Kitchen remodels are more than just a new countertop and a coat of paint for your old cabinets—at least they should be. Think of a kitchen remodel as your opportunity to finally get the kitchen of your dreams: appliances with all the latest features, countertops that stand up to the wear and tear of everyday use and look great doing it, that island you’ve craved for hosting friends and informal get-togethers, and lots of practical storage that eliminates clutter and helps you keep things organized.
With Holland’s the goal of any kitchen remodel is to be both functional and beautiful. While getting there can be a bit of a balancing act weighing aspects of the available space, your budget, and time constraints, custom cabinetry allows you to make better use of existing space than your standard off-the-shelf solutions (pardon the pun). Custom cabinetry is our expertise and crafting designs that combine creative solutions and the latest features and functionality to match your taste and personal style is our specialty.
Here are ten tips to help you get you started:
#1. Tell Us What You Like/Don’t Like About Your Old Kitchen
Kitchen remodels take place most often when you’ve lived in a space for some time and are hankering for something new, more efficient, and more in keeping with the times—or when you’re moving into a new home and leaving your old, outdated space behind. That old kitchen shouldn’t be forgotten too fast, though. You can learn lessons from it. What did you not like? What did you love (if anything)? While you don’t want repeat mistakes of the past, you may want to carryover and improve upon the things you did like.
#2. Share with Us How You Intend to Use the New Space
Homeowners know best how they’ve used their kitchens in the past, and they know best how they intend to use their new spaces. After all, this is your space not ours, so it needs to work for you and reflect your personal brand. When consulting with your Holland’s team, it’s important that you articulate your must-haves, your nice-to-haves, and everything else you’d like to see or learn more about.
#3. You Can Be Both Practical and Creative
Not all spaces are created equal, especially when remodeling an existing space. Try as we might, the laws of physics still apply. While we might be able to knock out a non-load-bearing wall or two, we can’t make your 8-foot ceiling a 10-foot ceiling or create an ocean view when you overlook a wooded lot. We can, however, accentuate what you do have with designs and features that emphasize the space, such as using natural or recessed lighting where appropriate, making smart paint choices, utilizing vertical design elements, creating islands with dedicated storage, etc.
#4. Weigh Timeless Styles vs. What’s Trendy
What’s in today, wont necessarily be in five years from now. Is that important to you? While you rightly will want the design of your kitchen remodel to match your personal style, you should also be mindful of its impact on home resale value (even if you currently have no plans to sell). For example, granite countertops, once at the top of everyone’s must-have list, have given way to marble, quartz, concrete, and even wood in some cases. Darker colors also tend to be less popular, as do traditional all-wood cabinets. You can rest assured that Holland’s designers are current on what’s hot, what’s not, and what’s timeless, plus the entire Holland’s team supports environmentally friendly practices such the use of low volatility, organic materials, formaldehyde-free panels, boards, and planks, and forest products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as being responsibly sourced.
#5. Consider Re-Using Some of What’s Already There
There may be elements of your current kitchen that you really like and that don’t need to be replaced, such as the windows, the sink, an appliance or two, or even the flooring. Hollands is well-versed in adapting our designs to work with existing features, and it’s a great way to stretch your budget and conserve resources.
#6. Appliances Matter
Naturally, the appliances you choose for your new kitchen will affect the layout of your overall design, plus factor into color and stylistic choices. Will you go with stainless, black matte, or traditional finishes? What style of refrigerator, oven, cooktop, or dishwasher do you prefer? What appliances will be hidden, such as a dishwasher or microwave? What small countertop appliances will you want? Will you want any/all hidden? What built-in power requirements might you need? As you can see, asking and answering these questions early on is important.
#7. Accessories Matter Too
Much of the attention during your kitchen remodel will be on the big things such as appliances, countertops, cabinet styles, and overall features, but the little things matter, too. Working with your designer, you’ll want to address a wide range of features and functions such as built-in pantries, trash and recycling pullouts, blind corner storage, pullout shelving, under-sink organization systems, spice storage, wine storage, cutlery drawers, display shelves, appliance garages, and even outlet plugs/pop-up sockets.
#8. Designer Expertise
From initial consultation and ideation, to the creation of CAD designs and 3D models, to the sourcing of materials, the entire Holland’s team offers access to various design and modeling tools, samples you can hold and textures you can touch, as well as years of design expertise and knowhow. We encourage you to take advantage of everything we have to offer. Don’t be shy! You can even stop by our El Cajon, California showroom. Holland’s goal is for you to be certain of your choices and happy with them before we ever build anything.
#9. What About the Rest of the House?
You may be remodeling only your kitchen, but it still needs to coexist with the rest of your home. You Holland’s designer can suggest ways to “soften” transitions to other rooms in the house, work with architectural considerations such as load bearing walls and existing electrical and plumbing fixtures, and address aesthetics and flow with adjoining spaces. Who knows, maybe you’ll decide to remodel more than just your kitchen (we can do that too!)?
#10. Plan Your Remodel
While we will be the first to tell you that you don’t need to have your new kitchen design entirely worked out on day one, our 40+ years in the business has taught us that having an overall plan in place to govern the process is critical for success and peace of mind. From budget considerations to how you will manage to function in your household while the kitchen is under renovation, to the kitchen features and functions you most desire, it’s all important. The team at Holland’s Custom Cabinets works with you to address your questions, act as your sounding board for ideas, share best practices, and make recommendations through every project milestone.
Let’s Talk No matter the size of your project, our licensed, bonded, and insured team of cabinetry professionals, designers, and project managers works hard to give your new or renovated kitchen space a fresh look or functional facelift. Call us today at 619.443.6081 or submit a request online.
