kitchen renovation... starting from scratch?

for those of you who have redone your kitchens, what was the best choice you made?
for those of you that haven't, what would be the #1 things you would do?

we have to re-do our kitchen. obviously, this is the most expenisive project in the house and i am well aware - we won't be cutting corners, because i intend on doing it once, doing it right, and possibly dying in that kitchen our house was my grandparents - for sentimental reasons, resale is not an option, this is our forever home.

right now, our kitchen is "eat-in". but it's not that big and i feel like the set-up has a lot of wasted space. when we re-do, i definitely want all appliances in different areas, i'd rather an island than a kitchen table (we have a dining room next to the kitchen) and i would looove to be able to fit a pantry.

is there anywhere, aside from here, online that really gave you inspiration?
also, i know there is a big debate between cabinets from ikea vs consumers vs lowes/hd... but i am gathering from some posts on here, that some places offer custom built cabinets to fit the exact spots in your kitchen according to the lay out you want, while other places don't? who does offer the custom sizes?

and where is the best place to go, to really have someone CREATIVE and INSPIRING help me design my kitchen? who would you recommend for an actual kitchen renovation?

TIA!

Re: kitchen renovation... starting from scratch?

here are pictures of my kitchen now... if anyone has ideas for me, i'd love them - some of you have an amazing eye for decorating! you can't really see it in the picture, but right now there is a wall oven to the left of the dishwasher (we definitely don't want a wall oven again). and the fridge is directly opposite the kitchen table.

Re: kitchen renovation... starting from scratch?

We are in the process of renovating our kitchen.(I've got a thread with pictures to show the progress, if you're interested.)
We have a kitchen with a dining room next to it, and we knocked down the wall between the two rooms and put a peninsula in between the two rooms, so there is still the separation, but sooooo much more room.
We went with Gamco, a home renovation company. My husband knows the owner, Gordon, so he gave him a call when we decided what we wanted to do.
Gordon came over, saw the kitchen, listened to our ideas and then helped us come up with a design that would serve our needs, utilize our space, and work with our budget.
I am THRILLED with the progress so far. Everything is exactly as he promised, and the work is going so quickly. We should have our new kitchen ready to go by mid November...4 weeks after they started. And right now, 2 weeks after the demolition, we have a "working" kitchen that's waiting for a few things....painting, countertops, floor, backsplash....and then we're done.

If you want Gordon's information, let me know....he's great to work with.

Re: kitchen renovation... starting from scratch?

You can go to a few kitchen places with the measurements of your kitchen (as well as door and window placement) and they will work up a free design plan for you based upon your wants and what they think will work best. It's a good place to start. They may tell you your kitchen is too small for an island or a peninsula is better, etc. The KDs (kitchen designers) are good for information.

We tried to think about where we would actually put things and what we would use each cabinet for so that we wouldn't have any wasted space and things would be where we need them. I love having the garbage can inside a cabinet, pull out spice racks and a vertical storage cabinet (for cookies sheets and the like). Many people have almost no lower cabinets anymore because they like having all drawers - might be something that works for you.

There's a website I used a lot for ideas
GardenWeb

Hover on Forums, then click on Home Forums and then Kitchens. They also have a finished kitchen blog with photos of finished kitchens if you need ideas. Have fun creating your new kitchen!!!

Re: kitchen renovation... starting from scratch?

We ended up going with custom with a vendor on here, we actually just signed with him on Satuday. Dynamic Kitchens. He's all custom and basically will show you what he thinks will work and what won't...his stuff is gorgeous, and I know a lot of women on here have used him and have been happy. We're changing the layout of our kitchen somewhat as well, and he helped us telling us what he thinks would work and wouldn't work

Re: kitchen renovation... starting from scratch?

When we bought our kitchen it was a big old mess. We gutted it ourselves, to the studs. We had pro's do the electric and the plumbing.

I took exact measurements, including where all doors/windows were in the room - ( I did it on grid paper). I went to Home Depot and Lowe's (at the time Ikea did not have the great cabinets they do now.) We picked a cabinet I knew would not be "trendy", it's shaker style and won't go out of style. I knew there were things I wanted: lazy susan, pull out pot drawer, etc.. The kitchen designer at HD designed a kitchen for me with the cabinets I picked out - not the least expensive but not totally high end either -we were on a budget.

I sprung for the HD brand of Corian countertops becaues we couldn't afford granite, I can always go back and put granite in later on.

We installed the cabinets/painted/new insulation ourselves.

My Aunt and Uncle just did their kitchen over with Ikea cabinets - their kitchen is HUGE and the cabinets are gorgeous. They paid someone $6000 to put all the cabinets together and do the installation including the electrical - all the upper cabinets are glass with the lighting. It was a bargain.

Message edited 11/8/2010 9:22:59 AM.

Re: kitchen renovation... starting from scratch?

np

Message edited 11/8/2010 9:22:39 AM.

Re: kitchen renovation... starting from scratch?

Re: kitchen renovation... starting from scratch?

thank you for your replies... i would love to hear more about what everyone's favorite thing they did in their kitchen is/what's the one thing they wouldn't do without/what did you do that you regret? or not do that you wish you did?

i love getting everyone else's perspective, it makes ya think sometimes of things you maybe wouldn't otherwise.

Re: kitchen renovation... starting from scratch?

I have little in the way of getting ideas for remodels since our landlady was the one making design choices, but do yourself a favor and don't work with Home Depot. It took them MONTHS to complete after having the cabinets stored in my dining room for a good month and a few weeks after they completed it, all the wiring on one side of the kitchen stopped working. Not to mention the hole in the ceiling and the drawer that was too long (there was a pipe running behind it to the dishwasher) that they promised to come back and fix. We patched the hole in the ceiling and just took out the drawer since they never came back- that was 3 years ago!

Re: kitchen renovation... starting from scratch?

I wouldn't do without the lazy susan and the pot drawer! I wished I had room for a double oven (I love to cook and entertain), but we didn't ahve the room. I got a combo micro/convection oven - above the stove- space saver.

The one thing I WOULD NOT do again- the fancy beveled edge on the countertops - it's got a triple beveled edge and is a beyotch to clean in the grooves.

Also, I would have gone all the way up the back and done the backsplash the same as the countertop, but we didn't have the $$. We ended up doing tile later on, it's looks awesome though.

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I love my pot filler! I hate my garbage pail cabinet pull out thingy. I like my hood, but wish I would had asked more questions about the fan, because it is so loud I almost never use it. I love that we ripped down a wall and blew out the kitchen and made it into an eat in kitchen. I wish I would have fought the cabinet company and gotten my shorter cabinets 36" is way to big I cant hardly reach the second to top shelf. Any I hate the top of my pantry its way to deep to put anything in without forgetting it, because again its was to high up , it was supposed to be 6 inches shorter.

Re: kitchen renovation... starting from scratch?

awesome... keep em comin