Look At Your Cabinetry From Multiple Perspectives

Kitchen cabinets at their basic level need to be functional. From function, there is the necessity of navigation. That is to say: a cabinet with endless space could take up a sizable portion of your food prep area.

On the other hand, a cabinet that doesn’t have enough space and acts more as decoration may not have enough storage to make it usable; you might as well clear up the space for something more useful, like a spice rack, or an apparatus used to hang pots and pans.

The size of cabinetry will depend on what you can acquire. Unless you can build the cabinets yourself, you’ll have to find options to maneuver into fitting the design of your kitchen structurally. RTA (Ready To Assemble) cabinets from companies such as Walcraft Cabinetry, are key here.

They can be conformed to match different spaces and styles, allowing for greater control over final utility. And to top it off, you can get free kitchen design services which will help you greatly to navigate the waters of creating a perfect layout for your needs.

Also read: Steller Ways To Organize Your Kitchen Cabinets, Drawers, And Pantry

Still, there is more to consider when you go about affecting remodeling. Properly remodeling your premises could very well result in a property value increase, allowing for higher listing potentiality when you go to sell. Property is one of the least liquid assets you can own, but there are ways to expound value through careful management of resources.

The Value Of Aesthetic

An aesthetic arrangement of cabinetry can do much to sell a home. The kitchen is one of the most heavily-trafficked areas of any property. Accordingly, it should have utilitarian comfort, but additionally, it must have aesthetic value. You’re not always preparing meals in the kitchen; often you’re relaxing, having a bite to eat yourself, and letting your mind wander. You want something worthwhile to look at.

Now there are many different schools of thought on this. Some homeowners prefer to have woodworking themes in cabinet designs, with work of an artistic quality at endpoints and handles. Others prefer something a bit more mass-produced, but yet matches the theme of a given home. Stainless steel cabinetry looks good and definitely has value, too.

That said, steel has a very sterile feel, which isn’t of that warm and inviting quality most people associate with the Neo Kitchen. Especially in homes following modern stylistic trends, this can be a perfect match. Whatever you choose, you want there to be some level of consistency in design. If you’ve got a wooden design in cabinetry, but metallic countertops, that’s going to clash a little bit.

However, if you’ve got oak, mahogany, or teak cabinetry, then the table could be various kinds of wood; provided its look conforms to the cabinets. Something that has a sort of “hybrid” quality is a polished marble, which, depending on its coloration, can match either modernist or more classic kitchen design themes. If you’re truly going for that “wow” factor, you want this kind of complementary design to season your kitchen.

Solutions For Careful Budgeters

Not everyone has the budget to control every aspect of kitchen design so closely. Often, those seeking to remodel are trying to focus on affordable kitchen cabinets, they read this RTA cabinet store review. There are a lot of ways to do that, and one of the chief ones involves implementing remodel choices going the DIY route. Whether or not you decide to take such an approach, there are best-practices worth considering in this area.

Here’s the thing about any remodel effort: it’s usually going to take longer than you expect and go over budget. Professional contractors can usually keep things within arm’s length of their initial estimate, but even the best contractors will come against design exigencies of a home which force them into a corner. The end result is a delayed finish and increased cost.

The same will certainly happen when you do the job yourself, but you’re not out the job cost so much as you are. You might have a kitchen that isn’t functional for an extra month or two. When you’re approaching remodel, you need to leave yourself space. That, or you need to strategically unroll remodel initiatives in stages.

Sequential Remodel

For example, you might start by redoing cabinets, then move down to countertops, put in a new sink, change up cabinetry below waist level, then install new flooring of one kind or another. Tile, linoleum, and wood options are better than carpet for a kitchen. Cement can be stylish in a utilitarian sense if properly rounded out by the rest of the space. Also, it allows for augmentation later on. Still, a cement floor with a few mats on it likely won’t be a strong seller.

Tile or linoleum will likely be your best option. These are more water-resistant than many wood options. Even the best lacquer can be undermined by a hidden leak under the sink; and when it comes to leaks from the kitchen sink, it’s a matter of “when” rather than “if”.

