A kitchen remodel is an opportunity to get the cooking, gathering and eating space of your dreams.
Exactly what your dreams are, though, will help determine how to focus the remodel. When planning for your kitchen renovation, it’s a good idea to sketch out your goals ahead of time to ensure you have a clear line of sight to your finished product.
Related: Before you start, here’s what you need to know about kitchen remodeling.
Here are some kitchen remodeling goals that Hudson Remodeling customers in Bellingham and Whatcom County have had over the years:
Make the kitchen easier to work in. Primarily, this is done by focusing on the kitchen work triangle, which is formed by the locations of the sink, stove and refrigerator. If the points on the triangle are too far from each other, common tasks such as cooking and cleaning can become tiresome, with long (and frequent) trips from point to point. What’s more, if the edges of the triangle span common walking paths, you might find yourself with frequent traffic jams as you wait for others to move through the kitchen.
Beautify the kitchen. No matter what remodeling is done in the kitchen, making the space more attractive will (one would hope!) be an inevitable result. As such, homeowners would benefit from spending time thinking about the style you’d like to see in the kitchen, enabling you to work the style into your budget and enabling your contractor to work it into the plans. This is one area in which working with a design/build contractor can pay dividends, because the designer will have an intimate understanding of what’s possible and practical from the contractor’s point of view.
Open up the kitchen. Especially in the older homes that common to much of Whatcom County, kitchens can be quite small. In these situations, it can make sense to remodel the kitchen for the purpose of giving it more space, both physically and visually. Hudson Remodeling completed a remodel recently on South Hill in Bellingham in which physical space was gained by removing steps to the basement and visual space was gained by removing a wall dividing the kitchen from the dining room. The end result was a spacious, modern kitchen with gorgeous views of Bellingham Bay. You might also consider what adjacent spaces could be sacrificed to open up the kitchen. Perhaps there’s an unused powder room or closet that could be incorporated into the kitchen, or perhaps a bump out could add additional space without impacting nearby rooms.
Improve the kitchen’s functionality. Do you love to cook? One excellent reason to remodel a kitchen is simply to make it a better place to prepare meals, bake pies or experiment with culinary treats. Perhaps you want to upgrade the appliances, create additional counter space, add a prep sink or improve the lighting in order to create a space that’s a more pleasant place to cook.
Increase the home’s resale value. If you’re planning to sell your home soon, that might color the decisions you make not only about the details and style of your new kitchen, but the functionality as well. A professional designer can work with you to share what fixes and upgrades would do well in the current Whatcom County real estate market.
As you consider your potential goals for a kitchen renovation, it makes sense to write down your plans, perhaps using a worksheet like this one from HGTV. Of course, you’re also welcome to give Hudson Remodeling a call. We’d be happy to discuss your kitchen remodeling plans and help you flesh out the details.