5 Tips for a smooth kitchen renovation project

5 TIPS : For a smooth kitchen
renovation project

A kitchen is always the heart of every home. How long have you been dreaming of sprucing up yours? A good deal of time is spent in the kitchen. It must thus be a pleasant and highly functional environment. It is often the very first area of the home slated for renovation.

A known fact is that a properly designed kitchen improves your quality of life and increases the value of your home.

To start your renovation project on the right foot, list all the things you like and dislike about your current kitchen and start thinking about the layout and décor that would make your day.

Following are 5 tips to help you along the way.

1. A CUSTOM KITCHEN IS ALWAYS BEST

To make the best use of the available space and enjoy maximum storage capacity, it is advantageous to use the services of a custom cabinet maker. You will enjoy a unique kitchen designed to precisely meet your needs. Select from a wider range of materials, colours, and finishes. Get cabinets of various sizes as needed. Your options are near endless and you will be surprised to learn that the cost is not that much more expensive than prefabricated cabinets.

For your future dream kitchen, benefit from the reliable expertise of Cuisines Rive-Sud. Our kitchen designers will guide you from start to finish, provide relevant advice and help you design the perfect plan for the available space.

2. A SMOOTH FLOW PLAN

The kitchen is the nerve center of your home, its hub. You not only prepare meals there but also engage in conversations with family and friends, enjoy drinks, do homework, or take in a quick lunch. The design of your kitchen thus requires careful planning! It must be functional, ergonomic, and aesthetic. The positioning of cupboards, drawers, and appliances must be thoroughly mapped out before their final installation.

 

A functional kitchen layout is based on the work triangle. This links the 3 essential zones of a functional kitchen – the storage zone (fridge and pantry), the cooking zone, and the cleaning zone – here represented by the 3 tips of the triangle. The 3 zones must be sensibly positioned and certain distances respected. Here are a few examples of common kitchen layouts.

 

3. SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE WITH EASY-TO-MAINTAIN MATERIALS

Cleaning a kitchen is never at the top of a fun to-do list. To make things simple, better to choose easy-to-maintain materials for your cabinets and other working surfaces. Following are a few pointers.

On the furniture side, dark colours such as black with a glossy finish require more frequent maintenance, especially if you have young children or pets. Lighter colours with a mat finish are recommended in such cases.

For your floor, go with ceramic tiles rather than wood as they are easier to clean and less vulnerable to wear and moisture.

Avoid small ceramic tiles for your work surfaces as joints are difficult to clean and can quickly become clogged. Melamine is also to be avoided as it is vulnerable to chipping. Laminated countertops while more resistant, have joints that may lead to water infiltration. Opt for quartz or granite as they offer superior resistance and are much easier to clean. Somewhat more expensive, but with clear advantages in the long run.

By carefully selecting your materials, your kitchen will be that much easier to keep clean. Our kitchen designers know how best to help you make the right choices based on your lifestyle and family situation.

4. DON’T SKIMP ON STORAGE AND LIGHTING

Storage capacity is undoubtedly one of the more important elements when designing a functional kitchen. Be it a sliding pantry or one with interior drawers, large drawers for pots and pans, or drawers with compartments, many solutions exist to store cutlery, cookware, items to be recycled, and all your other accessories. The convenient trend for the lower cabinets is to favor drawers rather than doors. Everything is more readily at hand.

For the higher cabinets, if you choose a design with a few open shelves, be ready to spend some time tidying up. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a disorderly look. The same applies to cabinets with glass doors.

If the available space allows unrestricted movement around it, a kitchen island provides additional storage space, an enhanced preparation area, and even the ideal corner to grab a quick lunch. No wonder it’s so popular!

Don’t cheat on lighting in your new kitchen layout. It is neither practical nor pleasant to work in a dark room. A successful design will propose multiple sources of light. Start with a central ceiling lamp that will provide light across the kitchen or recessed lights above each zone. Add light strips (LED) under the higher cabinets to enjoy light immediately above your work area. Above a kitchen table or an island, it is best to choose suspended lamps. Don’t forget your glass door cabinets and open shelves where mini recessed lights will have a spectacular effect.

5. TURNKEY OR DIY

Lastly, you must establish how much time you can devote to your project. Understand that few companies in the business of kitchen and bathroom renovations offer a complete service with all the trades covered. Many cabinet makers will build and install the units but provide you only with references to a general contractor or other professionals for any other work required. This means you will have to spend time in meetings, travel, negotiations, and coordination with everyone involved in the project.

We strongly recommend that you do business with a one-stop-shop operation such as Cuisines Rive-Sud which holds a general contractor license from la régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ). Cuisines Rive-Sud will manage your project from start to finish. We even have a warehouse to bring together all the products required before work begins. Less wasted time on-site and limited risk of delays. You will then quickly enjoy your new kitchen.