The Growing Importance of Design

Good design is important. There are basically three elements, but many people focus on just one or two and end up with a less than satisfying job.

Gather Ideas

The first element in good kitchen design is the process of exploring dreams and possibilities to discover the many options you have when redoing a kitchen. In this stage, you look at magazines, showrooms, builder's model homes and the homes of neighbors.

Try to think about all the ways your kitchen might enhance your lifestyle. Consider including in the design the following ideas:

• mudroom
• hobby area
• homework space
• computer space
• recycling bins
• fire extinguisher
• entertainment center
• phone and answering machine center
• second sink or dishwasher
• display space for fine silver or glass pieces
• mood lighting and natural light

The key is to dream a little, and indulge your imagination! While you won't be able to afford everything you can dream of, you might be surprised by how much is possible. Compile a list along with pictures, drawings, and samples of the features and functions you want in your new kitchen.

Layout

The second aspect of kitchen design is layout. Most courses and guides on kitchen design focus on this element. This is when you look at the various features of the kitchen and decide on location and how far every component should be from every other related component. For years the key to the design was the work triangle. This refers to the arrangement of the refrigerator, sink and stove. With the increasing use of microwaves, many people now refer to this as the work diamond. The majority of cooking activities entails moving easily back and forth among these three or four kitchen staples.

Style

The final element in good design is essentially aesthetic. Choosing attractive colors, finishes, textures, etc., is essential to creating a space you will enjoy. Keep in mind that the fewer years you plan to live in the house; the more important it is for you to choose popular options.

Getting the Most for Your Money

Even an extremely modest kitchen remodeling project can cost several thousand dollars. More typically, kitchen remodeling can cost tens of thousands of dollars. If the project is not designed well, much of that money may be spent inefficiently. Pulling together all the elements, working around all the existing limitations, addressing technical issues like plumbing and electrical wiring, and making product and material selections add up to a complex equation.

We strongly recommend you work with professionals who deal with these issues daily. Pros will often come up with creative solutions that you may not have considered. With the increased demands we place on our kitchens, it's important to make the best use of all available space. Whether enlarging the house, taking room from a closet, eliminating a hallway, rearranging cabinets and appliances, or any number of other options, a pro is more likely to visualize an effective solution and know how to achieve it.

The Size Question

One trend in kitchens that has grown over the years is increased size. In most homes, there isn't a lot of unused nearby space in which to expand the kitchen. This, as well as cost considerations, often cause homeowners to rule out moving walls.

The truth is that size does matter. You simply can't create a functionally up-to-date kitchen in the tiny spaces allocated to kitchens of old. But don't panic; there are almost always affordable ways to add square footage. Many people eliminate their under-used formal dining room or living room. Others incorporate the space once allocated to a pantry, entranceway or back porch. Sometimes a hall can be eliminated or moved to open up more space.

As a last resort, you can always consider extending the kitchen into the yard. Sometimes, doing so opens up opportunities to enhance other parts of the home by making it possible to create a great room, library or master bedroom suite.

Where to Turn for Kitchen Design Help

Today, the homeowner has many alternative sources for design assistance. Each resource has advantages and disadvantages and no one option is right for everyone. Here, we'll describe your choices and the most common strengths and weaknesses of each. Keep in mind that these are generalizations, and exceptions are not unusual.

Free services

At some home centers (like Home Depot), contractors and cabinet dealers offer free design services. While getting something for free is always attractive, free design services are likely to be cursory. Typically, these quickie designers make little effort to learn your priorities.

Because people now expect to use their kitchens for many different purposes, it is common to encounter conflicts among the various roles. For example, the smooth, easy-to-clean surfaces in a kitchen can seem cold. What can you do to warm up the space and make it more comfortable for entertaining, without making it impossible to clean?

Such design services do offer a low-cost way to get the ball rolling. In the idea-gathering phase at the beginning of your planning process, you can talk to more than one of these designers to get some idea about how things might fit together. With a very simple, low-budget job, such cursory design may be adequate, but for most jobs, you'd do better ultimately to engage the expertise of someone who's going to take the time to design the job to fit your needs.

Software

Software packages are available to help you design a kitchen. Some take weeks of study and are primarily designed for professionals. Others allow a novice to start playing around with different design ideas in under an hour. By eliminating the need for manually preparing drawings, the programs make it much easier to try out and visualize a wide array of ideas.

Many programs are equipped with built-in design advice that can suggest placement of appliances or catch obvious design mistakes. While useful, powerful and fun, these programs cannot yet match the work of trained professionals. These products are especially ill equipped to help you understand the opportunities and obstacles inherent in the way your home is now laid out. Figuring out the location of existing ducts, pipes, wires, chimneys and load-bearing walls is something only a professional, working on-site, is likely to be able to accomplish.

Architects

The most traditional design approach involves hiring an architect to help you sift through your ideas and help you convert your needs into a detailed plan. The advantages of this approach are that the architect provides a comprehensive service and is highly trained in design.

