Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So your question of "why is it that these appliances are never in view in decor magazines?" may be answered with "because not everyone uses those appliances".
It may be, but I think it has more to do with dressing the room for the photo. There are exceptions like yours.
A lot of busy urbanites don't use their kitchens at all, except if they're reheating take-out or delivery. I used to eat out a lot, but now I'm enjoying my own home cooking. A lot of people would probably gladly trade their large kitchens for a nook with nothing there but a coffee maker, mini-fridge, and small microwave.
We can all find ways to edit our home environment. We can't eliminate everything we live with, tho, was my original point.
To OP, you should read more websites that specialize in decorating homes. There are tons of sweet tips out in the deep internet that you could use for decorating your home. Nobody said it will be easy, but you can make it easier
Then we must be speaking of cultural/regional differences.
No one of my friends or family have a microwave on the counter ( it's either above the stove or built into an island).
Only one has an electric kettle (she's from the UK and is stunned that they are virtually unheard of here!). The rest of my family/friends use the MW to heat water; a few - like us - use the instant hot water dispenser.
They are not the exceptions, but the norm in my area.
I live out in the suburbs/rural, so I really have no idea how urbanites live. If they are not using their kitchens as you say, I would expect their counter tops to be clear of appliances also.
You are 100% right... we cannot eliminate everything we live with. But we all "live with" different things. And we all don't keep those things out on display.
When we moved into this house, I wanted to keep the kitchen counters as clutter free as possible. (You couldn't see the counters in our old house because of all the clutter.) I started putting all our mini appliances in cabinets but my husband wanted them out. The coffee maker I understand because he uses that every day. I asked him how often do we use the others? Maybe once every 6 months or so-or less. Well, the blender & crock pot are in the cabinet but the toaster oven is on the counter. I think the toaster oven was used once maybe twice since we have moved in and we have been living here for about 2 years now.
Even if I entertained once a week, I wouldn't keep the formal place settings for 8 at my dining room table every day. I've never been in anyone's home who has done that, either.
Maybe the electric kettle is a cultural thing...it heats water faster than a stovetop kettle. Not like an instant hot water dispenser, mind you, but I don't see those often. I prefer tea in a stoneware mug, and a microwave would just make the mug hot.
So much for hot water... For all the other kitchen appliances, well, I guess it's a matter of lifestyle. Bread makers, deep fryers, electric griddles, slow cookers, keurigs and tassimos, rarely do I see them in magazines.
And then there are all the other items in the house that get hidden. Televisions usually aren't shown in decor magazines, or wires of any sort, nor dehumidifiers, air purifiers, etc.
You won't see recliners... although furniture chains still seems to sell a lot of them... I guess nothing that would suggest the aged or the infirm would be living in a home. No walk-in baths, or stair lifts either. Definitely no assistance devices.
It's kind of odd, all that's missing from home decor mags.
When I moved to my current place, I got rid of a ton of stuff, including my coffee maker. The stuff that I kept had to have a place to be put away. The one exception is the toaster oven. I use that a lot to heat smaller stuff but, to be honest, I am thinking of eliminating that too, to make the space cleaner and more streamlined. The blender is in a cabinet. For coffee I use a french press, which is stored in a cabinet with the coffee grinder. I have a kettle for the stove that I use to heat water for the french press or tea. It also has a spot in a cabinet, but sometimes gets left on the stovetop. I recently had a microwave installed over the stove, I lived without one for a year and a half because I didn't want to have one on my counter.
My kitchen is fairly small and my new counters are gorgeous. I don't want stuff cluttering up the space and covering up the lovely quartz. It may sound silly, but I feel much more serene with less clutter and stuff around. I also clean up as I cook because I really dislike having dirty dishes around. I am not even a neat freak, but I just like a clear kitchen.
I hope I don't sound like a cult member, but honestly, it has been life changing for me. Not that I've implemented to full method and I'm not sure I ever will, not completely anyway. But it has changed my relationship with stuff and with clutter - and not just getting rid of all of it, but making more peace with it. My house is probably a lot cleaner than average, but no, it doesn't look like a magazine shoot, at least not unless I make the effort to make it that way. And I can do that, by tossing things in boxes and putting them in the garage or basement. But the reality is that we USE these things and we want them around. So I have baskets and other storage solutions and I keep a lot more around than a true minimalist might. However, I'm more comfortable with that and also with creating boundaries where I don't look at my living room and think, oh, it's already a mess, so why bother. Within MY own definition of comfortably tidy, I put in the effort to keep it that way. Probably some people think it's too sterile, others think it's a mess, but it works for me and my son.
