For many families, the kitchen represents the very center of the home – a hive of activity as kids get ready for school, adults prepare themselves for work, and often, where everyone comes together at the end of the day for the evening meal.
Given its importance, you want the place to look and feel the part, making it one of the most common areas of the home to warrant a remodel.
That said, the prospect can seem pretty overwhelming if you haven’t done it before. There’s a lot more that goes into it compared to other rooms in the home, so in this article, you’ll learn how to get there in six easy steps!
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1. Determining Your Budget
New kitchens are expensive – likely the most expensive room in the house to refit – so it’s key to start your journey by properly determining the limits on what you can spend with a well-planned budget.
Consider the scale of your project first. Are you looking to gut the entire space or keep some elements? After this, make categories for each aspect: appliances, cabinets and countertops, flooring, lighting, and so on. Then, create some rough estimates and partitions based on the total amount you have to spend.
2. Deciding on Your Layout
Next, you can start work on the design, and that begins with the layout. There are myriad ways in which you can set things up: perhaps an open-plan design with an integrated dining room might work best if you have a large space, or if you want to maximise surface space, an island could be a good bet.
Pinterest can be a great resource for puzzling through layouts and understanding how to design your own sketches, and you could also have a consultation with a professional showroom to gain expert insight into what would work best for your specific room.
3. Choosing an Aesthetic
Having decided upon a layout, it’s time to choose what design you’re going to go for. Visiting kitchen showrooms can offer some inspiration, and again, Pinterest and other online sources can be invaluable.
What materials you use has a big bearing on budget, and as is the case with most topics of home renovation, you get what you pay for; more expensive materials are going to be better quality and harder wearing for the most part (granite vs laminate countertops, for example), so you’ll need to spend some time figuring out a balance between cost and quality and where on this spectrum you fall.
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4. DIY vs Professional
You should be looking to save money where you can, and exploring DIY options during your renovation can help a lot in this regard. Of course, there are only certain elements you should try to attempt yourself: you can absolutely paint and wallpaper on your own with a little practice, but fitting cabinets will require professional kitchen joiners, and installing electrical and gas outlets should always be completed by a trained electrician.
Don’t stray out of your depth with DIY, but do always be on the lookout for ways you can help lower costs by doing the job yourself; this could even be something as simple as reducing your labour costs by dismantling the old kitchen cabinets (just don’t touch any connected to gas, pipes, or electricity if you’re not trained).
5. The Renovation Process
Here’s what to expect during the actual renovation process:
The old kitchen will need to be carefully dismantled and disposed of. This will involve removing all appliances, taking up old cabinets and flooring, stripping walls, and anything else that’s required for new hardware. Then, it’s wise to do any painting and decorating, as you don’t want the hassle of skirting round your brand new cabinets and other fittings (your new floor, if you’re having one, will also be installed at this point, but after painting).
From there, your new cabinets and countertops will be installed as well as light fittings, and appliances will likely be delivered and fitted shortly after.
6. Finishing Touches
When all’s said and done, you can start to personalise the space with your own finishing touches, and what you do is really up to you. You could add some plants on the windowsill, maybe some wall art, and if you have an open plan kitchen/dining room, this is the stage where you’ll want to get your new table and chairs.
Many people also choose to replace the handles on their cabinets and drawers with ones that match a certain decor; have fun with it and work to mould your new space into something that fits with the rest of your home.
While it might seem complex at first, redesigning your kitchen can be made simple once you break things down. Get a handle on these steps, and you’ll have a brand new space for you to enjoy in no time!
