Disappointed so far with kitchen remodel plans

[Anonymous]

Yes, honestly - this was years ago and I assume the person you get to help you is luck of the draw unless you have referrals, but I went to both Lowe's and Home Depot and had their kitchen design staff member (average person, not an external "designer") design the layout. They had really good insight and ideas. Most of the non-stock options they have can be very customized - e.g., was doing a layout in an old building that was a condo, I could not move a wall and the wall right by the door would not allow a full depth base cabinet - they can customize the depth!
I ended up going w/ Home Depot, but I think I used most of the layout the Lowe's person came up with.
I had gorgeous solid wood cabinets, made in NC! I was very happy with them.
I had someone else install them and picked granite from a stone yard, but had a good experience w/ the design and cabinets from a big box.
Allllll that to say, there are people who design kitchens every day and have better ideas than a general contractor. Also, if you aren't moving walls, etc., it's not that big of a job for a contractor, so they may just not be that interested. Or they got the wrong idea when you said you weren't moving things around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are you located? We can suggest good kitchen designers depending where you are. Do not, under any circumstance, move forward with a reno you aren’t at least 90% happy with.

+1

OP what you are looking for is a kitchen designer.

[Anonymous]

I feel like a broken record here, but try Cabinet Discounters for cabinets. We got very nice, custom, inset cabinets for around $11,000 vs. $23,000 for the same thing from the next lowest bidder. Their on-staff kitchen designer (included in the cabinet price) did a great job figuring out what to put where and was super-responsive to our wishes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IKEA is not a bad idea.


Open shelving is a terrible idea. So is LVP.

The open shelving is minimal and I intend to use it for things that I use every day. There is plenty of other storage space in the kitchen. It's for the area around the window, because I don't want anything blocking the light. I also kind of like the idea of not having to open a cabinet to put things away when it's the same items that I just took out an hour ago.

What's wrong with LVP??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are you located? We can suggest good kitchen designers depending where you are. Do not, under any circumstance, move forward with a reno you aren’t at least 90% happy with.

We are in Fairfax. Would LOVE designer recommendations!

[Anonymous]

Have to agree on the open shelving. It's more like a display area than a substitute for cabinets. Skipping cabinets and shelving in a certain area is better than open shelving.

[Anonymous]

Why don’t you draw up what you want? Cabinets come in very standard sizes. Do 100% drawers on the bottom

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a broken record here, but try Cabinet Discounters for cabinets. We got very nice, custom, inset cabinets for around $11,000 vs. $23,000 for the same thing from the next lowest bidder. Their on-staff kitchen designer (included in the cabinet price) did a great job figuring out what to put where and was super-responsive to our wishes.

I will definitely check them out!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you located? We can suggest good kitchen designers depending where you are. Do not, under any circumstance, move forward with a reno you aren’t at least 90% happy with.

+1

OP what you are looking for is a kitchen designer.

I really do. I have looked at a couple of websites, but the kitchens look so nice....honestly, I just didn't imagine people who designed them would be interested in my kitchen project. I feel like our home is sort of humble compared to the things I'm seeing online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is nothing wrong with LVP. They are easy to care for and pretty durable with little effort.

OP, I would reconsider open shelving. We have it now and things that don’t get used daily, get dusty pretty quick. Maybe just do open shelving in a small area.

Yeah but it’s going to look terrible. Worse if OP only puts it in the kitchen, but still bad if it’s on the whole level,

Have you ever seen it in person at a real flooring store ( not hd)? It has come leaps and bounds from the old vinyl flooring of the past. Plus, it is easy to care for. Don’t discount that last point. Who wants to spend time cleaning floors!

Yes, OP here, I agree. I honestly can't tell the difference. For business, I was recently visiting a beautiful old building with a grand ballroom, and between the manager and myself we just couldn't figure out if they were real hardwood or LVP. I mean, we were jumping on them, touching them, trying to see if the pattern repeated (we didn't want to give them a "scratch test"). They did in fact turn out to be LVP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Immediately write a deposit check for the contractor who wouldn't do "luxury" vinyl floors.

Why would you want vinyl floors in your house?

It's wild that a slight rebranding of a bad product is working.

Would you buy vinyl siding and vinyl windows if you didn't have to?

Maybe that's next, LVS and LVW.

Yes! We are in a temp place with vinyl "wood" floors and vinyl window frames. Oddly, the look of the floors if you just looking is pretty good. But they are installed right on top of the cement slab so shows imperfections like crazy. Also, in order to have a matte finish and not look like shiny, cheap vinyl they are hard to clean. And don't get me started on the windows. Impossible to open or close easily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is nothing wrong with LVP. They are easy to care for and pretty durable with little effort.

OP, I would reconsider open shelving. We have it now and things that don’t get used daily, get dusty pretty quick. Maybe just do open shelving in a small area.

Yeah but it’s going to look terrible. Worse if OP only puts it in the kitchen, but still bad if it’s on the whole level,

Have you ever seen it in person at a real flooring store ( not hd)? It has come leaps and bounds from the old vinyl flooring of the past. Plus, it is easy to care for. Don’t discount that last point. Who wants to spend time cleaning floors!

Yeah. It’s terrible. I wouldn’t mind it so much if it didn’t have the fake wood pattern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is nothing wrong with LVP. They are easy to care for and pretty durable with little effort.

OP, I would reconsider open shelving. We have it now and things that don’t get used daily, get dusty pretty quick. Maybe just do open shelving in a small area.

Yeah but it’s going to look terrible. Worse if OP only puts it in the kitchen, but still bad if it’s on the whole level,

Have you ever seen it in person at a real flooring store ( not hd)? It has come leaps and bounds from the old vinyl flooring of the past. Plus, it is easy to care for. Don’t discount that last point. Who wants to spend time cleaning floors!

Yes, OP here, I agree. I honestly can't tell the difference. For business, I was recently visiting a beautiful old building with a grand ballroom, and between the manager and myself we just couldn't figure out if they were real hardwood or LVP. I mean, we were jumping on them, touching them, trying to see if the pattern repeated (we didn't want to give them a "scratch test"). They did in fact turn out to be LVP.

LOL. So not true. I've had very nice Coretec and, while it's great for basements, it's obviously not wood. Indeed, it only takes a half second to spot LVP vs wood floors in listing photos. And in person, it takes no time to tell the difference between wood and LVP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you located? We can suggest good kitchen designers depending where you are. Do not, under any circumstance, move forward with a reno you aren’t at least 90% happy with.

We are in Fairfax. Would LOVE designer recommendations!

New poster here... we have redone two kitchens (in Burke/FFX area) with Cameo Kitchens and I think they do stellar work. They are a little more pricey than the average, but their service, scheduling and work is top notch. I'd recommend giving them a try. FWIW, we did not change the footprint of the kitchens (sink in the same place, dishwasher same place, stove same place... but in both cases we did move a fridge and end up with more cabinetry than before.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you located? We can suggest good kitchen designers depending where you are. Do not, under any circumstance, move forward with a reno you aren’t at least 90% happy with.

We are in Fairfax. Would LOVE designer recommendations!

New poster here... we have redone two kitchens (in Burke/FFX area) with Cameo Kitchens and I think they do stellar work. They are a little more pricey than the average, but their service, scheduling and work is top notch. I'd recommend giving them a try. FWIW, we did not change the footprint of the kitchens (sink in the same place, dishwasher same place, stove same place... but in both cases we did move a fridge and end up with more cabinetry than before.)

Their web site: http://cameokitchensonline.com/