Flooring in the Kitchen
Flooring is an important aspect to the overall look of any kitchen, but one not everyone thinks about when kitchen shopping. We've had clients who have designed their entire kitchen around the floor, while others have found the flooring harder to choose than the kitchen. To help, we've put together a couple of things to think about when choosing the flooring for your kitchen. In general there are 3 main types of flooring available, natural stone, wood and vinyl.
1. Practicality
One of the most important aspects of kitchen flooring is how practical the flooring is for your lifestyle. We suggest taking in to account how easy the flooring is to clean and how often you will need to replace your flooring. For example, stone tiles can be more high maintenance with the grout lines, while vinyl flooring can give you the look of a tile without the need for grout lines. Wood flooring although easy to clean, will wear faster in high traffic areas, and will then start to look tired. Some materials are more forgiving than others, if you drop a plate on a vinyl floor there is less risk of it damaging the floor, than with a tile that may crack or chip.
2. Material
Natural stone flooring is beautiful and a timeless feature in any kitchen. Natural stones come in many shapes, sizes and colours. While Karndean is a vinyl tile that replicates the look of any material of flooring, from wood to natural stone. There are many types of wooden flooring that are appropriate for a kitchen (and some types that aren't). In a kitchen we would recommend a wooden floor that handles moisture well and is hard wearing enough to withstand the high traffic in a kitchen.
3. Comfort
Let's be honest, no one likes getting cold feet. If you are choosing a natural stone floor, consider installing under floor heating. Make sure to check which kind of under floor heating system will work best with your chosen floor. Karndean being a vinyl will not be as cold and still gives the option of under floor heating and finally, wooden flooring is warm and certain types of wooden flooring allow for under floor heating.
4. Style
The look of your flooring is very important to the overall feel of the kitchen. Wooden flooring can create a warmer look, stone floors can be very impressive, but at the end of the day you will need to choose the flooring based on you, your family and your kitchen style.
All flooring in the above images are available to purchase from the Herringbone Pantry. Our Canterbury studio has a range of stone floor tiles on display. Feel free to pop in or give us a call if you need any advice choosing the right flooring for your project.
Kitchen Ideas for 2015
We hope you all had a very relaxing and happy holiday season. To our customers that received Herringbone Kitchens over the past year, we would like to thank you again and hope you enjoyed your first Christmas with your new kitchen.
Here at head office we've been researching all of the newest kitchen trends for 2015 and expect big changes in convenience in the kitchen. Every day suppliers have been showing us new designs, materials and appliances that are being produced to make life easier for the average family.
We're excited to show you some of these new products and how suppliers have updated traditional designs to become more economical and have higher durability. Below are some of our favourite new products and trends for 2015.
1. The Sweepovac
The Sweepovac is designed to make cleaning easier. It consists of a vacuum cleaner hidden away in the plinth under your cabinets. Simply sweep up to the vacuum in the plinth and the Sweepovac will suck up all your dirt, dust and fallen cheerios. The Sweepovac then has a bag that you can empty, making cleaning the floor of your kitchen that much easier. To us, this is one of the most convenient products for 2015.
2. Dekton AURA
The Dekton AURA is a worktop like no other. The design is book matched so that even if you have to use 10 pieces of worktop (for one very very big kitchen), the design or veins on the worktop, continue making separate pieces join up perfectly. The worktop is heat resistant, scratch proof and non-porous so it will not stain. This worktop is perfect for the busy perfectionist, someone who is worried about the look of their worktop, but wants the convenience of chopping or putting hot plates, directly on to the worktop.
3. Two Tone Cabinets
This is a trend that we anticipate to see more and more of in 2015 and one that some of our customers have already started to embrace. Two tone kitchen cabinets are great because they create a more custom and bespoke look to any kitchen and allow for greater versatility and warmth. Often times a darker colour is used for lower cabinets and a lighter colour on top, creating a look that makes your ceilings appear higher. The best thing about two tone kitchen cabinets is that it does not cost you any more to have great design, simply choose two (or more) different colours when you order your kitchen.
There are plenty more designs and trends for 2015 that we can show you in our Canterbury Studio.
Copper the new black?
Copper
We are starting to see the use of copper more and more in the house, especially in the kitchen and we couldn't be more pleased. Here at Herringbone Kitchens we love the use of copper, from hanging lights to kitchen handles and small appliances.
Here are our top 5 copper items to give your kitchen the newest look.
#1
The Copper pendant
#2
Copper cutlery
#3
Copper saucepans
#4
Copper Kitchen handles, Knobs, cup or bar, all spectacular.
#5
Last but not least our favourite, a home made cost efficientgreat looking kitchen tap.
The Quooker Hot Tap
Kettles are one of the most commonly used appliances in the kitchen, with the
average household in the UK boiling the kettle a whoopping 1,500 times a year.
One of the newest products on the market that we are proud to offer at
Herringbone Kitchens is the hot tap. The hot tap is a tap that immediately
dispenses boiling water. The tap is placed on the worktop near the sink, and the
tank is hidden underneath.
Clients have begun to ask for these taps more and more, both as a feature in the kitchen
and as a necessity. Like ice dispensers and microwave ovens, convenience is key in the kitchen!
We’ve chosen Quooker as our supplier for hot taps because they offer the most
efficient and economical hot tap. The Quooker's standby usage is just 3 pence
a day. For even more efficiency we offer the COMBI tank, which is an even more
economical way to produce both hot and boiling water. There are now many different
options for hot taps, including the Twin Tap. The Twin Tap is a normal tap for
hot and cold and a separate tap for boiling water.
Another option is to have the Combi tap, or just one tap that provides cold, warm and boiling water.
Come visit us in the Canterbury Studio to see how to use the hot tap, and if you place an order for a new
kitchen before Christmas, we will throw in the hot tap for free, as a Christmas present. See terms and conditions here
How to Create Your Own Great British Bake Off
We all know the secret to a scrumptious cake is in the details. Of course it might have a little something to do with the baker, but the second most important trick is the tools.
We've had a couple of clients ask about the appliances used in the Bake-Off. While we have to wait a year until the programme returns, we can show you how to recreate those tasty parcels in your own home.
What Bake-Off showed us is that the 'slide and hide' drawer on a oven is great for small spaces, or for cooks who want to get very close to the action.
Mary Berry showed us how all the bakers in the business don't mess around with tea kettles. Here you can see Mary using the Quooker hot top for boiling water.
Wooden worktops work a dream when rolling out pastry.
And who could forget the fridge/freezer sabotage. When properly used this fridge will cool down any cake, as long as you are not baking with any crafty competitors.
So there you have it, some of the details that make the kitchens in the Great British Bake Off look so good.
Come in to the studio today and we can work with you on creating your own Bake-Off kitchen.