So maybe it's a combination of mental work as well as the physical work of decluttering and decorating a bit can get you to the point of enjoying your current home, even if it's not your dream home.
OP, start with photos of rooms you really like. Look at how they're put together.
Every room needs a focal point. It can be a big canvas, or the fireplace, for instance.
Choose a few colors that you like together. You can get them from a canvas you like. If there is something you must work with in the room, like carpet you can't change, you figure out how to incorporate it into your color scheme. Even if it's just a minor color.
For instance, I live in a very tiny studio apartment. The usable space is only 115 square feet. So, I live and sit and work and cook and eat in the same room. I'm now in my big chair with my laptop, the desk is to my right with a big canvas over it, to my left is my kitchen with a bunch of stainless steel and black appliances, and the countertop is a dark gray. I hate stainless steel.
What I did was made black and gray my main colors, so the stainless steel & black appliances would work in here. Then I added some bright red to make it happier. I painted my desk bright red, I put a bright red table cloth on the table I use as a little kitchen island. I got canvases that are 3-D type pictures, to make the room appear bigger, as if they are windows. They are mainly gray and black with a little red. My chair has a throw on it that is a plaid that is mostly black, gray with a little red. I got a bright red toaster oven and tea kettle.
My bathroom is really tiny and claustrophobic. I put a huge canvas in there that is artwork of a window. The shower curtain is a misty looking view of a tree, so it's also kind of 3-D, like looking out a large window.
I got a large canvas to put over the front door that is of a birch tree forest, so it looks like you're looking out a window onto a forest. My ceilings are really tall, so using large canvases that bring your focus upwards, helps to also make the room look bigger, because you notice the space upwards.
My place is usually pretty cluttered. But, it's still pleasant for me to be in here, because now I like how the colors work around me, and the artwork that I look at makes me feel like I'm looking outside.
Even though you want to go for minimalist, finding one large canvas to make the focal point in the room, will make a huge difference right off the bat.
I didn't know what colors I wanted to do my bathroom, but what I did was I used the colors in the artwork I put in there. It looks great. My house is too messy to take photos right now LOL. But, these are the canvases I have, just to give you an idea of how a canvas can make a room seem bigger, if it's of a window or 3-D art.
In my main living space:
This is the large canvas over my red desk. It's the focal point in my main living space. It's 3' x 3':
I wanted a space that was peaceful, so I chose artwork that is peaceful to me. The window in the bathroom isn't peaceful, but it's fun to look at and makes me happier about being in that tiny bathroom. But, the shower curtain is peaceful.
Anyway, I hope I gave you some ideas. I love decorating my space, even if it's a temporary apartment. And I love doing it affordably. None of my furniture matches, but it still all looks nice in here.
Sit down with your DH and insist that you and he come up with an annual budget for apartment improvements. How we did this was DH set aside some money beginning in Jan, and by March I had something to work with. If the money is set aside, then you can take advantage of good deals and sales.
I agree about tackling each room, one at a time. Think of this as step by step. The decorating you do now will train you how to do this when you get your better house. So, make your home, your home, step by step.
^ Excellent advice!
My own opinion is that sometimes sites like Pinterest or Houzz are a set up for failure. Those displays are so completely perfect as to be overwhelming – how does an ordinary person achieve something like that? I know I've gone on Houzz in particular to ask where a certain piece was sourced or what color the paint was, only to be told, "it's all custom and a designer did it all."
I don't know about you, but I can't afford to have a designer come in and redo my entire house and customize furniture and paint colors.
The key (for me): take your available resources as of today and buy exactly one beautiful piece that you absolutely love. I mean it has to be a piece that makes you happy the minute you see it first thing in the morning. Almost like one of your children. It could be a piece of art, a single chair, a bookshelf –?
Whatever it is, it must inspire you - to keep you home clean (so that the piece is shown to an advantage), and to motivate you to continue to decorate your home.
Most of all: be patient! It will come! And don't be too hard on yourself. Life is too short for that.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
