The More the Merrier

Today we are going to discuss “YOUR ROLE” when planning on remodeling your kitchen. Last week our Interior designer on staff talked about “less is more.” Well I’m going to use her analogy and say that “the More the Merrier.” The more you take a hands on approach on your kitchen the better it is for you and the designer. Kitchen designers are trained to see potential in a room and to come up with creative ways to make a space look great and functional, but at the end of it all, they are not the ones dwelling in your kitchen. YOU ARE.

Kitchen remodeling is a major task and one of the most expensive undertakings you will take in your home. With this remodel, you can spend an average of 10 -15 percent of the value of your home on a simple kitchen reno. Unless you have money falling out of a tree, I suggest you take a look at this article very seriously and put some of my advice to work. This will help you maximize your dollar value and your ROI (Return on Investment).

I suggest you take an active part in the product specification and design of the kitchen. I’m not asking you to do the actual design, but at least know what you want your space to do for you and how you work best when you are in your kitchen.

• Know the difference between all-wood cabinets and particle-board cabinet boxes.
• Ask about cabinet warranty. You are investing a lot of money on your cabinets, and I am sure you will want to know if you have any protection against damage in the future.
• Unless it is critically important to you, don’t ever shop and make decisions based solely upon cost. Cheaper cabinets are not always in your best interest, well unless you are a contractor looking to buy 100 kitchens to put into an apartment, then I can see where unit price becomes important. I do not recommend that a home owner take this approach.
• Check/feel out the designer and the Company. Go with that gut feeling, everybody has one. Use it! It will tell you if that designer is out to make a sale or if he/she truly cares about the design and his/her client. If the latter is true, then you will see it reflected in the proposed layout. Great designers don’t care about money, but they do care about making a lot of happy customers. They take pride in their work, their satisfaction comes at the end of the project to stand and see it all come alive.

Take an active role in the process. Choose your Appliances that you want even before you show up for a kitchen design. Bring in with you scrap book ideas that you will like: cabinet colors, door styles and any other information that the designer will need to put together the design according to your wish list. It is you who dictates the features in the kitchens; the pull outs, spice racks, lazy Susan’s etc. It will be a good idea to know if you need any of these things or none of them. Be conscious of the fact that all of these decisions will affect the final price of the cabinets.

So No! Your role is not to show up and say “hey I want a kitchen, this is my space, how much is the cost”? Your role is much more than that. The more you take hold of the process, it’s the happier you will be in the end.