Ideas and Tips for Kitchen Remodeling
If you are tired of the same old Kitchen Cabinet and Equipment, or have you inherited a dull kitchen when you moved... then we are ready to create the bright and light, stylish and chic kitchen of your dreams.
It's important to thoroughly assess your kitchen to see what really needs to be changed so that you can consider which level of kitchen remodeling project will suit your budget.
Take a good look your old kitchen cabinet and equipment... open every door and drawer. Forget about the color or dated style of a cabinet door as these can easily be changed but... are the unit frames themselves sturdy.
Many people have a dark, dated kitchen made of good quality units, if this is you... then remodeling your kitchen cabinet and equipment doesn't have to cost the earth.
As long as the basic structure of your units is sound, it doesn't matter if the doors are scratched, dented or just plain boring, doing something about the face of your kitchen - the cabinet doors and drawer fronts is the easy part.
If your units are sagging or coming away from the wall - then the thickness and quality of the material used just isn't good enough to stand the test of time.
You know that it is going to cost you to upgrade the quality of your kitchen but you should be assured that this is one of the best investments by far, that you could make in your home.
Investing in a beautiful, streamlined, classic kitchen with new kitchen cabinet and equipment, will improve the quality of your home life - for the whole family. It will also improve the instant look and feel of your home and greatly affect the overall impression should you decide to sell.
You are much more likely to achieve the asking price you want, when selling your home - if your kitchen cabinet and equipment is in tip top condition. This is why, for many people, the kitchen is the number one priority when doing home improvement and remodeling.
How Important is your Kitchen to...
the quality of your home life? and...
to the VALUE to your home?
We need a kitchen where we can feel comfortable, to many people, the kitchen is also the den, it's where we read the morning paper, it's where we catch up on news at the end of the day as we are preparing our evening meal.
We need a kitchen with plenty of storage space so that every plate, glass, utensil and machine has it's own place, storage is the main key to a clean de-cluttered look.
We need a kitchen which is easy to keep clean, cabinets that are easy to wipe over, it can be difficult to get grease splashes off overtly ornate cabinet doors.
- The installation of Kitchen Vent Hoods goes a long way to reducing condensation and cooking grease build up in kitchens - which in turn helps preserve your kitchen cabinet and equipment.
- Quality kitchen equipment is essential to the success of your kitchen makeover, have a look at our Kitchen Oven Range Selection Tips to help you find the right investment for your home.
- More People look for Wall Oven information on the net than for any other kitchen equipment, find out which model will compliment your kitchen oven range purchase by looking at our Wall Oven Revue of Features
Kitchen Remodeling and choosing the right kitchen cabinet and equipment, are the Nº.1 home improvement investments, simply because it is the most important room in the house.
In every home, worldwide, it's a fact that people always gravitates towards the kitchen. We all need durable kitchen cabinet and equipment because the kitchen is the busiest traffic center of your and any home.
How many times do your kitchen cabinets and drawers get opened and closed a day... every day?.
It's little wonder if, over time, the doors and drawers get a bit chipped, scratched and tired looking... because of continuous use they wear-out far quicker.
The outside of your kitchen cabinet and equipment, i.e. the doors and hinges, drawers and slides, are the moving parts we continuously use.
Every Kitchen can be made unique by the fixtures, fittings and accessories we choose. Choose the right ones, attain the right look and your kitchen cabinet and equipment really add distinction to your home"
No other room in the home is more important than the kitchen, it reigns supreme as the room who's size, style and condition could dictate a rise or a decrease in the value of your home.
BUT SIZE ISN'T EVERYTHING when it comes to a kitchen, people expect a kitchen to be in proportion to the rest of the home, what is important is that full advantage has been taken of the available space.
What you do expect to find is an attractive kitchen, where there is sufficient storage so that everything has its place, leaving the work surfaces clear and clean. That all the connections are in a logical place and that the color scheme is of a neutral tone that they could immediately move in, live with and make their own.
But your kitchen doesn't have to be bland, vibrant color can be introduced with accessories, kitchen curtains or blinds and accented with beautiful colorful tiles.
Revamp the Old Kitchen
Before you decide if you need to replace your old kitchen entirely, try the well known de-clutter experiment of tidying everything away. If you find something that you don't use and don't need - give it away or bin it !!.
You may are pleasantly surprized by the outcome, maybe you do have enough good storage space after all, and you see that you do have enough counter tops to work on. Then take a look at the following options:
1. CHANGE THE KNOBS - How would your kitchen look with some stylish new door knobs?
2. CHANGE THE COLOR - How would the overall effect be if you were to change the color scheme completely... could you brighten up your kitchen simply by painting your dark cabinets a nicer, lighter color?
