Choosing a Kitchen Design

The kitchen is a very important room in most homes, and unlike most other rooms, which are usually used for specific purposes, the kitchen is often used for a range of things, from cooking and eating to relaxing and entertaining. This is why it is important to create the perfect look and feel for your kitchen, as you want a room that you spend a lot of time in to look good and feel comfortable. The kitchen design that you choose for your kitchen may be based on a number of things, such as the style of the rest of your home, your budget, or the kind of look and feel that you want to create for this room.

Choosing the right kitchen design is an important task, as you need to take into account the practicality and functionality of your kitchen as well as the overall appearance and ambiance of the room. With the right design you can create a room that is perfect for your needs in terms of practical features, but also looks stunning and feels great. No matter what sort of end result you are looking for with your kitchen you will find a range of fabulous designs that could suit your needs perfectly.

What to consider with your kitchen design

There are a number of things that you will need to consider when determining which kitchen design you want to opt for. You will, of course, need to take your budget into account, so you need to make sure you work out exactly how much you can afford to spend on your kitchen before you start looking at the various designs.

Another thing you will need to look into is the kitchen design layout. You need to consider every aspect of the kitchen and ensure that you include all the furnishings and accessories that you need for your kitchen as part of the design. Selecting the finish for your new kitchen in terms of look and ambiance is also important when deciding on which design to go for.

Let the experts help you with your kitchen design

Designing a kitchen is no mean feat, and for someone that has little or no experience in this field it can be a difficult task designing a whole kitchen from start to finish. However, there are experts that can help, and enlisting the help of a kitchen designer means that you will benefit from advice and assistance from someone that has experience and expertise in this field. This will make your entire kitchen design project far easier, and more importantly means that you will be able to achieve the perfect finish for this room.

As a kitchen cabinet/kitchen renovation expert, Trevor Phillips has years of experience helping clients realize their dream kitchen. Additional information on kitchen design [http://ottawakitchen.net/articles/kitchen-design], including a downloadable Planning Guide is available at: => [http://www.ottawakitchen.net]

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Cabinet Costs

n planning your kitchen remodeling, the kitchen cabinets will give immediate eye appeal, provide functionality but can also be the biggest cost. Regardless of what your remodel budget is, the cabinet could easily be one half of that expense.

As we wander through the cabinet section of the store, it does seem these are just big boxes with doors. Nevertheless we are amazed at the cost. Making cabinets does require skill to have tightly fitted corners and joins. If one part is off, some other part won’t fit properly. The type of wood used and the finish on the wood all have a price tag.

Nevertheless, you need to get the best cabinets possible for your budget. Here are some ideas on what you can find.

The Basics

Before you shop for cabinets, it is a good idea to determine what type of cabinet you need and get familiar with the terminology used by the salesman.

MDF is a medium density fiber board cabinet.

Base Cabinets are the bottom part of the cabinets that sit on the floor. These project your overall kitchen layout.

Wall Cabinets hang on the wall just above the Base Cabinets. But your design will likely have some Base Cabinets with nothing to hang above. An example would be the sink area.

Framed Cabinets provide a traditional look as the cabinet does have a frame around the outside of the box and around each door.

Frameless Cabinets will have the doors meeting the other door and will have drawers against other drawers. Looking at the front of the cabinet, you will see only the door or the drawer not the cabinet box itself.

10′ x 10′ Standard is just that a standard measure meaning 10 foot of base cabinets and 10 foot of wall cabinets. Manufacturers have used this calculation for their standard kitchen cabinets. You can still change this to meet your footage requirements but they will be a special order instead of than the standard measurements.

Purchasing Cabinets

There are different tiers on purchasing cabinets too. You save money by assembling pre-cut parts from the manufacturer. Since cabinets will be the focal point of your kitchen, you may prefer to have assembled cabinets that are installed by the dealer. The following descriptions will help you make this decision.

RTA or Ready-to-Assemble is provided by the cabinet manufacturer. If the manufacturer doesn’t incur the labor expense to assemble the cabinet, he will pass this savings on to you.

If you are going to use RTA cabinets to cut down on the expenses, you need to find your cabinets at the beginning of your project. You need time to assemble them and ready to install after installing the flooring, painting, papering are complete.

Find a room in your house or the basement to assemble them. Make sure that once these cabinets are assembled that you can still get them through the door and back into the kitchen. When they are assembled, they are going to be big, bulky items to move around. You’re going to need several people to move them too.

Stock Cabinets or Factory-Assembled RTA has been fully assembled by the factory and are shipped to the dealer. These are a quick assembly process. If you don’t have time or talent for assembling things, or don’t have an assembly area, this may be best. The dealer will provide a crew or arrange for their installation.

Semi-custom cabinetry is also mass produced by the manufacturer. You do have a bit more flexibility here. You can be specific about the size of the cabinets and choose different finishes, moldings and trim. These cabinets will be installed by the dealer.

