What Are Our 5 Kitchen Renovation Mistakes To Avoid?
Kitchen renovations can be a costly endeavour, therefore it’s important you’re aware of the potential mistakes to avoid when planning your dream kitchen.
This guide will highlight 5 common oversights people often don’t take into account when designing a kitchen.
1. Kitchen Ergonomics
Kitchen ergonomics focuses on how the kitchen is laid out, to maximise efficiency. This means ensuring people can move around the kitchen with ease, while also being able to access utensils or cookware without bumping into one another. If ignored, this can make a kitchen highlighly impractical. We recommend exploring a few different ideas around this subject. One of the most popular layouts is the working/golden triangle, which explores the optimal layout of refrigerator, stove and sink. Whatever your choice, be sure to understand how you work in your kitchen and what layout will benefit you.
2. Poor use of space
Whether a large or small kitchen space, it is crucial that the choices on appliances, cabinetry and even design maximise the space in a kitchen. For smaller spaces, this can involve the use of smart storage solutions such as cabinetry door storage, dividers in wider drawers, storage under kitchen sinks and hanging wall storage for pots and pans. Poor use of space in smaller kitchens might mean unnecessary fixtures such as a kitchen island, which can take up a large amount of space in an area that is unrealistic for entertaining. Be sure to make a list of necessary inclusions to help ensure you plan based on needs (objective) rather than wants (subjective).
3. Lack of integration with home design
Your kitchen layout in relation to the rest of your home also plays a huge role in the design and style that you choose to utilise. For example, open spaced kitchens have become increasingly popular and involve a seamless flow from kitchen to living space. By ignoring how the kitchen links to the rest of the home in terms of design, you can risk the kitchen looking out of place compared to the rest of the property. This in turn can have a negative impact on the overall style of the home and in some cases even have a large impact on the property value itself.
4. Choosing the wrong provider
As one of the most utilised rooms in a house, it’s important the right provider is used for the design, fixtures and appliances. When it comes to fixtures, especially those that are frequently used such as kitchen taps or stovetops, quality over price is recommended. When looking for the right provider, reach out for recommendations from friends and family, read online reviews and be sure to go with well known companies/brands. There is little point in designing a kitchen that breaks down after a year and it may be worthwhile investing more money with a reputable provider to help ensure a perfect kitchen that maintains its aesthetic and usability for years to come.
5. Lack of long term planning
Life is constantly changing and with these new changes means that your home life will need to adapt. When looking to renovate a kitchen there are a few long-term questions you will need to ask yourself. For instance, are you likely to have children using the space? Are you planning on getting a pet? Is this your home for the next 5 or 10 years? All of these questions will dictate your layout, appliances and even fixture choices.
Kitchen renovations offer a range of challenging decisions to make and unfortunately bad decisions can culminate into expensive mistakes. When looking at your kitchen, understand what your requirements are and plan accordingly.