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Children cooking in the kitchen

Keep the Kitchen child safe

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When it comes to getting a new kitchen, we often forget about the wider aspects to the design process.

Children can play a major part in the design process – particularly the younger ones. They are very compelled by the kitchen and are heavily enticed from all the colourful things you put in and take out of cupboards, drawers & the fridge.

Kids love to be wherever you are – INSTANTLY if they see you’re about to do something they want to help with and we all know they love baking/cooking (i’m pretty convinced it’s because they get to have multiple taste tests and get the rights to licking the bowl!) this is why it becomes important as they are spending a chunk of time in the kitchen also and it can be a jungle for them in there with so many things to grab and play with.

While you spend quite a bit of time in the kitchen, there’s no way of having it child-free, but the bonus here is that we can make it as safe as possible so they minimize any head bumps on sharp corners, jammed fingers in the cabinetry – YOU NAME IT! they will find a way to do it if they can.

Talking to your designer and making sure this is an important design aspect to incorporate is very much achievable while still having the kitchens of your dreams, it may mean having the rounded edges on the bench tops opposed to the square edge or a rounded handle instead of a sharper edged one would be the way to go but the options are super flexible when going through a skilled designer (like our lovely designers here at Next Edition Kitchens!) you often won’t pick up on what else needs to be discussed but the knowledge the designers have is incredible and will have you walking away feeling like you’re in great hands as are your children.

Keep in mind, there are many little gadgets you can purchase to assist the safety in the kitchen if you aren’t designing or renovating. Click here for ideas.

Design

High Quality Material Is The Best Way To Go

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Do you want to invest in a new kitchen or update your current kitchen that will stand the test of time and keep looking brand spanking new? In our blog today, we are going to go through why using high quality material is the best way to go – this ensures optimal, long lasting performance with style.

Have you ever stepped foot in your friends or families house and felt immediately mesmerized? Chances are that it had something to do with the detail and style of the area. Details are so very important and really tie the knot with your styles and will make any room look and feel captivating, specifically, in the kitchen it is one of the most crucial rooms in the house to really hit the nail on the head in terms of design and quality.

When creating the plans for your project, it is super important to create a truly efficient and functional outcome. The kitchen is the heart of the home – if you are second guessing whether or not to go that extra mile and spend the extra money to ensure you are receiving the best quality products, take our word and just do it! You will not regret the finished products and after all, we spend almost every day in the kitchen, so it is really a great investment and not only that – it also can add significant value to your home.

Any kitchen is going to look absolutely breath taking and just exquisite on it first days, but the tell-tale sign of a really great quality Kitchen is how it holds up, how everything ages and how it feels when you are using it on the daily basis. This is why choosing colours can come to a great, feel-good final and quick choice and happens fairly early in the planning stages, but it is what’s “behind the scenes” you could say, that is the more wandered upon stage of the project that determines the long-lasting and practicality. If or perhaps when the time comes to sell your home, the quality feeling of your kitchen cabinetry could be just the thing to push that potential buyer over the finish line.

With our wonderful suppliers and knowledge our professional Team have gathered over the years, this makes selecting only the best quality for your kitchen, easy. We have more affordable ranges which have very similar qualities and have been proven to stand the test of time also – of course the general wear and tear and how you use the area really has impact on the test of time but seeing as we care just as much as you do for your kitchen, we have provided how to best maintain your darker kitchen cabinetry but this way is also suited for your light, bright and vibrant colours too which you can check out here: Dark and Light cabinetry care blog.

Like our suppliers (Blum, Hettich, Hafele – just to name a few), we understand how important this project is to you, it really is the heart of the home. In our opinion, it should be designed and built to provide a long lasting, efficient, stylish kitchen which requires little maintenance (and by little, I mean your general cleaning and not having to replace things here and there.) This understanding lies behind all the kitchen fittings and accessories we incorporate in the kitchens we design, build and install.

The build quality is crucial, as is the smoothness of the materials which really revolves around doors and drawers and how the function whilst opening and closing them. By choosing the slightly more costly materials it really does ensure the capability these materials have to stand the test of time.

We want to spice up the kitchen or nail the new build once and have it look like a brand new kitchen every day, the key to achievement this is certainly quality material and maintenance.

Here at Next Edition Kitchens, we make sure you walk away with the knowledge on the correct way to maintain your benches and cabinetry, we stock local, great quality materials to suit each and every project at an affordable cost! how can that be? too good to be true? our answer is simple – we care about the future generation of design which we are 100% passionate about, all of our designers are constantly testing materials, researching pros and cons and also just staying up to date with product knowledge.

Being able to provide customers with the project of their dream at a great cost is such a heart warming feeling and it is the reason we do what we do (and a bit of help from our wonderful accounts department who loves to fairly negotiate as well gives us a great kick-start on unbeatable costs!)

Enquire on sales@nexteditionkitchens.com or call our office on 09-430 3074 to get an estimate now!

Butler sink

The Butler sink – Must have sink 2018

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A couple of weeks ago, one of our suppliers had come to us and proposed an updated brochure of beloved sinks and mixers we use with a few new additions thrown in here and there and let me tell you – we are in for a jolly good treat!

One sink that particularly stuck out to us was the butler sink (or otherwise known as the farmhouse sink) I decided to do a bit of research on this gem and prepare to be amazed – there is a bit of history behind the idea designers had whilst designing this little beauty.

Let’s start with the history so we can appreciate it even more knowing is origination.

You will notice this sink has many different names it goes by depending on what part of the world you live in, here in NZ and Australia we most commonly identify these as a Butler sink or Farmhouse sink, but they are also called apron front (mostly in the US), London and Belfast. (I’m going to stick with using Butler sink for this blog) London and Belfast are in fact two specific designs of farmhouse sink – read a little more about this below.

