With so many people into green living, this color scheme helps add to the natural and simplistic appeal on top of its other benefits.

Cabinetry Takes on a Whole New Look

No one wants the look of avocado green that was so “in” back in the 60’s and 70’s. Olive green comes in many shades, from deep forest green to pastel shades. For your cabinets, the best choice is a medium hue much like the lighter shades you find in camouflage materials. While olive may not be the first color that comes to mind when you think of updating your kitchen, you will be stunned at the appeal that comes when you mix pure white and olive. Just look online at a few examples and you will see that the look is truly striking.

You can paint your cabinets without much difficulty, and give them an entirely new look. If your cabinets are already painted, simply paint over the existing color. If your cabinets are stained and varnished, you may want to lightly sand the finish before painting. Once you have achieved the medium olive tone you want, simply add white hardware to contrast.

Choose White to Complement

While the cabinets will be the main source of olive green in the room, white accessories will add interest and keep the room from looking drab or dull. Appliances that you keep on your counter top should be white, and the counter top itself may be solid white or a mixture of olive and white, with white being the predominant color.

You should further dress up the look by adding a white paper towel holder, white drawer pulls, and white lighting fixtures.

Accessories Complete the Look

The accessories you choose really tie together the complete look and add visual appeal. Consider a kitchen floor mat that can be used in front of the sink in an olive and white floral or leaf pattern. Linoleum or tile will also be beautiful when these two colors are combined.

For the kitchen table, use a solid white tablecloth and accent with an olive colored pot filled with herbs or other natural greenery as a centerpiece. White walls accented by olive baseboards and large botanical prints add even more visual appeal.

The look is totally fresh and unique when compared with most kitchens you see today. If your desire is to have a kitchen that looks modern and inviting, olive and white is a spectacular combination that mixes the pure, pristine look of white with hues that are straight out of nature!

Leon Tuberman has 40 years of experience in the furniture and interior design industry. He owns and manages a popular furniture store in California. They have a large inventory of handcrafted American built solid oak furniture for your bedroom, home office and living room. Are you searching for wood nightstands for your bedroom or a wood TV stands for your home then they probably have everything you need.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leon_Tuberman

Before you get started, go through your cabinets and cupboards and clear out anything that isn’t absolutely necessary. No, this doesn’t really have anything to do with making your kitchen appear larger, but it will make you feel better when you open up your cupboards to organization and room instead of clutter.

First of All, Organize

A cluttered, junked-up counter top really decreases the space in a kitchen. While small appliances, plants, canisters and other knick-knacks don’t use floor space, they do make the room look unorganized and smaller. With your counter tops opened up and free of clutter, you will be on your way to creating an airy, spacious look.

Walls and Floors

You probably already know this, but light colors really expand a room. If your walls are dark or covered with wallpaper, it’s time to make a change. Strip wallpaper; small prints, flowers and any intricate designs make the room look smaller. A fresh coat of butter yellow paint or any other very light color will look appealing and visually open the room.

Floors should be kept light as well. If you have wood floors, natural wood or pine stained in a very light shade looks clean. Linoleum or ceramic tile should be light colored as well, perhaps in cream or sand shades.

Cabinets

Most people cannot afford new cabinets, as they are very expensive. As with your walls and floors, cabinets need to be of a light shade. If you have dark cabinets, you can give them a face lift yourself to save money. Updating your cabinets will transform the look and feel of your kitchen more than you can imagine. Sand the finish, apply a couple of coats of light colored paint, and add some decorative hardware. You may want to apply a coat of glossy polyurethane to protect the paint and give it sheen.

Opening up your windows allows light to come in and works great for making the room look more spacious. If you can, leave the window over your sink completely open with no curtains or other window treatments. If you must use something, keep it sheer and light colored to continue with the airy appeal.

Keep the floors clear of furniture and other accessories that are not needed. If you have lots of plants, baskets or other things taking up floor space, move them out. The cleaner you keep the floors, counter tops and kitchen table, the more spacious your kitchen will appear. Put a few of these tips to work for you, and soon you will have a kitchen that looks as though it has doubled in size!

