If you’ve ever been part of a home remodel, renovation or even building a new home, you know how many details are involved. From furniture to flooring, the lists of things you’ll need to consider gets longer and longer every day; and the more planning you can do in advance, the better your experience will be and the more successful your renovation will be.
As you progress through the planning, there are also surprises and things you simply forget. In the last few years, I’ve managed to complete two of the most complicated home projects you can encounter: a kitchen and a bathroom. Each provided unique challenges and each one was significantly more complicated than I thought going in. You can rely completely on a contractor and/or designer, or you can take those responsibilities on yourself. In our case, we decided to save that money for our construction budget and do it ourselves.
Kitchen: I can’t begin to tell you how complicated a kitchen project can be, but if I can do it, you can too. First I strongly recommend getting a floor plan to map out the cabinets. We used an IKEA design tool that allowed us to get inch-perfect on our floor plan. This will allow you to make the most efficient use of your space without wasting space or, worse yet, choose cabinets that just won’t fit. These design tools can help with appliance size and placement and get your kitchen down to much simpler design choices. We choose flooring and tile next but we almost forgot the most important choice, lighting.
Kitchen lighting needs to be functional. With sharp knives and hot pans, you need bright lighting, but don’t forget about design. We chose some really amazing art deco light fittings and they not only lit the space, but they really brought the kitchen together.
We also were amazed at how functional the lighting was. There were fashionable fixtures that just looked good and fashionable fixtures that helped us avoid accidents ( this website here ). Keep in mind that safety, function and fashion can all be achieved with your lighting.
Bathroom: We also used an on-line design tool to help with the placement of cabinets, but more importantly the vanity, sink, bath tub and commode. With plumbing involved, the cabinet placement is less important than the kitchen and the fixture placement is everything. Keep in mind that your existing pipe placements may not allow for complete redesign, so work with a plumber if you can to be sure you don’t go too far with a design that either won’t work, or won’t work affordably. In our case, the cost to move the main drain and vent stack helped shape our ultimate design decisions. We were also really surprised how important electrical was in our bathroom. Lighting, safe outlets, shower vents and even things like heated floors and towel racks were great choices.
Home remodeling can be a daunting experience. The costs, dealing with contractors, dealing with destruction and the mess can make you think that you’ll need a vacation. In our case we did just that and planned out a really cool UTO Vacation. This put a punctuation mark on our projects and really helped us by placing a reward at the end of the project.
Home improvement projects can be challenging, but if I can do it, then you can too. Pay attention to details and seek our plumbing and electrical help when you can. Free in-store designers can help with color and material choices and your overall results can be amazing. Don’t forget your lighting, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
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