Realtors say it’s the kitchen that sells a home. Whether you are planning a kitchen remodeling or consulting with a design team for your custom home, consider several on-trend kitchen remodeling ideas.
UNIFYING SEVERAL ROOMS
According to a kitchen trends survey by Houzz, most homeowners want kitchen remodeling that opens the room up, turning it into more of a social room and focal point of the home. With an open plan, anyone working in the kitchen can still be a part of the goings-on in the dining room or living room. An open plan also includes the rest of the family in the meal preparation.
ADDING STORAGE SPACE
You can never have enough places in your kitchen to keep pots, pans, plates, glasses, utensils, small appliances, and food. Maximize storage space by using deep drawers and extending upper cabinets all the way to roof of the kitchen. One of the latest kitchen remodeling trends is appliance garages that store your small devices so they don’t clutter up the counters.
Because most kitchen remodeling opens the room up to the dining and sitting rooms, more people are using the opportunity to install top-of-the-line cabinets and countertops. In a sense, your cabinets and counters are as important as furniture pieces and artwork were in a traditional living or dining room.
USING WHITE TO OPEN SPACE
Instead of painting the walls white, another kitchen remodeling trend is to go with a neutral white for the cabinets so you can have no boundaries with the color choices in the surrounding space. White cabinets, interior designers say, are classic and timeless. It also works with traditional, modern, country and transitional styles. White makes a space feel cool and open. Crisp, white cabinets pair well with stainless steel appliances, but look for fingerprint-resistant steel.
GETTING IN THE WORK ZONE
Another kitchen remodeling trend is the idea of zoned spaces. When remodeling, think about how you are most likely to use your kitchen. Consider any hobbies you have and whether you need a mini office space in the kitchen. Some specialty work zones noted by Better Homes include coffee bars, wine-tasting nooks, baking centers and pizza-making stations.
ADDING HIGH-TECH ACCESSORIES
Another on-trend kitchen remodeling idea is to accessorize your kitchen with electronics such as wall-mounted televisions and computers. Other trends to consider include walk-in pantries, eco-friendly products and versatile lighting options.
LIGHTING THE WAY
If a hole can be drilled into it, just about anything can be turned into a lamp. Kitchen remodeling can be further personalized by illuminating how obsolete kitchen items can be given new life. Cheese graters, tea kettles, tin flour sifters, colanders, Bundt cake pans and countless other items that once enjoyed a robust existence in the kitchen can be wired to throw light on all those newfangled plastic items that replaced them.
You can also think about more practical lighting concerns with your kitchen remodeling. Recessed lighting or under-cabinet lighting are very popular installations
SHUTTER UP THE PASS-THROUGH
Window shutters can offer a very decorative means of closing up an open pass-through from the kitchen to the dining area. To heighten the emotional depth of this personalized kitchen remodeling idea, consider using shutters that remind you of those on the home you grew up in. If you cannot find any shutters that bring on any particular emotional reaction, no need to worry. The very introduction of these normally exterior window enhancements as a decorative means of closing off that interior portal is enough to give your remodeling a little distinction. When closed, the shutters can reduce the amount of smoke that cooking produces, thereby reducing circulation through the rest of the house. Or, alternatively, shutters can offer an additional layer of protection against sound from the other side of the pass-through.
ADD WOOD BORDERING
One of the most popular kitchen remodeling ideas is introducing the many benefits of wood into the cooking area. The rustic quality of wood counters and cabinets can very easily and artfully be personalized. A little primer, some adhesive, scissors and the decorative paper of your choice is all it takes to add a border around those wooden furnishings that transforms them into the ultimate exhibition of your own personality. You might not want to entirely say goodbye to that wallpaper that has adorned your home since you moved in. Find some matching border or just cut up the longer sheets of wallpaper and create a border around the wooden counter to create an emotional link between the old and the new. Or get even more personal with some decoupage on wooden cabinets featuring old family photos.
GO GREEN
The ultimate goal of all green home building efforts is total sustainability combined with energy distribution so efficient that your home is featured on wanted posters inside the offices of the power company. That may not be in any way feasible, but you can always work on greening up other parts of the house later if you start with a plan for making a single room as green as it can be. If you’re undertaking a kitchen remodeling, here are some suggestions for getting close to the ultimate shade of green.
REFRIGERATOR
Green home building means a fresh start with brand new appliances. Don’t repeat the mistakes of the past. Choose a refrigerator that is not just energy-efficient, but is also the right size to meet your needs. Situate it so that no direct sunlight falls upon it while ensuring that the location provides for air circulation around the condenser coils.
DISHWASHER
Choose a high-efficiency dishwasher that is not too large to meet your needs. Green home building kitchen style also mandates that the dishwasher not only comes equipped with an energy-saving dry setting, but that you actually take advantage of that function.
WATER FILTRATION SYSTEM
It’s not enough to put a cheap water filter on your tap and say you’ve gone green. Not if you want that kitchen to achieve ultimate greenery. A reverse osmosis water filtration system can reduce concentrations of heavy metals, chemicals, arsenic and even, possibly, pesticides and petrochemicals from your water. Installation of a distilling system under the counter purifies water through conversion to steam and then back to water in a way that kills microbes, but lets in chlorine. Ultraviolet light can be used to kill off bacteria and parasites, but achieves peak efficiency when combined with carbon absorption system. But then again, that’s true of all the other filtering systems as well.
GRAY WATER COLLECTION SYSTEM
Next to your main sink in your green kitchen should be located a smaller sink into which is directed all that water you waste during any given day. Like when you are waiting for cold water to heat up or you need to moisten a paper towel. The (clean only!) water that disappears down that much smaller sink then gets trapped, treated and recycled, thus eliminating what will likely prove to be an eye-opening amount of waste.
SKYLIGHTS AND WINDOWS
Cut down on the cost of providing power to your kitchen during the green home building phase by planning ahead for natural lighting. Big picture windows with energy efficient double or triple glazing or low-e windows are your greenest choice for limiting the need for lighting during the day. Skylights are a terrific option for using solar power to flood the kitchen with illumination during daylight hours as well.
CORK FLOORING
Rid yourself of the negative impact on air quality provided by carpeting while retaining the noise-reducing effect so vital in any room populated by the hard surfaces that amplify sound through reflection. You can go even greener by choosing cork flooring made with polyurethane binders.
The reality is that these suggestions and recommendations for building the greenest kitchen possible are just the beginning. You should also buy use energy efficient ovens and ranges, make plans to install an all-in-one garbage recycling and compost unit, ensure sophisticated ventilation and choose only non-toxic materials for cabinets and counters.
GO WITH LOW MAINTENANCE MATERIALS
Granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances may be all the rage, but granite requires resealing to protect against stains and stainless steel reveals fingerprints and smudges. Go with maintenance-free quartz countertops, white or medium-colored appliances to hide fingerprints and dirt, and porcelain tile floors, which are both durable and stain-resistant.
CUSTOMIZE THE MEASUREMENTS.
The standards used in kitchens, such as the height of counters, work for most people. But if you’re not like most people, there’s no reason why you can’t adjust measurements. For example, raise or lower the heights of surfaces to suit your size, widen the clearances of aisles if you need a walker to get around, or increase the size of handles to make them easier to reach. There’s no end to the variations that can be customized for your easier use.
If you want to know more about remodeling your kitchen or any other space in your home, please contact us.
