Hexagonal wooden bead trivet....

....DIY

So, here's a little useful and pretty DIY for your kitchen:

A wooden bead trivet.

Perfect for protecting your work surfaces from hot pots and pans when cooking...I use mine to rest my chemex coffee maker on, and I love the simple hexagonal design and the color and texture of the wooden beads!

This is a very simple make, and besides from the wooden beads, all you'll need is a needle and some string.

I made mine in less than 1/2 hour.

Here's how you can make your own:

Create a loop at the end of your string, then thread on 6 beads...

Use the loop to tighten the beads together into a circle, then pass the needle through the last bead to secure the shape. Let's call this the first row.

To start forming the second row, thread on one bead to sit between two of the beads on the first row.

Secure by passing the needle through the next bead on the first row...repeat all the way around...

Next up, you want to fill the gaps on the second row...

Do this by passing the needle through the beads you've just attached, then add the beads to fill in..

Start the third row in the same way as you did the second, but this time add two beads, before securing by passing the needle through the corresponding bead on the previous row...

Continue all the way around...

... then fill in the gaps as you did before.

I stopped there, but if you want a bigger trivet, just repeat the processes above until you get your desired size.

Tie off the loose end.

Simple, easy and good looking: A useful addition to your kitchen...

I love the way it compliments my Chemex and fits in with my kitchen interiors:

I hope you all have a great weekend, and that you will pop back next week for my next installment in my Beautiful Utility blog post series, as next week I am looking at how to get your laundry and household cleaning essentials to become more integrated element of your interiors, by choosing functional, yet beautifully designed tools for the job.

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Beautiful kitchens....

....beautiful essentials

Image from my kitchen makeover reveal

Continuing on my quest to make everyday household essentials a more integrated part of my interior and home style, I am this week looking at, maybe THE most important room in any house, the heart of any home: The Kitchen!

I don't know about you, but this is the one room of our home that get's the most traffic:
Cleaning, laundry and rubbish....dumping ground for stuff like letters, coats and pocket contents...the kitchen is where it all ends up in our house! But of course, the main purpose of this room is food preparation, storage and cooking and eating!

Setting aside all the other incarnations this room has to take on in our home (because maybe YOU are lucky enough to have a separate laundry room and a big hallway for coats ;)), in today's post I am focusing on finding beauty in design meant for a working, cooking kitchen!

Firstly, I want to share some images of some lovely kitchens I've found on the www. that I feel have been kitted out in a beautiful, yet functional way,to serve this purpose. Then, a bit further down the post, I have curated some nicely designed kitchen essentials, and I'll be talking a bit about the balance between functionality and beauty in kitchen design...

But first, some kitchen eye candy inspiration for you all:

Image from Lovely Life

Image from Per Jansson

Image from Stadshem

Image via Dekolehti

Image via digsdigs

Image from Scandinavian love song

Image via Hus&hem

In a busy room like the kitchen, having all your everyday essentials at the ready and at hand when you need them, will often mean that things does not get put away everyday...

This means that the kitchen work surfaces can often end up cluttered with "stuff".

So my theory is, that by investing in well designed "stuff", that not only serves it's purpose, but also looks good, the clutter will at the very least be stylish!

When I say investing, I don't mean that it has to be expensive, designer stuff: but invest some time in researching items that you need, or would like to replace in order to improve the look of your kitchen...use google or pinterest to find items that YOU like the look of and that will serve the purpose.

From kitchen utensils that match you kitchen wall colour to a nice set of pots and pans...it doesn't have to cost the earth, and it doesn't have to all be new...shop around for bargains...I often find useful things in shops like Tiger and IKEA, and mix them up with bargains from E-bay or similar places, curating an eclectic collection of working kitchen essentials that works for the look I like.

Kitting your kitchen out with essentials that compliment each other, as well as your interior style and decor will help the kitchen look more put together, even if the work surfaces are filled to the brim.

Another way to make your kitchen cooking essentials less likely to clutter up the interior, is by choosing functional and purpose made storage: From storing cooking oils and condiments on a handy shelf  next to the cooker.... to rails with hooks for storing pots and pans....functionality and design is key! 

Obviously, I've got a penchant for Scandinavian design, and my curated kitchen wish list below, reflects this look, but even if this look is not your "bag", my advice to you when kitting out your kitchen, is to choose things YOU like, but always keep in mind the overall look you want to achieve in the interior, as well as the functionality of the design.

1/House doctor Apron 2/ copper pots and pans 3/Normann Copenhagen friends salt and pepper shakers 4/House doctor Knife block 5/House doctor measuring jug 6/ House Doctor Set of 3 scale storage tins7/Montobello oven mitt  8/set of 4 chopping boards 9/Bodum bistro black bread box 10/House Doctor Kitchen rack 11/Orla Kiely set of 3 herb pots with tray 12/Morphy Richards two slice copper toaster 13/Concoctions olive oil decanter 14/saladbowl 15/whisk

So instead of just buying things for the kitchen that you need, purely with functionality in mind, spend some time searching for items that not only serves it's purpose, but also looks good and will add the the overall look of the room....that fits in with your interior style:
It will help keep your kitchen looking stylish, even when it's a mess and nothing has been put away!

