9 Kitchen Remodel Tips to Improve the Most Complex Room of the House

Published on March 28th, 2021
Homelight.com, Kitchen Remodel Tips

“You love your home, but the patterned Formica countertops and dark cabinets in the kitchen have got to go. Cooking, too, has become a pain with a stove that offers little to no temperature control. Meanwhile, plates and bowls come out of the dishwasher caked with food, pots and pans have no designated home, and your kitchen drawers are overflowing with gadgets. You need a kitchen revamp, and you need it now!

As it happens, kitchens remain the single most popular room to renovate in large part because of their heavy use. According to Houzz’s latest Renovation Trends study, 26% of homeowners who remodeled in 2019 chose to tackle the space where they cook and dine. Because kitchens are such a high traffic room, key improvements can instantly reduce daily frustrations and give your home a cosmetic facelift.

‘It will always be the most important room in the house, I believe,’ says top-selling Chicago-area real estate agent Melanie Giglio.

‘It’s the place where the family congregates, where you eat, where you cook.’

However, a maze of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing components adds expense and complexity to any kitchen remodel. You should expect to pay anywhere from $10,000 for DIY spruce up to north of $100,000 for a chef’s paradise, and to encounter surprise costs along the way.

To help you get to a place of total kitchen zen, we researched style trends and budgeting advice online, dug into recent market data around the hottest kitchen features, and gathered firsthand insights. With that, we bring you these 9 kitchen remodel tips for creating a functional space your family will enjoy for years to come.”

2. Create a Temporary Kitchen to Reduce Disruption

With a patio addition, the chaos is mostly contained to the outside. With a single bathroom renovation, you can always use the other bathroom while one is under construction. But with a kitchen remodel? Suddenly, tasks as simple as making coffee, grabbing a beverage out of the fridge, or washing a dish become a major inconvenience.

To create a stopgap and reduce stress, the lead kitchen designer and cabinet specialist for Bluestem Remodeling serving the Twin Cities, and winner of a 2020 Contractor of the Year Award (CotY), has a solution: “Designate a space for a temporary kitchen, ideally close to a secondary water source like a bathroom sink,” he says.

He recommends setting up a meal prep area with a microwave, portable grill, or hot plate and folding tables with cutting boards as makeshift countertops. Keep the old refrigerator in place until your new one is delivered because you’ll need full capacity for easy meals. It’s also helpful to select an area for storing materials, cabinets, appliances, and countertops as they’re delivered and before they’re installed.

Read the full article HERE.

For more kitchen design ideas and remodeling tips, check out Bluestem’s Kitchen Remodeling Blogs Page!

Or, contact us for a consultation to discuss your own kitchen remodel – we’d love to have a conversation with you!