Tuesday, June 28, 2022

15 Ideas for a Kitchen Garden

Description: An indoor kitchen garden is a great option if you love growing things but have limited outdoor space. From flavoursome herbs to mini-vegetable options, we’ve got 15 great ideas for your home gardening projects. 

Houseplants and healthy eating are in and many people are turning to their gardens and greenhouses to beat the lockdown blues. 



Even if you don’t have much (or any) outdoor space, you can still grow healthy greens and herbs indoors with a kitchen garden. Check out our kitchen garden ideas to turn your windowsill into your own private farmer’s market.

15 Herbs and Vegetables to Grow in Your Kitchen Garden  

  •  Basil 

Basil is a staple of any kitchen garden. A perennial herb, basil likes bright sunlight and lots of water to flourish. Plant basil on a sunny windowsill and add the leaves to pasta, soups, and Italian dishes for a rustic, home cooked flavour.  

  • Sage 

Sage cuttings can be replanted in pots and will flourish in sunny conditions. Sage is a great herb to add to your kitchen garden if you have a window box or windowsill space. Its aromatic quality adds delicious flavour to meat dishes, gravies, and sauces and it is believed to have anti-inflammatory properties.  

  • Parsley 

Parsley loves full sunlight but can also grow in shady conditions. Perfect if your kitchen garden doesn’t get a lot of light. Parsley only flowers biennially, so you’re probably best-buying plants rather than seeds if you want to use it straight away.  

  • Thyme 

Looking for an innovative kitchen garden design? Thyme is a creeping herb that is great for cooking and that sprouts pretty buds if allowed to grow freely. If you’ve got space, an indoor raised bed is a perfect space to grow thyme.  

  • Chilis 

Chilis are great greenhouse plants and grow surprisingly well indoors with full sunlight. A chilli plant on a windowsill can yield large amounts of red, green, and yellow chilis and their homegrown freshness adds plenty of kick. Excellent for spicing up your cooking! 

  • Cucumbers 

Indoor gardens don’t have to be limited to herbs. You can grow kitchen garden vegetables like small cucumbers inside, so long as you have deep pots and add a wooden stake to support them as they grow. These little tasty delights are amazing pickled or chopped up in salads.  

  • Microgreens 

Microgreens, like micro mustard greens or micro-radishes, are diminutive in size but packed full of flavour and nutrients. They make excellent garnishes and are popular with top chefs. If you can afford to splash out on kitchen accessories, microgreen kits or smart gardens make great kitchen garden tools.  

  • Tomatoes 

Tomatoes are wonderful sources of Vitamin C and are mouth-watering in salads, soups, and pasta. You can start by planting your tomato seeds in a cardboard egg box and then repot them as they get bigger. Unlike many indoor kitchen garden plants, well-kept tomatoes can grow enormous so make sure you have lots of window space.  

  • Salad Greens 

Who doesn’t love fresh, homegrown salad? Ideal for packing nutritious lunches and for summer meals. An indoor tower garden is ideal for growing salad greens like lettuce and arugula.  

  • Chives 

Chives are excellent kitchen garden herbs and like bright sunlight to grow. If you’re planting chives from seedlings, remember to keep them cool for the first few days to let them germinate. After this, they are good to go in the window. Combines chives and with cream cheese for a tasty potato filling. 

  • Mint 

Mojitos anyone? Mint is an extremely versatile herb and is literally the secret ingredient in many scrumptious recipes. Add mint to your kitchen garden for its flavour enhancing properties and freshness.  

  • Chamomile  

Chamomile is known for its soothing tendencies and chamomile tea is great for relaxation. There are two main types of chamomile plant: Roman and German. For an indoor kitchen garden, we recommend Roman as German chamomile that can grow several feet tall. 

  • Tarragon  

Tarragon is the perfect herb to add to chicken or mushroom dishes. Tarragon grows well in the sun and can be replanted from outside. To get the best out of your tarragon plant, use some liquid fertilizer to help it flourish. 

  • Peppermint 

Fresh peppermint tea has been shown to help digestion and is anti-inflammatory. Steep peppermint leaves in hot water and enjoy. Peppermint prefers shady environments so avoid bright sunshine. 