Many architects won't work on jobs as small as a single residential kitchen. In some cases, architects are an option only if you are doing the kitchen remodeling as part of a larger project, such as a major addition or renovation. More and more architects offer a la carte service, where they provide less comprehensive service for smaller jobs. Some will even work on an hourly basis.

Cost can be one disadvantage of working with architects. It is often the most expensive option. However, if you can achieve a superior design, it may well be worth the investment. For best results, make sure the architect specializes in kitchen design. Kitchens require a unique set of skills and knowledge.

Kitchen dealer-designers and remodelers

Sometimes, it's hard to tell a dealer-designer from a remodeling contractor. After all, both will create a new kitchen for you. But, the distinction is important and there is a simple way to tell them apart. Listen to how they describe the people who actually build the kitchen. Remodelers call them "contractors," "carpenters" or "builders." Dealer-designers tend to call them "installers."

The advantages and disadvantages of each type of business flow directly from the perspective implied in this simple language difference. They simply have a very different focus. Designer-dealers concentrate more on product while remodelers direct their attention to construction.

Typically, dealer-designers know a lot about the products that go into a kitchen. They know much more than the typical remodeler about such things as cabinet styles, countertop options, decorative trim, special lighting effects and special pullout racks. This makes sense because these people are designers and product salespeople rolled into one.

Dealer-designers make most of their money from the sale of cabinets, appliances and other kitchen components. As a result, some of them offer their services for free or at discounted prices. Remodelers tend to make their money from the construction phase but may also offer free or discounted design services.

Design/build firms

Finally, there is the design/build alternative. The concept behind this relatively new approach is to integrate the design and construction processes in a hybrid that captures most of the strengths and avoids most of the weaknesses in some of the options described above.

This approach can often result in a less expensive design that is much more practical. Just as important is that, when one firm handles all the design and construction, that firm is fully accountable for the entire project. This means problems can be addressed directly without a lot of time and energy wasted on blaming people.

Another advantage of the design/build approach is that those involved in building and those involved in designing work together continuously, with each helping the other to adapt their practices to produce a quality product at a reasonable price. These advantages have made the design/build approach extremely popular in recent years.

For best results when considering a design/build firm, ask lots of questions about both its design and construction expertise and find out exactly how the two are integrated. See if the approach makes sense for your project.

Some Kitchen Design Basics

When planning the layout of your new kitchen, use a planning tool that has helped the experts for decades. It is called the "work triangle" and it ties together the stove, the sink and the refrigerator. Because we now use microwaves as much or more than stoves, many people now refer to this concept as the "work diamond."

Because these appliances are in the most heavily used locations in your kitchen, you want them fairly close together but with ample counter space for working. In general, there should be three to eight feet between the stove and refrigerator, three to six feet between the refrigerator and sink, and two to five feet between the stove and sink. If your kitchen is very large or very small, you may want to (or have to) alter these ideal ranges. Avoid having an island within the work triangle or diamond, as it will block your ability to move freely from one station to the next.

When planning your eating area, make sure diners at your table have ample space for comfortable eating. Allow for a table area at least 24 inches wide by 12 inches deep for each person. For seating, allow at least 36 inches from the table or counter edge to the nearest obstacle, to permit people to pass behind a seated diner. If there is no need to allow people to pass, 24 inches of clearance will do.

Make sure there are ample countertops adjacent to the stove, refrigerator and microwave. You'll want plenty of counter space on each side of the sink. Some people install a corner sink that allows for counter space on three sides.

Traditionally, sinks have faced outward, typically under a window. In contemporary kitchens, many people install the sink facing inward so that someone preparing food or washing dishes can face and talk with others who might be in the eating area of the kitchen.

In a kitchen less than 150 square feet, plan on at least 12 lineal feet each of wall cabinets and base cabinets. Plan for a minimum of two sets of drawers, one wide set and one narrow. If you have room for more cabinets and drawers, go for it.

Kitchen cabinets usually extend up to 84 inches off the floor. The space above the cabinets is often left open or filled in with a bulkhead or soffit. You might be better off installing cabinets to the ceiling. The high cabinets will be reachable only with a stool, but they will provide extra storage space for seldom-used items. If you install cabinets that go beyond your natural reach, be sure to include a place to store a sturdy step stool.

Doorways should be wide (32 to 36 inches) to allow for someone carrying bags of groceries, for delivery and removal of appliances, and for someone in a wheelchair. Pocket doors (doors that slide back into the wall rather than swing out or in) can solve traffic problems caused by a lack of space.

Think about the positioning and interactions of doors for the oven, refrigerator, microwave and cabinets. When open, will they obstruct traffic, create hazards or bump into one another?

Use concepts of universal design to make sure that your kitchen will be safe and useful for both children and adults with varying sizes, shapes and physical limitations. Use a non-slip material for the floor. Vary countertop heights to accommodate people of different heights. Select cabinet pulls that younger children and folks with arthritis can open easily.

by David Hollies, reprinted courtesy of HomeAdvisor.com