Ask Sarah: The Top 5 Kitchen Remodeling FAQs
Remodeling any room of the home requires a multitude of decisions by the homeowner, but even so, the kitchen is in a league of its own. The dozens and dozens of choices required to complete a kitchen remodel can be hard to navigate… and if you don’t get them right, as the one living in the space, you’ll know.
The kitchen is complicated and intricate, from faucets and sink placement to appliances and countertop materials, islands, flooring, lighting, and more. Not only is this the most important room of the home for the majority of families, it is also the most used, and the hardest to design.
But the thing is, you don’t need to shoulder this burden on your own. Last month, we discussed the importance of hiring a kitchen designer in order to get the best results from your remodel.
Now, I want to take that a step further and answer the five most frequently asked questions that we hear when clients begin to design their kitchens with us.
Come take a look...
1. How much will this cost?
Before we discuss actual numbers, we can’t emphasize enough how important it is to talk openly and honestly with your designer about the total budget. It is crucial to consider both your home’s value as well as the price point that you and your family are comfortable with.
When asking you budget-related questions, your designer is only trying to gauge the right options for your project. There is no judgement and no reason to stretch yourself financially to impress the person you are working with. Speaking from experience, honesty and transparency about the money aspect of the project will only serve to strengthen the relationship you have formed with your designer (and it will reduce your stress as you walk through the remodel).
As for actual costs…
If you are planning to create your “forever” home kitchen, that kind of project generally runs anywhere from $60,000-$200,000, based on the scope of the remodel. There are obviously many variables within this range, so any good contractor or designer will help you sort through those.
If you are sprucing up your kitchen for a resale, that project may fall closer to the $15,000-$30,000 range, depending on the size of the kitchen and the list of items you plan to upgrade.
No matter the price range of your project, once a budget has been established and you feel comfortable with the total investment, then working through the other details of the remodel will be much easier and significantly more enjoyable.
2. How do I know my design style?
Honestly, this is the million-dollar question and one that we hear over and over again. In fact, there is so much to say on this topic that we wrote an earlier post dedicated entirely to helping you pick out the design style that fits your aesthetic preferences as well as your lifestyle.
Most kitchens today are a blend of styles, so more important than knowing your particular style is knowing what you like and don’t like. Our team prides itself on looking at your home’s architecture and parsing out your preferences in order to design a kitchen that reflects your tastes and showcases your personality.
If you are reading this thinking that it all sounds a little overwhelming, don’t worry. Your designer will guide you through finding a style (or combination of styles) that is perfect for you and your family. We love this part!
During our initial consultation, we always ask clients if they have images they want to share with us. Whether those are digital images from Pinterest, pages clipped from magazines, or a design book that you love, once we see the collection of photos you have selected, your style becomes quickly apparent to our trained eyes.
And if you haven’t gotten this far prior to the initial meeting, we will suggest that you set up an online account with Pinterest, Houzz, or a similar source for home images, as pictures really are worth a thousand words (or more) to your designer. These websites are great “digital filing cabinets” full of kitchens from world-class designers, top magazines, and more. We encourage you to take advantage of these incredible resources.
3. What questions should I be prepared to answer from the designer?
When you look at kitchens that are both beautiful as well as useful, you will notice a complexity of design that seamlessly pulls together functionality into a comfortable, compact space. This is the result of a lot of planning and significant thought on the part of the designer.
In order to start forming ideas about what will work best for your space, a designer will ask you many, many questions. Some of them will be basic yes/no questions, but some will require you to really think about how you currently use the space and how you plan to use your kitchen in years to come.
Here are just a few of the many questions you should ask yourself before the initial meeting so that you can confidently respond when asked...
Do you entertain? If so, is it usually a big group or a smaller one?
Who is the cook in the family? Or are there multiple cooks?
How many would you like to seat at the island? How about the kitchen table?
Do you need the kitchen to include other areas like a homework station, pet feeding area, breakfast nook, etc?
How often do you use your kitchen? Infrequently? Day in and day out?
Is your kitchen the most lived-in room of the home, or do you use it only for meal preparation?
Does your kitchen’s current layout flow how you want it to, or are there things that need to be rearranged for better functionality?
Your answers to these questions will help define the design priorities and best finishes for your kitchen. The success of any kitchen design is its seeming simplicity (which comes together with a great deal of consideration and teamwork on the parts of the clients and their designer).
4. How do appliances factor into the kitchen remodel?
What we cook with, and how we use it, is changing. There are new appliance options that address trends like aging in place, energy efficiency, and even the evolution away from gas ranges toward electric and induction. These recently-introduced appliances are changing the way we live in our kitchens and broadening the range of options that you, the homeowner, have to choose from.
As designers, we often shop at our trusted vendors with our clients in order to offer guidance throughout the process. We do so with the kitchen plans in hand so that we can assist in the design aspects of the appliances. Your designer should have enough insight into the appliance industry that they are able to make some recommendations if you are feeling unsure.
You will ultimately be the one to make the final decisions on your appliances. We believe that spending time in a store or showroom (with or without your designer), putting your hands on a variety of appliances, is time well spent, so we encourage all of our clients to do so.
As with every other design decision throughout the kitchen remodel, knowing your overall budget is important before you set out to buy your appliances. There are a lot of variables to appliances and they affect the cost as well as the functionality of the item.
All projects (appliances included) have creep-in costs (installation, add-ons, etc.), so it’s important to spend some time researching before shopping. There is a lot of information available online to help you establish relative costs. This way you can make adjustments for items that really matter to you while staying within your budget.
5. How do you suggest my kitchen relate to adjacent spaces?
While this is a phenomenal question, the answer changes with each remodel based on the layout of the home.
If your kitchen is part of the great room, then we approach the remodel with your open-concept floor plan in mind.
If the kitchen is walled off from the living room and formal dining space, then we work out a design that optimizes the feeling of space and light, even if the rooms are closed in.
If the kitchen is adjacent to the family room or a breakfast nook, then we consider whether it makes sense to combine the spaces in terms of both cost and overall design.
We promise that no matter what your home’s layout, our design team will make sure that your kitchen flows seamlessly into your adjacent spaces in both function and aesthetics. Your whole home should be a reflection of who you are, and we are committed to making sure your kitchen is no exception.
While this is not an exhaustive list of questions that we hear, we firmly believe that these questions are some of the most important to a successful kitchen renovation. If our clients don’t ask these themselves, we will bring up these topics (and more) at our initial meeting.
Your designer will become an invaluable team member in the decision-making process. It is our goal to walk you through the process from start to finish in order to create the best possible space within your budget that reflects who you are and what you love.
While your kitchen may be complex, the process doesn’t have to be.
Steve and I would be honored to sit down with you to discuss these questions. Together, we’ll come up with a plan that leaves you eager and excited to start living in your brand new, beautiful kitchen.
If you’re ready to hire a designer and get started on that dream kitchen, let’s talk.
Warmly,
Sarah