Kitchen Improvements Its Simpler Than You Think
By: Anne Clarke

So you want to improve your kitchen, but you do not have the time, or an extensive budget for re-decorating. Let?s say your furniture is still holding up, and it looks fairly nice?so you?re not considering the purchase of a new set of kitchen tables and chairs. But overall your kitchen seems bland to you. Let us base our discussion on a hypothetical example:

You have a pinewood table and chairs set that is in fairly good condition. There is a little blue tint in the glass of the cabinets, but not really a blue kitchen motif. Otherwise you have a bit of d?cor here and there, like a blue cutting board for cooking and blue juice glasses.

So the first thing to do is to work with this blue theme you?ve gotten started already. If you have a little extra time, you can paint a blue-stencil boarder or put up a nice wallpaper boarder just across the very top of your kitchen walls. For example: dolphins are very popular and very stylish. If a dolphin design suits your personal taste, a dolphin wallpaper boarder or stencil may be perfect for you.

If you have even less time and you really want to tie the blue theme together so that a guest of friends and family who visit will see your kitchen and think: ?oh, a blue motif,? then here are some more even simpler ideas:

Plants:

Plant a few flowers (preferably with a bluish hue) by the windows. Hanging plants are also nice for quick kitchen improvements. Or you can purchase a dry floral arrangement that has bluish hues to use as a centerpiece in your kitchen.

Dishes:

Any specifically chosen color of dishes in your kitchen can bring out the colors around them. Thus, having as much matching blue dinnerware is an essential yet simplistic and inexpensive way to re-decorate without giving your kitchen a full makeover.

Linens:

If you have a decent table, but it looks better with a table cloth, choose a blue table cloth that will accentuate the rest of your kitchen d?cor nicely. Other kinds of kitchen linens to buy are cloth napkins, placemats perhaps (especially if your table and chairs still look good as new), or curtains for your kitchen windows.

Soap dispensers:

A soap dispenser does more than just take up space beside the sink. Lets say you go with the dolphin motif?you could purchase a dolphin-shaped blue soap dispenser or a blue soap dispenser with dolphin designs on it. Say you do not go with the dolphins but you are sticking to the blue theme. A plain blue soap dispenser will do just as well.

So you are starting to get the idea. Create a theme with the little things, and you will find that they meld together perfectly to give your kitchen the overall look you want and can easily afford.