Kitchens are an important space in the home. They are where we come together with loved ones, create memories together and enjoy delicious and nutritious food.
When it comes to making upgrades to the kitchen, because this room is so important it is essential to be smart with the changes you make. Getting things wrong could result in the kitchen being dysfunctional, less than your ideal aesthetic and costly to correct, which leads to more disruption too.
Instead, before you OK any plans for your new kitchen fitting, consider these 5 factors carefully:
- When Can You Fit It Out Again?
During the pandemic around 1 in every 5 households were cooking their meals from scratch, but now, that figure is likely to have changed as we desire convenience again. That’s just one example of how things change. But what about trends? This year we see colourful ceramics and white goods, zoning and biophilic design in kitchen fitouts – but will those things still be modern looking in 10 years? Will new house buyers like those kinds of features if you sell in future? Probably not.
How about your family, will you still be a young couple with time to cook foodie breakfasts in five years? Will ultra expensive finishes be subject to the joys of kids, or pets?
The point is, before you splash out on anything with your kitchen fitting, think ahead. It can cost at least £5,000 to £6,000 pounds for a new kitchen, with some households spending more like £15,000 for top of the range remodelling. If you have the budget and time to refit your kitchen regularly then throw caution to the wind – otherwise, try not to be shortsighted.
- Love Your Kitchen Company
Whether you buy a kitchen and then have a different company fit it, or you use one great kitchen refit company for the whole job, you have to love who you work with. This is a huge investment, and from customer service, to value for money and proven results, you should make sure you feel good about the company you choose beyond their initial efforts to sell you their products.
- Good Quality Benefits You & The Planet
It is important to have a budget when you fit a kitchen. However, how you spend that budget should be something you think about carefully. Sure, you can get prettier cupboard knobs or designer floor tiles for the same price as something less flashy, but how durable are those items? How timeless are they in design?
Instead, try to think more along the lines of quality first, so that you can avoid having to replace different aspects of your kitchen sooner rather than later.
This benefits you financially, and because it draws on the minimalist values of prioritising practicality and craftsmanship, and on the idea that happiness does not come from ‘stuff’. Instead, you have a kitchen that is made to work well, look beautiful, and that can be used and loved without falling apart at speed.
This also benefits the planet because you move away from consumerism and the need to replace items regularly, eventually contributing to landfill. In addition, these days sustainability is a sign of value because of consumer demands for more eco-friendly building materials and products. Some statistics suggest that potential homebuyers could pay up to 5% more for a home with green-credentials too, so it’s a worthy consideration when you’re browsing kitchen materials for your refit.
- Make It Your Own
Whilst it is important to create a kitchen that is timeless and designed to last, at the end of the day, you spend (on average) at least an hour in there every day and you owe it to yourself to love the refit.
You should make it your own on a practical level, considering your family dynamic and general kitchen usage style, so that the way that it works suits you well. In addition, you should still love the results, even if you haven’t perhaps been as daring as some, or gone for the most outlandish trends. There’s always room to be flamboyant with less permanent or expensive aspects of design like; plants, accessories and paint, don’t forget.
- Have Solid Management In Place
Having solid management of the kitchen remodel in place means that there is someone keeping an eye on timelines, on the building mess, on the budget and on deliveries and supply orders. You could do this yourself, or hire a project manager, but ideally the company you have hired to fit the kitchen will have everything in hand themselves. This ensures that the process – from design to completion – is as smooth and easy as possible, and ends in the budget being met, timelines being met and you getting a gorgeous, functional kitchen at the end.
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” – Steve Jobs
The five considerations above are essential for getting the very best results from your kitchen remodel. Take your time, make well-considered choices and have fun – the result will hopefully be a stunning family kitchen that provides lots and lots of value for many years to come.
