Kitchen is my kitchen.

Have you ever walked into someone else's kitchen and couldn't find a thing? You wonder what Nut case puts the silverware so far away from the dishwasher and the pots next to the refrigerator instead of the oven, we've all been there.

When moving, redoing, or reorganizing your kitchen, here are a few space planning tips:

1. The triangle. Any good designer should know this key rule. The oven, sink, and refrigerator should make one triangle on your floor plan, this makes the kitchen a much more usable and cohesive space.

2. While unpacking everything, make a good dinner. While you're in the zone cooking, you'll reach to an empty drawer for your mixing bowl and now you know where it would be comfortable for you to have it, it's your kitchen, organize it to your liking!

3. Pick only one. Island or table. Both can feel cramped and uncomfortable useless you have a huge kitchen and nothing to do with the space. There are some islands which double as a bar type seating area, which works well if you can't choose between the two, but never cramp a room, especially a kitchen.

4. Remember the kitchen is the heart of a house, so put your heart in it and make it a statement of all whom dwell there!

Designer vs. Decorator, and then some.

Many people think that an interior designer and an interior decorator are the same thing, and when it comes to projects for the home, where should they go?

Well, here is the answer...

1. Interior DESIGN is the art and science of understanding people's behavior to create functional spaces within a building. Decoration is the furnishing or adorning of a space with fashionable or beautiful things. Interior designers apply 

creative and technical solutions within a structure that are functional, attractive and beneficial to the occupants' quality of life and culture. 

2. An Interior DECORATOR may decorate a space, but will not actually design the layout of a house without the supervision of an architect or contractor. Decorators are very helpful and great to use. 

Many people get the terms confused and intertwined, and the differences are actually quite large.  In short, interior designers may decorate, but decorators do not design.
  
                        

Source of definitions from the NCIDQ website. Picture from http://uthinkido.com

Five Senses of Design

When decorating your home, it it not about what you see in a room. Its a whole body experience. All five senses are used. For instance, ever smell a smell and immediately remember a place, person, or event in your life where that same smell was involved? I can't smell my dad's old 90's hairspray without remembering him lay it on thick each morning (He's almost bald now- I blame that terrible hairspray).

When decorating, remember the 5 senses:

• Sight: Obviously this is the most important. What the room looks like and the way it is designed makes the foundation of the entire experience.
• Smell: This is the strongest sense of them all. Like a candle or make some cookies to bring an emotional connection to the room. That signature smell will make all the difference.
• Sound: Once, I went to a friends house directly across from the train tracks, busy ones at that. We called it the train track house. She moved quickly. Soundproofing can be key to a design.
• Touch: Textures make a room come alive. I am a person who must. touch. everything. Splurge on a cashmere throw or some big fluffy fabriced pillows to add depth to you design.
• Taste: This one really only applies to a kitchen. What you eat and the taste of a delicious meal can make a ugliest room someone's very favorite!