Also, it makes sense to do the floor last, as you’ll have a lot of traffic in and out of the space throughout the remodel; you don’t want your new floors to have dropped tools, supplies, and stains from the build. You might as well just let the old floor take the beating, then put in a new floor and have a pristine-clean space after the fact.

The Technological Component Of Modern Design

Another “wow” factor detail of kitchen cabinets involves technology. Now for this consideration, style doesn’t matter so much. What matters is your interest in the “smart home” movement. If you’re not familiar, cloud computing has decentralized internet access such that wireless connections on mobile devices are core to modern tech use. This has initiated IoT.

IoT stands for the “Internet of Things”, and pertains to devices controlled via WiFi through mobile tech devices. For example, you could install a motored hinge that runs on a battery, and open your kitchen cabinets from your smartphone screen.

You could additionally install LED lighting behind the cabinets which shine through the transparent glass at their front, providing soft lighting to a space that can be controlled (and even color-optimized) from your smartphone. That will induce a “wow” or three for sure. Now some of these IoT options are over-the-top for homeowners, but they sure can be interesting to think about.

You can start coffee from your smartphone in your bedroom with the tap of a screen when you wake up. You can open or close drawers, manage the temperature on your fridge, fire up the oven or shut it down, control idiosyncratic lighting arrangements, and almost anything you can imagine.

Showing Off Your Fine Kitchenware

Certainly, you don’t have to have custom kitchen cabinets with transparent doors, but there’s a lot of room for artistically pleasing, and flexible, adornment. Stained glass can be installed in conformity to a number of color schemes.

You could also use semi-transparent glass with stylistically consistent filigree satiating the eye, or just clear glass to show what’s behind cabinet doors. Especially if you’ve got some fine China, you want to show it off where you store it; it’s not going to get used nearly enough to justify its existence otherwise. It might as well look nice, and be safely stored.

RTA cabinetry color-matched to the decorative scheme of your home, and including transparent cabinet doors, can be quite striking. You get utility, you get cost-effectiveness, you obtain a positive aesthetic, and you should see some measurable level of property value increase.

Planning Your Moves In Advance

If you’re going to get that “wow” factor out of your kitchen, you can do so on a basic budget, it just requires strategy beforehand. Figure out what you’re trying to do, and how you want to do it. Determine how much time you’ll need, and what kind of budget you’re working with. Consider sequentially applying varying changes as they come to you.

Especially if you’re on a limited budget, going the DIY route and taking things as they come can help you get to a place of a total remodel in a reasonable time that costs less than it could, and makes working around remodelers less difficult. All that being said, a consultation makes sense even if you’re going with a DIY option.

Contractors understand the real cost, and also understand what may or may not be valuable. The same can be said of real estate agents. But here’s the thing: your focus is a primary motivator in determining tactic. You don’t have to remodel the kitchen for the sake of cementing property value. Another perspective might just involve a change of pace for the sake of it.

What you change about your kitchen could totally be about you, and nothing else. While it’s generally agreed that it’s better to have subsequent property value be greater than the cost associated with remodeling, the actual value of anything has much more to do with the person or persons who benefit once the job is done.

Keeping Pace As Time Marches On

There is much to recommend remodel. For one thing, cabinet styles become outmoded with time. Even the most modernist stylings of today will seem quaint in fifty years—just consider the “futuristic” ideals of the fifties to get some idea how true this is. Time marches on, and entropy with it. The finest design breaks down with time.

If you don’t remodel now and again, the utility of space will definitely diminish, and your kitchen will steadily become dated. The truth is, any functional home should consider refurbishing of living areas at intervals. You need to redo the kitchen every ten to twenty years, depending on how you use it and what sort of budget you’re working with.

The same is true of living rooms, bedrooms, roofing, landscaping, and many other areas of the property over which you act as a landlord.

So consider where you’re at, where you’re going, and what you can do to make the outcome match what’s best for you and your family. At the end of the day, the most important “wow” reaction is that of those in your own household.