Completely renovating your kitchen can be a huge investment. The kitchen is also the most-used room in the house, meaning it is one of the last places you want to make a design mistake. Kitchens Bangor understands how much of an investment a new kitchen is going to be, and they work closely with customers to find the perfect solution. Here are some of the common mistakes that people make with their kitchen design, and how you can get things right the first time.
Reassess Your Layout
A common mistake is that when clients are replacing an old kitchen they chose themselves, there’s a tendency to focus on style over function. They can’t wait for a brighter and newer alternative, and sometimes it’s harder for these homeowners to imagine an alternative layout.
This is where a kitchen designer is worth their weight in gold, as they’ll talk through your lifestyle, cooking and storage needs in forensic detail, rooting out the key information to create a highly functional kitchen that works for you and is a pleasure to cook in.
Sometimes clients will go to designers with a very clear idea of the layout they want. However, they haven’t always thought about how the design will work in real life.
Kitchen designers often advise clients who’ve tried to place appliances in awkward places in the room or too far away from each other, for instance, to think about their work triangle. This is the route you’ll use most often in your kitchen, between the cooker, fridge and sink. If these appliances are easy to move between, it will make your cooking much easier.
Go Big on Storage
Clients often want to knock through to create a feeling of space, but they don’t always realise that, by doing this, they’ll effectively lose a wall of storage cabinets.
Designers often see corner cupboards with just a small door for access. Instead, they design corner cupboards with much better access and incorporate corner pullouts to maximise storage. This stops you having to get on your knees and scrabble to the back of the cupboard to reach stuff.
Kitchen designers are fanatical about storage, and sometimes we can’t believe how little consideration goes into it. Often, homeowners are used to a certain amount of storage, and can’t visualise the possibilities of adding more.
Choose the Right Worktop
Cheap and poorly made laminate worktops that have blown due to water ingress are a common mistake that kitchen designers see in clients’ old kitchens. If a homeowner chooses to go for laminate, they make sure that they use a brand that has a small drip groove on the underside. This way, it can be sealed with silicone and prevent water ingress between the laminate and the chipboard core.
Another frequent sight, is a wooden worktop that’s rotted around the sink area due to lack of care and maintenance. While timber worktops look fantastic and add so much warmth and character to a kitchen, clients should be made aware of the maintenance required to keep them looking good and maximise their lifespan. If that’s not for them, they are encouraged to look at other options, or use two worktop types – maybe something more durable around the sink area, with wood on the island or breakfast bar, using it as a visual feature to break up the space and create different kitchen zones.
Sometimes, when it comes down to choosing worktops, clients go for style over substance. It’s important the material and finish you choose will be practical for your everyday needs, so your worktop remains beautiful and functional long into the future. For example, if you know you’re going to be doing lots of food prep straight onto the worktop, go for an end-grain oiled timber rather than a granite or side-grain wooden worktop, as these will mark and stain easily, whereas the end grain can be sanded and refinished much more simply if needed.
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