If you redid your kitchen or built one from scratch...

How did you decide what you wanted? Did you have an idea first? Or did you have a carpenter or architect come in a draw something up first? TIA!

Re: If you redid your kitchen or built one from scratch...

I would go to consumer kitchen and home expo and any other kitchen showroom to start getting ideas. Also, there are a ton of kitchen redesign magazines that you can get ideas from. Once you pick a cabinet type the rest will all start falling into place.

Re: If you redid your kitchen or built one from scratch...

I mimicked the layout of my neighbors. They have an identical house - and our ktchen is a small area. They had an architect figure out their layout - and we copied them (with their permission, of course).

Re: If you redid your kitchen or built one from scratch...

We bought our cabinets from Ikea so Hubby used the ikea software to design our kitchen. If you buy from Home Depot or Lowes, they will set up a design consultation to help design your kitchen.

We just designed our new kitchen using the Ikea software - here they are:

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Re: If you redid your kitchen or built one from scratch...

My FIL is a kitchen designer so he designed the space. I then picked out my appliances and he tweaked the measurements of the cabinets if necessary.

He then gave the measurements of the layout to the contractor (who also does plumbing), electrician and CAC guys (we were also installing CAC at the time). It's important to inform all subs of what the general plan is.

The contractor then noted any possible plumbing changes that would need to be made- moving the heat, faucets, water line for the fridge.

Electrician then designed the lighting to best highlight the cabinets and to make sure (on a vaulted ceiling) that the light would shine in appropriate work areas. We have highhats on a dimmer, iunder the cabinet halogens, added outlets, light over the laundry area, decorative light over the eating area.

He showed me samples of cabinet doors. I picked a door, type of wood, and then picked a color from the swatches of stained wood. I had that swatch for a while and used that to pick my tile, both floor and backsplash, and my granite. I had to decide how I wanted the tile pattern as some patterns have more waste than others and the pattern will dictate how much you have to order. As I was doing black apppliances I wanted black granite but something with slight flecks in it that would coordinate with the tile.

After the new sheetrock was installed the tile guy came in and laid the tile. Appliances came next and sat in the livingroom and diningroom (we ordered early to take advantage of a sale) and about a week later the cabinets came.

Sorry so long but those ar ethe steps in the decision making process. Keep in mind, if you change your mind on one decision it can really cause problems as other things will need to be changed and it might be too late to change them.

It also helps to have pictures of some of the things you want.

Good luck.

Re: If you redid your kitchen or built one from scratch...

I looked at TONS of magazines, catalogs and displays in stores.


It took me at least 6 months to find the exact cabinet adn backsplash I wanted