There’s no reason your kitchen should be stuck in the 80s. Remodeling your kitchen is a fantastic way to add value to your home for a reasonable cost. However, remodeling your kitchen can be an intimidating process. Kitchen remodels involve a lot of moving parts, which can make things feel complicated and overwhelming. However, if you are well prepared going into things, your remodel should move along seamlessly. That said, let’s discuss how to plan for your kitchen remodel.
Being prepared for your kitchen remodel is essential to the success of the remodel. First of all, you need to finalize your kitchen layout and design. If you struggle with this, you should hire a designer. After that, you need to focus on making all your selections. This includes everything from backsplash and fixtures to flooring and paint. Next comes install preferences. This means finalizing layouts, placement of fixtures, cabinets, and more.
In this article, we will discuss how to be prepared for your kitchen remodel. This will save you and your contractor a significant amount of stress and time. Continue reading to learn more about how to plan for your kitchen remodel.
Related Article: Steps of a Kitchen Remodel?
Should You Hire a Designer for a Kitchen Remodel?
Hiring a designer is one of the best things you can do for any remodel, especially a kitchen remodel. The most significant time killer on a kitchen remodel is unpreparedness. A designer helps ensure that you are prepared as possible going into your kitchen project.
Hiring a designer is going to help you find the best possible use for your space. This is important because being confident in your layout will help ensure a smooth process for your contractor. Making layout changes after work is already done ends up wasting materials, costing you valuable time and money.
Once you’ve finalized your layout, your designer is going to help you pick out all your materials. Therefore, the designer will work with you on selecting backsplash tile, hardwood flooring, paint colors, cabinet design, countertops, light fixtures, hardware, and more.
Designers are very useful because they prevent a lot of unpreparedness. This will lead to much fewer questions for you as a homeowner and much less stress throughout the entire process. Once your layout and materials are finalized your project is going to move along much quicker.
What Materials Need to be Selected for a Kitchen Remodel?
It might not seem like it, but there are a lot of decisions that come along with a kitchen remodel. It is important to get as many things ordered early in your remodel process because lead times can be long.
Plumbing
Faucets, pot fillers, ice makers, fridge water lines, and garbage disposals are the most common things you need to get finalized for the plumbing portion of your kitchen remodel. You must select these items as soon as possible because they are needed for roughing in the plumbing in your kitchen.
Electrical
Next, you need to make decisions on the type of lights, light fixtures, under cabinet lights, and other electrical items like LED lights or special plugs. Your contractor needs to have the specification on all these things so they can get them placed in the right spot and run electrical correctly for each item.
The most common selections you need to keep in mind are 4’’ or 6’’ can lights, light fixtures and their locations, sconce placement, and any other uncommon outlets or electrical items.
Additionally, it is important to have your appliances selected and the specifications handy. This is important because you need to run outlets and special wiring for some of your appliances, and the location needs to be correct.
Tile
Tile is one of the most important things to finalize early on because lead times can be long. Most commonly, tile is used for your backsplash. This adds a decorative touch and adds an element of durability to your kitchen.
You can also use tile on your kitchen floor. Most times, people will use hardwood. However, tile is a great option because you do not have to worry about scratching it, staining it, or getting water on it.
Additionally, you must ensure you have a bullnose or edge profile picked out. This ensures that you don’t have ugly, raw tile edges showing on the perimeter of your backsplash.
Related Article: Best Flooring For a Basement?
Cabinets
Making decisions about your kitchen cabinets is crucial, especially if you are doing custom cabinets. You should meet with your contractor and the cabinet company at the very beginning of your project to get general drawings and designs. Once rough in, sheetrock and flooring are finished, you should meet with the cabinet company one last time to get a final measure and to finalize all the details.
Cabinetry can often end up being a bottleneck during a kitchen remodel. Therefore, having design, wood species, door style, size, and placement finalized early on in the process is important for the timely completion of your kitchen.
Paint and Stain Colors
Paint is on the backend of the project; however, it is helpful to have the colors you want set in stone early in the process. It is recommended that you work on getting samples of your prospective stain and paint colors, so you can be positive they are what you want. It is much easier to put multiple samples on a scrap piece of wood verse having to sand a refinish something twice if you don’t like it.
Accessory Items
The accessory items include things like cabinet hardware, door hardware, special trim details, and appliances. The best thing to do is to have all these items ordered so they are ready at the end of the project. Next, it is best to mark exactly where you want all these items placed in blue tape. Doing this makes sure everything is placed in the right spot the first time.
How Long Will a Kitchen Remodel Take?
A typical kitchen remodel should take between 4 and 8 weeks. The timeframe will vary based on the size and level of detail your project entails. Of course, this also depends on lead times and your level of preparedness.
If all items are present on-site and a design is finalized, then your project should move quickly. Keep in mind, special and custom work is going to add to this timeframe. However, on average you should have a pretty new kitchen in 4-8 weeks.
Final Thoughts
A kitchen remodel may feel like an intimidating and time-consuming process. However, it doesn’t have to be. There are multiple ways to make your kitchen remodel a speedy process. What it all comes down to is being prepared and hiring the right people.
Related Article: Steps of a Basement Remodel?