If you are thinking of renovating your kitchen with new kitchen cabinets and wall cabinets, then this will help you to get a lot more out of your room. The kitchen is somewhere where we spend a lot of our time and that has a big impact on our experience of our home. Put simply if you have a great kitchen that you enjoy then you will find that cooking and preparing food is more pleasant and you will generally find that your chores around the home are made easier too.
But likewise if you want to make a good impression on guests and impress them with the state of your home, then getting the best kitchen cabinets and wall cabinets is the best way to do so. This way they will see your kitchen is full of great furniture and fittings and that they are better looking and more polished. Because they are newer they will have more of a sheen and a shine to them, and because you'll have rethought the whole design using your kitchen cabinets you should find that the whole room is better and more convenient to work in as well.
It won't just be your kitchen cabinets you change though.
When you get a kitchen renovation you'll also focus on the appliances and this will mean that you can get more or less use out of your kitchen too. You'll think about things like a dishwasher, the hob the oven, the sink etc and you will generally try and make sure that the systems you have in place are as modern and as effective as they can be. If you spend the money now buying the best systems for your kitchen and the best kitchen cabinets then they will work better for longer and it will be a lot longer before they start to appear dated and make your kitchen look old.
In other words then, by having the best kitchen cabinets and by having the best appliances and layout, you can make your kitchen look like it is part of the home of tomorrow. And indeed if you've ever seen programmes about the homes of tomorrow, then it's always the kitchen and the bathroom they focus on.
Having damaged equipment and grotty looking kitchen then makes your home look out of date and old in contrast.
At the same time it means that when you work there, this is then what you're surrounded by and what you have to get used to working around. It is easy when working in the kitchen to feel claustrophobic and hemmed in if the kitchen cabinets leave no space in the room and if they're too suffocating a color or pattern. At the same time as they get older they will collect grime and dirt and dust and they will then start to be harder to clean and they will look grubbier too. This all then makes the kitchen feel dirtier and smaller (dirty or untidy rooms always feel smaller) and if you have a lack of storage and floor cabinets then that will only add to this overall effect.
You'll be in here every day at least once but more likely three times, and you'll be working on food in a hot environment with lots of smells and fumes cooking should be an enjoyable experience but when the kitchen isn't as it should be then it doesn't feel that way it feels instead like a chore and like you've been consigned to the boiler room for hard labor.
Having new kitchen with new kitchen cabinets and a new layout then will make your kitchen far more pleasant to work in and it will make you feel on top of things and spacious and modern rather than cramped and stressed and grimy. For such a large part of every day that's a huge reason to go ahead.
So how do you go about thinking of this kitchen renovation? Where do you start? What is there to consider? Well first of all you should have a look around some pictures online or some show rooms, try to see what the current modern wave of kitchens are looking like and have a think about how you would design your dream kitchen. Your ambition is to make a kitchen layout that will feel spacious and modern and 'high tech' but also to make it practical and easy to work in – you want to design it in such a way as to be conducive to the kind of work you need to do in it.
You need to decide how much of an overhaul you're going to give everything too. Are you just going to do the cabinets? Or are you going to do the flooring too? And what about the appliances? This will depend partly on your budget and what you can afford. Of course the more you change about your room the bigger and impact it will have and the more you will get to benefit from the changes, but also the more mess will be created and the more you will have to spend.
If you're finding your kitchen stressful to be in and your current laminate kitchen cabinets are looking worse for wears then you will need to change something to be happy more of the time and to keep your kitchen tidy and hygienic. If you can't afford an entire kitchen overhaul then don't let this stand in the way of your making any significant changes. There is nothing to stop you from just changing your kitchen cabinets around and this can be relatively cheap and easy. If you have ready to assemble kitchen cabinets then even better – you won't need any workmen in to design the interior for you.
Anyone can use ready to assemble kitchen cabinets in order to reduce costs and to enable themselves to do it on their own without intervention from a builders and without having to have them in your home most of the day causing mess.