In my next post I've got a little DIY that serves this purpose well...
so pop back later this week to learn how to make a pretty and useful trivet for resting your hot saucepans on, that you won't mind having laying about.

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DIY print tea towels

This week I have been investigating how to keep your washing up essentials organised to keep your sink-side looking beautiful.

In addition to my guide to beautifully designed sink-side accessories and inspirational images from the www. that I posted here, I am today sharing how I printed up some plain white tea towels , a kitchen sink-side essential, to inject some personality into my kitchen:

As with my DIY printed coasters, I simply used some hexagonal cookie cutters to print  the pattern onto  plain white tea towels, and of course I used fabric paint instead of acrylics...

(Just ignore the fabric pen in the picture, above, as I didn't use it in the end...;))

Of course, if you'd like to print up your own tea towels, put your own spin on them to make them personal to you and fit in with your tastes and decor.....this tutorial is merely meant to inspire your creativity and show you how easy it is to customize everyday items in a decorative way...beautifying your home essentials.

Here's what I did when I made mine:

I mixed up the fabric paints to create the colours that I wanted: a minty blue, a greeny-yellow and some white + a coral shade that really pops! This is the same colour combination I used on my cork coasters, and I love it!

Step 1:

I wanted to create a water colour splat effect as a base on the tea-towels, before printing with the cookie-cutters,
So I wet the plain tea towels and placed them on top of an old rag-rug (to protect my work surface)....
Then I watered down some of the fabric paint, to make it a bit more runny, before simply splatting it onto the wet tea-towels.....

This is great fun, and little miss Moo helped me!

We created some faint, irregular splatter patterns using all the colours, then hung the tea towels out to dry.

Then I ironed the tea towels to set the paint.

Step 2:

Next , I used the un-watered-down  fabric paints to print the hexagonal patterns on the paint-splattered tea-towels.

I painted the thicker side rim of the cookie-cutter shapes with fabric paint, then simply pressed onto the tea towels, in an irregular pattern....

When I was happy with the way it looked, I ironed , again, to set the paint.

We made 3 tea-towels in this way, each one a little different from the other:

I am so pleased with how mine turned out.

Tea towels are a kitchen essential, and I use mine to dry the dishes after washing up, wipe down the sides and to soak up spills and protect my furniture etc...

Bu customizing my house-hold essential, like these, I am adding a personal touch to my interiors, and making my everyday necessities a little more attractive...

...which is what my current post series BEAUTIFUL UTILITY is all about.

Next week I'll be looking at the kitchen as a whole, and I will be sharing my picks of all those little and large items that are necessary in a functional kitchen, but with focus on the aesthetics as well as the functionality of design....plus, of course, anther little DIY!

Hope to see you back here then!

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washing up....

Sink-side beauty

So this is my second subject in my beautiful utility series of posts, and having started with  the Morning coffee, I am now moving on to a notoriously difficult spot in the kitchen to make beautiful: The kitchen sink!

This is a busy space in any household, and the endless traffic of dirty dishes, ugly washing up tools and wet rags can quickly get out of control, making this a very unattractive area of your home....

....but it needn't be!

In today's post I am sharing 5 inspirational images from the www. showing us all how pretty the kitchen sink-side can be + my picks of products to make this space not only more beautiful, but also more functional...

Image via Showhome

Image via delikatissen

Image from Pinterest

Image from a well traveled woman

My kitchen sink-side is nowhere near as pretty as these....yet.

But replacing some of my washing up essentials with a few well designed, but functional pieces should sort this area out in a jiffy:

1/John Lewis Concoctions Soap dispenser 2/John Lewis Croft Collection Beech Dish Drainer  3/NORMANN COPENHAGEN rubber washing up bowl 4/ Hay tea towels 5/ John Lewis Croft Collection Sink Side Set 6/Garden Trading Washing Up Tidy 7/ Iris Hantverk Glass Brush and Stand 8/Pryttlar dish cloths 9/Wooden washing up brush 

In order to create some order and make this busy area of your home more appealing, choosing well designed, good-looking and functional products is key: A washing up bowl will not only help protect the surface of your sink from scratches, but also help you manage any debris from your dirty dishes, preventing them from going down the plughole and blocking up your drains....I love the one, pictured above , from Normann Copenhagen as it looks good...but also because it can be folded up to be deeper, making it ideal for washing up larger items. A pretty soap dispenser for your washing up liquid will look a lot better than the original branded plastic bottles it comes in, and investing in some nice washing up brushes and cleaning sponges you don't mind displaying will help keep the area looking good, as will a nice looking dish drainer. And keeping all your washing up essentials organised in a caddy, like the one above will help keep the area looking tidy,  Treat yourself to some pretty new tea-towels and you've pretty much nailed it! ( Or , as I will show you in my next post, print up some plain ones yourself, for a personal touch to a glamorous sink-side) Join me in my quest to beautify my household utility essentials, and keep popping back here to Nostalgiecat over the next few weeks for more ideas on how nice design can make your everyday more attractive!