Changing & Growing With You

Home cooking and gathering the family around for a meal have taken on newer meaning with the help of reality TV shows like ‘MasterChef,’ ‘Top Chef,’ and so on. Many home cooks have started experimenting with different types of foods, ingredients, and styles of international cooking to increase personal and family excitement surrounding meals.

If you know someone who has been inspired to get back to the kitchen and start cooking excellent home food, then it’s time to reward the person. Whether it is a loved one or just someone who enjoys cooking and has a unique occasion coming up, presenting a beautiful gift that will be a useful addition to their kitchen is a wonderful way to express your joy.

We have compiled a list of a few gifting ideas for kitchen enthusiasts. After all, a little motivation will only result in better-cooked food. We all love eating tasting and well-cooked food!

Traditional mortar and pestle:

This beautiful gift is easy on the wallet and can transport chefs to a time before machines. Getting someone back to their roots was never easier. Making pastes, grinding spices to the consistency of choice, and breathing in the beautiful aromatics is a sensory experience that most chefs revere. This is also an excellent way of reconnecting with food in the simplest of manners.

Metal mortar and pestles are usually only used for spices, but with traditional stone or marble, you can make pastes and chutneys. You can grind up a fine garlic paste or herb chutney within minutes while savoring the entire process and finding joy in cooking again. Choose a mortar and pestle that will be unobtrusive but attractive on the kitchen countertop.

Premium kitchen knife:

No chef is complete without a chef’s knife. Any home or professional chef will agree in concurring that one cannot have too many knives. An excellent kitchen knife that has multiple uses should be a staple in every kitchen. Enthusiasts of slicing and dicing will take great joy in a customized Japanese or regular knife that will help improve their culinary prowess.

There are many affordable knife and knife sets that you can gift to the chef in your life. Most online shopping sites have knife sets and knife blocks with multiple knives that are a dream for chefs. You can also get these engraved with your message and design or have it specially packed.

Measuring scale:

Home chefs and bakers will understand the importance of a good quality measuring scale. Any chef will benefit from a digital scale that measures ingredients in milliliters, ounces, grams, and fluid ounces. Food turns out much better in balance and taste when measured precisely as per recipe requirements. Just throwing ingredients together in a mixing bowl may result in disastrous consequences while baking or cooking.

If you do not want to invest in a digital scale, then a gift of measuring cups and spoons that measure dry and wet ingredients will also be handy. Many times, home bakers and home chefs prefer using traditional measuring equipment when using quantities for smaller portion sizes.

Barbecue toolkit:

If you know someone who is fond of barbecuing on a regular basis, you could opt for a stainless-steel barbecue tool kit. Many of these kits come with swiss knife spatulas, basting brushes, cleaning brushes, power tongs for easy food removal, skewers, and corn holders. Ensure that the equipment you buy is long-handled and can be easily maintained. This gift is also a favorite Father’s Day or anniversary gift for the prominent men in your life.

Many of these barbecue attachments come with heat-resistant handles, elongated handles, silicone holders, bottle openers, and serrated edges for smooth cutting and serving of meats. Choose a toolkit that is dishwasher safe and comes with non-stick surfaces for ease of handling and use.

Recipe Journal:

While there are many recipe books available today, not every recipe is regularly made. Often, each home chef or baker has their favorites from recipes either learned from recipe books or passed down through generations and obtained from friends and loved ones over the years. Inspirational and favorite recipes can be easily chronicled with the help of a recipe journal or book that has markers for ingredients, cooking and baking times, and portioning slots.

It is crucial for chefs and bakers to document their hard work, stories, and food travels. Show your support towards the food journey of your kitchen enthusiast by helping them keep all their favorite recipes in one place.

Whether you’re remodeling or building your kitchen from scratch, getting the design and functionality right are tough decisions to make. One of these critical decisions is getting the kitchen splashback perfect. The kitchen splashback is the part between your cabinets and electronic appliances. Kitchen splashbacks can often be show stealers and add grace and beauty to the kitchen.

Always account for your tastes and how you would like the kitchen to look and feel. If you want visually distinctive designs and patterns, then opt for some bold colours, patterns, and shades. If you want your splashback to blend into the kitchen and want the emphasis to remain on your appliances and cabinet, then keep the splashback a subtle shade that won’t make too much of a statement. Before you select the perfect kitchen splashback for your kitchen, there are a few things you must keep in mind.

Space: Get the exact measurements of the square footage you will require for the splashback. When selecting the material, you will have a better estimate of your requirement. Always account for 10% extra to be on the safer side.

Wear and Tear: Always consider the maintenance and upkeep of the splashback before you purchase it. While some designs in stone will look beautiful, there would be an additional cost of maintenance and reseal every year. On the other hand, ceramic ones are easier to clean and maintain and are cheap.

Sealing: Check the different types of ceiling against your wall material for best hold and impact. Different tiles need different sealing material. Check the sealing material before you select a splashback tile.

Right Grout: While this might not be something you want to know about, having a suitable grout is tantamount to keeping your kitchen splashback great. Keep your budgets in mind while selecting the grout for your kitchen splashback.

Without further ado, let us get into the business of choosing the perfect kitchen splashback.

Material: Kitchen splashback material is possibly the most important thing while making your selection. Earlier splashbacks would be available in 4-inch standard size. Now, splashbacks extend all the way to the bottom of kitchen cabinets and start at the countertop. The splashback you select should be one that holds true for functionality as well as visual appearance and effect. Select materials that will mix well with the overall theme of your kitchen design. Do not opt for neon tiles if you have a traditional brown and stone kitchen.

