The kitchen is one of the most necessary parts of any home. It is a place for everyone to gather, chitchat, and make memories. It makes sense that any householder would want their kitchen to be the most beautiful room in the home, but unfortunately, some remodeling mistakes can ruin your kitchen altogether. If you’ve just taken on the kitchen remodeling task in Des Moines, here are some common remodeling mistakes to stay away from.
Forgetting Storage
It is always wise to plan for more kitchen storage than you think you’d need, but storage in your kitchen is not the same as storage in other rooms. You’ll want a variety of shapes and sizes to fit all your crockery, pots and pans, food, and silverware. Don’t be afraid to mix things up & invest in large cabinetry, small shelves, sturdy pull-out drawers, and much more.
Ignoring The Work Triangle
The kitchen work triangle refers to your sink, stove, and refrigerator — the places that you work with the most. You will want to make sure your kitchen is set up with this triangle in mind, meaning you don’t want these three objects to be that far away from each other. As a rule of thumb, keep the distance between four and nine feet apart. This way, more than one person can be cooking at a time without bumping into one another.
Not Investing In Lighting
Kitchens should be in the middle of the home and don’t always have the best lighting. Because of this, you’ll want to invest in a variety of lighting fixtures. Examples include one light that gives an overall general illumination, a few accent lights over the sink and stove, task lightings like pendant lights or track lighting along with the cabinets, even wall lighting to provide some extra light on sunny days.
Always keep your location in mind and be strategic with your fixture installation. If you live in a sunny and well-exposed home in Des Moines, for example, might be you can get away with having lesser lights than an apartment with no kitchen windows.
Creating Small Aisle Space
Kitchen areas have to be flexible, meaning you have to prepare ahead of time to accommodate how big your moveable space is adequate. Preparing food requires you to move around and be flexible, and your aisle space should accommodate that. To ensure the proper room, your aisle space should be between 42 and 48 inches wide.
Not Thinking About The Big Picture
When picking out appliances and fixtures, you will want to think in 3D. This means you have to determine how everything will fit within each other and how everything will work together. An example of this is to consider your cabinet and appliance doors. You want to ensure they all open the same way and be fully extended so you can access everything inside of them. Once you have made your selections, envision all the doors and fixtures installed and open. Ask yourself if you can easily move around and be comfortable when all these fixtures are in use. Suppose you cannot invest in different cabinetry.
Supersize An Island
It can be enticing to make your kitchen island large and in charge, but at the end of the day, all this will do is make your room feel cramped and small. Islands are just features for extra storage and sitting space, and they shouldn’t take up the entire kitchen. No island should be longer than ten feet, and the storage under it should be less than 4 feet wide. Anything else can be too hard to walk around. Remember, two small islands are better than one overstuffed one, so consider that option if you are in an interior design rut.
Make sure you keep these common remodeling mistakes in mind the next time you decide to invest in your kitchen. This way, you’ll be sure to create a fully-functional kitchen and bring some pizazz into your space.