Whether you're doing a small overhaul with ready to assemble kitchen cabinets, or having the whole kitchen renovated, the first step then is to design the color scheme of the kitchen and what you want the feel to be. This will affect your laminate kitchen cabinets/wood kitchen cabinets, and it will also affect your floor tiles, wall tiles and ceiling. Try to choose a color scheme that affects the whole kitchen so that it either matches or just at least echoes throughout the room. This will make your kitchen look as though it had more thought and more design work go into it and will make it look less cramped – because having an eclectic mix of kitchen cabinets that don't match the floors will just look unattractive and will make you feel hemmed in.
You should also for this reason buy your kitchen cabinets in matching sets, and this is also the easiest way to find affordable kitchen cabinets – the fact that you are buying them together means they are essentially wholesale and so you'll get a better price for them. One of the best way to get affordable kitchen cabinets or cheap kitchen cabinets is to look for kitchen cabinets online. By getting your kitchen cabinets online you can search a wider selection and find deals while cutting some of the costs of the manufacturer thereby getting cheap kitchen cabinets.
When selecting the floor tiles you want them to either match your affordable kitchen cabinets (for instance have the same laminate shade on the floor as you have on the countertops of the cabinets) or as the doors of the cabinets themselves.
If you want to create the feeling of space, light and cleanliness in the kitchen then the best way to do this is with plain white or a light color such as beige and this will reflect the light thereby making it brighter and more spacious. However going for light and plain colors also has drawbacks. In particular choosing a light color for your cabinets will mean that it shows dirt and spillages more easily. Because there will be contrast and because there will be no other blemishes.
While patterns date quickly then, completely white or beige can sometimes create more work in the kitchen.
The best solution then for your kitchen cabinets or for your floor and wall tiles, is to go for a light color but to also have specks in it or a very light pattern. This way it will look as though the surface is not completely plain already, and as such, when you drop crumbs or spill drink onto the floor it will look more as though it's blended in to the floor and won't stand out as much against the flecks that are already in it.
You then need to choose the materials. For your cabinets this will normally mean choosing either wood kitchen cabinets or laminate kitchen cabinets. Here wood kitchen cabinets are going to be slightly more resilient and less likely to show chips and scratches over time, they will also add more to the value of your property and they will be more likely to make visitors go 'ooh' when they come to look around. For the kitchen of tomorrow then wood is a good cool.
Alternatively though you can also get laminate kitchen cabinets and these are essentially a chip board covered by a thin layer of better quality wood or plastic.
This means that you're not buying as much of the wood that you want and you can therefore get the same look as with wood cabinets but for a smaller price. This makes it a good option for those who have a smaller budget, however there are downsides again and specifically it's important to recognize that laminate kitchen cabinets are more likely to chip easily and the laminate plastic can sometimes peel away from the chip board underneath which is not an attractive look for your cabinets.
On the plus side you do have slightly more design options with laminate kitchen cabinets. Because a laminate kitchen cabinet is more synthetic and is designed in a lab this then means that it does not have to be a natural wood color. You can find many different laminate cabinets and these will can be almost any color or design you can think of – and you can even get them to look the same as your wood kitchen cabinets (though don't expect people to be unable to tell the difference).
That said, if you should want your wood kitchen cabinets to be a certain color or pattern, then it is possible to get them painted and this means that there are a vast range of options here too. It comes down to budget and choice.
For your tiles and your countertops – the work surfaces that go on top of your cabinets – you will probably want to go wood, laminate or maybe even stone. Again stone is a very luxurious and decadent look for your kitchen and one that will be highly resilient and a good investment, but it is also very expensive (and can be cold underfoot unless you get underfloor heating) so it comes down to personal preference. The best looks though have the the same material for the countertops as they do for the flooring which makes that consistent design that goes through all the elements of your kitchen.
