Page Photo

Kitchen Design Trends 2017

 Kitchen design trends for 2017.

These trends include a multitude of styles and shapes, ranging from Contemporary to Traditional, and everywhere in between. Ultimately, this year’s kitchen trends have something for everyone regarding style, color, appliances, countertops, cabinets etc. It brings the kitchen more attractive and comfortable in every home.

Anyone in the middle of a kitchen remodel knows the feeling of coming face to face with hundreds of design decisions. How do you ensure you’ll end up with a kitchen you’ll love for years to come?

As saying goes, “Kitchen is the heart of every home”.

So, understandably, you want your kitchen to be more eye-catching. One vital part of the kitchen is its color. But one way to get the perfect color for the kitchen depends on the homeowner’s desire. In case of confusion, we are here to help you find the perfect match color of your kitchen. It’s time to get rid of the outdated kitchen and replace a new one. Here are some of the lists:

Yellow Kitchen Cabinet with Stainless Steel Countertop

The gray and sea blue combination kitchen is a modern trend that is well combined with a second color or even as a single choice, especially when the texture of the material resembles stone or concrete.

 

WORTHWHILE UPGRADE: is the number one concern for this business
“A larger kitchen is really what buyers are looking for when they’re shopping for a house,” says Berkus. He suggests knocking down a wall that separates an adjoining room, or creating the illusion of spaciousness by adding a window. “We live very differently now than how people lived when many of these homes were built, and these days, the kitchen is an all-encompassing space where everybody gathers.”

Decide on the best finish for your kitchen cabinets depending on your use, budget and tastes to enhance the overall look and feel of your modular kitchen.

Sources:
www.pixelwerkz.net
www.instakitchen.co
www.thekitchendesigner.org
www.modern-homedesign.com
www.ideas4homes.com
www.ayacalgary.com
www.alohamele.com/kitchen-design-site
http://bgliving.com

 

 

Kitchen-Remodel

Kitchen Remodeling

Kitchen Remodeling

For many, the most important part of the home is where you cook things and which has a direct impact on the health. With every passing day people are becoming more and more health conscious about their health and also where the food is being cooked.

With the modernization of interior, people are going with more and more changes regarding their kitchens to equip their kitchens with all the modern equipment available. Whether you want to remodel your kitchen to make it more functional, more comfortable, more modern, or to provide more space for family life, you can create wonderful changes within most any budget.

If you are considering a kitchen remodel, it will also make your house more marketable.
A kitchen remodeling project can be as simple as new window and wall treatments, new flooring, or new cabinets. Or you can create the gourmet kitchen/family room that is so popular today.

A simple and relatively inexpensive kitchen remodel might mean new curtains, a fresh coat of paint, new appliances, and new flooring. Hardwood floors are very popular today in the kitchen. The new finishes and coatings on the wood make them as practical in the kitchen as they are in other parts of the house. Ceramic tile is also a very popular flooring option. Tile is easy to clean and durable. Much entertaining is now done in the kitchen.
Preparing a meal can become a time for guests to gather in the kitchen and enjoy conversation. Most kitchens built today will either be open to a family room or they will include a family area at one end of the room. An attached or semi-attached breakfast room is also a popular design.

An island that is functional for food preparation and provides a place for people to sit and talk to the cook is also very popular. In fact, one side of the island can be serviceable in food preparation while the other side functions as a casual dining counter.

If your home is older and your kitchen just needs a little modernizing, you will certainly want to consider modernizing your cabinets, and, perhaps, your counter tops. Raised-panel cabinet and cupboard doors are certainly the way to go. This can be accomplished by simply placing new doors on existing wood cabinets.
If your budget permits, you can even install custom or semi-custom wood cabinets. While laminate countertops are certainly still being used, there is a clear trend toward marble or granite countertops. They are both beautiful and functional. Your choice of appliances will be important in the total appearance of your kitchen. To be sure, appliances are available in a wide variety of colors and styles.

All these are main and timely updates that are available in the market and also are attractive to many of us. You can always go for a remodeling of your kitchen either for your own use to make yourself feel better or may be if you want to sell your home, it will make your home more marketable.

Visit Home additions and remodeling, Home remodeling addition

Why Remodel Your Kitchen

Why Remodel Your Kitchen

Some homeowner’s set out to remodel their kitchen without a plan or even know why they are remodeling their kitchen.

The questions you should ask yourself when thinking about remodeling your kitchen include:

  • Do you enjoy working in your kitchen?
  • Would an updated kitchen be more conducive to entertaining?
  • Would it add value?

The first question is an easy one to answer.  If you find yourself not enjoying the time you spend in your kitchen (and not because you don’t like to cook!), then it may be time to remodel.

Your kitchen should be a place that is easy to use and easy to maneuver.  And because you spend so much time in the kitchen, it should be “easy on the eyes”!

