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Kitchen remodel is one of the most discussed subjects among interior designers. These projects can be time-consuming as well as expensive. Needless to say that if you are going to remodel your kitchen, then you should do it the right way!

That being said, experts like Novus Homes share some of their favorite tips and suggestions for your upcoming kitchen remodeling project. In this article, we will talk about their experiences that will help you rebuild your kitchen with professional efficiency.

Know your Functionality

The first and the most important consideration when undertaking a remodeling project is to know the use of your kitchen. Do you need expensive electrical appliances? Would you prefer to use gas or electric? Do you cook foods with potent spices to make ventilation a necessity? Would you like to have easy access to knives and other kitchen equipment? Answering these basic yet important questions will give you clarity about how to plan your functional space. While aesthetics are important, knowing your utility can go a long way in designing a practical kitchen. Pay attention to your favored details and things that stand in the way of your seamless routine. This will help you incorporate necessary changes to the rudimentary plan.

Use the Magic of Colors

By leveraging contrasting colors, you can add a lot of depth and dimension to your kitchen. This is a rookie trick that all designers incorporate in their designs to alter the perception and give an unobstructed line of sight. This is especially true in the working areas. Colors can define areas with ease and can really make your workspace stand out. You can choose to work with contrasting colors or consider using varied tones if you don’t want to go monochromatic. This tip alone will add a lot of visual appeal to the room. Put your color palette together by choosing warm and cool shades or mixing neutral colors with bold primary colors. You can then play with the design by either focusing on a single item with a bold color, such as the work counter, or let the element of your palette define the theme of the space.

Keep your Existing Layout

By retaining the existing layout, you can save a lot of your money and time in rebuilding the kitchen from the scratch. Sometimes, simple edits alone can give your kitchen a fresh spin. This especially works wonders if you want to change the way your kitchen looks without spending a fortune. Needless to say, your budget defines how creative you can get with the design. However, one should never underestimate the cost factor, even if you have a handsome budget. Meet a few professionals to get ideas from them. You can also ask for quotes to get a realistic idea of the actual cost and practicality of remodeling your kitchen.

Redo your Backsplash

If you want to add the illusion of height to your kitchen on a minimal budget, then consider taking your backsplash all the way to the ceiling. This trick not only adds finesse to your kitchen design but also creates more tallness to the room. Moreover, a vivid backsplash can also become the focal point of your kitchen with relative ease. If you really want to do more with less, then this tip will change your kitchen’s visual appeal dramatically.

Consider Updates and Edits

Sometimes what you need is small edits and updates rather than a complete makeover. These can be taken up as DIY projects that will change the look and feel of your kitchen. Making minor changes such as changing the upholstery of your bar stools or upgrading the lighting scheme can do the trick and break the monotony. You can also replace shelving with cabinets or vice versa. Breathe life into your kitchen by adding some aesthetic touch-ups and make it feel livelier. If you are unsure whether you need a remodel or a quick update, then answer one simple question: are you after functionality or appearance?

Usually, people prefer kitchen remodel when they are looking to enhance the usability of their kitchen. However, if all you need is a little enhancement, then you can usually get away with trendy designs and small edits. Adding accessories, wall art, etc. can give your kitchen the overhaul without the need for a full remodel.

These simple hacks are a good starting point for your kitchen remodel project. Any designer worth their salt will know the importance of a kitchen that offers visual appeal and functionality in equal measures. The only challenge is to ensure that the two meet halfway without blowing the client’s budget.

When choosing a colour scheme for you home there are a number of things to consider. From lighting, to room size and theme to material, redecorating can feel like an unachievable task at times. But fear not, decorating is a fun experience when you know the basic tips and tricks. With that in mind, lets take a look at how you can choose the right colour tiles for your home.

Research

Tiles are just as important as any other feature within a room. Just like wall paint or wallpaper, tiles help to create a strong base from which you can create the rest of the look you are trying to achieve. Because of this, its always a good idea to do plenty of research before shopping for your new tiles.

Looking in to the aesthetic that you are going for, or just general design ideas, will massively help to reduce the time you have to spend trawling through tile samples and web pages.

Property

Its easy to get swept up with designs and motifs when redecorating but its just as important to take in to consideration the style of your property. If you live in a modern new build home, traditional victorian tiles might look a little out of place. Similarly, modern tiles might seem odd in some period homes. Striking the balance of old and new is a hard one, but look at other homes for inspiration when working with homes that have a clear time period to their structure.

Room size

It goes without saying that the size of the room will affect the type of tile you choose. Small rooms that have little access to natural light aren’t going to suit darker tiles. Instead, in small bathrooms for example, use white bathroom tiles to help open up the space. Larger rooms are far more forgiving for those maximalist styles, so use this to you full advantage and make the most of those richer colours where possible.

Colour

We’ve briefly touched on it but when it comes to colours, there are three basic schemes to work by which are tonal, harmonious and complementary. Tonal schemes use the same colour in varying shades to create depth to a room. Tonal coloured tiles are great for natural, softer looks. Harmonious colours focus on using two colours that are close to each other on the colour wheel. For example, purple and blue or yellow and orange. These colours work well together naturally with no effort at all on your part so are ideal for contemporary designs. Finally, complementary colours are colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel, like pink and green. The contrast works well together and can give really strong, bold looks. Ultimately, the colour is of course up to you and your tastes, but these general colour principles are good to work by.