Leon Tuberman has been part of the home furnishings and interior design business for 40 years. He is the owner and operator of popular furniture store in California. They offer a huge assortment of solid wood furniture for your living room, bedroom and dining room that’s built in the Heartland of America. It doesn’t matter whether you’re shopping for a oak dresser for your guest bedroom or a dining table for your formal dining room then they have everything you need.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leon_Tuberman

How is it possible that our country just had a national debate about health care and yet so little of it centered around what we eat? Our diets are one of the most essential parts of our overall health and well-being. Eating right and exercising is preventative medicine in its purest form.

When you prepare your own meals it is much easier to eat healthy because you can see exactly what you are putting into your food. Does a recipe seem to call for too much oil or cheese? Cut it down, substitute it with something else, or consider making a different meal. Here are a few healthy and delicious recipes that you can make with a food processor.

Breakfast Fruit Smoothie

Starting your day off with a delicious fruit smoothie is a great way to get around the habit of grabbing a coffee and a donut on the way to work. You will also be amazed at how little prep time it takes. If you have time to turn on the coffee pot, you have time to fix yourself a delicious and healthy smoothie.

1 banana
½ cup frozen (or fresh) mixed berries
¼ cup frozen (or fresh) pineapple bits
½ cup orange juice
2 heaping tablespoons low fat yogurt

Simply blend this all up in a blender like the Wolfgang Puck Stainless Steel Immersion Blender and serve right away. The best thing about smoothies is how flexible and open to interpretation the recipes are. You can use a little papaya instead of the pineapple or use fresh squeezed oranges instead of the orange juice. The only limit to what you can do is your imagination.

Muhammara

The Middle Eastern chickpea spread hummus is a staple of food processor cuisine. So much so that you might want to mix things up a bit every now and then.

Muhammara is a tradional Syrian hot pepper dip that uses breadcrumbs and walnuts instead of chickpeas. This recipe is a little bit less spicy than normal and it goes just as well with raw vegetables or pita bread as hummus does.

3 roasted red peppers (jarred or roasted on the stove top then pealed and seeded)
2/3 cup homemade breadcrumbs (mashed up oyster crackers works great)
1 cup walnuts, toasted
4 big cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons agave nectar
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt to taste

To prepare, just put everything in a fair-sized food processor like the Hamilton Beach 500-watt 14-cup food processor and puree until smooth. Start by just adding a little bit of salt and then adding more as needed. Muhammara is fun to make when you sort of season as you go, tasting your way to the finish line.

If you want a spicier dish, you can substitute the ground pepper flakes for a chopped up jalapeno pepper. This dish is also best when you let it sit overnight to allow the flavors to blend.

Kale Salad with Chipotle Avocado Dressing

This recipe requires no cooking so the kale itself maintains all of its essential nutrients. By massaging in the salt, however, the kale will wilt and take on a cooked texture. The dressing for this is so delicious you will be looking for all kinds of other places to use it! This recipe feeds at least four people so invite over some friends!

4 heads of kale (again, this will look like a lot but it will wilt down a lot with the salt)
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups sliced cherry tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
1 cup hulled hemp seeds

Dressing
3 avocados, peeled and with center removed
2 chipotle peppers
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons agave nectar
¼ cup lemon juice

Start by removing the stems from the kale. Wash it well and then tear it into bite-sized pieces. Put it in a bowl and begin to massage half the salt right into the kale. Massage until the kale starts to wilt and begins to have a cooked texture. If it is being stubborn you can use more salt, but the less you use the healthier the meal. Just keep massaging!

When it takes on a good texture you can mix in the onions, tomatoes, and hemp seeds.

Now it is time to make the dressing. All you do is dump the dressing ingredients into a food processor like the Black and Decker 10-cup 500-watt Food Processor and puree. If you are concerned with the amount of fat from the olive oil you can use more lemon juice and less EVOO.

