We all know that the kitchen is the heart of every household. Families cook, entertain, hang out and relax there. So whether you’re building your home from ground up or you are just renewing just kitchen and want to make the space more efficient for use, these tips should help you redesign your kitchen in a way that makes it not only smart but also functional and aesthetically beautiful.
I want to jump right into it so you can quickly go through it and apply these tips asap.
Plan Out the Whole Space
I know this is the most difficult part of the planning, but trust me, this is more important than anything else. You have to think about the logistics of your kitchen.
How would things move from one part of the kitchen to another?
Where would everything go?
Can multiple people work in the kitchen at the same time?
These are the things you have to keep in mind when planning things out. You have to calculate the total square footage of space you have available in your kitchen. Take exact measurements so you can plan everything out in detail. You miss anything and you will end up having to spend more money just to have a contractor do the same thing for you halfway through the project.
Door and Walkways
Your doorway into the kitchen shouldn’t interfere with the appliances or any cabinets you have built or planning to build in the kitchen. If you have a smaller kitchen, try to get your door to swing outside rather than inside the kitchen, that way you have more space inside and the doorway isn’t causing any clearance issues.
Also, if you are planning to have multiple people work in your kitchen, you should make sure that your walkway is at least 48 inches wide so there’s enough space for people to walk around each other.
The Sink and Dishwasher
Have enough space around any sink you have in the kitchen so you can keep your utensils after washing them. Ideally you should have at least 25 inches of space on either side of the sink. If it’s in a corner, have it on just one side.
Also make sure you have enough space between your dishwasher and your other appliances or cabinets. You want to make sure you aren’t spilling water over them or those things aren’t hanging too close to your dishwasher or you’d have problems.
Countertops
According to most kitchen designers, you must have at least 160 total inches of usable countertop space in your kitchen. This includes your islands and any other countertops. They should be at least 25 inches deep and 15 inches of clearance above them so there’s enough space for you to work and not banging your utensils in the cabinets above.
The Materials You’ll Be Using
Just like how we mentioned what you should be thinking about when it comes to planning out the floor plan of your kitchen. You also need to plan out the materials you’ll be using for all the different things in your kitchen.
Countertops
With countertops, it’s pretty easy. Usually most people either go with laminate, stone or other compound materials like acrylic.
Based on current trends, you want to go with countertops that are as thin as possible. To achieve that, most people go with acrylic countertops. Mostly white countertops look pretty good but you can go with any color that you with would go with the door and the cabinets.
You want to make sure that the color scheme of your kitchen looks coherent enough so that it’s pleasant to spend more time in there.
Shelves and Doors
Usually people like to use wood to build the cabinet structure but you can also use prism TFL for that, it is known to be one of the most efficient materials out there to be used as a kitchen cabinet. Most companies use melamine as well. So be aware of that.
You’d want to ask your contractor about this and let them tell you what materials they recommend for this. But either of those 2 should be good to use.
Again, if you’ve done proper floor planning, you will have factored in how thick your cabinets would be. If you haven’t, now is the time to do that.
Also take into account the space it would take to install hinges to make sure that the cabinets fit well. Again, if you’re working with a contractor like aurorakitchenremodeling.com/, they’d do that for you.
That’s the benefit of working with a contractor like them, there are some details that you just don’t need to bother with. They handle everything themselves and you just have to hang back and let them do their job.
But if you’re more of a DIY person, you should make sure that you keep those things in mind before moving forward with our other tip.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, you want to go through all the little bit of detail you can to make sure that you have covered all your bases before even a single nail is being hammered in your kitchen. The reason behind doing that is to make sure you aren’t walking into any mistakes that you aren’t aware of.
This also means that you should always consult with an expert remodeler so they can help you out with the planning process.
Sure, they will cost you some more money, but if you think about how much money you’d be spending if you realized that you calculated the floor space wrong and now you are halfway into building your cabinets and now you can’t fit in the other half of the cabinet?
You’d easily end up spending $3-4,000 on that to readjust the whole thing.
It’s better to spend less than that with a contractor or designer to help you with the planning and make sure you are on the right track.