Take a look at our page on painting your kitchen cabinets to find out if this solution would suit your kitchen and find out exactly how to go aboutPAINTING KITCHEN CABINETS
3. CHANGE THE LOOK and style - Could you achieve a totally new look by adding raised paneling or by applying a moulding to the cabinet doors, or even replacing the inner panel with a clear, frosted or ribbed glass?
4. CHANGE THE DOORS - What if you could take off all the old style doors and drawer fronts and simply replaced them with chic new ones?
5. CHANGE THE COUNTER TOPS - If you decide that any of the above will be sufficient to give your kitchen a makeover, you can't forget the counter tops. If your cabinets show wear and tear, chances are the kitchen counter work surfaces will be worse.
If you are planing on investing in new kitchen cabinet and equipment at a later date and you just want an immediate good, clean, streamlined new look to see you through until then - then don't spash out too much on the counter top yet, just go for a good quality matching formica.
However, if your kitchen cabinet and equipment is there to stay, one investment worth spending just that little bit more on is a good quality work surface. One of the top favourites is granite, which is a natural quartz based material mined worldwide.
Apart from the fact that granite is virtually resistant to scratching, staining, heat, chipping or cracking, another wonderful virtue is that every piece is different and unique.
If you have had a granite work surfaces before, it's difficult to settle for anything else, you can safely put hot pans on them, chop on them and even roll out pastry on the granite surface, because of the nice cool qualities of the well polished, highly glossed, granite stone.
What to aim for...
You want to unity the color scheme throughout your kitchen cabinet and equipment, if you have some units that don't quite match now, imagine how they would look if they were all painted the same color and given the same knobs... would it work, at least for a while? Painting kitchen cabinets is easier than you might think...
You want your kitchen to be bright, light colored walls and light units help sunlight refect around your room. A gloss finish on your units will give you the most durable and longest lasting finish as well as an elegant and bright look.
The favourite colors for kitchen cabinet and equipement are bright colors of a natural hue, white is more popular than ever, or white with a faint hue of a color to match the color scheme of your accessories, eggshell and finally the elegant creme are the colors universally prefered.
Light toned kitchen cabinets give a much brighter look than dark grained wood.
Also, the quality and look of different wood veneer finishes have improved tremendously and are becoming more and more popular. Only the biggest of kitchens can really carry dark wood cabinets and look good.
An easy way to unify a mis-matched kitchen would be to replace all the different doors with one style, buying only new doors and drawer fronts will give the same effect as buying a whole new kitchen, but at a much nicer price.
Most cabinet designs are built to the same size specification and are easy to replace with new ones that fit. However, if your cabinets were custom made it might be more difficult to get exact fit replacements.
Planning a New Kitchen Design
Prepare your finances well in advance to help give you a clear idea of the available budget for your kitchen cabinet and equipment makeover, to find out more about your options in preparing the budget for your new kitchen take a look at Home Improvement Financing Options for Kitchen Cabinets and Equipment
How you can change the layout, with a view to remodeling your kitchen will depend on where the connections are placed. It is much cheaper to do a total kitchen revamp if you don't have to change the place of water pipes and/or electrical connections.
The three main places in your kitchen are:-
your kitchen SINK,
your COOKER or stove,
and your REFRIGERATOR.
These three important areas will for a working triangle within your or any kitchen and your kitchen design idea should concentrate on providing easy movement between the three and plenty of work surfaces.
You will need to plan for plenty of work surfaces between your cooker and sink to be able to easily wash, prepare and cook the family dinner.
AND... everyone will need CLEAR ACCESS to the refrigerator - without going past and knocking into the busy chef of the family.
How big is your kitchen?, can you expand it... do you have an adjoining utility room or pantry. Either one of these could be incorporated into your kitchen to increase size or may be more useful to you if they remain seperate and give you valuable storage space for machines and tins outside of the kitchen area.
As you begin to design the layout of your kitchen... try not to overpack it with storage units, you will just end up with a claustraphobic feeling, rather then the place where you will enjoy working and everyone wants to be.
Leave some breathing space by using a natural toned reflective tile. Aim for a balance with plenty of good kitchen cabinet and equipment while still retaining some free wall space.
One trick is to have units that stand off the floor. Being able to see wall to wall in a small kitchen can give the impression of more size and also make it easier to clean the floor. Although many prefer standing units to the floor and overhead units to the ceiling.
By keeping to light colors you will make the room seem bigger and brighter allowing daylight to reflect off the units, this is especially effective in making the most of a galley kitchen layout.
Brighten up the natural colors that you use with a bright decorative colorful tiled border and use the same color scheme and patterns for your blinds and other accessories to tie the whole scheme together.
If you have the space, a table or breakfast bar makes the kitchen a much more social area for the family chef, there's nothing quite like everyone sitting around the kitchen table, talking over their day.
The type of kitchen design you choose should be a reflection of the architecture and design and style of your home and its location. A country kitchen would look out of place in a modern apartment, a black and white theme too stark for a period home.
