Kitchen windows need to multi-function.  You need good light, quick ventilation, and protection from heat build-up. You need windows that work with, not against, your climate and prevailing winds. Today’s beautifully engineered new kitchen windows just happen to solve many problems while complementing any decor.  Your task? Match your window problems to their solutions.  Here’s how:

What’s baking–you?

If your kitchen windows face east or west, they’ll create heat build-up even in a mild climate. They’re like a car parked outdoors on mild, overcast days. In moderate climates, upgrade to double paned windows. If hotter areas, triple panes and/or invisible coatings can  greatly improve your kitchen’s comfort levels. Replacing  fixed windows with ones that opens for ventilation will also help. Cool!

Light up your life

Single and double-hung windows are divided horizontally, with one or both halves sliding up or down. Double casement style windows are hinged vertically at both sides. If your windows are small, the framing around each pane of these styles blocks a proportionately large amount of light.  Replace the windows with styles like an awning or single casement that have no center dividers.

A breath of fresh air

Stationary windows in a kitchen and nook can permit heat, steam, and odors to build up without the quick relief of moving air currents.  Even if the nearest ventable window is on the opposite side of the living area, installing operable windows will help air currents exhaust stale air. Any style of window from double-hung to awning can do this. If you live in a high precipitation area, awning windows that hinge at the top and swing outward at the bottom can circulate air even when Mother Nature is shedding copious tears.

Blow-hard climates

Some climates have strong weather patterns. These patterns may shift by day or by season.  Choose casement windows that are hinged on the dominant wind side to minimize dust and debris. If the pattern shifts often, use double casement windows and crank out whichever side is needed.

Inertia often makes homeowners put up with ongoing annoyances. New kitchen windows can make a surprising difference in your enjoyment of daily cooking chores. Today’s vinyl, aluminum, and fiberglass windows outperform wood with easy-care, pest-free, rot proof, energy efficient panache. Make that bundle of benefits your own.

What? Vinyl tiles you can grout? Vinyl tiles with lifetime warranties? Vinyl tiles throughout the great room? Aha! You’re thinking vinyl tile technology has stood still for 50 years while everything else got better. If new kitchen flooring is part of your remodeling plan, don’t cheat yourself out of beauty, savings and durability. Get up to speed with today’s vinyl tile.

Even vinyl styles without grout have the glossy or low-lustre sheen and the surface textures of ceramic tiles or natural stones. Some tile edges have the irregularities of authentic stone. Almost any choice is going to be super easy to clean and highly resistant to dents, scratches, and stains. The new flooring job is usually faster and cheaper than stone or ceramic tile.  Prices vary by quality level. Warranties range from 5 years to lifetime depending on quality.

“Choice” is spelled v-i-n-y-l  t-i-l-e-s

1.    Sizes:  Although 12 x 12 inches is a common size, sizes vary from 8 x 8 inches to 18 x 18 inches.  Scale your choice to your project size.

2.    Patterns: Your problem will be to choose among dozens upon dozens of mouth-watering vinyl tile styles. Bring home samples to view with your decor and the changing light. A few among a myriad stone-like choices include marble, sandstone, slate, granite, overall patterns, speckles, onyx, stained cement, limestone, and brick mosaics. Patterns that look like ceramic tiles with borders, contrasting “inset” diamonds, or other traditional looks are readily available. Or you maybe you drool over styles with the natural marbling and surface textures of fine ceramic tiles. (Drooling won’t stain tiles.)

3.    Colors: Stone-like patterns often come in more than one color choice. Color palettes from rich neutrals to exciting blends will tantalize you. Solids offer creative flexibility from the ever-popular black & white checkerboard to your own creation of, for example, a random three-color layout.  Traditional tile styles often offer more than one color way.

4.    Installation methods: Do-it-yourself with peel-off, press down styles, but wear rubber gloves to prevent adhering tiles to your skin. Oh yes, they’re sticky! Or order a pattern requiring the time-honored troweled adhesive installation, with or without grout.

5.    Manufacturers: Vinyl flooring brandslike Armstrong, Congoleum, and Mannington must be doing something right. They’ve been around for decades. Others include Mohawk, Shaw,  and Tarkett. Tarkett offers some very original flecked and overall patterns.

With vinyl kitchen flooring you choose the look, from elegant to country, from stone to ceramic tile, from earthy to high-tech. A quick dust mopping or sweeping sure beats dragging a vacuum cleaner around. It’s a win-win situation, budget smart and big-time beauty. Check it out.

It’s great, if a bit mind-boggling, when a kitchen decor problem has more solutions than you can get your mind around. But that’s the case with glass door kitchen cabinets. KraftMaid Cabinets alone has over 70 glass door styles. Thomasville has about 60. And glass doors work with every architectural style, from a contemporary aluminum cabinet with an etched silver screen look, to the handsome rectilinear mullions of Mission style, to the gracefully curved mullions of Traditional.

Glass cabinet doors “terminator”

It’s helpful to speak the right jargon when you talk with a supplier about glass cabinet doors. Here are terms to know about glass dividers and different types of cabinet glass.

1. Classic style lets Great Aunt Martha’s silver tea service take center stage with minimal intrusion from the glass itself. Classic has a rectangular pane, possibly with beveled edges. Sweet.
2. Caming is thin metal, similar to leaded glass but often of zinc, that holds together the pieces of the design. It may be curved, arched, rectangular, or of many other shapes which are often formed by heating to make the metal pliable.
3. Mullions are thin strips of wood of various shapes that create a pattern while holding the glass elements. Mullions typically divide the glass area in to three, four, six or more rectangles, not always of equal size or symmetrical placement. Areas may also be curved.
4. Etched glass has been sandblasted to create a pattern in the glass. This can be as minimal as some intersecting fine lines, or may be an overall pattern from a silk texture to a lacy design. Sometimes an oval of clear glass is left so your best china or stemware can show through. Etched glass may give an overall frosted look that obscures cabinet contents in varying degrees.
5. Art glass comes in endless variety. A pattern such as thin parallel lines or a bumpy texture may be molded into the glass. Caming can hold beveled diamond-shape segments, or a Frank Lloyd Wright design, or stained glass, or…multiple other choices.
6. Layered doors sandwich a beautifully patterned wood between tempered glass panels. The glass is typically clear or slightly etched. The idea is to give sparkle and style to your kitchen while obscuring cabinet contents.

Afraid of ordering something you may not like? Rather than settle for a “safe” style, remember this: Among your multiple choices, opt to hire a kitchen designer who will consult with you, then present the options that suit your architecture and budget. Your investment should bring good returns. Glass cabinet doors are an exciting visual upgrade that keep earning compliments month after year after decade. And they’re appealing for resale, too!