Revelion 2010

Kitchen Remodeling Kitchen Zones

Kitchen Zones:

Food Prep              Cooking               Baking                  Cleaning

Kitchen Zone One: Food Prep
The food prep zone is the area of the kitchen where you slice and dice. If your kitchen is spacious enough to accommodate an island cabinet, the food prep zone would be well placed there. It’s helpful to include another sink for rinsing fruits and vegetables, as well as including a refrigerator drawer for milk and eggs if your main refrigerator isn’t easily accessible.

In your food prep zone include:
Pullouts
Drawer for knives
Drawers for mixing, measuring and serving items
Pullout trash center

Kitchen Zone Two: Baking Zone
This area is built for fun! The baking zone of the kitchen is where cookies, breads, and casseroles come to life. Aside from the appropriate countertop space and material (marble slabs work best for rolling dough), you’ll need to keep a number of your kitchen’s supplies within easy reach.

Include:
Drawers for storing small items like cookie cutters
Storage Bins for flour and sugar
Pull Out Tray divider for baking sheets and pizza pans
Drop down cookbook rack
Drawers for rolling pins, measuring cups, and teaspoons
Easy-to-reach cabinet space for heavy casserole dishes and mixing bowls
Storage for oven mitts, pot holders, and trivets
Divided utensil storage for spatulas and wooden spoons
Pop-up stand for your mixer

Kitchen Zone Three: Cooking Zone
The cooking zone is always a hot place to be. The kitchen’s cooking zone is where fire enters the picture. Centered around the range or cook top, this is the spot where stir-fry, spaghetti, and sauces and steaks  sizzle. You may want to keep your microwave and toaster oven here as well.

Many solid and engineered floors can be laid using wood flooring adhesive. . There are two main techniques for installing using adhesive, which will both be explained. Please remember that solid floors should always be glued down, not using the floating method.

Floating Floor Method

Gluing the tongues and grooves of the floor together does the floating floor method of fixing the wooden floor. This creates a new floor, which is “floating” over the original floor. Engineered floors can be floated over any solid sub floor and it is the preferred method for laying engineered floors.

It is a good option when the sub floor moisture content is unknown, because a damp proof membrane can be used between the floor and sub-floor to prevent moisture rising into the new flooring. When floating a floor, an underlay must be used to cancel the effect of any echo and also provide a leveling effect to the sub-floor.

This echo is caused by the two hard surfaces together which have a space between them. The noise echoes in this void. The purpose of underlay is to prevent any echo, as the two hard surfaces will not be adjacent with each other. The choice of underlay is huge for use when floating the floor all of which are adequate.

A good quality underlay is advised, as this ensures there is less sound echo from foot traffic. Generally the denser an underlay the less noise!

To float the floor:

Suppliers of floor coatings to businesses and do-it-yourself home owners are deploying real-time technical phone support in order to solve the problem of improper installation.

The trick to creating a quality floor coating is getting the coating to adhere to the substrate surface with out chipping, peeling, or lifting. The key is preparation of the floor surface. But good surface preparation is a direct function of the experience and training of the applicator. Technical help lines now provide the business maintenance crews and homeowner the necessary on-the-job training and factory direct experience by phone. This kind of personal support greatly enhances the custom-built kits that suppliers are providing to homeowners.

Highly chemical- and wear-resistant, epoxy coatings have been used on concrete floors for decades in the industrial arena. These coated floors are easy to maintain with enhanced beauty and reduced wear. Unfortunately, these industrial grade coatings are generally not placed on the shelves of hardware stores and big box retailers due to liability concerns. In addition, store clerks are usually unable to provide the needed guidance for proper application of these industrial grade products.

One epoxy coating manufacture that is leading the way on this type of support is Durall Industrial Flooring of Minneapolis, MN. Durall enables individuals and project managers to obtain free, job-specific quotes on materials as well as nationwide turnkey installations by completing a simple questionnaire at www.concrete-floor-coatings.com.

For photo examples and more detail, visit www.concrete-floor-coatings.com

For more information, contact Harvey Chichester at harvey@concrete-floor-coatings.com

Phone: 1-800-466-8910 or 952-888-1488 (24/7)

Interior designers sometimes get asked about the hottest colour trends. And this season, we have a confession to make: white is the new black! White interior designs are hip and trendy once again, and in particular those sterile white kitchens are now all the rage. This is particularly true in London, where the dull and gloomy skies can make clients cry out for a touch of bright white interior design freshness.

When you walk into a beautiful white kitchen designed by a top London Interior Designer, what do you feel? Many of us are overwhelmed with all sorts of emotions. We feel carefree and almost as if we are floating on air. The pervasive whiteness brings to mind age-old simplicity, sanitary freshness, contemporary impact, and a roomy, playful outlook. The interior designer will use the white kitchen as a philosophy to evoke a sentiment of purity for food preparation and to empower boundless chef-inspired inspiration.

Many interior design consultancies use white as a fabulous background for the presentation of magical colours and textures. For example, one top trend today is to use deeply varnished wooden joists to contrast with sharply-defined white architectural surrounds. Colourful interior design accents really â??pop outâ? in this context. Alternatively, the quiet pastels of a London autumn can make for a classic and sophisticated interior design scheme.

The newest London kitchens may be white today, but the true home of the white kitchen has got to be Sweden. Just like London, Stockholm has short days and long nights for much of the year. Homeowners naturally crave interior designs that maximise the amount of reflected internal light in these climates. Swedish interior designers will create themes that are inspired by the widespread use of wintertime candles and sconces.