Ways to Remodel a Kitchen

Planning a High-End Remodel

• You will hire a cabinet-maker to build cabinets, but first you need to lay out your cabinets on your scale drawing, and before you can do that you need to go online and select appliances. Make scale model cutouts of your appliances and move them around on your drawing to find a layout you like. Pay attention to the work triangle rule for placement of sink, stove and your primary refrigerator. Once you know where you will put your appliances, draw your cabinets.

Planning the Overall Look

• Decide on the overall look of the new kitchen, particularly the look of your cabinets--traditional, country or contemporary. Choose your cabinet materials: natural hardwoods, painted cabinets or laminates. Plan the overall color scheme. Decide on countertop materials. Visiting the kitchen areas of one of the large home improvement stores to see and touch the different countertop materials will help you decide. While there, look at various floor materials: tiles, natural and artificial stone, various wood products and vinyls.

Natural Light

• If your kitchen seems a little dark during the day, hire an experienced remodeler to put in new windows. You can either add more windows, or replace your current windows with larger windows. You could add a terrace, take out your current windows and put in one or more French doors opening onto the terrace. You could also add skylights.

Lighting

• Successful lighting depends on a knowledge of lighting types and illumination requirements. Either hire a lighting designer or read about kitchen lighting before choosing fixtures. Consult one or more books about kitchen lighting and visit the lighting section of a home improvement store to see what's readily available and the typical cost; this will help you keep costs in line, even if you decide to go with more expensive, custom fixtures.

Budget Remodeling Ideas

• You can go through the planning process for high-end design even for a budget kitchen. Just look for discount materials with which to pull off the design. One method of keeping a kitchen remodel within budget is to not change the footprint of the kitchen; leave walls and windows intact, and keep the appliances and sink in their current locations.

  You can buy good-looking kitchen cabinets at discount home stores, install them yourself and save thousands of dollars. IKEA is another source, with a wide selection of contemporary styles. You could also keep your current cabinets and just refinish them.

  Look for lighting fixtures on sale, or even repurpose fixtures you might find at architectural salvage stores.