Rethink the kitchen with honeycomb shades

Kitchens used to be a place used soley for cooking and were a place where people rarely congregated. That's beginning to change, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports, as kitchens are being reborn into a focal point of the house.

According to the news outlet, New Jersey residents Bruce and Bernadette Smith transformed the entire downstairs into a combination kitchen and family room. Similarly, Carole Landis and Les Garnas renovated their condo specifically to entice more people to set foot in it.

"Kitchen isn't a low word anymore. It has a whole different meaning now," Landis told the source. "Now, it's not a bad thing to have people meander into your kitchen, because kitchens are so beautiful."

An easy way to make a kitchen more enticing is by installing window treatments that can really pull the room together. Experts recommend allowing plenty of natural light to enter the room. Honeycomb shades, in particular, provide homeowners with the option to let light in or if they feel like the room is getting too hot, block an excess of light. Honeycomb shades are also useful at absorbing loud noises as well.

According to discovery.com, natural sunlight contains a lot of vitamin D, which can prevent types of cancer and make people happier as well.