Don’t Design Your New Kitchen Without Reading This First

Do you believe that high-quality appliances are the most important part of your dream kitchen? Think again.

When people walk into kitchen showrooms excited about designing a new kitchen or remodeling their existing space, they tend to start in the appliance section. Everyone loves high-tech cooking gadgets and for some home chefs and culinary artists, appliances can be the most integral part of creating a quality cooking experience.

These shiny features play a large role in making a kitchen aesthetically pleasing and giving the kitchen that high-end, luxurious vibe. But while that Wolf logo on the range might be a priority for some people, it’s imperative to look at the kitchen in its entirety. Kitchen appliances may be sexy, but your chief focus should be on this hierarchy of design attributes: functionality, longevity, and aesthetics. Appliances can come later.

When designing a kitchen, the goal is to create a space that is both a joy to work in and that will last through years of use and abuse. Kitchen remodels aren’t cheap, and while it’s easy to get seduced by the best appliances out there, your design needs to functional before it’s fashionable.

In order to maximize the use you can get out of your kitchen, cabinetry is the place to start, and it’s also the place to allocate the largest percentage of your kitchen-remodel budget. Cabinetry acts as the bones of the kitchen and will directly dictate how long a kitchen will last. Countertops are a factor, too, but with modern materials and sealing techniques, almost all countertops will far outlast any other part of a kitchen.

By choosing high-quality, well-manufactured cabinets, your kitchen will stand the test of time. Think about how often you open that cutlery or pots-and-pans drawer. How much weight will it hold as it slides in and out for years? Now think about that one drawer that houses bent hardware and how often that bent hardware makes it impossible to open that drawer easily. How annoying is that drawer to use? A well-designed kitchen will have taken into consideration where the heavy items are placed, and the glides for those areas will be designed to handle the additional weight.

Something else to keep in mind: Appliances are designed to be replaced. Almost all appliance manufacturers design their models to the same specifications, allowing them to be easily slid into the spot you currently have in your kitchen. This means that you can choose one of the many lower-priced appliance options and then upgrade a year or two later to something nicer. Meanwhile, your kitchen as a whole will be functional, beautiful, and something to enjoy for decades.

Morgan MacKay is the marketing manager at Kitchen Distributors, which offers award-winning kitchen design throughout the Rocky Mountains. View their profile of contact Morgan at 303-795-0665.

Content for this article provided by Kitchen Distributors.