Traditional Kitchens and How to Care for Them

As an interior design geek, you probably put a lot of time and effort into making sure that your kitchen is top-notch. It is, after all, the heart of the house and the room where the family gathers at set hours throughout the day. While some may want a modern look to their kitchen or even one of those exotic design trends, you’ve chosen a traditional look.

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This means that your kitchen is elegant, open, and with an earthy or creamy colour palette; it may look a bit like the countryside kitchen but with a tad more class. All of those small details and natural wood means that you need to take proper care of it, though, and this is where the challenge begins.

If you’d like to avoid having to spend a fortune on renovating your kitchen, it’s a good idea to know how you can care for it in order to make it last longer. Here is a quick and straightforward guide to what a traditional kitchen requires in terms of care so that you can enjoy it for as long as possible.

#1 - Clean Your Fridge 

Since you’ve opted out of a modern kitchen style, chances are that you’ve built those appliances into your cabinets. This means that it’s easy to forget about them as you don’t have to constantly wipe off fingerprints from all that stainless steel.

You still need to care for your appliances, though, and the best way to do this is to give them a regular internal clean once in a while. We’re talking fridge, washing machine, and oven - as well as all of those smaller appliances you’ve hidden away.

Look after your fridge, in particular, by cleaning the condenser coils at least twice a year. This is the part that makes sure that the air inside of your fridge stays cool - but if you don’t clean it, it’s going to break. Then you’re left with no fridge at all and need to wait for someone to come and repair it for you.

#2 - Look After Your Dishwasher and Oven

The dishwasher is easy enough to take care of as long as you follow two simple rules; run it on an empty cycle to clean its inside once a month, and never overload it. An overloaded washing machine is a particularly unhappy machine as it’s going to wear itself out way too soon - wash those pots and pans per hand instead, and your washing machine will thank you.

A well-maintained kitchen requires a clean oven as well, though, and this can be a nightmare if you don’t clean it regularly. By neglecting your oven, you risk losing it way too soon and it’s going to be a lot easier to care for it once in a while rather than having to buy an entirely new one.

Most ovens are self-cleaning these days, however, and what your oven requires depends completely on what type it is. Have a look at this article if it doesn’t have a self-cleaning function and you’re not sure how to clean it, and you should be good to go.

#3 - Treat Your Kitchen Cabinets

The cabinets make up the body of our kitchens - without them, your traditional kitchen would look rather empty. Since you have a style that includes a lot of wood, you need to remember to take proper care of them to avoid that dull and tired look to your kitchen cabinets, though.

The great thing about traditional kitchens is that they often use a lot of natural wood. This means that you can give the room a completely different look without having to install new cabinets - just give them a different coat of paint or oil. That’s the kind of stuff a stainless steel kitchen simply can’t boast.

Cabinets made of natural wood need special care in order to keep that yellow hue and outdated look at bay. If you manage to keep them clean and treat them to a layer of oil or paint when they need it, you’ll probably avoid all that hassle of having to replace them in a short decade or so as well.

While any kitchen looks great right after a proper renovation, it takes both love and care to make sure that they stay this way. By following the simple steps above, however, you’ll save yourself a lot of money and can keep your home beautiful for as long as possible. It’s a no-brainer, really.