  • Watercress 

Sprinkle watercress seeds into your windowsill seed tray and leave to grow. Watercress seeds do not need to be buried but they should have constant access to water. Lay your trays in dishes of water and make sure the roots can reach it to enjoy watercress as a delicious, crunchy topping.

Conclusion

No matter the size of your kitchen, you can produce plenty of fresh herbs and veg. After all, grown fresh always tastes best. We hope our list has given you some kitchen garden inspiration. 

Final Call: Do any of these herbs or plants grow in your kitchen garden? Which ones grow best for you? Do you cook with them? Share your gardening tips and recipes in the comments!

Friday, June 10, 2022

Room Renovation: How to Decorate Your Kitchen

 If you’re itching to start a room renovation, you’re not alone! Home Depot made 110.2 billion dollars last year, much of it from homeowners ready to do a room makeover. 

If you’re eyeing your home with an aim to improve and beautify, why not start with your kitchen? For most people, it’s the centerpiece of their home.


 

You’ll spend lots of time there preparing meals, hosting guests, cleaning, and more. Why not make it a place that you’ll really enjoy? It’s one of the places that guests will find themselves, too, so you should make it a place that truly showcases your personality and sense of taste. 

If you’re looking to level up and do a full room makeover, we’ve assembled a guide to some kitchen renovation ideas that will transform your home!

Add Some Seating 

A room makeover can be intensive if that’s your style. Maybe you need or want new appliances, a plumbing upgrade, or an expansion. But you might be looking to add some jazz to your space, which doesn’t take much money at all. 

One of the most important parts of making a room feel new is adding a new look or function. If you have the space, why not add some seating?

Seating can draw your family into the kitchen while you’re preparing meals. Cooking can be a family affair if everyone has a place to sit and a task to accomplish!

There are a few options here. If you have a kitchen island, add some fun bar-style stools. Don’t be shy when it comes to color, either. 

Barstools typically come in dark walnut, black, white, or gray. If you’re really looking to change up your space, go bold! Maybe you have an accent wall or a colorful tile backsplash. Whether it’s cerulean blue or mustard yellow, your seating will look amazing if you mix and match a little.

There are other options, of course. If you have the space, use your room renovation to add some fun details like a reading nook!

This can fit right into the window, and you can add some colorful throw pillows for a pop of texture and visual interest. This is a great place for kids to curl up and read or do some homework while the adults prepare meals.

Add a Wall Display 

Do you have collectibles? Maybe you have a lovely set of antique china from your grandmother or some vintage teacups. Maybe you prefer old glass Coke bottles or Nester dolls!

Whatever you like to collect or display, it’d be a shame if your collectibles were permanently relegated to a cupboard where they can’t be seen.

Add some fun shelves to your kitchen! If you’d like to make them a color accent, consider painting them a color that adds a little something to the preexisting scheme in your kitchen. 

Before you start putting up your best china, though, consider location. For starters, do you have a wood-burning stove? If so, soot and heat will often cake your dishes with a layer of dust that’s quite difficult to clean.

For the same reason, don’t put delicate heirlooms directly above your electric stove. The oil, heat, and odors from cooking will have a bad impact on your precious items.

You should also consider whether you live in a place that is prone to natural disasters, such as earthquakes. Placing multiple items on high shelves will turn your kitchen into a danger zone!

If you’ve considered all these factors and think it’s safe to put up shelves, go for two or three. This will allow you to display a fair amount of collectibles without visually crowding your kitchen and making it look like a hoarding issue.

Don’t Be Afraid of Patterns

Depending on trends in the fashion and design world, minimalism comes and goes. Black, white, and gray all make your kitchen timeless and ‘safe.’

But if you’re planning to stay in your home without selling for the foreseeable future, why not have some fun with it? It’s your home, and you should do exactly what you like. 

Don’t be afraid to mix and match patterns. This will allow you to add layers of visual depth and provide the illusion that there is more to your kitchen than meets the eye.

While this can add a fun boho vibe to your kitchen, it can also make things seem cozier. That’s exactly what a kitchen should feel like!

You can add patterns with a fun tiled backsplash or rugs in your kitchen. Wallpaper, patterned walls, or displays of patterned dishes can help add these layers of interest to your room decor.

