So you’ve decided that 2021 is the year for your kitchen renovation? That’s great news. But where do you go from here? What happens next?
In this article we’ll look at:
- How to decide what you want for your kitchen;
- Setting a realistic budget for your kitchen;
- Ensuring your kitchen design is right before work starts;
- Finding kitchen installers that you know you can trust;
- Choosing the best time for your kitchen renovation.
How to decide what you want for your kitchen
These days you really are spoilt for choice when it comes to kitchen design. There are so many different styles and colours available. So you need to start by doing some research about what you do and don’t like. Why not browse through our kitchen gallery for some immediate inspiration?
It’s also really important to take into account your lifestyle and the needs of your family. For example, do you want your kitchen also to be a family living space and/or a room for entertaining guests? Whatever you decide, your kitchen needs to be practical, functional and easy to maintain as well as looking fabulous.
Also bear in mind the age and style of your property, and how your kitchen ideas will blend with that. This is especially important if your kitchen renovation is likely to involve building work to extend or modify the layout of the kitchen.
Setting a realistic budget for your kitchen
You need to be clear about your budget before you start planning your kitchen, otherwise you could end up spending considerably more than planned. You need to take into account all the different elements of your kitchen, including cabinets, worktops, and appliances. Then add to that costs for installation – which may include some building work – plus finishing off, such as tiling and decorating.
We have some guidelines about costs for different sized kitchens on our Appointment Bookings and Costings page.
Ensuring your kitchen design is right before work starts
Getting the kitchen design right before any work starts is critical to making your kitchen renovation a success. So ensure that your kitchen designer takes the time to produce detailed designs that will result in the best possible kitchen for you.
The design needs to be centred around you and your needs. At Stone and Chrome we will prepare initial designs for you on our specialist 3D design software, then you can view the designs on a large screen in our design hub. You will be able to see how your finished kitchen will look, and we can make any changes that you want.
It often takes more than one meeting to get a finalised kitchen design, and this is absolutely fine. It is really important to ensure that you are completely happy before your kitchen renovation moves to the next stage.
Finding kitchen installers that you know you can trust
Once your kitchen design is finalised, you need to decide who is going to install it for you. You need to make sure that it is a reliable company that you can trust. It is really helpful to use word of mouth or genuine online reviews to find out the experience of others. You also need to see examples of finished work by the company.
At Stone and Chrome we offer a full kitchen installation service which usually only takes a few days, to minimise inconvenience to you. You are welcome to make an appointment to visit our Camberley showroom to see examples of our kitchen installations and visualise how beautiful a Stone and Chrome kitchen would look in your home.
Choosing the best time for your kitchen renovation
In our recent article Stress Free Kitchen Renovations, we looked at the impact a kitchen renovation can have on you and your family, and how to survive it. We also explained the steps that we take to keep inconvenience and mess to a minimum for you during this time. This includes the fact that we build, assemble and paint your new kitchen cabinets remotely to reduce the time our installers need to spend in your home.
It makes sense to choose the best time you can for your kitchen renovation, and we will work with you to help make this happen. Once the final designs are agreed there will be a period of time before your kitchen is installed, especially if you need building work before this can happen. But your kitchen renovation project will be closely managed throughout by one of our expert project managers, to make sure that things run smoothly and that you have your new kitchen as soon as possible.
We look forward to meeting you soon, and help you to design the kitchen of your dreams!