The Kitchen Is Where All the Magic Happens
There is a need for housing for everyone, whether you’re raising a family or enjoying the single life. Any home, whether that of a commoner or a king or queen, has certain spaces that are treated as more important than others. One of those places is definitely the kitchen. In fact, it’s among the most significant spaces in your house.
Whether or not you believe that the kitchen is the center of the home, there is no denying that it is a hive of activity. Your kitchen is the most frequently used room in the house and a place rich with memories. From learning to bake for the first time, to doing homework with your children, hosting and entertaining guests, and conversing over a steaming cup of tea, the kitchen is the hub of creating memories through daily lives.
Over time, your kitchen will inevitably start to show signs of wear and tear. Therefore, you may want to change the way it looks and prioritize upgrading certain features, such as the countertops, flooring, or cabinets. Every once in a while, a simple facelift for your entire kitchen can be achieved by simply replacing these items. But if you’re sick of the layout of the interior altogether and want to freshen things up, you certainly have options.
You probably want to improve your living conditions by making your home more comfortable to spend time in, more practical, and more aesthetically pleasing. Knowing what matters and why it matters will help you design and build your ideal kitchen. As an added bonus, a renovated kitchen can increase your home’s resale price by a considerable amount. Nonetheless, adequate planning of the space is essential.
Sirwiss has a network of reputable service providers at your disposal for any interior design or renovation work you may require. These experts in the field share their knowledge and advice in this article so that your kitchen can look like it was plucked straight from a glossy magazine.
Kitchen Planning: A Step-by-Step Guide
Kitchens are a focal point of any home, which is why our professionals place such a high priority on them. Just follow these simple guidelines, and you’ll be well on your way to creating a stunning new kitchen.
1. Your Wish List
Start by creating a mind map and listing all the features of your ideal kitchen. Write down everything you’ve ever desired. You should also consider what about your current setup is not working. You can include more intangible ideas that your designer can help you with on this list, such as cabinetry made of mixed materials and countertops with different finishes. For interior design inspiration, refine your wish list by perusing sites and social platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram. In addition, magazines and brochures can provide you with the latest kitchen trends. The more kitchens you view, the more you will develop a sense of which style you prefer, whether it be contemporary, country classic, or modern minimalism.
2. Measure the Area
Be conservative with freestanding kitchen features as you plan your space. Just how precise you need to be with your floor measurements will depend on whether or not you intend to include an island in the space. If you put it in the middle of the room, you should have plenty of space to move around it and get to the other parts of the kitchen. Storage and other kitchen necessities, such as low refrigerators and deep drawers, can be accommodated in the space under the countertop of a kitchen island.
3. Think About Your Budget
The first step of our kitchen design guide is determining how much you can spend on your kitchen. Understanding your budget will assist you in making quicker design decisions. And you’ll be in a better position to invest your money where it matters most. Assuming a new kitchen includes all new appliances, plumbing and electrical installation, tiling, and installation, you can anticipate the following costs:
01. AED25,000 to AED30,000 for a small, budget-friendly kitchen or renovation.
02. A mid-range kitchen cost between AED35,000 and AED40,000.
03. AED50,000 + for a high-end or luxury kitchen.
These are only approximate cost estimates. The cost of renovating a kitchen is highly dependent on the specifics of the project and your personal preferences.
4. Decide on a Kitchen Layout
Determine the layout of your kitchen is the next step. Accurately designing kitchen layouts is one of the most challenging tasks. Nonetheless, it’s also one of the most important. Your kitchen’s layout will be heavily influenced by the available space.
You must keep the following in mind:
1. Where windows and doorways are located
2. The location of water, waste and electricity
3. The materials your walls and floors are made from.
Once you’ve identified all of these aspects of your kitchen space, you’ll be able to determine whether you can adjust those or not. For instance, if your home has a wooden flooring with services running beneath it, water and waste can often be moved without difficulty. However, a concrete slab makes moving these things more complicated and costly. After determining its physical limitations, the next step is to consider the space’s functionality. Consider your must-haves, or the items that will make your kitchen ideal. Consider where you frequently utilize items. Positioning them correctly within the layout or in close proximity will allow you to create the most efficient workflow possible.
