Myndu Interior Design

In our quest for the most efficient and cost-effective kitchen design, we sometimes forget the reason why we have kitchens in the first place — because we need a place in which to prepare and cook food and, for many like me, a place in which to eat the food prepared.

I agree that, for those of us who have small kitchens, maximizing our available space and streamlining our furniture is usual, but we must find, or make space for, a food display area no matter how small.

These may range from just table or counter space to a free-standing structure where space permits, but it should be the first to draw the eye when anyone approaches the kitchen.

Enjoyment of food is as much a visual experience as it is an aromatic and palatal one, so that to have attractively arranged food — no matter if it’s just a budget dessert or a modest salad – ready for the eyes and noses of our family members at all times is a good way to prime their appetites for the meals and snacks we have prepared.

What we have then is a food-centered kitchen and not an appliance-centered one; something food lovers would appreciate.

I don’t remember growing up with a favorite toy that I kept and loved to shreds. Most of the childhood games I enjoyed required nothing more than water or a stick to draw lines on the dirt or sand and a flat stone for hopscotch; recycled inner tubes, leather from old shoes and a tree branch for a slingshot; and an old ping pong ball and pebbles for jackstones. I do remember being proud of all the rubber bands I won and wore on my arm from wrist to elbow.

There are children, however, who latch on to a favorite toy, furniture (like his high chair), blanket or dish, and throw a fit if they can’t take these everywhere with them. My son, up to the age of seven, was one of those children and his favorite was a teddy bear he called “bear-bear.” Bear-bear travelled everywhere with us and his appearance suffered from the wear and tear of constant hugging, dragging and washing (my son cried when he saw I had hung his teddy bear by the feet on the clothesline and insisted it be hung by the ears).

I talked about this with other mothers and one mother said that her daughter didn’t have a favorite toy but a favorite food that she had to have every day, anywhere – applesauce, in its original jar. She would eat anything at mealtimes as long as she had her applesauce. Another mother said her son fixated on his baby pillow.

We discussed easy ways to make some old favorites exactly like those they replaced without our children knowing, for the sake of aesthetics and sanitation. It worked for the applesauce and the pillow moms, but my son loved his Bear-bear, bald patches and all, and I had to be satisfied with washing, patching and re-filling until he finally outgrew that stage.

Our next door neighbors decided that their kitchen was getting too small for their growing brood and, as soon as their youngest boy reached first grade age, they did some renovating.

They took down the walls between the kitchen and the dining room, and those between the dining room and the living room. The result is a bright airy space which showcases their collections in a cohesive display from the living room art work to the dining room stemware, silver and china cabinet, on to the new kitchen island with their vintage copper pots and pans hanging from overhead hooks.

At the party they threw to celebrate the new look, I told them that I had smelled something delicious cooking the minute I entered the door and it was making me hungry. I said this was the perk in having an open kitchen. They said the downside was that despite the overhead chimney/exhaust, some cooking aromas escape and don’t travel well to the living room.

They showed us a cooking range they had set up beside the barbecue grill on the patio, for cooking aromatic dishes like curry, dried or fermented fish, and garlic roasted peanuts.

They said that of all the cooking aromas that circulate well in the three areas, the smell of stewing beef is the best.

I totally agreed with them because, standing next to the terra cotta wall of their living room with drink in hand, the smell of beef stew wafting my way made it hard to wait for dinner to be served.

A group of us met to talk about garden landscaping, and what plants were the least attention-intensive especially for the time-challenged and, for me, the space-challenged.

We discussed the different varieties of ornamentals and how to fit them around each other so they wouldn’t crowd each other out. We compared plant heights and wondered if raising some areas of the garden would make for a more visually arresting arrangement.

One of us was commenting that it would be nice to have some herbs among the plants when the host’s husband walked in and joined our discussion. He said he was planning his own “if you can see it, you can eat it” garden in their backyard, right beside their kitchen patio.

He said that every single plant in his garden would be edible yet the garden would rival our ornamentals in beauty. He mentioned bamboo for the shoots, taro (elephant ear) for the tubers and stalks, different kinds of pepper and basil, ginger and some dwarf apple, orange and coconut trees, three different colors of tomatoes, cabbages, cucumber and lettuce.

He had us when he said, “This is real, healthy fast food – you see it, you pick it, you eat it!”

We haven’t totally let go of pure ornamentals but are going around the nurseries to include more edible plants in our garden landscape plans.

Whatever climatic zone you belong to, there will be those weekdays when you feel so hard-pressed that you end up wishing for a year of Sundays.

You don’t have to work in an office to feel the pressures of living in the ever faster lanes of this century.

Many people have resorted to meditation, yoga, aerobics, comfort-food and head-standing but I have a simpler remedy that may also work for you: A hammock.

Yes, that word is hammock, not humvee. I believe the hammock is a “must-revive” in any modern home. If you are just about to organize your wedding, put the hammock in your wish list of gifts.

Whatever kind your body feels right in – abaca rope, cotton macramé, nylon mesh, curved rattan weave – just get one. If you can’t find any, make one with a sturdy blanket tied at both ends with a strong rope. Attach it to two trees in the yard if you have those, or if it’s cold outside try your bedposts, or big hooks in the wall. I personally prefer the kind the military uses in the field because it gives around the contours of your body, the mesh is just right for the air to breeze through and is lightweight and compact you can carry it in your pocket.

Lie down in it; give a little push with your foot to get it swaying, and doze off or daydream for at least 30 minutes. You will find your body slowly unkinks — it’s incredible. Shades of our months in utero! Just don’t get carried away too far into nirvana unless it’s bedtime.

Thirty to forty-five minutes a day on the hammock; that’s all it takes, and you will get the feeling that every day is a lazy Sunday.

I hear that grumble every time I start reminding the kids about cleaning up their rooms. Although they do eventually get it done, I do have to hint at, if not threaten, a severe cut-back on the use of the computer and the internet.

If they didn’t want to listen to instructions from me, I told them, as I surveyed the mess in their rooms, they might as well make their internet time useful by searching for tidy-up tips for children’s bedrooms. With this parting shot, I made a dignified-back, grinning-face exit to the sound of “we’re not children!”

Getting your kids to do their chores can be very difficult especially when these involve cleaning up “their space.

I have come up with a competition for the coolest (no mention of cleanest there) room. The prize: An 8 hour stretch of weekend internet surfing, overriding the other siblings’ schedules.

The results should be interesting.

I got a frantic call from a friend asking for help in organizing an instant garage sale because she had to clean-up, design and decorate her attic in one week, for a nephew from across the pond who would be staying for the summer.

We were both very busy that time and had a hard time matching our schedules.  We called up friends for help and some found time to come over.  Again, it was difficult finding a day that week when we most of us could come to help until someone suggested that we hold the sale on-line on a pick-out and pick-up basis.

That was brilliant.  Our teenage children (who all had excuses for not being able to help) were suddenly available, with their laptops and notebooks, cell cams and printers.  One created the website, others took pictures of the items, and some went around with flyers announcing the sale and the website.  The incentive was 50% of the proceeds.

The sale was successful, our teens discovered a new summer business and my friend finished decorating the attic for her visitor.