom contest attracted 2980 designers from across the world for its ‘Kitchen is the Heart of the Home’ category.

The Winning entry came from three designers from China and is called “Round cupboard assembling that can be rotated and lifted”. Each element is designed to allow objects to come to the user instead of the user moving to them to help save time and space.

Magnet loves this concept and think it would work great in a compact kitchen where space is of the premium!

Here’s what the designers had to say:

(1) Creating the new concept of happy kitchen: Sharing the joy with relatives and friends face-to-face.

(2) Cupboard adopts double-deck rotator structure, can rotate 180°respectively, the three major work center of washing, mixing and cooking can rotate in the front of the operator, let “zero” distance in each workflow; And can lift in certain distance in order to be suitable for the different operator.

(3) Flume has two kinds of outlets: The parallel water outlets of induction type lie on both sides of flume; The holding type faucets with metal hose lie in the middle of two flumes, that can be suitable for operating under various environments.

(4) Abandon the board type, slide rail and hinge of the traditional cupboard completely. This cupboard regards the structure frame of aluminum alloy and the combination of stainless steel pipe as the integer structure. Adopt level bearing, hydraulic pressure system, shutting system to realize lifting of cupboard and wall cupboard.

(5) Integrative structures with operational table-board, flume and kitchen, cupboard distribute icebox, disinfector and oven symmetrically, other borders are closets.

(6) Lower cupboard is drawing structure, can pull out wholly while using, and make the operation simplify. Hang the kitchen ventilator under the top cupboard with function of illumination.

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Get the Top Look for your Worktop

12.05.2010

This year the trend for kitchen worktops is to go extreme – choose either thick or thin to achieve the hottest look this year. For thin worktops either glass or laminate look great, and for thick opt for a timber or stone effect.

Try the following tips to achieve a stunning look:

  • Mix thick and thin worktops for extra impact e.g. Magnet’s Madison range. This further personalises the kitchen design and creates a unique on-trend look.
  • Wrap thicker panels around kitchen units to achieve a sleek contemporary finish as seen in Magnet’s Cubista Oak range
  • Using a mixture of worktop materials can add a dramatic effect in the kitchen e.g. Magnet’s Cubista Walnut range.

New technology means that thicker worktops and wrapping panels are available at the more budget end of the market and are now lighter and easier to fit.

When buying a kitchen, always invest as much money as possible in a good quality worktop as it is the area that gets viewed the most.

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Guest Post by Beautiful Kitchens’ Ysanne Brooks

07.05.2010

One of the things I love most about editing Beautiful Kitchens is getting the chance to see designs that have been inspired by the magazine and the companies we feature. I love it when I get an email or a letter with images of a kitchen that has been put together with the help of the magazine.

I know to my cost (I’m planning a new kitchen myself at the moment) how confusing it can be and how much planning it requires to bring the whole thing together, so if you’re in the middle of a project at the moment, I feel your pain!

My current dilemma is how many drawers and how many cupboards. Having seen how much more you can squeeze into a design using drawers rather than traditional shelves my hoarding heart is moving towards more drawers… (follow how I get on at www.beautifulkitchens.wordpress.com).

Whether you’re doing the whole thing yourself or using the services of designers and planner there are so many choices to be made it can be a minefield.

Luckily, for one couple that wrote to me recently some of those choices had been taken care of as they found themselves the winners of a Beautiful Kitchens appliance competition. With their kitchen project well under way and their extension already built they were just planning their Haywood Magnet kitchen when they got the good news.

I’m sure you’ll agree that the finished design by Magnet’s branch in Sale, Cheshire, looks stunning (you can see the whole kitchen in our June issue on sale now.) I particularly like how they’ve made a real feature of the island by creating a border in the flooring to ‘frame’ it. I’m a big fan of built-in ovens too – it’s much easier to make sure you’re not burning that cake when you don’t have to bend to peer into the oven. It just goes to show that you don’t have to be flash to have a ‘wow’ kitchen.

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A Watched Kettle Never Boils

04.05.2010

I don’t know about you, but I love a good cup of tea. People always give me strange looks when I ask for “Strong but milky”. It’s not an oxymoron, it means stew the tea bag and then add lots of milk.

But I have to admit, when I stand watching the kettle slowly boil, I ask myself “how much of my life is wasted waiting for the kettle to boil?”

I haven’t done the maths and I don’t intend to.

Fortunately, the answer to all my prayers is here, the Insinkerator.

The Insinkerator hot water tap provides instant hot filtered water straight from the tap at 98 degrees, perfect for making tea, coffee, or for filling a pan ready to boil some veg.

And if you’ve got friends over, the 2.5 litre stainless steel tank will deliver 100 cups of filtered water per hour and the whole system fits neatly under the sink so you wouldn’t even know it was there.

It’s highly energy efficient and economical so it will also help you save time and money.

These kitchen appliances plus other time-saving gadgets are available through Magnet.

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