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A bit of research and window shopping is necessary when looking to advance business services by utilizing the right printer for your office. The market has many new printer models with newer ones release every few months. As such, the exterior aesthetics and the price tag can easily sway you to buying without looking at and considering other essential features of the printer. In short, you need to arm yourself with the right information before you start window shopping, and below are some few things you need to know before you head out.

What Is Your Office Type And Size?

Printers are designed to cater to the needs and demands of different office types and spaces. If your workplace has more than 100 people, buying a printer that can service five people will not suffice. What you get should match up with the office size and demands so that it gives the right output without fail.

What Features Do You Need?

Different printer brands and models offer various services ranging from scanning and copy printing to faxing. They have a wide price range based on such features, and thus your purchases should be based on what you need the printer to do. Depending on the type of printer management you need in your office, whether it be at home or not, considering what exactly you need is key in finding the right deal.

What Is Your Budget?

Set your budget while accounting for the total cost of operation and not on the cost of purchasing the printer, only. You should consider for other factors such as the cost of replacing or refilling the ink cartridges against the page yield as well as the cost of doing repairs and replacing parts such as the waste bin or the fuser unit. Check out our article on Cost per Page to know more about the basics and costs of the printer cartridges.

Consider The Speed

The print speed is an essential aspect to consider particularly if you are looking for a machine to use in a busy office. Check the PPM (Pages per Minute) to know how fast the printer runs when printing pages; you may also come across IPM (Images per Minute). Get a printer with a high PPM and IPM, more so if the staff have to share a printer so that you avoid backed up queues at the machine.

Factor In Cost Per Page

Keep in mind that with printers, as is with many other devices and machines, no one size fits all when you consider the page yield. You can use an individual cartridge in a particular printer model and get more pages done than when you use the same cartridge on another printer model. So, the overall cost per page can influence your printing budget significantly.

Quick Advice: –    The printer you get for the office should have a page yield well worth the company’s dime. Anything short of this will only drown the business in unnecessary printing costs. You can know the cost per page by taking the machine’s page yield and dividing it by the cost of the cartridge or toner.

Cartridge Compatibility

Always get quality compatible (remanufactured) cartridges for the printer as this will help slash the printing costs further. In most cases, the compatible cartridges will produce the same number of prints as the original, giving the same quality standards and all at a fraction of the price of the original. For instance, you can save around 85% of your printing costs by getting an LD’s Compatible TN880 toner cartridge at $17.99 that yields 12,000 pages. If you use compatible cartridges, you can be saving around .14 cents per page printed.

Know The Monthly Duty Cycle

To know the printer monthly duty cycle, just take note of the number of pages the machine prints in a month without breaking down. The office is less likely to reach the machine’s monthly duty cycle if it only prints every other day, so that should not be a concern when purchasing the printer. You should get a printer with a broad monthly duty cycle, especially if you have a workplace that does high volumes of prints. Overshooting the monthly duty cycle will only overwork the machines eventually wearing it out and slashing its lifespan. So, make sure you know the print volume your office does per month so that you get a printer that meets and goes beyond such a demand.

Factor In Paper Size

Most printers are designed with the business user in mind, and thus they can handle different paper sizes and types, from legal documents and cards to envelopes. However, certain basic compact models have a limited selection of paper sizes so remember to check the paper specs before you make any purchase.

Consider Automatic Duplex Printing

Dual-sided (duplex) printing is a fantastic option worth considering because it can help you save some money in the overall office printing costs. The conventional printers are feed sheets of paper manually when trying to print the other side of the paper. However, with the auto duplex printing function, you only set the machine to the “dual-sided printing,” and the printer automatically prints both sides of the paper.

Monochrome Or Color?

If your office does more of clean and clear prints, then a monochrome printer that does only black and white printing is the ideal choice. However, color printers are what you should consider if the office prints images in most of the documents. You will have to contend with dealing with two or four color cartridges, which is an added cost, but one that is economical compared to the long-term use of most color inkjet printers.

What Printer Size To Get

The size of the printer is a vital factor worth considering, which should be governed by the office size. Take not the machine’s dimensions so be sure that will fit its allocated space in the office. You can work with a good quality compact laser printer, but most of these are not very powerful thus they will not suffice for fast, high volume printing.

Check For Warranty

Most modern printers have a standard warranty lasting around a year, at the very least, from the date of purchase. However, other details governing the use of malfunction of the machine can be part of the warranty; therefore, know the specifics of the warranty to avoid unpleasant surprises. Some warranties may include tech support while others only cover the repair or replacement of defective parts. You can check out the printer’s webpage to know more about the specifications in your machine’s warranty.

Wired Or Wireless Networking?

Most modern printers offer wireless connectivity, and some even come with their printing apps to ease the printing process; therefore, making it possible to also do prints via tablets and smartphones. Nevertheless, it is still okay to work with printers that have a direct connection (USB or Ethernet), just as long as they offer excellent speeds.