After a few years of living in a house, you’ll probably feel that remodeling is needed, especially in the kitchen. The kitchen now caters to many roles as it is not only for cooking, but also for family meetings, late-night snacks, daily chores, and now a new role, working from home. Kitchen remodeling is very similar to kitchen renovation in the sense that you do it to feel a change in your kitchen. Yet, the core difference is that when you remodel you add a new function not just a replacement with a newer version of the same item. There are a few steps to be done to ensure that you have a successful kitchen remodeling result.
Imagine how many things you can do to remodel your kitchen from changing the lighting, the cupboards, and the colors either walls or cabinets, to just changing the entire look of your kitchen. You might also yearn for more storage, a more up-to-date sink, and faucet, or just add a new kitchen trend that you see on Pinterest. What you decide to change in your kitchen is up to your imagination and its alignment with your budget.
Planning your kitchen remodeling
Before starting your kitchen remodeling, there are a few steps that are crucial to be done: First, jot down your dreams into realistic ideas. Secondly, start assessing the finances of the project and make sure it can be done within budget. Lastly, search for a trustworthy contractor to work on the project.
Organizing before remodeling
An initial step before remodeling is that you start investigating every space you have and begin to organize it. Sometimes the extra storage you needed was just filled with items that you no longer need. You may also do some shuffling to make your movement inside the kitchen easier, such as moving cereal bowls near the breakfast table. Your dreams about having a kitchen island to add an extra workspace countertop could be solved by clearing a side table that was filled with unneeded decorations. You might discover that you were using one of the cabinets as near storage instead of storing it in the storage room or the garage.
Can my dreams come true?
After carefully clearing out futile pieces and starting to figure out what could be done to revamp your kitchen, start asking yourself vital questions like; will I need to remove a wall and do I need an open kitchen, is my renovation just for more storage or new appliances will be installed, how much cabinets will I be disposing of, will I change my countertop or just giving it a glow, will I need new plumbing, will I change to a smart kitchen and smart taps? These are only some examples and there are more questions to help you plan your kitchen remodeling.
Checking your budget
Next, check if your budget matches the renovations that you chose. The cost of remodeling depends on a lot of things such as: where you live, the size of your kitchen, product selection, and project scope. You need to decide if you are going to change everything head to bottom, or if you are doing subtle changes just to give your kitchen a glow. You also need to set aside an extra amount from 10-20% for anything that comes up during the process.
Choose your contractor
Another step is to carefully choose your contractor. When you start searching you will find dozens of contractors, yet the best way is a recommendation from a friend or a relative as it will probably be a true one. Stay away from unknown websites and scammers. You can ask the contractor to show you photos from his previous work to make sure he can work on your project with the same ideas and styles. The contractor could also be you and that means less cost but more time allocated for your project.
Choosing your new remodel
After carefully investigating and searching, you will be ready to simply sketch your dream kitchen. The contractor could do this step for you, but with some imagination, you might be able to do simple drawing. You could use pictures from the internet or an AI tool that draws it all for you when you decide the basic features of your new kitchen.
Avoiding mistakes in remodeling
One of the famous mistakes is not giving enough specs to the contractor which might lead to a faulty outcome in design or execution. Another mistake is to over customize the kitchen as your current circumstances might change or you may need to move out the house. That does not mean that you live with a kitchen that is not practical just because you cannot tolerate the hassle of remodeling.
At a certain point you might feel that the process has become overwhelming, you can simply return to the basics and then finish later. Some people suggest that you continue what you started whatever it takes, yet some others believe that you don’t have to continue if things are going out of hand in terms of cost or time. Just try to stick to what you decided on because you know that time is money.