Top Tips for Planning Your New Kitchen

Renovating your kitchen is an exciting project, and often a costly one. But done properly, kitchens can add value to your home and are a great room to invest in. Focus on what you do in the kitchen. What you have to store? What do you want hidden? What do you want on show? How long will you be at the house?

If this is your dream kitchen in your dream house, go all out. If it’s a property you’ll be selling or renting out in a year or two, keep those bespoke extras to a minimum as you won’t be the one using them when you sell up.

But where do you start?

Planning

Have plans drawn up for your kitchen. A professional designer will know how to maximize space and can make sure your living needs are met. You can draw plans yourself if you have an understanding of cabinetry and use of space, and bring it to a kitchen and bath designer to get start on pricing.

Considerations

·         Budget

·         Existing gas or electricity

·         Plumbing

·         Whether the main user is right or left handed

·         How many people will use the kitchen

·         Design and color

·         Allowing the right spacing between walk ways and appliances

Custom Cabinetry

Custom cabinets are built to your specifications, so they can be pretty much anything you want! It is possible to buy "custom" cabinets, which means you start with a standard size cabinet and add on the details and features you want. Custom cabinets are either built on- or- off-site by a skilled carpenter, or manufactured on a build-to-order basis.

Factory (Semi-Custom Cabinetry)

Semi-custom cabinets are basically stock cabinets with extra detailing options. The basic cabinetry sizes still apply, but consumers have the option to change certain dimensions, like resizing the cabinet drawers and door fronts, or increasing/decreasing the cabinet depth. The advantages of semi-custom cabinets is that you get the feeling you have some individual input into the design (however limited). But sometimes that's all you need to get great cabinets without the expense of a custom job. Semi-custom truly is the best of both worlds.

 

Stock Cabinetry

Stock cabinets are readymade, pre-manufactured cabinets, meaning they're mass-produced in a factory and ready to ship when ordered. They're sold in modular units, and no customization is available. What you see is what you get! The advantages of stock cabinets are affordability and a quick delivery time. However, you usually have a limited selection of styles, shapes, colors, wood type, etc.

Flat pack / RTA (Ready to Assemble) Cabinetry

Flat pack kitchen units come as a set size and are generally available off-the-shelf from your local hardware store or specialist kitchen shop. The modular units are dismantled and lay flat on the shelf ready for a DIYer or tradesman to build. If you have any doubt about your DIY ability, have a trades-person install it for you. Your kitchen cupboards bear a lot of weight, as does your shelves. Also beware that most RTA cabinetry are made overseas and are not the same as America Cabinet manufactures.

Appliances

It’s important to choose your appliances before finalizing your kitchen to ensure they fit, and have clearance around them. Ensure there’s enough ventilation around appliances such as wall ovens and fridges and check the manufacturer’s installation guides in case there’s anything a little different about the machine you’ve picked. In most instances, one or two cupboards will need a little modifying at the back to allow for cables, plugs and hoses.

·         Allow spacing beside cook tops so pots and pans can sit safely

·         Avoid placing your cook top/oven next to the fridge; otherwise, it will have to work twice as hard to cool

Think green

With so many choices available for your new kitchen, renovations could be the time to go a little greener and do your bit for the environment. You can start by switching to water efficient appliances and fittings, which are identifiable by the new national Water Efficiency Labelling Scheme (WELS). The WELS label uses a one to six star rating scale – the more stars on the label, the more water efficient the product is. Many environmental trusts also recommend:

·         Durable, easy-to-clean, well ventilated gas appliances

·         Sustainable timber, bamboo, cork, tiles, concrete, stone or timber veneers with zero or low volatile organic compounds (VOC) sealants

·         No PVC edging tape

·         Eco-accredited laminates and particleboard

·         Glass and tile splash backs with zero or low VOC adhesives

·         Stainless steel

·         Plant and water-based paints with low VOC

·         Tight fitting cabinetry to limit vermin

If you opt for a ‘green’ modular kitchen, don’t forget it comes as a package, so you will have to stipulate which components you want to replace.

Flooring

If you go to the effort of installing a new kitchen, you will probably want to lay a new floor. There are many options for flooring, and your budget and personal style will be the major factors when choosing a suitable surface. Make sure the surface is hardy and able to withstand wear and tear, especially if you have children. Laying vinyl floors occurs after kitchen installation; lay all other surfaces before installation.

Trade tips

Word-of-mouth or recommendations from those who you know and trust are a good way to source reliable tradespeople. Or you could check with professional trade associations. Local knowledge can be key to your contractor getting the best price on supplies so search locally too.

A few other things to look at are:

·         Check whether the kitchen installation company uses its own installers or recommends subcontractors. It should be able to supply their license numbers if required.

·         Has the manufacturer won any recent awards?

