Remodeling your kitchen

The kitchen is the heart of today's home. Not only is food prepared in the kitchen, but it also serves as a location for conversation and informal meals. Many homes built in the last twenty years position the kitchen as the center of a hub, with the family room, dining room, breakfast nook, and living room or great room directly connected to the kitchen. Because of the kitchen's importance to the home, it is often a top priority for homeowners to get their kitchens looking great and functioning very effectively. Not only will an attractive and well-functioning kitchen feed your family and friends' stomachs and souls, a well-planned kitchen remodel is also one of the home projects that will yield the highest return-on-investment when it comes to selling your home.

Kitchen cabinet integration

It is important that your kitchen cabinets work functionally and visually with the other elements of your kitchen. In addition to having colors and styles that work together, it is good idea to purchase all of the elements of your kitchen from within the same price spectrum. If you ordered high-end, custom made cabinets, they would look odd if you installed them with a Formica counter top. You can learn more about integrating your kitchen for form and function by reading our section on Factors to Consider Before You Buy Kitchen Cabinets.

Do you need new kitchen cabinets?

If you are not sure whether or not to make an investment in your kitchen cabinets, answering these questions may help you decide:

1. Do your current cabinets function poorly, and fail to meet your china, silverware, and/or food storage needs? YES or NO
2. Are your current kitchen cabinets in poor repair (e.g. stained, warped, chipped, fail to close or open properly, etc.)? YES or NO
3. Does the look of your kitchen cabinets bother you, or do feel embarrassed by the look of your kitchen cabinets when you have guests? YES or NO
4. Are you planning to sell your home in the next seven years, and does your run down kitchen cabinets create a negative impression? YES or NO
5. Are you considering replacing/upgrading your kitchen appliances, and would the new appliances make your old cabinets "stick out"? YES or NO

If you answered YES to one or more of these questions, purchasing new kitchen cabinets may be a sensible decision for you. If you are in a position to spend the money that will be required, investing in your kitchen cabinets may improve your life and the value of your home.

Kitchen Cabinet Shopping Strategies

Know Your Options: A standard piece of advice for people who are shopping for kitchen cabinets is: "first, set a budget for the project." However, if this is your first remodel, it will be difficult to know what kind of kitchen cabinets you'll get for varying level of expenditures. We recommend that before you establish a budget, you make a few trips to some kitchen showrooms. Depending on your budget, you might want to try a designer showroom as well as a store that would specialize in stock cabinets, like Home Depot or Lowes. Before you set a budget, try to get a sense of what you'll get for differing levels of expenditure. If you are not installing the cabinets yourself, be sure to calculate labor. Look at the range of cabinets you can get at price you roughly anticipate budgeting, as well as the tier of cabinets that would fall above and below that level. This will be useful information, and if you are remodeling your entire kitchen as well as buying new kitchen cabinets, you may want to scrimp in one area so you can spend a little more in another. Perspective at the beginning is valuable.

See and Touch: You can get ideas for kitchen cabinets from decorating magazines and books, Web sites, and catalogues. However, nothing takes the place of seeing and touching a cabinet or knob for your self. You can only see the true color, get the feeling of the weight of a door, and examine the quality of the workmanship and the attention to detail by inspecting the products you are considering. As you narrow your choices, it is ideal to get a sample of the cabinets in the finishes you are considering to take home with you so you can see how they look in your kitchen, particularly in your kitchen's light and next to any elements of the kitchen that will not change during the remodel.

Make Your Kitchen Personal, but not Too Personal: This is your kitchen, and the cabinets should work for your lifestyle. Do you have more kinds of spices than anyone else you know? Go crazy with the spice racks. Are you a wine enthusiast? Display your collection with built in wine racks. But realize that some day you may want or need to sell your home. If you're going to go to the trouble and expense of installing new cabinets, make sure that your cabinets are not so personal to your needs that they don't meet the average buyer's needs as well. So add your special touches, but don't sacrifice general functionality or broadly appealing style.

Click here to see our selection of Top Kitchen Cabinet Brands