The Butler sink originated in a time when there was no running water, so in this time we all used buckets (or pales if you will) of water, the idea behind the sink was that it was a place to hold large amounts of water – water that had to be collected by hand with buckets and barrels from nearby water wells, lakes or rivers.

The two original iconic Butler style sinks, which emerged in Ireland and Britain in the late 17th century, were the London and the Belfast sink. They were both of similar design, however – each had their own noticeable different characteristics designed to suit the area they would be used for. The Belfast sink was deep and had an overflow so that excess water could be easily drained away instead of flowing over the sides of the sink. Unlike Belfast, the London sink was designed to be shallower and had no overflow so that every drop could be kept inside the sink.

The design of the sink means that the user can stand directly at the front of the basin – with no cabinets or benchtop in between. This made the Butler sink more comfortable to use for women who would, in olden days, spend some of their day at the sink, preparing food, washing dishes, washing clothes and even washing babies.

Practicality of the size:

While you could still wash your baby in today’s Butler sink, you’ll probably find it more useful for washing large pots, baking/oven trays etc. – items that you would generally struggle to wash in a typical sink, and – if one large bowl isn’t enough, you can find several double bowl options, too.

Installation:

Originally, Butler sinks were designed to sit slightly to the front of the cabinets so that any water that spilled over down the front of the sink it would run directly to the floor instead of flowing on and damaging the cabinets, this is still how Butler sinks are typically installed in a kitchen.

They are also installed just under the benchtop level so that the bench can slightly overhang the sides of the sink, making it easy to wipe water from the bench straight into the sink.

Whats the material?

White Butler sinks are most commonly made from either fireclay or porcelain.

Fireclay sinks are made of clay, which is heated to an extremely high temperature that makes the sink very hard and durable. It also gives the sink its beautiful high shine. The durability of fireclay means that it is very resistant to scratches and chips and is also very easy to clean.

Porcelain sinks are a ceramic material, again heated to high temperatures, although not quite as high as fireclay. They look like fireclay sinks but are less expensive. Porcelain sinks are not quite as durable as fireclay and are more prone to chipping and discoloration.

There are many other options regarding copper colors & stainless steel which both have many benefits.

There is a modern version which unlike the butler sink, it sits on top of the benchtop and has a space for a tap hole incorporated into the sink, eliminating the need to have a benchtop run around the back of the sink. The fact that this sink sits on top of the bench eliminates the risk of water finding its way down the sides of the sink, making for a more water tight option – although not as authentic as the original design.

If you’re needing inspo, don’t fret! i have you covered….https://www.pinterest.nz

 

Colour pallete

How to choose the perfect colour scheme

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Ever walked into a kitchen designing studio with a fair idea of what you’ve wanted but seen the colour boards and gone blank minded? the amount of choices are insane but at the same time pretty ideal – with heaps of colours to choose from you won’t be needing to change much else.

When picking out the colors for you kitchen, your first step is to pick out two complementing dominant colors. Keeping these two colors simple will give you more opportunities to change up your kitchen over time without really having to change much more than the colours of the panels and possibly the benchtop. The third color should be an accent color that brings the entire room together while giving the room a little character. Personally, i believe choosing what colors you want in your kitchen definitely plays a role in choosing your personal style of kitchen.

For example, black and white kitchens are mostly categorized as modern. On the other hand, neutral colored kitchens are mostly placed in the “Standard” category where as the wooden kitchens are more so “Vintage”.

BENCH TOPS:

Pick your bench tops first, why?  because they can vary in color, pattern, and style making it hard to match any existing flooring and cabinetry in your kitchen. When picking your bench top, it is vital to think about the possibility of having a splashback in your kitchen either in the present or future, reason being is because you will be quite restricted with what colour you choose in some cases when it comes to splashbacks. Picking your bench tops first also allows you better match paints, stains, hardware, and custom finishes. Whether you choose granite, tile, wood, etc., your bench top is a signature piece in your kitchen – if you are unsure of how to make sure it is going to match your existing panels etc, talk to the bench top guys down at Northern Benchtops in Whangarei (very professional and passionate about what they do)

CABINETS:

Choosing your cabinet colours aren’t looked upon as such a tricky task if you have chosen your bench top colour then this will be a very simple decision – if you have gone for a grey bench top for instance, your walls are white then you could go with a misty grey colour which will link these all up nicely. Having an all white kitchen is very common these days as you can easily link white up with any colour while keeping that elegant, modern look, Darker panels look nice against the darker bench tops or suiting darker panels with a timber bench top would just look absolutely stunning.

 FLOORING:

Before you jump into picking colours, consider whether or not you will be changing the flooring – if not you need to choose colours that will bring this all together and not draw too much attention to your flooring. For example, having a brown tiled floor would not compliment a darker blue unit. Go see your flooring professionals (i recommend the guys at Floorcraft here in Whangarei – never seen a disappointed customer and they have produced stunning finished projects) let them know what sort of colour scheme you are wanting (make sure to let them know of all colours you have existing that will be staying in the kitchen and what colours you are wanting to include in the new one, try take samples if you can a lot of places will have free samples to take.)

 

I highly recommend going to your local bench top guys or a kitchen designing studio and also the flooring places to get that much needed opinion as you could stem your own ideas based on what they have stated, while also keeping in mind what will definitely not suit – sounds like a lot of work but you will thank me later! Trust me.

 

Northern Benchtops Whangarei – http://www.kitchenbenchtops.co.nz/

Floorcraft Whangarei – http://www.floorcraftwhg.co.nz/