Remodel Starr

How To Remodel A Kitchen

Remodeling your kitchen is essential because a beautiful, well-laid-out kitchen can significantly increase the value of your home, and it can greatly increase your enjoyment of your home. Cooking a tasty, healthy meal in a kitchen, you love can be deeply satisfying. Living in and nurturing my family in our gorgeous home brings me so much joy. I would love for you to know this joy too. A kitchen remodel can be a great time to pause and set clean, healthy eating goals for you and your family!

Why Does It Matter To Remodel A Kitchen?

Deciding to remodel your kitchen can significantly impact the value of your home. According to Remodeling (a great online industry resource), if you do a minor kitchen remodel, you can expect the value of your home to increase by 72% of the cost of the kitchen remodel and 57% on a major remodel.

Let’s put some actual dollars into this. Say you want to do a minor kitchen remodel, and the cost is $35,000. According to Remodeling, your home value should increase by 72%, or $25,200. So if your home, before remodeling, is worth $250,000, after remodeling, it should be worth $275,200. The other 28%, or $9,800, is for you and your enjoyment. I think this is a great trade-off! If I can make my home worth more and increase my enjoyment of my house, I’m all in!!!

How To Remodel A Kitchen

If you seriously want to remodel a kitchen, I have three steps I want you to work through. Doing these three things will put you on the path to the kitchen remodel of your dreams.

Decide What Look And Level Of Quality You Want

Before you start speaking to contractors about your kitchen remodel, you need to have a clear idea of what you want and the level of quality you want. This is an example of what that could look like:

  1. Create a new layout in my kitchen that moves the sink to the island and opens up the wall between the kitchen and the living room.
  2. Make changes to the plumbing to accommodate the relocation of the sink, refrigerator, and dishwasher.
  3. Make changes to electricity to make the space brighter at night. More LED can lights in the ceiling, under counter lighting, and a new chandelier over the island.
  4. Custom (or box, or semi-custom) painted (or if stained, a wood species) cabinetry.
  5. Quartz countertops
  6. Blanco single bowl, farmhouse-style sink.
  7. New kitchen faucet.
  8. Tile backsplash.
  9. New appliances, including a professional gas range, a built-in refrigerator, and two dishwashers.
  10. Hardwood flooring that matches the flooring in the living room.
  11. Trim to match the trim in the rest of the home.
  12. New paint on walls, ceiling, and trim.  
  13. Thorough construction cleaning.

Feel free to go into as much detail as possible to ensure you get exactly what you want. However, list that if there is anything you know you won’t be happy about. For example, I know that I’m not fond of thick grout lines between tiles. So under “H. New tile backsplash” I would add the smallest grout lines possible. Or, if that perfect paint job makes you crazy, upfront is the time to let a contractor know.

Set A Budget

You need to know how much you can afford to spend on this project. Conversely, you need to do homework and have a very good idea of the general cost of a kitchen remodel. A great place to start is by visiting Remodel. There you can drill down to your region and even your city. I use the Remodel online resource often, and it is not spammy!

Set A Goal

Do you want your kitchen to have a better workflow and be updated? Maybe your goal is to open the kitchen up to the living room. Or, a great plan is to create a kitchen worthy of a professional chef. Setting a goal is to have a way to define a successful project. Mostly, I see homeowners approach kitchen remodels with the thought that the perfect layout has to be achieved, the ideal finishes found, and the perfect installation. Having this approach causes enormous stress and guarantees failure. Please don’t do this; it is guaranteed to drive you crazy!

If your goal is to make your kitchen open to your living room and updated, many cabinets, countertops, and paint choices can help you meet that goal. It takes the pressure off and allows you to enjoy the process when you know your goal is being met.

Closing

Remodeling a kitchen is an excellent way to increase the value of your home and increase your enjoyment of your home. To start remodeling a kitchen, put together a simple list of things you want to achieve, set a budget based on realistic costs that you will research online to figure out, and set an overall, attainable goal for the kitchen remodel.

For more free information on home remodeling, visit my blog. I want you to remodel your home without fear of being ripped off, going massively over budget, or having your home torn up for months.

If you are already working on a home, remodel and need some friendly, honest advice on what to do next, sign up for my 1-on-1 coaching! For 30 minutes, I will answer any question about home remodeling and work as hard as possible to get you over whatever is hanging you up.