Home Improvement Tips To Spice Up Your Kitchen

I think the kitchen remains one of my favorite rooms in our house. Years ago I built all of the cabinets custom to just our needs and they are a little different for sure, but they offer us an incredible amount of storage! The kitchen build was one of the rooms I was most nervous about in the house and, understandable, as the kitchen is without a doubt the most complication when in comes to renovation! There’s a lot of improvements that can be made though without starting from scratch. Many kitchen can benefit hugely simply from a new coat of paint!

(This is a contributed post, for more information about my compensation please read my disclosure policy)

Remodeling any of your rooms can be complicated. It’s the kitchen, however, that might be the trickiest one to do. After all, you can’t just think about looks, but also the plumbing, electrical, and gas systems for your appliances. Then add in overall functionality.

Naturally, that could make anybody stress out a little bit. If you want to cut down on a lot of that stress, then you might want a few tips and tricks for doing the room up. If you’re remodeling a kitchen, what can you do to make things easier for yourself?

Thankfully, you can cut down on the stress associated with creating or remodeling a beautiful kitchen by keeping a few things in mind.

Home Improvement Tips To Make Your Kitchen Life Easier

Hold Off On Your Countertops

Your countertops will be one of the main kitchen features that focus almost solely on making your kitchen more attractive. As a result, you’ll end up spending a while deciding what kind you should get. Thankfully, there are plenty of natural stone countertops and other materials to choose from.

It’s worth holding off on buying these until the cabinets are in. That’s because there can occasionally be slight differences between official figures and their actual measurements. If you’ve gone with a custom option, then that could be even more true. Knowing the measurements once the cabinets are installed can be essential.

Once they’re fitted, measure them out and then use these for your countertops. By doing so, you’ll make sure that they’ll be a perfect fit. You might assume that this will make finishing your kitchen take longer. That mightn’t be the case.

Instead, you may end up preventing the countertops being made to slightly wrong measurements. They’ll subsequently need to be altered, which could take more time than simply waiting and then measuring.

Think About Under-Cabinet Storage

Storage space can often be at a premium in the kitchen. Your appliances will take up the majority of space, after all. Thankfully, there are multiple ways that you can work around this. Most are surprisingly easy and are more cost-effective than you might think.

Under-cabinet storage could be a way to go, as it doesn’t take up too much space. You can also install them in the majority of places around your kitchen. Typically, these will come in the form of racks designed to hold various utensils.

As such, you can pull them down while you’re cooking and swing them back up once you’re done. Alongside being an effective way to store most of your kitchen utensils, it’s also a great way to keep the kitchen organized, even when you’re cooking.

While you can buy these ready-made, there’s also the option of making them yourself. These are made with some hinges and a rack that you can then install under your counters. If installed under counters by your cooker and other appliances, knives and other objects will be easier to find and grab.

Think About A Center Island

Speaking of storage, a center island could be a recommended option to go. This will only be the case if you have a decent amount of space in your kitchen, however. Since your appliances will typically be placed along the walls, you’ll end up with empty space in the center of the room.

While many people might place a dining table here, you could go with the center island. Alongside having a lot of built-in storage space, this will also add extra space for preparing and cooking your food. Some options can also come with a built-in sink and other features. These tend to be much more expensive than more standard options.

These will essentially be made up of counters and a countertop. As such, a center island adds a lot of functionality to your kitchen while enhancing the overall style. It’s worth thinking about whether or not it will fit in your kitchen, however.

As mentioned, these will only be appropriate if you have a significant amount of free space in your kitchen. If you’re debating whether or not it will work, then you could try making a full-scale model of one. This is easily done with some cardboard, plywood, or something similar.

If you and your family are still able to cook and move around the kitchen properly, then it could be a recommended option.

Leave Space For A Bigger Fridge

If you’re planning on keeping your fridge, but you’re removing your countertops, you may need to add to your plans. Essentially, this boils down to leaving space to upgrade your fridge. You may end up getting a bigger one in the future, which you should plan for.

While this mightn’t apply to everyone, it will apply to a fair few people. If you don’t put this into your plans, then a bigger fridge may be out of the question in the future. You may end up having children in the future, which could make a larger fridge a necessity. If there’s no space, however, then you may need another renovation just to add it.

Typically, a fridge will be between 32 and 36 inches wide. Regardless of how wide your fridge is, you should plan for the wider options. The leftover space, should your fridge be smaller, shouldn’t be too noticeable. If you end up needing to move the fridge at some point, the extra space could be a benefit, as it adds a little bit of wiggle room.

If you do upgrade and get a bigger fridge, you can rest easy knowing that it should fit perfectly.

Have A Temporary Kitchen

Your kitchen will more than likely be out of commission when you’re doing it up. That will leave you without anywhere to cook for a while. Though this mightn’t be an issue if you’re only renovating for a day or two, some projects could take much longer.

Since it might be unfeasible to get takeaways or visit restaurants constantly, you’ll need to think of an alternative. Thankfully, this should be relatively easy. If a lot of your previous kitchen features are being removed, try placing them somewhere else and use them for a while.

There are multiple small appliances that you can pick up that are also quite affordable. While these mightn’t be as versatile as an entire kitchen setup, they’ll be small enough not to get in the way. They’ll also be effective enough to make different meals. That should be enough to keep you going while the kitchen is renovated.

Wrapping Up

Remodeling a kitchen can often be expensive and stressful. You’ll cut down on both by keeping the above in mind. It’ll also make sure that your kitchen looks perfect once you’re done. After all, you wouldn’t want to be in a position where you have to make more changes in a few months or years.

That makes planning a priority. Thinking long-term with your remodeling plans can be essential, as it gets rid of the risk of needing to do another remodel. You should also consider how the kitchen’s design fits the rest of your home.

Are you remodeling the kitchen to bring it up to the rest of the house’s standard? Or are you planning on renovating other rooms too? Keeping these in mind and having an overall plan for all of your renovations can be highly recommended. Your home will have more of a flow and will look and feel more consistent.

Thankfully, this shouldn’t be as stressful or headache-inducing as you might think. Being prepared and having a plan in place will avoid that. Keeping the above tips in mind can be much more helpful than you might initially think.

(This is a contributed post, for more information about my compensation please read my disclosure policy)