Is It Time for a Kitchen Renovation Project?

We often hear the kitchen referred to as the heart of the home. It’s where everyone comes together to enjoy a meal, and it’s the most frequently visited part of the house by hungry teens in the middle of the night.

But if your kitchen doesn’t feel like the heart of the home, it can only mean one thing: it’s time to renovate. Kitchen renovations, while sometimes expensive, can dramatically improve your home’s value while evoking an incredible sense of pride.

However, knowing how to get the project underway is half the battle. We’ve included some helpful advice below.

Set a Budget

Kitchens can be bottomless pits for your money. They can cost a few mere thousand by just replacing the basics, or they can cost tens of thousands for a complete overhaul. How much you spend can depend on how intensive the alterations and renovations are and whether you opt for high-end or low-end appliances and fixtures.

Without ever having completed a project like it before, you may not even know how to figure out the price tag of a new kitchen. Ask around, talk to friends and family, and even check out the many helpful resources online to gain a ballpark figure.

Establish Needs vs. Wants

We probably all want a butler’s pantry, a built-in coffee maker, and handmade floor tiles imported from Italy. But as you would have been told by your parents from a young age: what you want and what you get are two different things.

Think about what made you decide to renovate your kitchen in the first place. Is it dated and tired? Does it lack storage space? Do you constantly trip over the lifting lino? Focus on the essentials first, then check your budget to see if it allows for anything extra – like that fancy new smart oven or handcrafted splashback.  

Factor in Resale Value

The market is hot; there’s no doubt about it. Though, there is still value in making sure the cost of your new kitchen is going to bring your home value up by at least as much as you paid for it – especially if you plan on putting a ‘for sale’ sign up in the foreseeable future.

If you’ve found your forever home, the price of the kitchen matters a little less. You may be able to get away with focusing more on your wants a little more because it’s you that’s going to be enjoying them for the next few decades.

Work On Your Kitchen Design

Here comes the hard part – working on your kitchen design. Many popular kitchen design plans that joiners work with are one-wall, corridor, U-shape, double-L, and L-shape.

Suppose your current layout is not the same one you’d like to keep. In that case, you may want to work with either a kitchen designer or kitchen designer software to tinker with the layout to suit the space you have.

DIY vs. Hiring a Contractor

With drawings and a layout in hand, you may start to wonder whether you should hire a contractor or undertake the majority of the work yourself. If you’ve got DIY in your DNA, there’s no reason why you can’t handle many of the tasks yourself, such as building the cabinetry, laying the flooring, and painting the walls.

However, there are a couple of things you need to consider while weighing up these two options. The first is your time. Do you really have enough of it spare to renovate your entire kitchen?

Remember, while your kitchen is out of action, you’ll have to come up with a make-shift meal prep area. The novelty of cooking stir fry on a hot plate sitting on a camping table may wear off quite quickly. Contractors hired to renovate your kitchen can complete the task far quicker.

The second thing to consider is the demolition process. If your home was built before 1990, there’s a high chance that it has asbestos-containing materials.

Before you start ripping down and tearing apart your old kitchen, consider where asbestos could be lurking, such as in the vinyl flooring, tiles, fibreboard, and cement board.

If you’re not sure or suspect asbestos, contact a licensed and qualified asbestos removal company to undertake an asbestos test. With the confirmation of asbestos, you can then decide on your next course of action – be it taking all the necessary safety precautions or bringing in the experts to handle it for you.

Enjoy Your New Kitchen

Sure, kitchen renovations can be stressful. From trying to decide on a budget and choosing fixtures to selecting contractors and identifying asbestos, it’s enough to make you want to pull your hair out.

But once you step into your brand new kitchen, with its sparkling appliances and fancy new tiles, you’ll quickly come to realise that it was entirely worth it.