Kitchen Remodeling: Add value to your kitchen

Do you wish to remodel your kitchen? Are you clueless about where to start from? Different homeowners maintain different ideas about remodeling their kitchen. Some wish to change kitchen appliances, some feel they need to expand space, some collect inspiring kitchen photos or some simply wish to upgrade their kitchen. These amazingly innovative ideas can spark up your desire of remodeling your kitchen.

List your priorities before making the final plunge. Think about how many people will be gathering and cooking in the kitchen. Does your kitchen need an addition? A little research from showrooms, books and magazines will help you decide how you use your kitchen, and also help you find the correct layout and features that fit your household’s lifestyle.

Decide the scope of the remodeling work and figure out your initial budget. Budget and scope keeps on changing during the design process. You don’t need to know what everything costs, you don’t need to add or introduce as many as changes in one go.

A professional’s help is much needed at some point. Professionals help you with everything. From contracts and permits to space planning, budgets, choosing finishes and fixtures, shopping, ordering products, helping you set up a temporary kitchen, and managing your project from start to finish, they set the stage for kitchen remodeling.

Your kitchen is the heart of your house, more than just a stunning backsplash and gorgeous cabinets. Integrating thoughtful tips when planning your kitchen remodel will make your kitchen easy and functional.

Kitchen Flooring and Cabinets: Reach a balance

A great kitchen is one that has a cohesive design and all the crucial elements of the kitchen work together in some way. When renovating or remodeling a kitchen space, homeowners often struggle with the problem of matching the two most important elements of their kitchen – flooring and cabinets. To ensure that your kitchen looks the way you want, you must consider these tips while selecting your flooring materials and cabinets:

• Style: Coordinate the style of the flooring material and kitchen cabinets. For example, slab style cabinets and floor tiles with clean edges work best together. Kitchen cabinets with pronounced wood grain need a wooden flooring style to stand up to the cabinets.
• Pattern: Not every tile pattern can go well with your custom kitchen cabinets. Often decorative cabinet designs work beautifully with patterned floor tiles. You can also select plain floor tiles and raised panel cabinets for creating a contrast in pattern style.
• Color scheme: Matching the color scheme of your kitchen floor and cabinets depends on the type of kitchen you're building and your preferences. Contrasting the cabinets with the flooring material color is a good idea if you want to set them apart. You can even select multiple shades of one color (such as darkest shade for cabinets and light shade for floor) to accentuate your kitchen.

In designing kitchens, the more things match, the lesser are the chances that your eyes will be drawn to a specific point. This suggests that contrasting flooring material and cabinets are ideal for creating your dream kitchen.

Factors to consider when designing kitchen floor plan

How should your new kitchen look like? What makes a kitchen perfect for your family? When you’re building a custom kitchen, these questions must be answered first before you even contact a kitchen designer. Designing a kitchen floor plan is often a complex task but it should be designed in a way that suits your needs now and in the future too. You must consider these three factors for creating a personalized space plan and a user-friendly kitchen for your family:

Function – Triangle vs. Workstation: For efficient movement in a kitchen, stove, refrigerator, and sink are placed in a triangular fashion. If your kitchen has small space, then the triangle layout will work for your kitchen. For bigger kitchens, workstation layout works better wherein each standard station is designed around a major appliance.
 

Budget: The cost of remodeling a kitchen can be astronomical unless you begin with a firm budget. Set a maximum budget for the crucial elements of your kitchen including cabinets, countertop, and flooring while designing floor plan with your kitchen designer. This will prevent you going beyond your set budget.
Style Preference: Some homeowners embrace the more closed-off kitchen layout, but these days’ new kitchen designs reveal a different approach – open-concept kitchen. You can get creative with both kitchen layouts but you need to select the kitchen design that is budget-friendly and meets your family needs.

Off course, aesthetics are important for your kitchen, but function is even more important. Consider these three factors while designing kitchen floor plan with a kitchen designer so that you can maintain a balance between aesthetical design and functionality.

Unique Ways to Create a Modern Kitchen Design

Looking for inspiration for your new kitchen remodeling project? Kitchen is a sanctuary for your home that serves multiple purposes for your daily activities. A kitchen is a cooking area where you cook, eat, and socialize with friends and family; it can be a homework station, a craft corner, or a mini home office place. These ideas will help you give your kitchen a well-deserved facelift and a modern touch.

• Remove upper cabinets: You’ll not face storage problems by removing upper cabinets. You can go for open shelving to store and showcase kitchen essentials. You get more visual space and the chance to add decorating elements by removing upper cabinets.

