How a Kitchen Remodel Can Create a New Way to Use Your Space
Many people feel frustrated with how cramped, cluttered, or difficult to use their kitchens are. Even newly built or seemingly nice homes turn daily tasks like cooking, unpacking groceries, or entertaining guests into obstacle courses. Most of the time, the root cause of this daily frustration isn't the actual square footage of the space. The cause lies in the poor planning of the layout and poor placement of the cabinets and counter space. A strategic kitchen remodel helps you reconsider how all the space in your kitchen is utilized and can turn the oddly shaped, constrained, or difficult space into an open space that works for you.
Many cookie cutter homes are built with low construction cost in mind and take poor movement flow into consideration. This results in people having an appliance prep battle, fighting to pull out items from dark lower cabinets, and bumping into each other trying to get to the sink and refrigerator.
A remodel addresses all of these frustrations and focuses on:
- Removing construction and movement flow bottlenecks, and properly placing appliances along pathways for a natural flow of foot traffic.
- Using the space that typically goes empty, gets turned into storage, or goes wasted due to poor kitchen cabinet design.
- Laying out the items needed for meal prep in a kitchen in an order that makes sense for the flow of the kitchen.
Making Spaces More Open: Using reflective surfaces and clear lines to give the illusion of more space
Simplifying open space challenges across your home will establish a more relaxed atmosphere, and will make you more comfortable living in your home. You will no longer have to mold your routines and schedules to the restrictive nature of a room design. The room can now be adjusted and designed in a way to support your daily routines.
A large scale kitchen remodeling project in Edmonton will allow you to rethink how the primary zones of your kitchen will function. Traditionally designed kitchens have poor circulation, and a lot of the cramped feeling comes from being unable to move comfortably around kitchen islands and kitchen counters.
Not having enough storage space is one of the main problems that forces people to remodel their homes. Without enough storage, your belongings will overflow onto kitchen surfaces. This creates a perception of untidiness even if the kitchen is a decent size.
Kitchens that are designed with large amounts of storage like custom built cabinetry have cabinetry that goes all the way to the ceiling and has tall, deep drawers that go all the way to the bottom. This enables you to have instant access to your large and heavy kitchen items.
On top of cabinetry, new space-saving design elements can help support the maintenance of a clean and tidy kitchen. These design elements include:
- Vertical, pull-out pantries
- Hidden cabinetry for small appliances
- Disguised waste and compost pull-out drawers.
- Deep Cookware Drawers: Allows for heavy pots and lids to be neatly and quickly accessed by storing them vertically.
Understanding the newest cabinet design trends allows for the addition of cabinets that have push-to-open doors and cabinetry that conceals dishwashers and refrigerators. This helps to visually expand the living area.
More traditional homes design kitchens that are closed off from the other living spaces. This can be from walls with non-load bearing walls and narrow archways. This design brings separation from activities that occur in the other spaces of the home and can block natural light from entering the space.
Carefully planned design changes can make the long looking term addition of significant value to your home. For example, the removal of sight barriers can create the feeling of open design and give access to the other dining and living spaces.
Surface materials can be a large factor in how a design feels. Dark or highly patterned designs can make a space look and feel busy.
Choosing flooring that matches your counters or design elements can create a space that feels bigger. Neutral tones that have low patterns can make the space feel light.
Your flooring can dictate the design of the space. In a kitchen, the flooring can be constantly subject to abuse. So it is important to balance aesthetics and design with functionality.
To make the most spacious kitchen, opt for larger tiles or larger luxury vinyl planks. Larger tiles or planks make grout lines and seams smaller, giving the eye the illusion of greater space.
Sometimes, larger lights can also make a small room look larger. Without proper lighting, a large room can feel small and dark.
Using helpful, cost-effective tips, energy-efficient renovations can be done and monthly expenses can be lowered. In this approach, recessed lighting and under-cabinet lighting can be dimmed to help remove shadows and highlight finishes.
Careful assembly is the most important tool for combining custom storage and layout improvements, durable flooring, and layered lighting. Controlling the work of framers, plumbers, and all the other skilled builders can easily become too much to manage without a clear plan.
Careful planning is the most helpful tool for protecting your investment. Because no step in the process can be completed without the clear goal of finishing every aspect of the construction on time, to code, and completed safely.
Having designed smarter, rather than having expanded, shows your home can be more welcoming, spacious, and more organized, but having made no large structural changes. Work with your home, rather than against it, to declutter and design more efficiently for your family. Our Professional design and construction team is here to help, just give us a call.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Can you explain how a kitchen renovation can help make better use of space without making the kitchen physically bigger?
Redesigning the kitchen layout can help make better use of space with the kitchen renovation. This helps remove dead space and awkward corners and helps reorganize work areas. Incorporating full height cabinets, deep drawers, pull-out pantries, and built-in appliance garages help remove clutter and make the kitchen feel bigger without having to move the exterior walls.
2. What are the best layouts for a small kitchen?
Compact designs for small kitchens often incorporate either an L-shape or galley layout. An L-shape design helps keep the work triangle efficient and the kitchen area connected with the rest of the living space. A galley layout helps bring cabinets and counter space to the fullest along walls that are parallel to each other.
3. Are deep drawers better for storage than lower cabinets?
Absolutely. Standard lower cabinets that have fixed shelving do not help with storage because much of the cabinet space goes unused. Deep pull-out drawers help bring the contents of the drawer and cabinet space to the front and help the user get complete use of the space without having to dig through items and reach for the contents of the cabinet that are tucked in the back corners.
4. How does lighting help make a kitchen look bigger?
Dark and shadowy areas in a space help make the space feel smaller. Lighting helps make the kitchen look bigger. A recessed ceiling supported with under cabinet LED task lighting helps ensure counter/work areas remain shadow free and bright and help make the kitchen look large and open.
5. Kitchen island vs. peninsula: which works for a small kitchen?
If you don't have 36 to 42 inches on all four sides of an island, a peninsula will work better for your kitchen. They attach a wall and can offer more counter space and seating. Plus, they will not block walkways.
6. How do built-in or panel-ready appliances help with space?
Counter-depth and panel-ready appliances allow you to have appliances flush to the wall and with your cabinetry. They do not stick out into walkways and help with the flow of the kitchen while creating a continuous and unbroken visual across the room.
7. How long do space-saving kitchen designs usually take?
The average custom kitchen renovation usually aims for an average time of 4 to 8 weeks on-site. This can depend on how much structure gets changed, the time it takes to make the cabinets, and what materials you decide to use.