If you’re like most people, when entertaining family and friends, your kitchen is the one area of your home people tend to congregate.  Having a space that is warm and inviting should be a priority when thinking about a kitchen remodel.

You should also think about the value of your home.

Many people look to remodel their kitchen and master bathrooms simply to increase the value of their home.

If you enjoy working in your kitchen, but acknowledge that your space is outdated, then it may be a good time to think about certain remodeling projects.

Updating counter tops, installing new lighting or reconfiguring your kitchen are just some examples of things that can add tremendous value to your home.

Top Kitchen Remodeling Ideas

Top Kitchen Remodeling Ideas

 

Your kitchen is the one space in your home you spend the most time in.

It’s not only a place you prepare meals for your family, but it’s usually the central gathering space when entertaining guests. Shouldn’t you have a kitchen that is warm and inviting?

Below are some of the top kitchen remodeling ideas for those thinking about remodeling their kitchen.

Custom Cabinetry

Choosing the right cabinetry for your should be a blend of functionality and personal style.

When looking to remodel your kitchen, your cabinetry is an excellent starting point.  Some homeowners simply want to transition their space from a traditional feel to a more contemporary feel while others are looking to add more accessible storage space.

No matter what the need is, remodeling your cabinetry is a great place to start.

Counter Tops

It’s almost a given that newly built homes come with high end counter tops.

This usually includes granite or zodiaq just to name a couple examples.  Older homes on the other hand generally include dated and less than appealing counter tops.

Replacing old counter tops with a more modern look and feel can do wonders for the overall look of any kitchen.

Lighting

Having the proper light in your kitchen will help illuminate not only the main working space, but can also help bring colors and other touches in your kitchen to life.

Many homeowners enjoy the look of under counter lighting which not only looks good, but can be an asset when doing work on your kitchen countertops.

Windows

There is no substitute for natural light.  Beyond allowing the sun to peak into your kitchen, windows are a great way to add character and charm.

Various shapes and styles can blend seamlessly with any kitchen design.

These are just a handful of examples of what can be done when remodeling your home.  Hiring a professional remodeling contractor will help you prioritize and execute your kitchen remodeling projects.

I have an architect, but no kitchen design. Help?

We are in process of designing a 540 sq. ft. addition that will be part kitchen and part screened porch. The working plans for the space are in process; however, my architect is a young fellow who shares that he spends about 3 minutes per week in the kitchen and that we won’t get much help from him when it comes to kitchen layout.

On my first trip to (big box store), I met a kitchen planner who did some early cabinet layout work and shared that if I had just 4” more on the wall between the kitchen and porch, she could squeeze in a 9” cabinet and make a little more use out of one of the blind corners. I am a little frantic that this seems to be an odd way to design a cabinet layout…the walls are still flexible but I am unsure if I want to definitely use (big box store) and their brand of cabinets. I can’t go high end with cabinets, but I do want quality that will last.

Any ideas on how to proceed? We are spending a pretty penny on architect fees and it feels wrong to spend more money on design and layout…but I am willing to be convinced if it is the best way to go. –K.”

I sympathize – for both you and your architect. With regards to the architect fees, think of it this way: it’s not much different than a chef in a restaurant who brings a pastry chef on board. He can make a decent flan, but the pastry chef is capable of making desserts that the chef doesn’t even know about. (Of course, this analogy only works if you like desserts, I suppose.)

The challenge is that kitchens are no longer “standard” – almost every item can be customized. Not all products work in every kitchen and not every product even works well with other products. So your architect has done you a favor by admitting that he’s not an expert in the field.

Smaller studios and businesses may have some very experienced/trained kitchen designers and/or Certified Kitchen Designers and they might not even be more expensive than the big box stores. I know because I worked for years in my family’s showroom and my current company has a retail cabinet division where the prices are very competitive.

There are two reasons why a comparable price cabinet may be different:

  1. The company is using them as a “loss leader” – e.g. selling next to cost to bring you into the store (in which case, this is a deal for you – go for it.)
  2. The designer is actually designing the kitchen for you. Let me explain what that means. A professional designer designs for your lifestyle. Budget is an important consideration but a waste of money if what you receive isn’t as useful as it can be, especially in kitchen design.

As a designer, I see poor design layouts based on budget all the time. The areas where corners are cut are only apparent if you have some idea of what to look for. For example, corners designed with a less expensive blind corners rather than a lazy Susan corner, adding a lot of spacers or fillers between cabinets where they shouldn’t be in order to save extra cabinets, or omitting a 2-step crown molding off the design. This isn’t to say that all cabinet sales work towards that goal but merely to point out what you may not have considered. Any and all of these can affect the bottom line, especially moldings, which can add anywhere from $ 500.00 – $ 1,300.00 in a mid-size kitchen design depending on amount and style. Don’t always assume a higher price is higher simply because it’s overpriced. There are too many custom choices in kitchens today to be sure of that…even if you’re a designer!

