Designing My Eco Friendly Dream Kitchen with The Home Depot #revitalizeandredesign

This dream kitchen post is sponsored by The Home Depot and Glam but all opinions expressed here are my own.

My husband and I spent a ton of money last year to replace all of the windows in our home. We switched from single pane to double pane windows with an easy to clean feature that we absolutely love. Well, as much as anyone can actually LOVE cleaning windows, of course! We chose The Home Depot to do this for us and we were thrilled with the work they did. Now that the budget is slowly recovering, we are starting to look towards other home improvement projects that need to be done. Creating a dream kitchen is high on my list of must haves some time soon. Since The Home Depot did such a wonderful job with the windows, I was thrilled to be asked to work on putting together a post about my dream kitchen using The Home Depot website. The kitchen design and floor plan we currently have has it’s pluses and minuses but  it could use a serious overhaul. When designing a dream kitchen, there are three characteristics it absolutely must posses

1. My dream kitchen will make cooking, cleaning, and storage simple and efficient
2. My dream kitchen will be a place for family to spend time together
3. My dream kitchen will have features that help minimize ecological impact of it’s design and my everyday living.

One of my biggest issues with our current kitchen is the lack of storage space. Small cabinets mean that very little can fit in them and I am stuck with clutter all over my kitchen counters. I detest clutter! Adding more cabinet space and making sure those cabinets reach all the way to the ceiling is number one on my list of improvements. When we moved into this house 7 years ago, one of the things I absolutely loved was the white cabinetry. Now, I am wondering why in the world anyone in their right mind would install white cabinets! People with white cabinets must not have children with grubby fingers, dogs that slobber or mixing bowls that accidentally flip over! My kitchen cabinets are a serious mess and when I redesign them I am going to look for something very dark to hide all the food, slobber and fingerprints! They will reach all the way to the ceiling so I can store my flower vases without laying them sideways. My new dream kitchen cabinets will store things like mixers, cookie sheets, 6 pounds of flour, and all my assorted kitchen gadgets with ease. Until, of course, I go buy more kitchen gadgets! It’s an addiction, I swear!

Other areas that need a huge overhaul in my kitchen are the floors (wood which needs sanding and staining), the lighting (fluorescent…UGH!), and a designated area for my desk that is more organized than the pile of junk sitting on it right now. My dream kitchen is a place where my family feels at home, that I can cook and clean with ease, and one that makes the family WANT to spend time in it. If you are dreaming of your own perfect kitchen, here are a few tips on how to design a dream kitchen that will have a slightly smaller carbon footprint!

10 Tips for Designing an Ecofriendly Dream Kitchen

1. Reuse what you can:  If you like the general size and layout of your cabinets consider keeping them but having new paint, stain, or hardware installed.

2. Maximize natural lighting:  Brighten up your kitchen by having a window or two installed in your kitchen. Or, enlarge the windows you currently have. This will reduce the amount of electrical lighting you need to use and make the room much more inviting.

3. Maximize air flow:  Make sure that the windows you have installed actually open to let in fresh air. Install a ceiling fan to improve air flow. Keeping the hot air out of the kitchen means less air conditioner usage. It also means that the heat from your stove in the winter may actually make it to your living room

4.  Use natural materials whenever possible.  Choose nickle, ceramic, granite, bamboo and other natural materials when designing your dream kitchen. I love the stone back splash in the image above as well as the stone tiles on the floor.

5. Choose the right paint.  A bright coat of paint on the walls makes a much more inviting room. Skip the wallpaper so that when you change your color scheme in a year you don’t have the hassle of ripping down wall paper. Choose an ecofriendly paint like a milk based brand or a low VOC paint to minimize your carbon footprint.

6. Install plenty of storage:  Having a decent amount of storage in your dream kitchen means you can buy in bulk. This saves you money but is also better for the environment. Choosing the largest container of bulk oatmeal you can find means less packaging waste but it is not always easy to find a place to put it without sufficient storage.

Choose Antiques for Your Dream Kitchen!

7. Choose second hand:  Hit the garage sales and antique stores to find things to decorate your kitchen. Buying second hand is always a great way to reduce your ecological impact. I found a wonderful antique cast iron french fry maker at a local garage sale that makes a unique addition to our kitchen.

8. Choose easy to clean surfaces:  Cleaning in my house is a never ending chore! I love the idea of a tile floor to make cleaning it so much easier than wood. It is also much more durable and will last longer without resanding and resurfacing like my wood floors are in desperate need of!

9. Make cooking convenient:  Nobody wants to cook a big dinner if the kitchen isn’t enjoyable to actually work in. Things like built in cutting boards over the trash can, spice racks built right into the cabinet, overhead pot hangers and other features will make cooking dinner a much faster and easier chore. People who cook at  home MORE, eat  out LESS. Which is good for your wallet, your waste-line, and the environment!

10. Make it energy efficient:  New appliances should all have the energy efficient logo on them. This will go a long way towards cutting your utility bills and reducing the amount of electricity your kitchen needs to run on. Things like double ovens and state of the art side by side refrigerators are high on my list of must haves during my dream kitchen remodel!

If you are planning for your own dream kitchen makeover, keep in mind that The Home Depot is a great resource for kitchen cabinetry upgrades! Their Reface, Replace, and Re-new options offer a wide range of new cabinet selections! The products they offer provide a huge amount of flexibility so you can find an option that suits your lifestyle and budget. For more inspiration on planning your own dream kitchen, check out my Pinterest board! Just click on the image below to check it out!

Replace, Reface, ReNew are three options available ONLY at The Home Depot. Replace allows for full transformation of your kitchen cabinets with an array of choices from top brands. Reface is a perfect option to update your cabinets without a major renovation. And lastly, ReNew is ideal for consumers who want to give their existing cabinets a facelift without major disruptions and cost. And to complete your kitchen project, The Home Depot is your one stop shop for countertops, sinks, appliances, backsplashes and lighting.

 

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by The Home Depot via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of The Home Depot.