Kitchen reno warnings for a newbie

[Anonymous]

Doing a kitchen renovation project. It’s mostly a cabinet swap rather than a gut, but we will be shifting plumbing and moving a few things around, redoing floors, trim, adding a bit of lighting, etc. Cabinets will be custom, for a very constrained space.

I was just talking to a friend who did a similar renovation, and she said when it was done her plates didn’t fit in her cabinets. It never occurred to me to specify interior dimensions. Another friend had mosaic tiles installed with the pattern not quite right.

Those who have done this before, what lessons did you learn and what did you wish you’d thought of at the start? I feel like I don’t even know what I should be thinking about, and it is so much $, I’m so afraid of making a very expensive mistake. Any warnings/lessons welcome.

[Anonymous]

Think ahead about outlet placement and where you will want to be able to plug in appliances.

[Anonymous]

Take account of the oven and dishwasher handles sticking out. One of our drawers wasn't able to open because of this, and this was from a certified kitchen designer.
Don't let them talk you into something to get the job done faster. I wanted fireclay tiles and they REALLY wanted to throw in some white home depot subways just to finish the job. They ended up having to come back three months later when my tiles arrived. So worth it!

[Anonymous]

The absolute best thing is to hire a great contractor who has done a million kitchens and will anticipate potential issues. There were so many things that would not have occurred to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Think ahead about outlet placement and where you will want to be able to plug in appliances.

This! My only regret on our kitchen is not adding more outlets. You will need more than you originally plan for!

[Anonymous]

The cabinet supplier should have a designer, work with them

Check the designers work.

Wall cabinets usually have a depth of 12”.

Get under cabinet lighting too.

Pulling permits? Get familiar with what is required. Ask local permit office. They are helpful and their primary objective is your safety.

Take pictures every day at the end of each work day.

Understand your appliances requirements. You may or may not need dedicated circuits.

Now’s a good time to optimize space in a small kitchen. Designer can help here. A little extra money now can be very helpful in gaining storage space.

Get rid of soffits. Know what’s exactly behind them before you do so.

Your kitchen walls are not plum. There will be minor adjustments to make. It’s par for the course.

This is personal preference but don’t take cabinets all the way to ceiling. Use molding. It will help with making kitchen look taller plus it will help with your ceiling not being plum.

Ask questions to your project manager. They should tell you what will be done. Check that the workers are actually following the plan, daily.

There will always be something that will come up. Always. Your contractor will have experience to give you options.

[Anonymous]

And payments should be staggered. Something like 30% to start, 30% after cabinets installed, 30% after mostly complete, 10% after final walk through. Roughly.

[Anonymous]

Have a sit down with the designer or contractor if you don’t have a designer and go through every detail of the kitchen before the work starts and appliances/cabinets/countertops are ordered.

For cabinets and drawers
- make sure you know if the doors are in lay or overlay. Consider dust when choosing non slab fronts
- if you have under cabinet lighting, ask where the strip will be and how visible
- outlet location and visibilty
- Measure your dishes and platters to see if they will fit in a standard upper cabinet box or lower box (12” and 24”). Be aware that it may be more like 11.5” and 23.5” depending on the design.
- Measure your knives if they will go in a drawer.
- Measure water bottles if you plan to store upright in a deep drawer.
- Measure cutting boards and baking sheets.
- ask them to wait for you to be present to choose handle and pull locations. There are more options than you would think.
- consider the type of handles and pulls and particularly the height of the drawer pulls. Do you want to use drawer pulls to hang dish towels? Do you not want to have to bend down to use a cup pull for the bottom drawer? Do you not want your clothes to get caught on bar pulls that extend past the mounting points? Do you not want to use two hands for drawer with 2 knobs?
- consider best location for garbage pullout in relation to sink and dishwasher

Ask to see
-the cabinet drawings from a bird’s eye view and from side relief and consider handles protruding
- drawings of door swings and drawer openings for every corner
- drawing of open dishwasher, open drawers, open oven door, open fridge door, etc to check clearances for walking. You will be sorry if you choose the minimum aisle clearance and everyone bangs their shin on an open dishwasher. Remember that countertop overhang eats into clearance.

