Reinvent Your Home

Here are two tips for homeowners who'll be using kitchen renovation services. 

They should consider how long they are prepared to live without a kitchen

When living in a home whose kitchen is undergoing renovation, most people will set up a temporary kitchenette somewhere else in their home, with a small fridge and perhaps a countertop oven or portable hob. This can make food preparation challenging. This is something that a homeowner should consider before making any concrete decisions with their contractor, regarding their kitchen renovation.

If for example, they have a big family that they need to cook for each day, and suspect they could only manage with this type of temporary kitchen for a short period, then they might need to ensure that the changes to their kitchen won't take the contractor months to complete. For example, rather than tearing out all of their cabinetry and replacing it, they might decide to have their contractor refinish the existing cabinetry instead, as this might reduce the length of the renovations quite a bit. Likewise, they might decide to keep their kitchen sink in its current position, instead of having it moved to another part of the kitchen, as the latter might involve the reconfiguration of the kitchen's pipes, which could be time-consuming.

They should consider if they'd like to dine in their remodelled kitchen

When making plans for their kitchen renovation, a homeowner should consider if they'd like to be able to dine in the remodelled kitchen. The reason for this is that if, for example, they need a kitchen island that can double up as both a dining area and a food-prep space, they'll need to ensure that it's designed to be dual-purpose. This might mean that if, for instance, they want the island to have a big sink for washing fruits and vegetables and rinsing pasta, they may need to make the island benchtop large enough so that the three or four people who'll be sitting at it can comfortably lay their plates and glasses on it, without any of these items being at risk of falling into this sink.

If they'd prefer to have a built-in seating area in the kitchen, and the kitchen itself isn't very large, they will have to think about how this will affect the amount of cabinetry they can then fit into this room, and they might need to find ways to add extra storage. For example, they might need to ask the contractor to add extra shelves, in between the wall-mounted cabinets and the benchtops below them, or have them attach shelves to the sides of some of the cabinets.

Reach out to a kitchen renovation contractor to learn more.