I can’t speak for all designers, but the kitchen designers I know design for the client’s lifestyle, not simply the bottom line. Of course it’s our livelihood too, but there’s also professional pride at stake; our reputations make or break our career. Basic, cookie-cutter layouts aren’t what we specialize in – we want to find out what your storage requirements are, where we need to position the small appliances, how we can get the kids making their after-school snacks out of the way so you can work in your kitchen.

See if you can’t arrange some interviews with smaller companies with the same cabinet lines or similar. If you can find family businesses, even better, but I’m cheerfully prejudiced. There is either no cost or minimal cost to have the designer work with you if you’re buying the cabinets from them.

As another option: consider hiring an independent kitchen designer. Pay them for their expertise. Get them to work with your architect for the best fit. A good designer will charge anywhere from $ 50.00 – $ 150.00 depending on experience. The more experience, the less hours it takes. (At least it did for me and my clients.) Get the design hammered out first.

You never want look back and say, “If only I had done this…” While it may feel wrong now to spend all this money on the architect and have to spend more for a kitchen design, you won’t feel that way at all if it doesn’t turn out the how you want.

 

Morisseau, Kelly (2011-12-06). 20 Kitchen Design Questions Answered (Kindle Locations 76-77). Springline Media. Kindle Edition.

Painted Cabinets — M.D.F. vs. Hardwood?

Let’s provide some background first so others might know what we’re talking about:

M.D.F. or medium-density fiberboard, is a recycled wood product, densely packed with binders and resins to bind it together. The entire board is squeezed under pressure to be very, very dense.

Hardwood is actual wood – perhaps maple or birch or any wood with a tight grain – which is used for the frame, while the center panel is M.D.F.

So the question is why one over the other?

To answer this question, we first have to go back to why we’re not using woods in the first place, which is simply: wood is not a stable product. It expands and contracts according to humidity and temperature. Wood-workers are aware of this, which is why the center panel of any door is not fixed to the frame – it fits inside a u-channel of the frame which leaves enough space for the center panel to swell and shrink.

In the early days of wood-working, solid wood doors were made with the center panel out of an entire piece of wood, which is why you see 200-year-old doors with cracks in the center.

So when someone talks about a “solid center panel” in a door, today’s woods center panel is made by joining the pieces à la butcher block fashion. Each piece has the grain running the opposite way to its neighbor. A center panel may be made out of as many as 6-8 pieces, depending on the width, and it’s much less susceptible to cracking and warping like its early cousin was.

The frame construction of the door is called a mortise-and-tenon joint. Swelling or shrinking of the grain runs lengthwise. (Ever had your old interior doors on your house stick in the summer with a big gap in the winter? That’s why – shrinks in the cold and expands in humid warmth).

Structurally, this is superior to a picture frame joint, where the corners of the door meet at a 45-degree angle. This style, while pretty, is more susceptible to the joints moving, because the grain expansion and contraction of the frame is pinched at the corners. None of the wood takes a poll and says, “Oh today we’re all going to expand at the same time – let’s go!” Each section will move and adapt in such a way that you might have all four corners opened, or none.

Now when we’re talking about applying paint onto the door with a glaze, this is why the M.D.F. and hardwood centers and frames become important. We want to minimize that expansion and shrinkage – especially with glazes because as the center panel shrinks, it exposes a line where the glazing ends. I’ve certainly discussed with some worried clients over the years when we’ve had a particularly hot, dry summer.

If I were to suggest which one I would use, I’d have to say it depends on three factors:

1) Whether the door is mortise-and-tenon, or picture-frame— The stiles, or side frame, of a mortise-and-tenon door extend the full height of the door on both side. Imagine them as two pieces used to snap together the center rails and center panel together.

A picture frame door is made where the corners are joined together at a 45-degree angle, exactly like a picture frame and hence the name. The mortise-and-tenon as a wood frame expands with less cracking at the seams than a picture frame because the two stiles prevent the top and bottom rails from expanding (much). The picture frame allows all of the outside stiles and rails to contract, sometimes at the same time.

It’s for this reason I might recommend M.D.F. for the picture frame door.

2) If the design calls for cabinet doors as appliance panels — M.D.F., while stable, is also heavy. Not all appliance doors can bear the weight of MDF-panels.

3) How much we care about paint cracking at the seams — No matter how well the door is made – your climate, location, home humidity and even how you slam or don’t slam the doors will have an effect on the finished paint.

Outside of the U.S., many countries dislike the cracking and if I have clients from, say Canada or Europe, we might use the modern European methods for door construction: the doors are fabricated out of a single piece of M.D.F. – no seams, no cracking, and no worries. Many Americans find this a bit too smooth, but to each their own, right?

Morisseau, Kelly (2011-12-06). 20 Kitchen Design Questions Answered (Kindle Locations 415-420). Springline Media. Kindle Edition.