With the nation’s favourite baking show set to return to our screens on 21st September, leading West Midlands developer Barratt Homes is helping buyers and homeowners create a kitchen that’s worthy of a Hollywood handshake.
With nationwide lockdowns forcing much of the UK to work from home in 2020, a significant decrease in commuting led to an increase in spare time. Turning to the kitchen for something to do seemed easy enough, with a plethora of social media baking trends to get on board with, and The Great British Bake Off providing an escape from the pandemic when it returned later that year.
With this in mind, Barratt has put together a list of tips and tricks to make the most of your kitchen space in time for meeting this year’s star bakers.
Tanya Silk, Sales Director at Barratt Homes West Midlands said: “The UK is known for its love of baking, leading to a number of us running to our kitchen for release during the pandemic. We hope that these tips will encourage buyers and homeowners to fall in love with their kitchen all over again as the world begins to return to normal.”
Love your larder
The world was introduced to the organising expert Marie Kondo in 2019, so overstuffed cupboards went flying out of fashion, and a perfectly organised pantry became the new norm with #pantrygoals having almost 150,000 posts on Instagram.
Make the most of your cupboard space by getting rid of bulky packaging, and opting for organised jars and storage tins instead. Pack your pasta into a glass Kilner jar, or store your cereals into refillable airtight containers for a much sleeker look without the risk of ripped and unsightly packaging.
Add a pop of colour
The Great British Bake Off regularly gives viewers kitchen envy, with its trademark Smeg fridges and top of the range equipment. But in more recent series, the most notable aspect of the tent is the wide range of colour.
People eat with their eyes as well as their mouths, so why not make the environment as enjoyable as the food by adding a burst of colour to your newly organised kitchen. Whether you want to be bold and add some red tiles to the wall behind your cooker, or start small with a pastel-coloured kettle, don’t be afraid to brighten up your kitchen with a colour scheme beyond the traditional black and white.
Live by labels
Following the influence of Instagram guru Mrs. Hinch, labelling everything has become a popular pastime. Original packaging is a thing of the past, with homeowners adding food and cleaning products to plain containers with stickers highlighting their contents.
If you’re planning on getting rid of the boxes in favour of something that fits your kitchen’s interior, consider adding chalkboard labels or vinyl stickers to avoid adding salt to your cakes instead of sugar.
Hit the walls
Walls aren’t just for artwork, and can be a handy tool when utilising the space in your kitchen. If pots and pans are cluttering up the cupboards, why not hang them on the walls with hooks? Or be creative and repurpose a towel rail above the workspace to hang your utensils.
If you want to create a focal point that still serves a purpose, consider installing a colourful peg board to hold miscellaneous pots, jugs, and utensils. A pop of colour will draw visitors’ eyes to a unique wall hanging while allowing them to admire the organised cookware.
Barratt Homes is currently building homes at Berrington Place on St. Luke’s Road in Birmingham, and is open by appointment only. For more information on Barratt Homes visit the website at www.barratthomes.co.uk/berringtonplace, or speak with a Sales Adviser on 0333 355 8475.
