What You Need to Know Before Buying Kitchen Cabinets
Your home is a representation of you, and in it you have probably spent thousands of man hours and thousands of dollars to make it the home that you always wanted. Many people focus on their bedrooms and basements before turning their eye to the kitchen, but when the inevitable comes it is almost certainly a home-changing event. The kitchen, as you can imagine, is the most popular room in your home. Yes, the kitchen and the main bathroom are the two rooms that will be the most trafficked. Your kitchen, of course, will be used by all members of the household, and the bathroom will be as well. These two rooms should be the two that look the best, even if it’s just for appearances sake.
When it comes down to choosing kitchen cabinets that suit your needs there are a few things that you should know beforehand:
1. Ensure that proper support is in place
Different materials and types of wood have different weights, so it is important that you verify (or have your contractor verify) that the new cabinets can be installed without error. The last thing that you want to see is your brand new kitchen cabinets suddenly becoming dislodged for seemingly no reason.
The area that they are going to be installed should have appropriate amounts of supporting materials in and behind the wall, and everything should be quite snug and strong.
2. Have an overall vision in mind
Chances are that you may be buying your cabinets before you have finished the countertops, paint, floors, etc. It’s important to have an overall idea of what you are trying to achieve, as any one piece may look out of place until you’ve made the whole
3. Durability is an important factor
When you are choosing your kitchen cabinets you should base that decision on a few things: value, price, aesthetics, function, and durability. Kitchen cabinets are a rather expensive addition to your home, and you want to know that the $10,000 or more that you’ve just spent on cabinets will last you more than a couple of years.
Look for cabinets that are well made, treated in advance to avoid warping, and are coated to prevent damage from small amounts of water or other liquids. The cabinet doors should be relatively solid and stable, and the hinges should also be well made.
Knowledge is power, so be sure to research before you jump into a decision-making process. Learn as much as you can about the cabinets that you are considering before you put any money down, and definitely check on the history of the contractors who will be installing them as well as the company that will be supplying them.
SOURCE: www.elegantcab.com
Updating & Remodeling your kitchen – Kitchen Remodeling
Your primary kitchen remodeling idea is probably staring you in the face. Most people have at least one area of the kitchen that gets on their nerves and would like to see changed. Simple kitchen chores can be a great place to start. If you hate doing the dishes, a new custom kitchen sink and deluxe dishwasher, should make your list. If food prep is your least favorite part of cooking, a new countertop with a built-in board would be nice. If you simply hate your kitchen’s look, kitchen decorating and design should have top priority.
Replacing your kitchen cabinets is almost never a bad kitchen remodeling idea. They can increase kitchen storage and overall convenience, they enhance your kitchen decoration and feel, and cabinet resurfacing is a cheap expenditure next to many other kitchen remodeling ideas.
It could be that your kitchen does need major updating. Maybe your stove and refrigerator are right next to each other. Any remodel worth the name has to change that. Maybe there’s just not enough room for the four or five people that normally prepare meals in your house – so you really do need to expand outside the current kitchen walls.
These tend to be the big ticket items, but often there’s no getting around them. There’s no decorating substitute for the effect of replacing linoleum or vinyl flooring with stone tile, hardwood, or laminate flooring. Countertops, too, are nearly impossible to ignore when assessing the beauty of a kitchen. If you can do so without breaking the bank, at least one of these items may be the center for the rest of your kitchen remodeling ideas to work around.
One popular change that you might want to keep under consideration is the removal of a wall. If done right, this can work wonders for making a small kitchen feel spacious and open. Of course, you must make certain that any wall you remove is not structural. If removal of the full wall is not feasible, consider removing part of it and making it into a ‘half wall’ where only the top half or so is taken out, or creating a ‘pass-thru’ – more or less a square or rectangular hole in the wall. These can also make a world of difference in the feel of the finished room.
SOURCE: http://8rd.org/decoration/
Kitchen Cabinet Secrets
Contractors are constantly looking for ways to cut the budget on their renovation jobs. After talking to several of my friends that were contractors, I found some of the secrets they use to putting more money in their pocket. Ironically, most of them have been using RTA kitchen cabinets that could be bought and assembled for far less than standard cabinets. LKN Cabinets affordable value line of cabinets are RTA that they assemble passing on savings to customers in Charlotte, NC area.
Below is a story from one my friends that is a contractor in the Philadelphia area.
“I was in one of home supply centers and was going to buy my kitchen cabinets the usual way. I already had the pre-assembled kitchen cabinets loaded into onto one of those flat carts when I casually complained to another customer that there has got to be a better way than hauling all these kitchen cabinets around. The other customer jokingly said buy them online. Of course I thought it was a joke. I did a little research and found out that the kitchen cabinets get shipped to you, you avoid any store hassles, and the best part is that the cost was 40% less than the big box home center prices. Part of the reason these kitchen cabinets cost less is because they are considered “kitchen cabinets around. The other customer jokingly said buy them online. Of course I thought it was a joke. I did a little research and found out that the kitchen cabinets get shipped to you, you avoid any store hassles, and the best part is that the cost was 40% less than the big box home center prices. Part of the reason these kitchen cabinets cost less is because they are considered “RTA kitchen cabinets” which stands for ready to assemble kitchen cabinets.