Remember that it isn’t always what you cook, it is the act of cooking itself that is important. When you go out to a restaurant you are only choosing what to pick off the menu. When you cook from scratch you are making literally dozens of food choices about what you are putting in your body. These choices will add up to a healthier and happier lifestyle.

Michelle Love is a freelance writer who writes about furniture and kitchen products used for home improvement such as food processors.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michelle_Love

You can choose many kinds of window that you like at the Select Shops which fully understand the many different needs their customers have when deciding on window blinds. They offer window blinds that can be custom fit to virtually every size of window that you have in your home. Each blind is custom made to meet their customer’s specific needs when they order. This allows their customers to focus on making sure the blinds meet the needs of their rooms and not worry about the size being available in this site.

At Select Blinds has made many tools available online, empowering customers to find the exact window blind on their own design that they have, if you would like to talk to a Select Blinds customer care expert, they are also always available over the phone to answer any questions you may have. Changing the look of a room doesn’t need to involve more than changing the current window faux wood blinds that they have. Sometimes when people start thinking about updating the look of their décor for a room, they get overwhelmed by the size of the task at hand of their home. Often times you can get a total and dramatically different look to every room in your house by just changing out the current window blinds or shades.

A number of companies are available that are selling traditional as well as modern styled furnishings at reasonable prices. You can select from various available options and the best place to find cheaper and reasonable priced dining furniture is the internet. Shopping online is easy but does require doing some research about the product you want to buy. Before spending any money you should spend some time researching online about the styles, designs and types of furnishing sets available on the market. You will find various attractive deals online that provide comfortable tables and chairs at reasonable prices.

Other places that you can visit for purchasing durable and elegant dining furniture are physical stores. You will find various furniture stores that have tables and chairs that are made from quality wood and are durable. The type of materials used in the making can help you in determining its durability and reliability. Poor quality wood used in the making causes its color to fade and makes it less durable. You can also compare the deals that you find and consider the amount of money each store is charging and the type of product they are offering.

Furniture auctions are another place where you can find attractive furnishing deals. Many people who are moving house arrange auctions for selling their furniture. Visiting such auctions might provide you with various discounted furnishing deals. Don’t forget to look on the online auction sites as well because there you can often pick up great bargains on quality furniture.

For finding the best deals many customers turn to consignment shops where people leave items that they no longer want. You can find various dining sets available at reasonable deals on these shops. Spending some time looking for the kind of furniture set you require and visiting various places will surely make you purchase a quality set at reasonable rates.

Visit cheap dining set or chair and ottoman for more information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Amy_Everet

Shabby chic kitchens are now one of the most sought-after kitchen styles, in the modern world; especially in country properties. However it is not by any means a new look since it originally evolved in the mid-twentieth century, when it became a popular method of creating an acceptable and charming way of decorating as money was tight after the second world war.

The essential element that conjures up the shabby chic look is a timeless elegance where furniture does not have to match, just so long as all your pieces have an inviting, slightly worn look, and are closely related in colour or tone. True shabby chic in your kitchen should reflect the grace and beauty of a bygone era, when life was simpler and altogether more natural.

Shabby chic kitchen styles are characterised by a rural style comfort coupled with old world whimsy. The décor, which is normally based around white, off-white or very pale unobtrusive colours such as soft greens, pale blues, pale yellows or muted beiges, should look effortless and completely uncontrived.

Before setting about creating this well-loved style take a good look round your kitchen and consider the existing style in terms of wall colours, cabinets, appliances, work surfaces and even cookware. Also take note of the size and layout of the room to determine if there is enough floor space to accommodate additional pieces or the necessary wall space for additional cabinets or shelves. If not, begin thinking about how you could change the current look to achieve a more rustic feel. Newly painted walls and certain paint effects on furniture, along with the right accent pieces will help change the whole look your kitchen.

In the main most kitchen walls are best painted in plain or lightly toned white to maximise the amount of light, however for something a little more unusual you could also try painting your walls in a pattern of wide pastel and white stripes. If however you prefer wallpaper, to make your kitchen appear more homely, it is best to choose a muted floral pattern, especially roses or tiny bunches of daisies or forget-me-nots.

