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Imagine for a moment that your home is like a country, or even a continent, all to itself. Your home office is the capital city – the central business area, a hub of communications and admin. The living room is the suburban area, obviously. Gentrified, with a few visitors now and then. Your bedroom? Well, that’s the tourist area, where you can kick back and relax. I don’t know what the bathroom is.
But your kitchen? Well, that’s the countryside. It’s where the food comes from, after all, and where you need to get your hands dirty occasionally if you want to fit in. So when it comes to redoing your kitchen, it’s only right to pay tribute to that by giving it a rustic feel.
Getting The Decor Right
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The overall look, from a color point of view, is up to you. But in the countryside, there is plenty of open space. What space they do use is organized for maximum efficiency. The same should go for your kitchen – not too much cluttering up the workspaces, but plenty of well-used storage.
Another thing about the countryside is that the best use is made of natural products. So while you may not be able to craft the whole thing out of logs, you should keep plastics and veneer to a minimum. Stone and natural wood are what give the rustic vibe – so make sure you’ve got plenty of those going on.
Picking The Perfect Work Surfaces
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In any kitchen, the most important thing is hygiene for the sake of health and safety. You’re preparing food on the surfaces, so they need to be both hard-wearing and easy to keep clean. It’s worth investing in granite countertops for this exact reason. In a busy kitchen, you may need to be able to set a hot pan down anywhere – this isn’t possible with wood or veneer counters. With granite, it is.
You also, as noted, need to make sure that there is plenty of free space. Leaving items out on the counters leads to clutter and confusion, so have countertop storage and make use of it. Something that fits together with the whole look of the kitchen.
Keeping It Efficient
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One of the classic signatures of a rustic kitchen is an island in the middle. If your kitchen is big enough, then an island is perfect – it provides an additional surface which allows more people to work in there at once. It also has the benefit of allowing more items to be stored where they are readily accessible. If you can add some hanging storage above it, it’s a perfect place to store pots and pans.
Those Finishing Touches
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No countryside setting would be complete without some old-fashioned decorative touches. What you choose is up to you, but an old-style clock is one touch that all country kitchens should have. You can relax in the other rooms, and just let the time pass. But in the countryside, and in the kitchen, you always need to know what time it is.