So I decided to do a search and see what I could find online. I was floored! There are many choices out there and it was easy. When the kitchen cabinets arrived, I was shocked again. Not only were the kitchen cabinets solid wood, but they did not have one piece of cardboard or particle board. The reason I mentioned this is because the big box stores have solid fronts but very little else in the areas of real wood.
Finally, I thought these kitchen cabinets might be a hassle to assemble. The kitchen cabinets were easy to assemble. Each cabinet came with a single page of directions and needed only a flat head screw driver to put them together. The cabinets with drawers were a little more time consuming and I used my electric drill to make the assembly go faster, but overall the kitchen cabinets are easy to put together.
Finding an RTA cabinet store might be difficult in some areas of the country, but if you look online you will be able to find these sites quite easily. There is a shipping cost; however, if you buy enough kitchen cabinets the shipping is reduced or actually free. Keep in mind that after I added shipping costs, my overall spending was still a lot less than what I would have spent at a super center.
So the secret to in-expensive kitchen cabinets is to go online and find them yourself. So start searching, it might be a little more effort but it is worth it.”
Source: RTAcabinetstore.com by Gary Nealon
www.LKNcabinets.com offers FREE kitchen cabinet quotes for the greater Charlotte, NC area
7 Steps For Starting Your Kitchen Renovation- Demolition Time!
Before any remodeling project can begin, there is always going to be some demolition required. Depending on how far you are taking your kitchen renovation project, that could mean simply removing the countertops or stripping the room down to the bare studs. For many homeowners, the demolition can easily get out of hand when hammers and prybars are flying around. While it may be a good way to get our your aggresssion, it could result in more problems than you had before. Taking your time and actually disassembling the room versus demolishing it, is the smart way to go
Before any remodeling project can begin, there is always going to be some demolition required. Depending on how far you are taking your kitchen renovation project, that could mean simply removing the countertops or stripping the room down to the bare studs. For many homeowners, the demolition can easily get out of hand when hammers and prybars are flying around. While it may be a good way to get our your aggresssion, it could result in more problems than you had before. Taking your time and actually disassembling the room versus demolishing it, is the smart way to go. Here are 7 steps to remodeling your kitchen.
1. Think Safety. If you are going to around any electrical outlets or plumbing, it is important to make sure that both are turned off. As we all know, accidentally hitting an electrical wire can prove painful, if not lethal. While hitting a water line may not be lethal, it can sure cause a lot of headaches and a big mess.
2. Protect The Items You Are Keeping. For example, if your floors are in good shape, and you plan to keep them, it is important to cover them. The last think you want to do, is damage something during demo or construction and increase your overall remodeling budget.
3. Remove all Fixtures. If you are planning to keep any of the lighting fixtures, knobs, faucets, etc.. it is important to remove them and put them in a safe place. That way, when you are wildly swinging that hammer, you damage any of the fixtures you were planning on keeping.
4. Save the Trim. In most cases, you can usually save and re-use the mouldings and trim that you will find in the room. By removing them now, you will prevent any accidental chips or dings when removing the countertops and cabinets. Once you have the trim removed, start working on the countertops. Depending on the type of countertop material, it may be as simple as using a utility knife to cut the caulk or paint between the countertop and the backsplash and cabinets. For laminate or other artificial materials, you may also have to remove any screws that are holding the countertop to the cabinets.
5. Removing the Countertops. It is usually a good idea to have some extra hands to remove the countertops, but if you are trying to do it yourself, and it is a material like laminate, you can usually chop it into manageable pieces that you can haul out on your own.
6. Base Cabinets. Start by removing the drawers and any movable parts on your kitchen cabinets. Once you have that off, it is time to climb into the cabinets and remove any of the screws that are anchoring the cabinets to the walls. After the base cabinets are free from the walls, it is now time to separate them from each other. Most base cabinets will be secure with screws as well, so by removing those screws you will be able to separate and remove all of the base cabinets.
7. Taking Down the Wall Cabinets. When it comes to removing the wall cabinets it is a good idea to have an extra set of hands or a brace to support the cabinets. Unlike the base cabinets, this time start by removing any of the screws that connect the cabinets to each other. Once those are removed, you can start pulling out the screws that are holding each cabinet to the wall. By starting the wall cabinets with the screws that are connecting them to each other, you can safely remove each cabinet individually.
Once the kitchen cabinets are removed, it is either time to strip the dryall or plaster off, or start patching so that you install your new cabinets. By taking your time and not going with the sledge hammer approach to demolition, you can minimize the unneccessary damage and ensure that your project comes in under budget.
Source: RTAcabinetstore.com by Gary Nealon
www.LKNcabinets.com offers FREE kitchen cabinet quotes for the greater Charlotte, NC area
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