It’s one thing to dream about remodeling your kitchen, but bringing those dreams to life requires a lot more than wishful thinking. There are budgets to set, contracts to sign and endless decisions to debate. If all that has you feeling a bit overwhelmed, here’s the good news: We’ve got the ultimate guide to help you think through all the big questions and avoid common kitchen remodeling pitfalls. We’ll walk you through an easy-to-follow checklist that breaks down the most important kitchen remodeling considerations into simple steps, so you can cross them off, one by one, and transform your dream kitchen into a design reality.
If you’ve ever caught yourself daydreaming about the perfect double oven or following #kitchendesigninspo on Instagram, that time was well spent. You were actually hard at work laying the foundation for your ultimate kitchen remodeling project. Now it’s time to organize those inspirations with your lifestyle needs to guide your kitchen upgrade. Do you tear spreads out of design catalogs? Snap pictures in showrooms? Pin every gorgeous kitchen you can find on Pinterest? Or live to discover new kitchen design trends?
Wherever you find your inspiration, once you gather it all together, you’ll start noticing common themes, colo(u)rs, styles and ideas. These are the building blocks of your own personal kitchen design style. It’s a good idea to add them to a mood board so you can quickly communicate your vision with a kitchen designer or general contractor. It will save you a lot of time if everyone can start out on the same page to understand your vision.
While narrowing in on a design aesthetic is important, figuring out how you want your new kitchen to function is even more critical to setting your kitchen remodeling goals. The easiest way to start is to identify what frustrates you most about your current setup:
Just for a minute, forget about your budget. This is your opportunity to dream big and pinpoint every single thing you would change about your kitchen if you could -- from the petty to the preposterous. Once you’ve gotten that all out of your system, it’s time to come back down to earth a bit. Given your own specific preferences, such as how and what you like to cook, who’s typically in the kitchen with you, how much you like (or hate) to clean, start highlighting the improvements that would make those things better, easier or more enjoyable.