Do bear in mind though that endearing as old fashioned wallpaper can look it should not even be considered if your kitchen doesn’t have proper ventilation to stop it getting overly steamed-up when cooking; otherwise you will soon be re-papering!

Concrete, grotesquely tiled or tacky linoleum floors are a complete anathema to the shabby chic kitchen style so they will need to be replaced with something more in keeping with your new soft and natural look. This of course can be a major and expensive undertaking, so if you don’t want to completely replace your kitchen floor you can simply add lots kitchen mats or rugs in muted pink, blue, green, or floral designs; just be sure to choose colors that complement your walls and existing flooring.

Plain wooden floorboards can be given a new lease of life by being sanded and varnished to prevent splinters in bare feet! They can also be stained in a ‘natural’ wood colour but be careful that you don’t go too dark and make you kitchen feel grim and gloomy. Very pale wood may be stenciled in an interesting design before varnishing, but do ensure that the design ties in with your existing colour scheme. A clever floor design could be used to emphasise a special feature such as an old couch, a favourite rocking horse or a freestanding butcher’s block.

Kitchen furniture and cabinets can be decorated in a number of exciting paint finishes, which is then distressed in varying degrees depending on just how truly ’shabby’ you want your kitchen to look. If you are not sure how to go about the distressing process simply dial up ‘How To Paint Shabby Chic Furniture’ on the internet and you will find plenty of information and even videos on Youtube.com that cover the subject in depth.

To avoid an overly modern look you should always replace any current hardware on kitchen cabinets and door furniture with something more appropriate, such as glass or vintage ceramic knobs; which will indeed look so much more authentic. You can often find just what you need on Ebay or you could try scouting round some of the more reputable building reclamation yards. Sometimes it is worth buying old cabinets or doors just to lay claim to stunning or unique door and cupboard accessories.

If your current kitchen appliances don’t look remotely right in your new kitchen, you can have them repainted to match everything else, as fortunately companies do exist that will repaint appliances. Alternatively, if you want to replace the appliances altogether, there are also companies that sell retro style appliances.

Don’t forget to give your kitchen a light and airy window treatment. Curtains, rather than blinds, are an excellent way to emphasise the shabby chic look especially dainty floral prints, held in place with antique tie-backs. For a cleaner, unfussy look you could also use cotton nets slung over pine poles or even pure lace, draped across just half the window.

Be aware that one of the joys of shabby chic style is that it utilises less than perfect pieces, so do check out jumble sales, garage sales and even skips for discarded items. Someone else’s rubbish may just be the perfect display piece for your shabby chic kitchen. A tart-up with a pretty paint finish or some floral material can give new life to many a neglected treasure.

The right accessories will simply ‘make’ your shabby chic kitchen so these should be chosen and placed very carefully to give the right effect. This stage of achieving the shabby chic look is rather like planting a country garden, in as much as it should all look entirely natural and as if it has just happened by chance.

However as any skilled gardener will tell you it takes quite a bit of forethought and planning to create just the right uncontrived look. Exactly the same will apply to your kitchen but, being careful not to over-clutter working space or surfaces, you can easily develop the shabby chic feel simply by applying a little imagination, time and effort and the best of all it won’t cost you a fortune.

Some really great additions to your kitchen can include distressed corner shelves for old battered recipe books, Victorian chamber pots for plants, early spice racks, embroidered hand-towels and homespun linen on wrought iron hooks, well-worn oven gloves, 1950’s tin canister sets and cookie cutters, granny’s wash board, sepia framed photos, Imperial kitchen scales, a rose patterned china tea service, vintage wooden boxes and serving bowls, old baking trays, copper pans, fish kettles and of course lots and lots of fresh flowers.

Finally do remember that the true shabby chic look is only achieved by being understated, so you don’t need to have every single item in your kitchen distressed, miss-matched or floral. Sometimes less is definitely more and it is also vital that your own personality comes into play to make your dream kitchen particularly special and unique to you.

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