Try A Kitchen Mural 

No discussion of adding visual interest to your kitchen would be complete without discussing wall design and kitchen murals! No matter what your dream kitchen looks like, your dream wallpaper designer will partner with you to bring your image to life. 

If you’re hung up on remembered difficulties of applying wallpaper, never fear! There are self-adhesive options that go up easily, vinyl options if you live in a wet environment, and traditional options. 

From fun tropical prints to bold color smears, there’s a wallpaper look for everyone. You can wallpaper your entire kitchen if you choose or focus on one wall. 

If you want to buy wallpaper, know that you aren’t chained to the options available on any site. Instead, you can mix and match wallpaper choices into a custom print that any art guru would be proud to have in their home.

Room Renovation

Many people feel like they ‘aren’t a designer.’ That means a room makeover can be daunting! Whether you’re picking room decorations or new wallpaper, there are resources available to help you out. 

Treat room decor like an art project. It’s nothing more than the process of adding joy to your space and experimenting till you find something that feels right to you. 

How to Design a Floor Plan When Renovating?

 When renovating your home or office, it is better to make a floor plan first hand. Making a floor plan will prove to be a lifesaver as it will help you in explaining your requirements and needs to the Modular Kitchen interior design .

We know it is not so easy to design a floor plan but it can be a lot easier if you follow a stepwise process for designing the floor plan of your home.

Step by step guide to designing a floor plan

If you want the best results of the renovation of your home then you have to design the perfect floor plan first. Here is how to design a flawless floor plan when renovating:



1. Make up your mind

The first step towards designing the floor plan is to make up your mind. As a start, make your mind about how many rooms you want, which room is going to be big and which room smaller than the other. Decide on every basic need of your Kitchen renovation.

2. Measure the area

Take the measurements of the complete area you are going to renovate. Measure every single inch of the area including the Kitchen doors, the walls to the corners, and the windows. Make sure the measurements you take are perfect and don’t have a difference of an inch to the actual area. The slightest mistake in the measurement can cause you a lot of trouble even more than you think.

3. Draw outlines or borders

You need a paper, pencil and a scale to start drawing the kitchen floor plan. Draw the walls/outlines of the house on paper. Write the scale on the sides of each wall for an easy and frequent guide of the area length. Don’t forget to draw the entrance of the house along with the walls because it will help you in the perfect positioning of rooms.

4. Divide the area

After drawing the walls, it’s time to divide the whole area into separate rooms by drawing walls. While making the walls of rooms keep the details in mind which you have already decided like the number of rooms and area of each room. Also, write down the length of the walls of each room of the home for easy detailing.

5. Draw the essentials

Now draw the essentials of your house like the doors and windows and any other thing which you want in a specific location. For example, the bathtub, the refrigerator in the kitchen, or the dining table in the living room. To avoid any inconvenience in the future, it is better to highlight anything that you want unchanged and undisturbed.

6. Add extras

If you want any extras in your home then don’t forget to add them to the floor plan. The extras can be a hidden secret room or a hidden storage space in the roof, a pantry in the kitchen, a whole storage room, or even an underground basement. Take inspiration from interior design  to increase the storage space of your house and make the best use of extra spaces.

7. Furnish the floor plan

Now, when everything is done you can move to the furnishing of the floor plan. The furnishing can change the look of any place so be careful while opting for the furniture. Add the furniture pieces and make good use of all the available space in the whole house.

Don’ts of Designing the Floor Plan When Renovating

  • Don’t overdo any room with the furniture and avoid adding any furniture piece which you don’t need and let the rooms breathe.
  • Don’t forget your lifestyle while designing the floor plan of your home because your home must have everything according to your daily lifestyle.
  • Don’t be impractical and match your floor plan with the practical life and add the things in the floor plan which you can afford at the moment. However, you can also make a dream house in the future.

Conclusion

Follow these above given easy stepwise procedure for designing the floor plan when renovating. Be practical while designing the floor plan and keep it as simple as possible if you don’t want to take any risk. Design the best floor plan for your home renovation and watch it become a reality with the help of interior design Dubai companies especially Exotic Interior Studio.

8 mistakes to avoid when decorating your terrace

We all have the right to guide the decoration of our spaces, according to our tastes, but when it comes to decorating your terrace there are...