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When you’re about to drop $50,000 on a big home project, you want to get it right the first time.
That’s how much the average kitchen remodel can cost you. But that’s not all it can cost: you’ll also deal with frustration, delays, and going months without a home-cooked meal.
Fortunately, you can get your new kitchen with minimal hassle. How? By learning from the mistakes of those who’ve already done it.
Keep reading. You’ll get the five best kitchen remodel tips from people who have gone through it first, so your turn can be a little less painful.
1. Overestimate Your Costs
Take it from us: whatever buffer amount you have in mind to keep you from going over budget, it needs to be bigger.
Remodeling a kitchen tends to be expensive because of how complex the project is. Your kitchen remodeling contractors have to deal with sink pipes and electrical wiring, in addition to tearing apart and rebuilding your space. Delays are part of the process, so overestimating your budget should be too.
2. Pick Appliances First
The pretty tile and paint aisles might be calling you, but you should head to the fridge and oven section first. The sooner you let your contractor know the type and dimensions of your new appliances, you can begin designing other elements of your kitchen (like that dreamy marble island you’ve been drooling over on Pinterest) to fit around them. Then you can get back to looking up kitchen remodeling ideas.
3. Prepare for Life Without a Kitchen
Plugging in your coffeemaker next to your couch? Eating cereal for dinner? Washing dishes in the bathtub?
Welcome to your life for the next three months while your kitchen gets remodeled. Thankfully, many contractors do finish on schedule so at least you don’t have to suffer long. Still, do yourself a favor and mentally prepare for the process to take longer than the contractor initially expected.
Then, do yourself another favor and stock up on energy bars.
4. Make Design Choices Based on Cleaning
There’s a whole world of tempting design choices out there. After all, when else will you get to pick out brand-new everything for your kitchen?
Before you start choosing your countertops and backsplashes, though, take a minute to think about more than just appearances. You’ll have to live with, cook in, and (of course) clean the new kitchen you design. How will your design choices affect how liveable your new kitchen is?
Matte cupboards can be trendy, but they’ll show greasy handprints faster than you can say “potato chips.” All-white quartz counters look dazzling, but how will they look when they show every toast crumb?
5. Storage, Storage, Storage
During kitchen remodeling is the perfect time to maximize your storage space. Go for:
- Corner drawers
- Pull-out undersink drawers
- Pull-out garbage cans
- Pull-out shelves (for large items like pots and pans)
- Deep cabinets
The more storage space you can squeeze out of your kitchen remodeling project, the happier you’ll be.
All the Kitchen Remodel Tips You Need
Remodeling a kitchen isn’t exactly a piece of cake. With all the pitfalls to watch out for, these kitchen remodel tips will help you avoid the worst mistakes. Now, get back to designing your dream kitchen!
Still need more advice? Keep clicking through our blog to find more homeowner tips and renovation inspiration!
