Kitchen Design Tips Only the Pros Know!
Designing a kitchen is something of an ever-evolving learning process, simply because how we use our kitchens is changing constantly. Where once, one member of the household confined themselves to cook, kitchens are now family spaces used for cooking, obviously, but entertaining, dining, work, and even lounging.
Easy simple kitchen design is best done by experienced professionals – but only hand-in-hand with you. That is because how you use your kitchen will affect the design choices you will make deeply.
Our kitchen design tips"}” data-sheets-userformat=”{"2":277185,"3":{"1":0},"9":0,"10":0,"12":0,"14":{"1":2,"2":3355443},"15":""helvetica neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif","16":11,"21":0}”>kitchen design tips step-by-step will help you discover how to design a kitchen like a professional.
Don’t create spaces that look odd and that can’t be cleaned.
Never leave crown moldings closer than 9 inches from a ceiling. Once you get within a foot of the ceiling you should have the cabinetry and molding meet the ceiling.
Location and type of sink: kitchen design tips
Corner sinks are avoided by pros because dishwashers and cabinets open up to where you stand at the sink, and countertops are far less functional. two-bowl sinks should also be avoided in favor of large single-bowl sinks. Having a large bowl to work with and being able to accommodate large pots, trays, and baking sheets is more useful than a second small bowl. The double sink is an echo of the past, left before dishwashers.
Keep cabinetry the same distance away from each side of a window.
Keep cabinet doors the same size and on either side of a window, sink or cooktop.
Bad kitchen design can reduce the value of an entire home.
Some cabinet door styles, or colors are so unpopular they that destroy the value of a home. Arched wall cabinet doors or golden oak stained kitchens are home value detractors. Pickled pinkish stain and white raised panel plastic Thermofoil cabinets are also home value killers.
Raising a wall cabinet all the way to the ceiling is a bad idea.
Never run cabinets all the way to the ceiling without a two-piece crown molding or a solid wood spacer. Ceilings are never level and there needs to be some way to disguise this. This is why professionals use 36 vs 42-inch kitchen cabinets in a room that’s 96 inches high.
Never put 8 feet of cabinets in an 8-foot space.
Professional kitchen designers know that walls are out of plumb or have bulges and that you can NEVER completely fill a space with whole cabinets. Fillers allow designers to make the adjustments that make a kitchen look right.
Good designers will stack cabinets with small cabinet doors on top to avoid overly tall wall cabinets.
Good designers use 42″ high wall cabinets infrequently and would NEVER use anything higher. Builders and amateurs use these heights to maximize cabinetry not realizing that the higher height looks out of proportion and gives little added space benefit. Cabinetry doors look best when their size is closer to The Golden Ratio.
Always upgrade to all plywood construction or at the very least make every exposed surface real plywood.
Particle board cabinets, besides being less strong, have plastic pictures of wood on their sides that discolor and peal quickly.
Highly grained man-made quartz and Corian countertop patterns such as the beautiful Cambria Britannica cannot be seamed inconspicuously.
These patterns only work on tops without seams.
NEVER start the demolition on a job without a completed design plan finalized.
NO time is EVER saved rushing. When contractors know what the complete project entails, costs are lowered, and the job runs smoothly.
The people that finish first are never the ones that started first they are the ones that planned to completion first and then started. When you hear a story about a kitchen that took 6 months or a year this was the fault of the unprofessional people organizing the job.
Pay attention to the quality of the material.
How much cabinets cost has little to do with their durability and more to do with the cabinet lines ability to customize. Because of this, doing an uncomplicated design in a popular door style and finish, like a white shaker style, in an expensive cabinet line is just throwing money away.
Higher price level stone and man-made tops are not more durable, they only cost more because of their color and pattern.
You need to carefully consider the space.
The first constructive step in starting a kitchen design tips project is having a professional kitchen designer measure the space. Any design work or material selections made prior to a professional kitchen designer measuring is inefficient and can lead to frustrations when surprises and problems are revealed to you by someone with more knowledge and experience.
The best kitchen designers will not ask for the design you want.
They will show you designs that make sense for your space and that you should at least consider. You can make changes from there to arrive at the kitchen that you want after considering what a professional would do with your space. Saving money on material selections will make almost any design affordable. So, keeping a layout the same ALMOST NEVER makes sense. It is the design itself that gives value to your home. Upgrading to professional appliances or custom styles and colors can be beautiful but the added expense is wasted if the design itself is poor.
Designers who give customers what they think they want, at least without showing them what’s possible, take the easy way out, and the final kitchen always suffers. All experienced kitchen designers know probably hundreds of kitchen design tips. And our team of professionals is ready to voice them to you!
When you think about kitchen design tips, make functionality a top priority by incorporating a well-organized layout that promotes a smooth workflow. For your countertops and backsplashes, choose stylish yet durable materials that enhance both aesthetics and practicality in your culinary space. This will help you create a beautiful and functional kitchen that you’ll love to cook in for years to come.