Five Tips for Designing a Kitchen When You're Building a Home

Construction & Contractors Blog

If you're working with a company to build a home, you have lots of decisions to make. Many people call the kitchen the heart of the home, and you need to pay special attention to this particular area. Here are some tips to keep in mind.

1. Make the Space Usable for You

There are so many beautiful pictures of kitchens in design magazines and on websites that it can be easy to point to your dream kitchen and ask for that to be included when you build your home. However, that is not necessarily the right step forward. Instead, you need to think about how you personally use your kitchen.

Do you love to cook and bake? If so, a double oven may be a must-have. Do you want space for your family to hang out while you cook? Then, you may need a bar, an island with space for seating or an open plan. Look at how you use your current kitchen, and talk with your designer about your objectives.

2. Don't Forget About Sellability

When you build a home, you get to customise it for your needs, but you also need to keep the long term value of the home in mind. Avoid customising to the extent that others may hesitate to buy your house in the future. A skilled builder can help you tread this line.

3. Factor in the Cost of Extras

With most home builders, you can choose from a plan or design your home from scratch. In either case, you also get to decide on the details, and every kitchen has a lot of details including flooring, appliances, splashbacks, lights, and more. Keep in mind that different builders charge different prices for different features.

For instance, one builder may offer vinyl flooring as standard but charge extra for hardwood. Another builder may include hardwood as part of the standard package. When comparing different companies, make sure you are comparing apples with apples.

4. Tighten the Triangle

A lot of people think that the bigger a home is, the better. While that may be true in a lot of cases, that rule definitely does not hold for the kitchen. When designing a kitchen, keep the triangle tight. The triangle is the space between your fridge, oven, and sink. If you have to walk long distances between any of these elements, cooking can become cumbersome.

5. Focus on Flow

Finally, you want a kitchen that has the right flow. You want flow in your triangle, but you also need a kitchen that flows into dining areas and other living spaces. Your builder can help you establish the right flow.

Share

29 January 2018

Finding the Best Contractors for the Job

Welcome to my blog, my name is Blake and from now on, I will be writing a series of blogs which will deal with the process of finding and working with contractors when constructing a new building. I am not a construction specialist but last summer I gained a lot of experience in this area when I hired a team of 32 contractors to build a holiday home. When hiring contractors, it is important that you understand how to communicate with them and their ways of working. Below are a series of blogs which will help you to find the best contractors.