The kitchen is often the most important and most expensive room you can remodel in your home, and there are tons of kitchen remodeling pitfalls into which you can land if you’re not careful in your planning. Here are a few common pitfalls to remember as you begin planning your kitchen remodeling project.
Always Place Your Sink Near a Window or Open Space
You may wish to maximize the number of cabinets in your home, and increasing storage space is a great way to improve your kitchen. However, you can actually go overboard with storage and create some problems in your home if you try to stuff a cabinet along absolutely every ounce of wall space.
Advice from This Old House reveals some of the problems homeowners have experienced in creating an abundance of kitchen storage:
“The first time I cooked pasta in our new kitchen, I realized that placing the sink in the corner with a cabinet above it was a big mistake. When I pour out the hot water, the steam has nowhere to rise except straight in my face. I did it to save space, but I should have stuck with the original plan and situated the sink under a window.”
Similarly, you may experience some hassles if you increase the size of your cabinets so that they reach the ceiling. While you might love the idea of having that much storage, you might find it quite inconvenient to drag out a stool every time you want a particular pot or cooking implement.
Tip: Take an inventory of the contents of your kitchen. Do you have several items you only use on rare occasions for special meals or holiday events? Kitchen cabinets that reach the roof may help you store those rarely-used items. However, if the contents of your kitchen are used often and you only have a few pieces that are for special occasions or complex meals, you may want to consider storage solutions that aren’t so difficult to reach.
Don’t Pile Your Appliances on Top of One Another?
When you remodel your kitchen, you have the opportunity to create a space that makes “sense” as far as convenience and cooking patterns are concerned. If you bake often, you might try a double oven. If you only use your oven occasionally, you can purchase an inexpensive oven and add a toaster oven to your kitchen for convenience.
In addition, you can arrange your appliances in a manner that increases your overall efficiency in the kitchen. According to an advice column from Martha Stewart, you’ll want to use the “work triangle” as your inspiration.
“When planning your remodel, remember your kitchen’s busiest areas: the sink, stove, and refrigerator. Make sure these areas and appliances are in an efficient location that is relevant to one another. Many designers refer to this as the kitchen “work triangle,” as the relation of these to one another typically resembles a triangle.”
If you usually cook alone, try to arrange the features in such a manner that’s convenient for your style of cooking. If you regularly cook with other people in the kitchen, you may want to make sure there’s enough space between the appliances to accommodate multiple cooks.
Stay Away from Purely Decorative Features
A few pictures on the wall might look nice in your new kitchen, but everything else that has a purpose in your kitchen should be useful in some way. Don’t hang a bunch of decorative pots on the wall because you saw it in a magazine. Make sure those pots are items you’ll use in everyday cooking and which will offer an easy and convenient way to access your main cooking pots.
HGTV shares:
“People get too focused on finishes without making sure everything functions first. They’re so excited about the tile or the cabinets, then they realize they placed their dishwasher next to a cabinet in such a way that you can’t have them both open at the same time. Or people order refrigerators with doors that open the wrong way. You want the refrigerator to open toward the area where you’ll be working in your kitchen.”
Sure, having the refrigerator open the “wrong” way isn’t a huge problem (most refrigerators have reversible doors anyway), it’s still one of the many features you must consider when designing a kitchen that makes sense for your cooking style and the habits of your family when it comes to making food each day.
Let Gettum Associates Assist With Your Awesome Kitchen Remodeling Project
Gettum Associates can help you improve your home whether you want to remodel your entire kitchen, or you want to enjoy a few affordable upgrades. Our team of experienced and friendly home remodeling experts can help you create the home of your dreams whether your home is a 100 years old or was built just a few decades ago.
Call us at 1-317-888-5681 for more information on our services, as well as to discuss your project and how we can help. Plus, if you’re ready to get started on a renovation project, you’ll want to download our guide: Seven Questions to Ask When Choosing a Remodeler in the Indianapolis Area.
