What to Consider When Remodeling a Kitchen

Remodeling your kitchen has both benefits and drawbacks. Updating your kitchen, whether you use high-end custom kitchen cabinets or inexpensive custom cabinets, can mean adding quite a bit of functionality to your home. Also, you can add some serious value to your overall property. On the flip side, the average cost of custom kitchen cabinets will often account for 40% of your total remodel budget. Also, the entire remodeling process can be incredibly stressful.

10 Kitchen Remodeling Considerations

There are quite a few things you need to consider when doing a kitchen remodel, so this list isn't exhaustive. However, it's a good starting point to cover your bases and work from there:

1. Don't Just Design Your Cabinets: Also design a great kitchen island. Don't put one in without a minimum of 36 in. of clearance on all four sides. It's even better to have 42 to 48 in. Add electrical outlets per local codes.
2. Create a Temporary Kitchen: You can go online to design your cabinets, but you should also search for how to design a temporary kitchen. Move your toaster, microwave, and fridge to another room. Use an outdoor grill for cooking, and buy lots of disposable plates and utensils.
3. Keep to Code: You might be able to provide an extra pair of hands when installing kitchen cabinets for contractors, but you probably aren't certified to do electrical work. Hire an electrician who knows the local code for enough circuits, lighting, outlets, and GFCI protection.
4. Be Mindful of Details: You can do cabinet design online, but you need to be careful in designing the whole kitchen. Don't let the window over the sink mess with installing the faucet. This is a particular pain point that affects many homeowners.
5. Stick to Your Schedule: Doing demolition too soon can mean more time in your temp kitchen, and you need to make sure everything you need is there before you are going to need it and install it. Looking for kitchen cabinet makers offering quick delivery might be necessary.
6. Lighting Is Essential: There's no point splurging on the best online kitchen cabinets if you literally put them in a poor light. Recessed lights are common options, but putting them in the wrong place means seeing too many shadows.
7. Don't Make Layout Assumptions: Open-concept living is a very popular concept these days, and custom-built kitchen cabinets make many layouts possible. However, you can't just knock out any wall in your way. It might be load-bearing or have certain utilities in it that need re-routing.
8. Match Above With Below: Whatever kind of modern custom kitchen cabinets you choose, make sure that the flooring is also a good visual match. Also, be sure that your floor isn't a trip hazard. You might wind up with elevation issues at the kitchen doorways if you swap out vinyl for tile.
9. Ventilation Matters: Building codes might not mandate a range hood to get ducted outside, but it's a good idea. That duct run should be as straight and short as you can make it, so that might impact the design of your custom cabinet solutions.
10. Be Smart About Cabinet Installation: Whether you use contractors' choice cabinets or custom-made kitchen cabinets, be sure you account for the room conditions first. Look for square corners, sloped floors, and leaning walls.

10 Things You Might Not Hear

Whether or not a kitchen remodel is right for your home and budget is entirely up to you, but there are some things you might not know yet:

1. It costs a lot of money.
2. You might not get your total investment back if you're remodeling to sell.
3. Supply chain disruptions can hit your schedule hard.
4. Consider your future dinner guests and kitchen users.
5. Wall-mounted faucets keep sinks cleaner.
6. Picking countertops starts with aesthetics but needs to be more about practicality.
7. Double-bowl sinks are far more functional than singles.
8. Verify and double-check everything when it shows up and not the day you're going to install it.
9. Pre-owned appliances save money.
10. Your home might not need a total remodel.

Make Things Easy With Baru

If you want to use the best custom cabinet makers near you, then check out Baru. We work with local custom cabinet makers for custom kitchen cabinets near you instead of ordering things from overseas. Cabinet builders in every metro area nationwide means we don't order things from overseas to waste money, time, and fossil fuels with long-distance shipping. By using cabinet makers in throughout the country, Baru delivers the best custom kitchen cabinets all made within 50 miles of your home to support your regional economy.