Some favorite materials for kitchen splashbacks are:

• Marble: Low maintenance, attractive and porous enough to absorb dirt and grease
• Ceramic Tile: Cost effective, comfortable to maintain, and durable, but requires grout refilling and resealing every year. Ceramic tiles are available in a plethora of colours, designs, textures, and finishes.
• Granite: Durable and beautiful, granite needs refilling and resealing twice every year to protect it from moisture
• Glass: Stain resistant, glass splashback may get scratches. Glass tiles and plate glass have gained tremendous popularity over the past decade for the reflective qualities and beautiful colours.
• Stainless Steel: Easy to clean and goes well with all designs and themes. Can get scratched and dented easily. Tiles are more expensive than sheets, but require a professional to install the entire splashback.

Functionality:  The functionality of the kitchen splashback should never be forgotten. No matter how beautiful the designs and textures may seem, durability, protection of the walls, cleaning, and food splatters must be considered. Bespoke tiles, designer splashbacks, and hard handcrafted surfaces look amazing as kitchen splashbacks but are extremely tough to maintain over time. The same goes for stainless steel and copper backs. As mentioned earlier, these materials might get scratched very quickly and end up looking worn out too early.

While using materials that breathe like cork and bamboo, keep the functionality in mind since you will have to reseal the content more often and this might lead to additional costs over the year. For kitchens that will cater to families and kids, be aware that it might be difficult to wipe off the sauce, ketchup, and oil stains easily. Select a splashback that looks great but adheres to the functionality that you would require from your kitchen. There’s no use in investing time and money in a splashback that will add to your daily work rather than save you the time for maintenance.

Before selecting the perfect kitchen splashback, consider the lifestyle of your household and family. Your splashback should be able to withstand heat from pots, the stove, and ovens, and should be easy to clean and maintain. Select the splashback style, design, colour, and texture, to bring a new look and feel to your kitchen.

Home décor is extremely important. It helps in improving functionality, aesthetics, beauty, and comfort of any home. When homes are built from scratch, many aspects are taken into consideration – from the foundation, stockpiling, walls, and ceilings, to plumbing, flooring, water supply, and electricity. Once the house or building is constructed, the interior spaces and décor are equally important. Most homes or offices are built not only to elicit beauty but also to make the occupants comfortable in their surroundings.

Every homeowner has a different characteristic and sense of comfort and beauty. Varied personalities naturally mean diverse interests, lifestyles, and needs. What might seem beautiful to one person might be abhorrent to another. Each home is as unique as the people living in it and so should be decorated accordingly. As such, homeowners pay particular attention to décor like flooring. Floors are a permanent element of the home. There are several varieties of flooring to choose from, and each reflects a specific personality trait of the people in that space.

Let us look at a few reasons why flooring is important.

Interior design and aesthetics:

Floors are essential in any living area. They change the appeal and aesthetics of the spaces around. When decorating a room, most people only focus on the walls, ceilings, furniture, textures, and colors of articles. Many completely ignore or overlook the flooring. The décor in the room is decorated with the floor and its appeal. Beautiful, well designed floors improve and enhance the design and décor of the room and helps in bringing together all other elements of the room. Furniture and wall décor, paintings, coffee tables, beds, wall fixtures, and even taps are accentuated with the help of well-designed and well-placed tiles or flooring.

Excellent flooring is visually appealing:

One of the first things that people subconsciously see when they enter a room or house is the flooring. The visual appeal of the floor is very dynamic and can appeal to people with different tastes. The foundation of the entire house and its rooms are mostly dependent upon the type of flooring design chosen. Enhancement of quality flooring in the form of wood or tiling, marble designs, carpeting, or with the use of throw rugs helps in setting the tone for the entire house. Visual appeal through right flooring is like a final piece in the jigsaw of your home décor.

Flooring changes the look of the room:

Different types of floors affect the way the place looks. To make a room look more prominent, and give the impression of having more light, space, and height, opt for light-colored timber flooring with long planks, light-colored carpeting without designs, large tiles in lighter shades with small designs, and diagonal flooring patterns that run along the length of the room. To make a spacious room look smaller or cozier, use standard length and width floorboards, dark, rich,  or warm colored carpets with large designs or patterns. The more patterned the flooring, lesser will be the sense of space. Similarly, muter the design and pattern, larger will be the sense of space.

Flooring décor is adaptable:

If you are remodeling, redoing, shifting into a new house, or renting one, the flooring needs to be flexible to your needs. Most families spend a lot of time in the kitchen and bedrooms. As such, the tile in these areas should be sturdier, more durable, and easy to clean. If you have small children, then they also need to be quick fixes for things that spill on them. If you have elderly citizens in your home that require walkers or assistance with movement, the flooring you select should be easy to maneuver without any additional textures for ease of movement. Wooden planks, lino flooring, hardwood floors, and marble tiles, are great flooring that is visually appealing and yet are durable and will suit all the above requirements.

Selection of flooring is a crucial decision that will set the tenor for the rest of your home. Always select tiling that is easy to install and clean over time. Flooring that doesn’t affect the natural aesthetics of your room or house is ideal. Opt for inlays, wood flooring, herringbone flooring, European styles of flooring, marbling, bamboo floors, and carpets to instantly revamp a drab or dull looking room. Always select colors that are pleasing to your eyes and have a calming influence on the people living in the house. Many flooring options today are flexible in price and budget to suit individual tastes and requirements.