Kitchen designs differ from country to country, so why not incorporate some international kitchen design ideas into your home?
The weather has a great influence on the way we live. Houses in climates that are constantly hot are built in a completely different way than those that have to withstand dramatic changes from one season to the next.
In a country where for most of the year food is cooked on an outdoor barbecue and meals are eaten outdoors, kitchen design can reflect this lifestyle. Making sure you have good ventilation to maintain a cool indoor atmosphere may become your main concern, and of course efficient refrigeration will be vital if perishable foods are to be stored safely. The choice of light furniture that can be easily transferred to the garden, porch, patio or terrace is another practical aspect to take into account; it is usually made of woven cane or light wood.
If it’s very hot outside, you may want to create a kitchen that’s also visually cool by coming up with a calming, pale color scheme. Use flat matte shades of blue and gray with pale painted walls and try to avoid intricate patterns that disturb the calm feeling. However, it’s worth remembering that these decorating schemes need plenty of bright, clear light, or their coldness tends to become clinical and unwelcoming.
The enduring appeal of the white villages of Spain’s rural south, Provence, and Tuscany is due in part to the other colors, drawn from the surrounding countryside, that blend with that white. These baked terracotta, natural sandstone and dusty pink tones also bring warmth in winters, which are often very cold. Sure, you can get inspiration and decorating ideas from vacations abroad, but transporting style from one country to another can be downright disastrous: colors that look great in the sun can be oppressive unless you can reproduce a similar light. by natural or artificial means. .
Thick wooden shutters on the windows, or canvas awnings, work not only to provide shade in the summer, but also to keep out icy winds. Stone or tiled floors are pleasantly cool in summer and can be heated with mats or rugs if required AND can have a door that opens directly from the kitchen into the garden which can be left open permanently in fine weather to allow Cool breeze to refresh the kitchen. But cool breezes turn into icy drafts in winter, so you’ll probably need to waterproof it, perhaps with a warm, colorful shade. And flexible yet reliable heating that can quickly respond to changes in the weather is a modern convenience that almost everyone would consider essential.
Obviously, it’s sensible to wait a year before making any major design decisions, unless you’re really sure you can anticipate any seasonal weather changes. Royal style is definitely more than a deep surface.
