Renovating a kitchen is no small task. It’s a significant financial investment and it requires a lot of time and planning to get everything right. If you’re going to be putting a lot of time, money, and effort into renovating your kitchen, you want to make sure that the end result is a space that will last for many years to come.
Map The Floor Plan Around How You Actually Cook
First things first, observe how you move in the kitchen. The work triangle model – stove, sink, refrigerator – is popular since it represents how most individuals naturally cook. Yet this concept also applies more generally. Consider for example the swinging door of the dishwasher, and if it blocks a major area when open. Consider where two individuals are cooking simultaneously, and if they’re constantly in each other’s way.
Rectifying a flawed floor plan post-cabinet installment is costly. Rectifying it on paper is free of charge.
Choose Cabinetry Based On Construction, Not Just Appearance
This is the silent killer of almost all renovation budgets, and it’s obvious if you just think about it for a second: a cabinet door looks exactly the same whether it’s hanging off an ultra-cheap particle board box or a solid plywood carcass. The difference is, you start to notice the cabinet box bending under the weight of plates and glasses two or three years down the line, or the entire bottom panel turning into a pile of wet fiber after a small plumbing issue under the sink.
Solid wood and high-grade plywoods (the innumerable layers of glued-together wood that makes for a material as strong, if not stronger, than solid wood across the grain) don’t just last longer, they also resist moisture and hold screws infinitely better than glorified cardboard also known as medium-density fibreboard. Dovetail joinery in the drawers is a solid clue that the manufacturer wasn’t just cutting corners: they’re building stuff that’s going to last, even if nobody sees it.
For pieces that are intended to last as long as your stove or washing machine, discover wooden kitchen units built to last and see what that construction difference actually looks like in practice.
Understand What’s Behind The Walls Before You Commit To A Budget
The budget overruns most frequently caused by kitchen renovations are those related to load-bearing walls. One can go from “Let’s just knock this one wall out to open things up” to “We can’t take this wall out without replacing it with a steel beam so the upstairs doesn’t cave in.” This can lead to tears, fistfights, and couples therapy.
Floors, ceilings, and cabinets are the other usual suspects when it comes to what causes the final bill to be so much more than the estimate. A contractor lifting up an old tile floor to prepare it for a warm, modern radiant heat one, or ripping out a waterlogged-rotted cabinet only to discover that it’s structural and load-bearing, can feel a lot like déjà vu.
Build A Multi-Layer Lighting Plan From The Start
Typically, a kitchen is designed with one overhead fixture and that’s all. That’s a problem since overhead lighting only casts shadows right onto your work surfaces – which is exactly where you need the most visibility. A good kitchen is made up of three layers: ambient lighting for the room, task lighting underneath cabinets or pendants above islands, and accent lighting to decrease visual flatness within the space.
Recessed lighting and pendant location must be determined before electricians rough in the wiring. Retrofitting lighting after the drywall is seamed is doable but it is an added cost and mess.
Match Your Ventilation To Your Cooktop
People often underestimate the size of the range hood they need. For example, a 300-cfm hood is fine for a 30-inch electric cooktop. But it won’t come close to handling the output of a pro-style range with a wok burner. Undersizing is a common problem.
Expect problems associated with undersizing, such as a sticky film of grease on the countertops, swelling of the cabinets above because of steam, and a house that smells of last night’s fish dinner. It’s probably safe to figure 100 cfm for every 10,000 Btu of burner energy.
Pick Permanent Materials For Longevity, Not For This Year’s Look
Upgrading your kitchen is likely one of the biggest investments you will make in your home. So yes, it’s a lot of pressure. Cabinets and flooring are the biggest tickets and the heftiest/most disruptive to change out.
Countertops demand a moderate outlay, but they’re a once-every-two-decades affair, so most people wield their power accordingly. Hardware and paint? Dirt cheap and low effort to do over again if you want a reboot. This hierarchy should guide every finish decision you make.
Know What You’re Actually Buying Financially
An overhaul of the entire kitchen will repay 67 percent of the cost, give or take, at resale, according to the National Association of Realtors 2022 Remodeling Impact Report. It is one of the best-paying investments in home improvements. Done on the cheap, the renovation may not even reach that nearly 70 percent number. But done with sustainability in mind, a remodel can easily exceed it.
If you’re on the fence about how much to spend: ask for longevity, not beauty. Fix what’s broken, splurge on the workhorses of the room, and remember that not everything needs to match.
