Kitchen remodels are popular with homeowners looking to refurbish their space. According to a survey by Statista, 45% of respondents took on a kitchen renovation project because they wanted to do it all along and finally had the means. On the other hand, 35% couldn’t stand their old kitchen, and 28% wanted to personalize a recently purchased home.
Renovating a kitchen takes effort (and a ton of cash). But hopefully, after weeks of disruption, you’ll have a kitchen to be proud of. Or will you?
Unfortunately, kitchen remodels aren’t easy, and you might hit several unexpected bumps in the road during planning or construction. The last thing you’d want is a mishap derailing your project and setting you back thousands of dollars.
So, what do you do?
Learn about These 7 Common Kitchen Remodeling Mistakes
The best way to sidestep a problem is to nip it in the bud. We’ll walk you through the most common kitchen remodeling mistakes homeowners make, and offer tips to prevent them.
1. Wasted Storage Space
In most kitchens, the contents will expand to fill the available space. That’s why even large kitchens need careful planning to prevent clutter and buildup over time.
While it’s vital to keep a kitchen airy, you must make efficient use of space by squeezing every inch of storage and utility out of the design. Kitchen remodelers recommend taking stock of your kitchen essentials and ensuring your layout has enough storage to accommodate everything, preferably even more.
Moreover, think beyond the traditional wall-mounted cabinets for extra storage space. Foray into corner cabinets, vertical drawers, and over-window floating shelves to boost storage capacity and add visual intrigue to your kitchen.
2. Incorrectly Planned Layout
A poor kitchen layout will make your work much harder and take all the joy out of cooking. Your kitchen should work for you, with a workflow designed to suit your specific needs.
Consider your lifestyle, habits, and kitchen requirements, along with the number of people living in your house, who likes to cook, and what they like to make. Use all this information to plan your layout for the best results.
3. Unsupervised Load-Bearing Wall Removal
Like many homeowners, you might want to transform your old kitchen into an open, fluid space. For this, you may require kitchen wall removal.
Now, many homes in Utah have a load-bearing wall separating the kitchen from the living room. And as your kitchen remodeler will tell you, that’s a problem.
We’ve said this before, and we’ll say it again: load-bearing walls CANNOT be knocked down at will because they support the weight of your home. You must replace these walls with beam support to maintain its structural integrity. Otherwise, it’s only a matter of time before your building starts cracking under pressure.
It’s best to consult a structural engineer or architect to determine if a wall is load bearing. You’d also want to hire a professional load-bearing wall removal expert for a kitchen remodel with wall removal. They can assess your situation and remove your load-bearing wall safely and quickly.
4. Lack of Counter Space
You need your counter for just about every activity in the kitchen. So, it can be incredibly frustrating when it is not positioned where you need it.
Since the countertop is a part of the kitchen’s workflow, you must determine where and how much of it you will need. For example, it’s smart to install a counter next to or opposite an oven or cooktop. Doing this allows you to set down piping-hot food as soon as it’s done cooking instead of carrying it across your kitchen looking for a free tabletop.
During the planning stage, count all the ways you currently use or intend to use your countertops. Do you want space for more than one person to cook at a time? Do your kids prefer doing their homework in the kitchen? Answers to these questions will help you decide how much workable counter space you should aim for.
5. Inadequate Ventilation
Proper ventilation helps remove grease, steam, and cooking smells that can otherwise linger on you, your clothes, or your furniture. If you don’t have enough windows in your kitchen, consider getting a high-quality range hood to get the job done.
A word of advice: be sure to pick the right ducting to fit your chosen hood. This can allow for quieter, more effective, and more energy-efficient extraction. Plus, the model will be less likely to break.
Moreover, account for how much noise the potential range hood will make. This is particularly relevant if you’re gunning for an open kitchen. Your guests should be able to conversate or hear the TV while someone else cooks.
6. No Guest Space
Whatever your kitchen’s size, you can expect friends and family to congregate there. People love interacting, and your guests wouldn’t want to hang out in the living room when you’re busy prepping dinner.
During the kitchen remodeling, plan to leave room for an interactive space, whether a corner nook or an island with seating. Friends aside, this area will let your whole family assemble and chat at the end of a busy workday.
7. Insufficient Room for Trash
People often underestimate the importance of a sizeable trashcan in the kitchen. Sure, you might have a bin that fits neatly within the cabinet and maintains a clean aesthetic. But these containers often fill up quickly, meaning constant emptying.
Problems like this come about when you don’t make allowances for the number of people in the house, how much food you cook daily, and the amount of recyclable/non-recyclable trash you generate. We recommend investing in a container with a larger capacity, one with separate compartments, or a kitchen waste disposal unit.
The Bottom Line
Kitchen remodels are fun and exciting, provided you know what you’re doing. Unless you’re careful, you can easily overlook details that result in major problems down the line, and may even cause you to stretch your budget. But now that you know about these seven kitchen remodeling problems, you should have no trouble giving them a miss!
Planning for an open kitchen? A kitchen wall removal can be a risky project for the uninitiated. That’s why the experts at Load Bearing Pros are always ready to help out Utahns hoping to get rid of their load-bearing walls. We’re experienced, quick, and efficient. Plus, we will make sure your new open space is adequately supported. Give us a call today to know more!