Myndu Interior Design

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.

Decorating or redecorating your kitchen shouldn’t be about the easiest way out. Let yourself go wild, go the extra mile and make your kitchen everything you want it to be and everything it should be.

The hardest part of decorating your kitchen is sticking to the decision to make the changes—which we all know is hard enough in a time where we’ve been brainwashed to believe that we can always procrastinate and things will still manage to get done. But don’t think that just because you’ve made the decision to decorate your kitchen means that it will be smooth sailing from here on out. Do that and you’ll be in for an extremely unpleasant surprise that will make you wish you had never started.

What you really have to do is be ready to commit to your kitchen decorating project and make a goal of going above and beyond what you’d normally expect yourself to accomplish.

For instance, my brother recently purchased a slightly used but newer home. The previous owner had ghastly taste in decorating and my brother inherited a puce stone floor. However, rather than tear it up—stone is expensive!—he decided to take matters into his own hands. Armed with a can of sealant stripper and a bucket of bleach water, he was able to lighten the floor three shades and give it a more palatable appeal. Then, just for good measure, he went out and purchased a blue and beige woven bamboo area rug that turned the eyesore of a kitchen into a girlfriend’s paradise. The simplicity of adding an area rug to the kitchen not only gave his kitchen life but also helped to disguise some areas of the floor where he couldn’t quite get the floor to evenly shade.

He also purchased one beige area rug for the inside of his closet pantry and two blue area rugs—one to place in front of the stove and the other for in front of the sink. These three rugs are all cotton area rugs—they match well with the more expensive bamboo area rug under the kitchen table, but can be washed in the washing machine whenever they meet with heavy traffic or spaghetti sauce.

Take a lesson here and remember that you don’t always have to engage in a complete overhaul of your kitchen just to make it look appealing to yourself and to visitors. All it takes is a little ingenuity.

But don’t think it stops with a bucket of bleach and a bamboo area rug. Your kitchen requires a certain amount of life that comes from your décor including your kitchen towels, wash cloths, curtains (if you have windows) and various amounts of chachka that show off your personality.

Whenever you decorate or redecorate your kitchen, whether it’s a permanent change, a temporary change or a seasonal change, get ready to go overboard and let yourself go wild. There’s nothing better than a room that shows off every part of who you are and how you see yourself. Go the extra mile and be the change you wish to see in your kitchen.

There are many ways to relax and unwind after a day full of stress – decorating your home according to Zen principles is one of them. And there are more benefits of Zen home décor.

A hectic urban pace of life causes stress at each and every step, even though we don’t realize or choose to ignore it sometimes. So, it is only natural that at home we crave for relaxation and peace. Asia-originated Zen interior décor is based on simple lines, natural colors and textures, minimalism in everything, and plenty of open space. It is all about achieving balance and harmony between objects and eliminating distracting elements.

Zen home decorating is becoming increasingly popular in the western world today thanks to a number of benefits it brings along. The “less is better” home décor principle of Zen proves to work best for modern urban homes.

Less Stress

Multiple colors (especially very bright and contrasting), too many accessories, cluttered surfaces, and things of mismatching design and style add to everyday stress. Subconsciously, you might hate the way your room looks like and it disturbs you day after day. An irritating detail, like gaudy curtains or an out-of-place piece of furniture can ruin the entire look of the room and turn off your mood as well.

Zen home, thanks to its minimalism and organic color scheme, creates a balanced look and helps restore your own inner balance. Simplicity, earth shades and no distracting elements promote stress relief and relaxation. The soothing effect is also achieved through soft lighting, the use of natural materials (wood, bamboo, rice paper, natural fabrics, etc) and such decorative elements like a mini Zen garden, a lotus flower in a bowl, or a tiny table waterfall.

Less Clutter

Some people may argue that a Zen home looks rather boring, but compare it to a cluttered home and see which one looks more appealing. In order to give your home that spacious and neat appearance, you have to declutter it first, which is a great thing. Actually, a home of any décor style will only benefit from it. Instead of a billion of knick knacks invest in quality furniture, natural flooring and redesigning your home towards plenty of hidden storage spaces.

Getting rid of excessive details doesn’t mean, however, no decoration at all. There is always a place for a nice artwork or another decorative element in a Zen home. And, if well chosen, a single accessory might be enough to liven up a room. So, embracing principles of Zen home décor doesn’t mean making it boring – on the contrary, your house will look more intriguing and a lot better organized.

Less Housework

A lot of furniture, cluttered surfaces and walls, insufficient storage space that results in little objects scattered everywhere around the house certainly add to daily housework. Whereas, clear floors and surfaces, and minimum furniture make it much easier to clean the house within minutes. Ideally, things that are out of sight should also be kept in order and well-organized. In other words, decluttering the living areas doesn’t mean you can stack stuff to shelves and cabinets and clutter them instead. Mess in your drawers will not give you a peace of mind Zen home décor is supposed to. Make your home a true Zen inside out!

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Flowers come in all different shapes, sizes, and species.  They bloom almost as fast as they wilt, and they are always pretty to look at.  Floral patterns in home decor have been looked down upon by younger generations because they seem “old” and “tacky”.  But floral patterns can really brighten up a home, and there are many possibilities when it comes to floral patterns decorating your home.

Floral patterns can pretty much go on anything–pillows, bedspreads, wallpaper, drapes, sofas, dishware, etc.  It’s easy to look tacky if you don’t know how to match up your floral decorations, but it’s also easy to make it easily  fit into any room.  Just look at the room you’re decorating and consider the color palette.  What colors are the walls?  What about the furniture? Look for floral patterns that incorporate the same colors as the rest of the room.  Not only that, but consider the size of the room.  A small room with larger furniture would call for a patter with flowers at a bigger scale.  For a room that is more cluttered, busier patterns with a smaller scale might be a better choice.  For a more vintage styled room, try using floral patterns that are pastel colored, and you can also get a vintage look just by having floral pattern furniture for a long time and letting it fade out.

There’s also the misconception that flowers are a womanly type of decor patter.  But it can work for the males, too.  For the men, largely scaled patterns mixed with primary colors add more of a modern look rather than girly.

There are many different species and types of flowers, so the possibilities of what kind of pattern to use are endless.

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