Custom cabinets are specifically designed, manufactured and installed for you.

While you have a larger variety to choose from, the term custom used here is really semi-custom. A true custom cabinet is possible by hiring a skilled cabinet maker. You will have infinite variety at considerable expense.

Cost

Each type of cabinet has a general budget that you can expect. Below are more details on each type and the expected price range for 10′ x 10′ standard cabinets.

RTA cabinets are the least expensive. The frameless box and doors will be ¾ inch melamine and the drawers will have metal sides. Since you will be doing the installation, the cost of these is very low at approximately $70.00 per linear foot or $700.00 for your 10′ x 10′ standard.

Stock cabinets have a major price increase with improved materials and they will be delivered and installed. The wood is generally ¾ inch hard board face frame and ½ inch particle board sides with hard board framed doors. Since you have a few more choices on finishes or stains, the price can range from $360 to $432 per linear foot or $3,600 to $4,320 for the standard measurements.

Semi-custom cabinets are usually ½ inch plywood with ¾ inch hardwood face frame and are delivered and installed. The drawers are dovetailed of ½ inch hardwood and doors are frame and panel hardwood. Prices range from $450 to $540 per linear foot or $4,500 to $5,400 for the 10′ x 10′ standard.

Custom cabinets offer the same ½ inch plywood with ¾ inch hardwood face frame and are delivered and installed. The drawers are dovetailed of 5/8 inch hardwood and doors are frame and panel hardwood. Prices range from $1.200 to $1,400 per linear foot or $12,000 to $14,000 for standard measurements.

Armed with these definitions and what they will mean to your kitchen remodel budget, you are now ready to look for your new cabinets.

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Top 10 Tips: Kitchen Design

Kitchen Design Tip 1. Before you start designing your new fitted kitchen it makes sense to formulate your idea’s and note them down on to a wish list. It is worth remembering that your new kitchen plan should incorporate the things you do like about your existing kitchen, as well as the things you don’t.

Kitchen Design Tip 2. Again, before starting your new kitchen plan you will find choosing your kitchen appliances (or type of appliances) is worthwhile. Your new fitted kitchen will require designing differently depending on your choice of appliances. (“Built In” Appliances are planned differently to “Built Under”).

Kitchen Design Tip 3. Keeping the new position of the sink relatively close to it’s existing position will simplify your kitchen installation. It is not so much a problem getting hot and cold feeds to your sink – it is the running of the waste from it that can cause problems. (As a rule of thumb “Right Handed” people prefer “Left Handed” draining boards – The “Lefty’s” that lurk amongst us generally don’t care.)

Kitchen Design Tip 4. Work your design out from any corners. Good access into corner cabinets is crucial for utalising storage space. If your measurements allow, try and plan corner cabinets in this order of preference… “L shape” Bi-Fold, “Le-Mans” Cantilever Tray, “Magic Corner”, “Syncromotion Corner Drawers”, Diagonal Cross Corner, and lastly the Blind Corner.

Kitchen Design Tip 5. Using “Hi-Line” base cabinets in place of “Drawer Line”, will generally provide a more ergonomic kitchen. Instead of drawers everywhere (some working, some false) it is more practical, and often less expensive, to position an optimal size nest of drawers (500, or 600mm) where they are required.

Kitchen Design Tip 6. Try to design your kitchen economically. A 300mm wide cabinet may be half the size of a 600mm cabinet – but it is 3/4 of the cost. Try to plan your kitchen layout using large cabinets instead of loads of small ones, this will reduce the kitchen furniture cost dramatically (And, as part of your fitting cost is calculated by the number of cabinets to be installed you will achieve a saving here as well)

Kitchen Design Tip 7. Position your new kitchen hob (or Range Cooker) reasonably adjacent to the new sink position. This will avoid the need to walk any distance to drain pans full of boiling water. (If you are Right Handed consider positioning the sink to the right of the Hob)

Kitchen Design Tip 8. Allow for an uncluttered area of worktop space immediately next to your oven. This will provide a safe area to remove hot trays from the oven and place on too.

Kitchen Design Tip 9. Avoid the classic error of designing an American Fridge Freezer into a corner as they need a minimum clearance of 300mm each side for the doors to open fully… (check yours before buying)

Kitchen Design Tip 10. When designing in a Kitchen Island make sure there is plenty of walk-around space (preferably 1100mm, but minimum 900mm) to all sides. Avoid the temptation of including an island with less clearance space than this – it will dominate the room, making it look cluttered.

We hope you found these tips useful and provided you with a brief introduction to the world of kitchen planning

Peter Earthy is a regular contributor to fitted kitchen design Forums, Blogs, and Web Sites.

Check out his free “Kitchen Cost” and “Fitting Cost” calculators at [http://www.fittedkitchen.info]

These free calculators will help you budget for your new kitchen

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