By choosing well co-ordinating pieces in natural, pale or mellow tones you will make a kitchen that you will enjoy to live with, not tire of and find will be viewed enthusiastically should you decide to move on.
We have selected the best Kitchen Design Books to give you more ideas and help you decide on the right kitchen for you and your home.
The Kitchen Sink...
We all dream of a good sized kitchen sink in front of the kitchen window with a view over the garden...
You may have a dishwasher set amongst your kitchen cabinet and equipment... but you will still be washing and rinsing somethings at the sink, there is something in our psyche that tells us that these jobs would be much less arduous, boring, tedious... if we had that view from the kitchen sink.
Kitchen sinks are usually place against an outer wall to be in close proximity to water drainage pipes.
For the same reason your washing machine and dishwasher are usually close by.
If your sink is not ideally placed then you might consider moving or extending the pipes.
If so you will probably find that it's going to be expensive, so if at all possible, unless truly beneficial to your kitchen, it may be best to work with what you have.
If you have always wanted a Belfast sink you are going to add great character to your kitchen, but remember, it's all too easy to chip your good china in this unforgiving solid type of sink. However, if you are changing for a deep double sink, then you have choosen a hot remodeling item.
The Cooking Equipment...
The idea of a traditional cooker as a stand alone unit has come long way in the last ten years. The fact that it is no longer neccessary to have your hob right on top of your oven means that you can be more inventive and flexible in the design layout for your kitchen cabinet and equipment remodeling.
You might decide that the oven would look better in a tower unit with the microwave rather than be married to the hob and you may feel it's new position to be more child friendly than being on the floor. The latest trend is for the combination oven and there are some fantastic models available.
If you don't have a suitable tower unit in which to store your microwave, you can prepare a simple wall unit like this one which raises the microwave off the counter top to free up valuable work surface space.
A hob, if placed against an exterior wall it will make the installation of an extractor hood much easier, meaning less grease for the rest of your kitchen.
The Kitchen Island
Kitchen Island Designs are causing a revolution in kitchen remodeling projects.Find out why kitchens are coming OFF the wall following the latest Kitchen Island Design Trends
The Kitchen Cabinet...
We all know how important plenty of storage space is in a kitchen, especially important in avoiding cluttering up all the work surfaces.
The color, tone and style of the units we choose define the whole look of the kitchen. If you go for a definite style of unit, you are more likely to end up with a kitchen which will "date" sooner, you may grow tired of it yourself and it might not be a good selling point when you decide to move on.
Try to pick units that are clean cut for your kitchen cabinet and equipment design, no fancy ridges or patterns on the doors make them more practical, easier to clean and because they are less likely to date, are more universally liked.
Units with no door knobs are very sleek, however units with door knobs give you more flexibility, if you want the opportunity of changing them at a later date to give your kitchen cabinet and equipment yet another new look. It can be a simple but very effective change.
The country look with panelled cabinet doors and the occasional tongue and groove boarding, is great in a country home, or for example in a Victorian home and is equally nice if you choose a light wood grain or painted cream units and include some glass panelled cabinets.
If you are short of a good work surface, see if a mobile butcher's trolley would suit your kitchen and your needs, as well as a good chopping surface, they also give you more storage underneath and can be wheeled out of the way when not in use, a nice addition to your kitchen cabinet and equipment.
For a galley kitchen the depth of the units can be ordered narrower which will give you more room on either side, using slimline kitchen cabinet and equipment will suggest a wider space.
If the work surfaces are left reasonably clear and items like the microware are fitted in the units, the kitchen will always appear and feel more spacious.
Fully intregrated appliances will give any kitchen cabinet and equipment a more streamlined look.
Call in the Experts
For a perfect look and finish - there can be no better way than calling on the knowledge of a good professional whose daily bread is to help people plan and design and install their dream kitchen cabinet and equipment.
If you call in the experts, all your worries over trying to fit your new kitchen cabinet and equipment neatly against uneven wall surfaces, making everything fit square, level, and flush ARE OVER, you plan, decide and relax as your dream kitchen materializes.
Many companies have software facilities where they can incorporate the measurements you give with kitchen cabinet and equipment of your choice, to give you a good idea, on the screen of what that design would look like in your home, it's a great way to preview your new kitchen.
They will help you to carefully choose kitchen lighting which will allow you to safely work in a well lit environment and still retain a softness and character in your kitchen.
You will get expert advice on the choice of materials and styles available and your dream kitchen will be professionally fit. You can then be assured that your cabinet doors will be well hinged and your drawers will run smoothly.
Create a design for Kitchen Cabinet and Equipment that you can enjoy...
Related Kitchen Design Articles
Once you have completed your kitchen cabinet and equipment remodeling, take a look at our other remodeling ideas for your next home improvement project here at Home Improvement Remodeling articles to find out what else could be a good "HOT" remodeling project to further improve the quality and value of your home.
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