·         Does your chosen company manufacture its own components?

·         Companies that outsource may not have control over quality

·         Check your designer’s industry experience – and ask to see photos of finished kitchens they’ve worked on.

·         Ask if to see their licenses and insurance.

Renovating your kitchen is an exciting change to make to your home so it’s worth spending some time on it, and not rushing in too fast.

For many people, the kitchen is the center of the home, so getting the design right can be crucial.

     Bessemer Showroom                          Homewood Showroom                       Tuscaloosa Showroom 

1240 Raimund Muscoda Rd                    2901 18^th Street South                              701 21^st Avenue

    Bessemer, Al 35020                            Homewood, AL 35209                         Tuscaloosa, AL 35401

       205-481-1003                                           205-871-2066                                     205-434-9044

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5 Trends For 2015 in the Kitchen and Bath World

Want to freshen up the look of your kitchen? Maybe you’re building a brand new home from the ground up, or you’re interested in doing a complete kitchen remodel. Or perhaps your budget only allows you to change out a few key details in your existing kitchen décor. If you’re updating your kitchen in any form, before you spend any money, it pays to get informed about the current kitchen design trends for 2015.

1. Open Floor Plan Designs for the Kitchen and the Home

During the past several decades, we’ve witnessed an evolution from closed to open floor plans. Open floor plans continue to be on-trend for 2015 and beyond. Without walls to separate the two spaces, natural light from the dining area

spills into the kitchen, making it feel even more open and light. Let’s you interact with family and guests while putting the finishing touches on your meal. With an open floor plan there’s room for everyone to sit comfortably around the kitchen and in the surrounding living spaces.

Some ideas would be having a single wall of appliances and floor-to-ceiling cabinetry is perfect for an open floor plan. A long island houses a sink, keeping the work triangle compact, and holds additional storage. Island seating allows friends and family to stay close without getting in the way. When freshening up the kitchen, you might want to choose a few of your accent colors from the choices you’ve already made in the family room. You also may wish to incorporate key elements that tie the two rooms together — perhaps coordinating area rugs, several well-placed pieces of artwork by the same artist, or harmonizing color palettes throughout.

2. Metallic or Gray Kitchen Cabinets

Gray isn’t the freshest, newest interior design trend going — which could actually be a good thing for those of you who don’t want to be first to dive into anything. In the past few years, gray has already been shaping up as a go-to color, and it is still a relatively safe choice as 2015 progresses. Along with white, gray is a strong contender for the hottest neutral color in trendy designers’ palettes for 2015. Gray is also a much fresher choice than the beiges, khakis and camels that were so prevalent during the last several decades.  For those of you who want to go up-to-the-minute-trendy, consider adding luster to your gray color stories. Metallic surfaces are a hot design trend for 2015, and they are easily accomplished; try freshening up tired spaces with some of the newest metallic paint colors that are hitting the marketplace now. This is particularly timely advice for those of you who can’t do an entire remodel; a fresh coat of paint could do wonders to transform tired-looking kitchen cabinets.

3. Minimalist White Kitchen Cabinets and Appliances

Minimalist kitchens have been making a major surge recently  White is one of the freshest new “neutrals,” and it’s a color that makes perfect sense in the kitchen. Think  Simple styles, limited colors, flat planes, and minimal ornamentation describe this recent trend. "Simple and clean"

Despite what you might think, minimalist kitchens don't have to be ultra-modern. A traditional kitchen with a minimalist twist can be the prefect blend.

It is possible that the minimalist kitchen trend is a reaction to the excesses of the housing boom, or perhaps just a natural response to the slower economy. Either way, we think a minimalist undercurrent will be here for some time, because such clean and simple designs are usually practical and rarely showy. Both traits are marks of a longer-lasting movement that shouldn't look dated any time soon.

4. Think Oil-Rubbed Bronze and Other Up-To-Date Finishes.

Stainless steel has its place, and it hasn’t gone away by any means. However, one easy way to get a fresh, new look is to ditch the stainless steel hardware, and instead use a look more current. Oil-rubbed bronze is shaping up to be an important surface for kitchen and bathroom fixtures such as faucets, handles and knobs.  If oil-rubbed bronze is too dark or dramatic for your kitchen space, check out other currant finishes such as brushed nickel or chrome.

5. White or Colorful Sinks

There’s a dilemma faced by those embracing the trends for warm metals such as copper and bronze: how do you make it look good with a standard stainless steel sink?  The solution: You don’t have to. Instead, you go with a plain white sink, or perhaps a sink in a warm color that harmonizes. Of course, that isn’t to say that bronze-colored fixtures would never look good with stainless steel sinks. There are some designers who have successfully pulled off such combinations. For many of us, bronze + white is a safer choice.

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