If you are thinking about a kitchen renovation or kitchen remodel, there’s no time like the present.
It’s time to get down to it!
The kitchen has become the beating heart of the busy modern family home. So, you will want your kitchen to look and feel just right.
Kitchen Remodelling Ideas: Planning is Essential
The famous quote from US Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, is well worth bearing in mind when you think of a kitchen remodel:
“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”
It might even be that it’s the very thought of the planning that is putting you off going ahead with your renovation or remodelling project.
However, we can’t emphasise enough just how important the planning stage is.
It is where your dreams begin to become a reality!
Where Do You Start?
While it can, understandably, be daunting to know where to start with a kitchen project, the solution is really quite simple.
Where do you start? Start at the beginning!
Start by getting all your kitchen ideas down on paper.
Basically, you just need to sit down with pen and paper and brainstorm all your ideas.
Start by making a few lists.
Needs, Wants & Desirables
Before you employ the services of a professional kitchen designer, visit a kitchen designer, or even start browsing kitchen websites, just begin to work out what your needs, wants and desirables for your kitchen remodel are.
Are your kitchen ideas leaning towards contemporary or traditional?
Are your preferences more classic Shaker or ultra-modern Handleless?
Kitchen Ideas – Your Essentials
There are basic items and features that every kitchen needs, of course.
The likes of cabinets, appliances and counter space are essentials in any kitchen space. But, beyond that, every homeowner or family is likely to have their own set of needs and a personal list of essentials.
Everybody wants their modern kitchen to look good – but it also needs to be functional and practical too.
It’s vital that your kitchen design works well for the particular needs of you, your family, and your lifestyle.
Only when you check all the boxes above will your kitchen ideas truly pay off.
Keep your eye on the latest trends, of course. But more than anything – whether you have an open-plan kitchen or limited space, meaning that you have to think about small kitchen ideas – your design ideas need to be fixed on your lifestyle preferences.
The Secret to Successful Kitchen Makeovers
The secret to getting your makeover right is really simple – focus on your genuine needs and absolute essentials first and foremost, and take things from there.
Focusing too much on the style of kitchen doors or the colour of kitchen cabinets can be mistake. Of course, those things are important, but they don’t make a kitchen remodel successful on their own.
Wants and Desirables
This list is for items that aren’t essential but, if space and your budget allow, are the things that you would definitely like to be sitting there in your kitchen. It may include a set of recycling bins, a pull-out pantry or shaker kitchen cabinets with a matching kitchen island and bar stools.
This is what, in an ideal world, you’d love your kitchen to have. The ‘dreams list’ could consist of a veg-only fridge, a special sink for prepping and a hanging copper pots and pans display above your kitchen island.
Kitchen renovation: Essentials
This is a list of what you will definitely need your new kitchen to have. If you have a big family or love to have guests round for dinner, then you’ll certainly need a lot of storage space.
It means lots of roomy kitchen cabinets with clever storage, such as Lazy Susan and sliding wine racks.
We’re guessing you will probably want a double oven too, with all the cooking you plan on doing.
Other ‘essentials’ might include looking at whether the kitchen will be safe for children to be in – whether you have kids yourself, grandkids or young relatives coming around on a reasonably frequent basis.
Also, is it accessible for elderly relatives?
You will also want to consider whether the person who’ll be doing most of the cooking is right or left handed since this will affect the positioning of the ‘magic triangle’ of the sink, fridge and cooker.
What’s the Point of Lists?
It’s a good question but the point of these short lists is not just to get your thoughts in order and make the whole process of designing your renovation easier to cope with. No, it is also to save you time and money.
That’s because the more you plan in advance for your new kitchen design, the less you will have to change around during the actual installation phase. Better still, it gives the person who will eventually design your kitchen layout a much better idea of what you want your kitchen to look and feel like.
Lighting, Lighting, Lighting
All homeowners are well aware of the advantages of natural light, not just in the kitchen but all across the home.
Bearing that in mind, it’s perhaps a little surprising that the lighting in a kitchen design is often overlooked (or at least not given top priority) in a renovation project.
Getting the Lighting Right is Crucial
Considering the amount of time most of us spend in our kitchens, it’s essential to get the kitchen lighting right. And if your kitchen isn’t blessed with lots of natural light, it becomes even more important.
Lighting can make a bigger difference to your own kitchen than the addition of white cabinets, open shelving, or more counter space.
Layers of Lighting
Effective kitchen lighting starts with installing overhead fixtures that emphasise and reinforce the light that comes in naturally from outside. Statement pendants are particularly good for this.
Layered lighting enables to create ambience, change the mood when appropriate, and functionally light specific areas of the kitchen as and when it’s necessary.
Lighting needs to be an integral part of any kitchen design.
Zoning off your kitchen
Perhaps would also like areas of the kitchen to be specific to certain tasks. This could, for instance, be divided into prepping, entertaining, cooking and chilling. Certainly, it’s a great way to keeping your kitchen in order.
Think about the following zones for your kitchen makeover:
Prepping
This is the corner of the kitchen layout where you’ll have your sink, chopping board and bin for all those vegetable peelings.
Plenty of countertop space is a Godsend for meal preparation.
Entertaining
Having your guests sit around a kitchen island is a good way to entertain. You can chat with them while cooking and it’s not too far to move the food from stove to island.
And they’ll be ravenous being so close to that delicious food you’re about to serve up.
The dining area of a kitchen is most definitely also a great entertaining space.
Cooking
This is self-evident really, but it really is important to have somewhere you can concentrate. That means a space where other members of the family don’t hang around and get in the way or demand things (we’re thinking teenagers here).
Chilling
Everyone needs a corner where they can sit down and have a coffee when the need takes them. If your kitchen area is open-plan – or large enough – then a two-seater sofa in the corner, paired with a table and desk lamp, would be perfect.
Zoning is win-win in any redesign project.
A Remodel Doesn’t Have to be Extensive or Expensive
If you don’t want to embark on a remodelling project that breaks the bank, you can simply replace your kitchen cabinet doors.
At Kitchen Warehouse, we offer an extensive range of various styles and designs in order to fit the particular kitchen theme you are looking for.
Get in Touch!
Whatever your specific kitchen needs, wants or desires are, here at Kitchen Warehouse we can certainly help.
We are on a mission to offer inspiration.
Contact our team today by phone, tel: 01765 640 000 or email: contact@kitchenwarehouseltd.com.