• Open-plan living makes the transition from kitchen to dining area or living room smooth and interesting. Get really creative with open-plan kitchen designs. Install a kitchen island with storage options that can serve dual purpose for you: storing kitchen items and an instant eat-in place.

• Lighting is the main element of modernizing a kitchen. You can install lights under your cabinets, but these days modern custom kitchen cabinets come with lighting options so you don’t need to do the lighting work yourself. A dimmer switch should be installed in your kitchen so that you can change the mood while cooking, enjoying family dinner or just relaxing for a mid-day snack.  

Just remember that your kitchen should look nice and welcoming to guests when you implement your kitchen remodeling ideas. With these modern kitchen design tips and little creativity, you can modernize your old kitchen to make it inviting once again.

Retro Kitchen Design Ideas to Spice up Your Home

History tends to repeat itself in a cyclical nature, and that doesn’t exclude home design. Retro kitchen designs can give nostalgic homeowners the vibe of old-fashioned cooking area mixed with current design elements. Retro kitchens have made a comeback in recent times and are adding retro charm to contemporary homes. Check out here how retro cabinets, colors, flooring, and appliances contribute tremendously to the kitchen’s retro-style charm:

Retro kitchen cabinet designs: Midcentury modern cabinet designs feature streamlined lines and highlighted geometric shapes. They are sleek and seamless yet give the vintage feel. Another popular retro cabinet design is 1950s American style. This design features exaggerated curves and sharp angles mixed with futuristic space-age elements.

Retro kitchen colors: Funky and playful colors often add to the classic retro feel. Popular colors for retro theme include orange, blue, white, red, and yellow. 

Retro flooring: It’s pretty easy to bring the cool retro back in your kitchen with black and white tiles. Parquet floors that have chevron or herringbone design also add to the retro style.

Retro kitchen accents & accessories: You can mix retro furniture pieces and futuristic accessories to complete the retro look. Artworks, clocks, poster with vivid colors, modern barstools; these vintage-style accessories can take the retro design a step further in your kitchen.

Hire one of the reputed kitchen designers for renovating your kitchen to give it a stylish blast from the classic retro period. A kitchen designer will help you select nostalgic color schemes and delightful retro designs that are perfect for your existing kitchen style. Travel back in time and spice up your home with retro kitchen design!

Kitchen Cabinet Refacing and Painting

Are you thinking to update your kitchen cabinets? If your cabinets are in good condition, then don’t replace them. You can easily spruce up the whole look of your kitchen with inexpensive cabinet updates. Refacing and painting can give your cabinets a new look for significantly less than what it would cost you to completely replace them.

Why do refacing?

Also known as resurfacing, cabinet refacing is a convenient solution that can completely transform your cabinet appearance keeping existing one intact. There are three ways to reface the cabinets: Install new cabinet doors and drawer fronts, Install new wood or laminate veneers over existing cabinets, and painting drawers and cabinets.

Why do painting?

A fresh coat of paint can bring your kitchen back to life without going over budgeted. If installation of new cabinet doors and drawer fronts is inevitable for you, then painting is a great option to brighten up your kitchen. Painting your cabinets using high-quality paint is a cost-effective way to add a touch of flair to your kitchen.

Kitchen makeover doesn’t always mean replacing gloomy kitchen cabinets. Upgrading kitchen look with refacing and painting are an easy fix as compared to total cabinet replacement. Just determine the option that is the right fit for your kitchen cabinets and your budget too!

Choosing The Right Kitchen Countertop

Wood? Laminate? Stone? Concrete? There are so many choices in kitchen countertops that it becomes overwhelming for homeowners to choose the right countertop material for their kitchen. If you’re building or renovating a kitchen, these ideas can help you make right choice for countertops:

• Natural stone: It is a durable material that comes in different colors and textures and stands up to the tough wear of an active kitchen. 
• Granite: It can withstand any wear and tear but requires sturdy cabinet boxes to support its weight.
• Marble: Marble countertop is a traditional choice of most homeowners because of its distinctive veining and sheer elegance.
• Concrete: Infinitely customizable, concrete is a durable material for countertops and provides a perfect work surface.
• Quartz: With eye-catching patterns, granite is a popular alternative to granite and marble. You can even find engineered quartz that requires low maintenance.
• Wood: Wooden countertops are easy to clean and they instantly provide warmth to the kitchen.
• Laminate: It is the most affordable countertop material and available in an array of designs and colors.

Though there is a wealth of options available in countertops, but you need to decide what matters most to you. Do you want durability and appearance or want to install countertop that requires low maintenance? Your budget and personal preferences will help you select the right material for your kitchen countertop. You can also hire a kitchen remodeling company to help you select and install countertop that works best with your kitchen design.