Things to Consider When Remodeling a Kitchen

You spend a lot of your waking hours at home in your kitchen and dining room. Keeping these rooms in good condition can make your home more pleasant, and adds to the resale value of your home. Here are some tips on things to think about, as well as some budget-friendly ideas about how to spruce up your existing kitchen.

If there's one thing that most kitchens have in common, it's that they're boring. These are the rooms where we cook our food, and where we eat if we don't have a separate dining room. While we may take great pains to keep our living room nice looking, the kitchen is often overlooked.

Remodeling a kitchen can be daunting. The average kitchen remodels can cost anywhere between $25.000 and $30.000. The main reason for this is that people are looking to add resale value to the house, rather than improve the flow of their kitchen. With a little careful consideration, though, we can make a kitchen that both adds to the value of the home and makes it a more useful place.

It might be tempting to go down to the home improvement store and spend a lot of money on appliances. You can end up burning through your entire kitchen budget just by buying appliances. It might also be attempting to splurge on something like granite countertops. Granite can have a wonderful look, and it does add to the resale value of the home. On the other hand, granite countertops are susceptible to scratching, and they have to be resealed once every 6 to 12 months.

Make sure you really want granite before choosing it over synthetic material. Don't neglect your flooring. It might be tempting, once again, to put inexpensive flooring like solid hardwood, or tile. However, the downside to wood is that it can be dented and it can be warped if you drop a pan of hot water on the floor, and tile is easy to break. Judge for yourself whether the expense of a more premium material is worth the extra hassle of caring for it.

Another common major renovation to a kitchen is replacing all the cabinets. Take a look at your cabinets and see if they really do need to be replaced. If they're dated, or worse if they're made of synthetic material or fiberboard and they're starting to break down, now might be the time to replace them. A better material for cabinets would be painted plywood material. It might be tempting to get a more expensive hardwood, but plywood is less susceptible to warping. If your cabinets are still in good shape, though, consider deaning and painting the cabinets. Look at websites like Pinterest for ideas on painting cabinets. But since we're talking about repainting old cabinets, now's a good time to bring up simple ways to freshen up a kitchen without spending a lot of money.