5. Think About Your Appliances
Your kitchen probably hasn’t been updated in at least the past few years, if not the past decade or more. The point is that a great deal has altered. Consider how much time you have to devote to research and window shopping in order to determine the exact home appliances you want. This will have repercussions on both the finances and the layout of your facility. Appliance modifications can add some wonderful finishing touch to your home. Depending on how often you entertain and what sort of food storage you need, you may want to invest in a wine cabinet, a larger refrigerator, a steam oven, or dishwasher drawers. Your sense of personal style will begin to take shape as you acquire the various appliances you need (and want).
6. Create Your Own Identity
If you’re remodeling your kitchen, you’re probably either getting ready to tackle the rest of your house or are almost finished. If the latter is true, then the kitchen is where everyone congregates. Either way, you’ll need to have a firm grasp on the aesthetic vibe that your home currently exudes or the vibe that you hope to achieve. Having a clear sense of your personal aesthetic will enable you in making better design choices. The rest of your home can easily connect to your kitchen in this way, creating a cohesive comfortable space that feels connected and has a good flow.
It’s possible to categorize your aesthetic as modern, midcentury, Hamptons, industrial, or something else entirely. Create mood boards of things you like (and don’t like) by collecting images on Pinterest and Instagram. Your personal home’s aesthetic will start to take shape as time goes on.
7. The Perfect Cabinetry Choice
Cabinets will be the focal point of your kitchen and the object your hands will touch the most. This means it’s a potentially helpful tool for helping you zero in on exactly which kitchen styles suit you best. There are a plethora of cabinet finish choices that will leave you feeling overwhelmed. Gather pictures of kitchens that you like and start refining your ideas, considering how they might fit in with your available space, the joinery in the rest of the house, and the era in which your home was built.
8. Establish a Lighting and Electrical Layout
The kitchen’s lighting is particularly important to plan out properly. Inviting and comfortable, the kitchen glows with the assistance of appropriate lighting. It stands to reason that the heart of the house should feel warm and welcoming. But you also need lights that can guarantee visibility, safety, and cleanliness.
Light quality is best achieved when planning begins. Make sure there is adequate task lighting in the work areas by installing strategically placed downlights or led strip lighting. Aside from cooking, you should consider how else you’ll be using the kitchen. Consider installing dramatic pendant lighting if this is an entertaining kitchen.
Adding some ambient lighting with softer lighting placed under cabinets is a great idea for an open floor plan. When used in conjunction with stronger overhead lighting, you’ll have a range of options to suit a variety of situations.
9. Don’t Forget About the Colors
The kitchen is rarely a quiet, peaceful corner of the house, so it can benefit from bright, warm, attention-grabbing wall colors. Alternatively, a neutral kitchen can be given depth and personality with the help of smaller buzzes of brighter shades. Painting the front of a cabinet, a bar stool, or some shelves is an easy and inexpensive way to give the space a new look and feel. Almost every element of a kitchen—from the appliances and flooring to the window coverings and cabinets—presents an opportunity to use color. You should first determine how long-term a commitment you’re ready to make on your color choices. One of the cheapest and simplest solutions is to paint a wall in a neutral color that can be easily changed if you get tired of the styling.
10. How Much Storage Do You Require
Every well-thought-out kitchen layout balance form and function. If you want to make the most of your kitchen, it is important to plan ahead for the storage space you will require. Think of the room as being split up into zones serving different purposes, with storage and traffic patterns designed accordingly. One option for storing dinnerware and flatware close to the table and the dishwasher (which could be integrated into an island nearby) is to install a dresser on the wall separating the kitchen and dining area.