For the sink
- measure the overhang for the faucet and ensure it adequately reaches over the sink. Ensure handles will operate if the sink is constrained by a wall behind it.
- Tell the countertop installers that you want to be there when they mark the faucet holes, so you can decide which side the air switch is on, location of filtered tap, etc.

For seating islands
- ensure proper overhang for seating comfort and ask for supports/brackets if over the limit.

For hood height
- consider how tall your family is and what is comfortable.

Countertops
- consider carefully how you live and tolerance for countertop maintenance
- ask to see countertop drawings and choose orientation for slabs
- consider if standard countertop height is acceptable
- if choosing a natural stone, ask for plenty of drying time after cutting to let the stone dry out and make sure you seal well

Tile
- if using tile, ask for stain proof grout or make sure you seal it yourself.

Inspect all work and notify your contractor immediately if anything needs to be fixed. Check all appliances as well.

[Anonymous]

If there's an island, go with 3 feet around rather than the standard 3 that feels cramped

Put garbage disposals in all sinks

If recesses lighting, make sure it's centered or appropriately placed around the cabinets

Make sure you and the installer agree about where the backslash starts, ends, and what's around the edges of it

If you are using drawers for heavy things (pots and pans, silverware), make sure they are reinforced

Put in the pop-up for your Kitchenaide mixer, and any fancy inserts for corner cabinets during the install

The more fancy or complicated the stuff, the more it will break. Know this and make decisions appropriately

[Anonymous]

You said it is not a gut but you described a gut. Get ready for more disruption than you expect. To minimize delays make all your decisions before they start the work and make sure all finishes will arrive when you need them.

[Anonymous]

Our current plates barely fit in our cabinets and microwave, and we can't get bigger ones because the microwave is built into the cabinetry. I spend a lot of time thinking about my future kitchen reno.

The best tip I've seen is ahead of the final decision, pay close attention to what you use, where it is, where it needs to go. Ideally you would spend a few weeks where you cooked several different recipes, thought about different activities you do in the kitchen. For example, when you are cooking your family favorite recipes, what do you need (ingredients, spices, cookware, utensils)? What appliances do you use? Same for when you cook big holiday dinners, birthday cakes, anything that is special for your family. Then as you plan your cabinetry and flow, make sure you have accounted for everything that you need to, so you don't get to your final kitchen and Aunt Linda's casserole dish doesn't fit anywhere.

[Anonymous]

- do not assume the “designer” at the cabinet store is an actual designer, regardless of the number of kitchens they have done. Ours was focused on appearance and didn’t actually cook, so she made dumb decisions.

- recommend going in the kitchen forum on Houzz/gardenweb and looking at their advice, it’s very helpful for layout.

- think hard about how you use the kitchen, traffic patterns, how many ppl, etc. then figure out the most efficient layout of your appliances, then start figuring out cabinet configuration

- make a list of everything you have in the kitchen and as you get towards the end make sure there is adequate space. A lot of kitchen design is personal; I personally hate the pull out cabinets with cooking utensil storage, but have a friend who loves hers.

- measure the depth and height of things that matter. It is cheaper to install rev-a-shelf inserts with a handyman after the fact, but measures to make sure the cabinet fits and don’t upgrade the interior (many inserts only come in maple) - there are so many options I would look at them while designing (often they are the same as the cabinet company offers but cheaper to buy separately)

- think about your outlets, your lighting and your switches.

- the 3 things I love in our kitchen are the two-level silverware drawer; wooden dividers in a narrow cab for cutting boards/cookie sheets; and the hidden drawer in our garbage pullout for bags (but I had to adjust it bc our dumb designer didn’t make it deep enough for a roll of garbage bags).

[Anonymous]

OP, and omg, this is exactly, exactly, what I was hoping for. You all are FANTASTIC. I'm going to read this like 20 more times so it really sinks in. In the meantime, I just added two outlets.

THANK YOU!!! You're all lovely, and I am grateful.

[Anonymous]

For lighting, think carefully about which color temperature you want where. The light color chosen is your personal preference. Different people make different choices.

We chose to put 5000k white light in the recessed ceiling fixtures, but we put 3000 K yellowish light under the cabinets to light the countertops. Choose whatever setup you like.

[Anonymous]

It is helpful to have a ceiling light directly over one's work surfaces (for cutting vegetables, kneading dough, or whatever).