Your kitchen is one of the most important spaces in your home. It’s the place where friends and family members gather when you’re entertaining, the space where everyone in your household gathers and the room where you meals are prepared and served. Remodeling to create a more functional and efficient kitchen can have a positive impact on not only your day to day life, but also the resale value of your home. Renovations with a focus on a more efficient kitchen don’t have to exclude aesthetic value and visual appeal, either. Working with a Virginia kitchen renovation specialist, it’s entirely possible to design a beautiful and efficient kitchen for everyone in your family to enjoy.
FORM AND FUNCTION
There is a fairly common misconception among homeowners which leads them to believe a functional, efficient kitchen is one where the value of visual appeal is not a high priority. Actually, an efficient kitchen can be even more beautiful and fashionable due the the natural minimization of clutter through functional design. Opting for an efficient space means you’ll be optimizing storage, improving the flow of movement throughout your kitchen and reducing the visually distracting elements of inefficiency. This allows your kitchen and it’s clean design to become the focal point, rather than scattered utensils and haphazardly-placed equipment.
SPLURGE ON CABINETRY
One of the more expensive aspects of a full kitchen remodel is custom cabinetry, which is something budget-conscious homeowners tend to avoid in order to save a bit of money. While you will save some cash by choosing pre-fabricated cabinets over those of the custom variety, you’ll also be sacrificing some of your ability to create a truly efficient kitchen. Prefabricated cabinets often utilize false fronts, aren’t designed to allow ease of access to corner cabinets and tend to waste a significant amount of valuable cabinet space. By choosing to splurge a bit on custom cabinetry, you can create a design which will make full use of all the space within them. Instead of a false front under the sink, consider a tilt-out in which you can store sponges, scrubbers and other items that would otherwise clutter the counter top around your sink.
Pull-outs for the storage of baking trays, pot lids and other slender essentials also ensure the things you need are right at your fingertips, rather than stashed inconveniently in the back of a packed cabinet. Specially-designed cabinet spaces for recycling bins and garbage cans allow you to free up floor space which would ordinarily be dominated by those containers while simultaneously removing them from view and placing them in a convenient location for meal preparation. When it comes to cabinets, the cheapest choice often turns out to be the least economical one.
CONSIDER TRAFFIC FLOW
The flow of traffic can have a major bearing on your ability to create an efficient kitchen. Consider how many cooks you anticipate at any given time, the amount of existing space and the placement of your appliances. If you plan to include freestanding islands or butcher block workspaces in the center of the room, make sure there’s enough space to comfortably move around the room, even when there’s more than one person working to prepare a meal.
You’ll need to work with your Virginia kitchen specialist to determine the best layout for the most efficient kitchen possible, factoring in the size of your family, frequency with which you entertain and your cooking preferences. If there’s a baking enthusiast in the family, for instance, you’ll need to ensure proper placement of ovens and prep spaces. You’ll also want to make sure the placement of your refrigerator is relative to the placement of the stove and prep space to make sure the flow of movement through the room is comfortable and intuitive.
If your primary goal is to create a more functional and efficient kitchen, discuss your preferences and concerns with a professional contractor who understands the importance of the kitchen as both a utilitarian space and one in which people tend to gather. With a contractor whose area of specialization lies within the creation and implementation of a beautiful and efficient kitchen, you’ll be on the road to success with your kitchen renovation project.