If you are only changing the cabinets for now, then you will need to select cabinets that are going to match the current tiles and thereby still allow you to have a consistent design.
If you are only changing the cabinets then you can get read to assemble kitchen cabinets and these should be simple enough for you to go about installing on your own. However if you want something a bit more thorough then just ready to assemble kitchen cabinets may not be enough and you might require a contractor to help you with the process.
Using a contractor is a very good idea because they will have knowledge of everything you need to create your dream kitchen. For instance if you decided you want to move the sink then that doesn't just mean delivering the sink parts and installing it – it also means removing the old sink, handling the plumbing, moving the cabinets and more. That's a lot of different skill sets and even just ordering the help from the right people can be a little complicated here. Contractors make this easier by hiring the help on your behalf.
That then means that you can simply draw up plans for them and let them get on with it and not worry about anything else. It means you only have one bill to pay, and it also gives you someone to consult with who can recommend you the very best kitchen cabinets, the best layout, the best workmen etc. With a contractor you can also get an estimation of the price, and of how long it will take and all this will help you to get your kitchen designed precisely how you want it with no nasty surprises and with minimum fuss.
Another big bonus of using a contractor is that they will get everything done for you more cheaply – because they will have deals with the laborers and contacts that they use regularly who can get it all done more quickly. It means you won't accidentally hire a cowboy to do the job for you.
You will need to show your kitchen contractor the kitchen cabinets that you want and they will help you to install those and have them delivered etc.
Although they can advise you on a lot of things, it is still your job to come up with the overall look for the kitchen and to direct them when choosing things like kitchen cabinets.
There are other aspects of your kitchen cabinets you need to consider. When choosing cabinets for kitchens you need to think about where you want your storage and how much you need to have. The more crockery and cutlery you have the more cabinets for kitchens you will need to install around the room and the more you will need to think about the layout. You can get wall cabinets that stick high on the wall for things like glasses and this frees up space for more floor cabinets for things like tinned food and crockery.
You need to think about precisely how much storage space you need so you know how many cabinets for kitchens are needed and which ones. You can also look for other features of the cabinets and these include things like the shelves inside. Cabinets with shelves are obviously more useful for stacking more smaller things.
However for stacking larger items like pans you might not want cabinets with shelves which can get in the way.
Then you need to think about things like the size of your cabinets and how much space each one takes up, and about the way the door closes. Soft close cabinets prevent people from slamming and damaging the plates inside and the cabinets themselves. You might alternatively want kitchen cabinets with drawers for your cutlery.
Make a list of what you need and then alongside this make a list of the appliances you need which will include things like ovens, fridges and dish washers. You need to know both about the cabinets you need and the dishwashers in order to know how much space you're going to need and to put in the order for the items. You should make sure to get the measurements of the cabinets you need before you order them, and to get the measurements of your appliances too such as the dishwasher. When selecting your appliances again be sure to choose the best and most expensive as these will last the longest and provide you with the best quality work.
Once you have all of this you will have a list of everything you need – all the cabinets and all of the appliances and you can then start visualizing where they will fit around the kitchen. Measure the kitchen now, and then using the measurements of the appliances and cabinets you want draw up a plan where you can put in each item. This is very important as it allows you to play around with the very best set ups which you can show a contractor to make sure that they make a layout that you like, and also because it means that you can be certain before you begin that everything is going to fit into place and that you have adequate room – you don't want to order too many cabinets and likewise you don't want any big ugly spaces. Again if you are just using ready to assemble cabinets to add some new cabinets in yourself you will still need a plan of where they are going to go, but you will need to measure your existing appliances and make sure that it all fits around these.
When you design the layout of your cabinets think long and hard about how practical it will be to work in – not just how good it will look. Try to create 'work zones' where you have access to more than one cabinet and more than one work surface. Triangles and right angles make perfect work zones, so try to create as many of these as possible with adjacent sets of kitchen cabinets.
