Where to Start Kitchen Remodeling?
Next, we are going to mention the construction phase. Well, there are two types of constructions, but the most popular ones are the partial overlay and the full overlay. It is all about what you see when you are facing your kitchen cabinets and how you see the frame. If you are seeing a visible frame, that means it is a partial overlay. If you do not see any frame when you close the door or when you are facing the cabinet, that’s a full overlay cabinet. Partial overlays are a little more economical compared to full overlay cabinets just because of the construction type and workmanship behind them. As you know, workmanship also plays an important role while determining the cost of the project. If you are not looking for a modern style, but rather are looking for a sort of traditional style, you will not need a full overlay. Instead, you will need a partial overlay, which is going to look great with raised panel cabinets. For the classic partial overlay, pricing will be a little less than a modern full overlay look. The finished nature of painted cabinets could be a little more expensive than the natural look, but if you are looking for a natural look you do not need to go with the painted one. Why pay more? Instead, you should just go with the classic natural look and avoid purchasing painted cabinets. But if you are looking for something like white cabinets, then we can go with the painted ones. Of course, there will be a 5% to 7% difference in pricing compared to natural cabinetry.
The Different Wood Species for Kitchen Doors
Another affecting factor is your choice of wood species. There are so many different wood types when it comes to kitchen cabinets. Let’s start with simple ones like oak. We sell a lot of oak cabinets to customers, especially if they are modeling a rental unit. Of course, they go with oak since it’s kind of an easy solution and it is not fancy. The best places for oak are to use it for your basement or for a rental unit. Of course, some upgrades are possible. We have cherry maple and hickory. If you’re working with a limited budget, you can go with oak cabinetry, or if you have a little more flexibility in your budget, you can upgrade to cherry maple or hickory. Your selection of wood is going to affect your overall budget at the end of the day.
Natural vs. Engineered Stone ( Granite vs. Quartz )
So how about countertops? For example, Silestone vs. granite. A comparison is needed here as granite is a natural stone. It is not man-made, but Silestone and quartz are man-made stones, and they are also engineered stones. So, they took the granite, improved the things that you would not like, and they created an engineered product as an engineered stone. You probably want to know more about the differences between natural stone and quartz. First, the resistance impact is variable. That is all about durability. We can say that Silestone or other engineered stones have better durability compared to natural stone. Chemical resistance is another matter to compare. Granite is more likely to absorb some of the food or chemicals easily but quartz or Silestone are engineered to be protected by those. Quick example, if you leave a slice of lemon on your marble countertop, you will see that an acidic reaction is going to affect the marble’s look. You will see the lemon stain there forever, and you may not want to see that. That is why Silestone and quartz are more useful. They are resistant, and they have high resistance to a chemical reaction. That also brings us to another subject of Silestone and quartz require low maintenance. When you are working with granite, you may have to at least make some sort of maintenance on a regular basis, such as every six months, eight months, or a year. It needs some sort of maintenance whereas the engineered stones do not need any sort of maintenance. You do not need to take care of your countertop. These are the facts. Of course, there is a cost related issue because granite is a little more economical compared to Silestone, and prices are $40 and $50 for granite, but it goes over $100 for Silestone. This cost is also related to the total square foot of your kitchen countertop area. If you don’t have a huge kitchen, upgrading from granite to quartz is not going to give you a big difference when considering your budget. If you’re looking for something like 75 square feet or 80 square feet for your type of kitchen (for example, a G shape or U shaped kitchen), and you want to keep the maintenance as low as possible, I strongly suggest you go with quartz or Silestone. When we are designing your kitchen, this is one of the cost-effective factors. And again, when you are calculating your budget for the kitchen cabinets, door type, door construction, and the finishing wood type is important.
Backsplash and flooring are also other things to consider. We see a trend like the white cabinetry that people go there and buy white cabinets with white countertops, white flooring, tiles, and backsplash. Well again, personally, as a designer I always have the feeling of a contrasting design that we usually prefer here. If you are creating a contrast design, you will make your kitchen’s curves and your lines a little more visible when you are looking at it. So, if we are working with white cabinetry, we prefer to do something darker on the floor. Doing this is good practice compared to matching everything.Â
How to remodel kitchen cabinets?
What we talk about here will give you the information about the full remodeling timeline. Here are the steps: First, we create the budget. Then you come to our showroom to talk to your designer. There are two ways right now that you can talk to your designer. The first is you can make a zoom meeting with our designer. That’s a brand new service that we offer, and you just go to our website, fill out a form, and select that you want to meet us on Zoom. The second way is through a traditionally meeting in person. If you don’t think you can make the trip, or if you are super busy to start, we will be able to give you a zoom meeting. That way, at least we’ll be able to show you some samples and ideas, and we will all have an understanding of what you’re looking for. In the first phase, we can have a sense of what you are looking for and what your overall design details are. Another option for phase one is the showroom option. Of course, you can always walk in, and we can show you everything in person. Then we can have a roundtable meeting to finalize the details. Again, if you choose to stay at home due to social distancing measures, or if you just don’t feel comfortable enough to make an in-person visit or travel, we can invite you to our virtual zoom meeting room. We will be able to give you the information you need. Our expert designers will be able to talk to you about your upcoming project. So just go there and pick your date and time for your appointment. We will be in front of the computer and in front of our camera at the time you book your appointment. That is the first step.
Credit: Cubitac Cabinetry
The second step is to finalize your project. We need to start with an estimate, and in order to make your plan more accurate for this stage, we need to schedule your home visit. Because at the end of the day, if you’re not working with a different kitchen designer or paying some other person for your design, we will be responsible for the final design and also the measurement of your kitchen layout. We will be able to come to your place and make a home visit to capture the final measurements. Our job is to get all the design detail, and all the measurements from there including your appliances, your walls, and your ceiling height. For those kinds of things, we will just take notes from your home visit, then we’ll come back to our office to finalize your project. There may be a 5% difference compared to the estimate that we create on your first visit. If your measurements for your walls were long and if we end up with shorter walls, then it’s going to require a slightly smaller budget because we’re going to get rid of a couple of cabinets just because we don’t need them anymore. We will just take that extra cabinetry out of your invoice, and it is going to be a little less at the bottom of your invoice. On the other hand, if there’s an extra space that we need to cover, or if there is something that you want to tell us during our visits, such as adding an island or a nice peninsula, we’ll talk about that. Again, compared to our estimate, it is not going to be a dramatic change. We aren’t going to do anything like double the number. We will just have a 5% to 10% difference after finalizing your whole project.
After getting your confirmation and everything, we will order your kitchen cabinets. At the same time, if you want to order countertops, you will order your countertop, floor tiles, backsplash, and all others as well. When you order the cabinets, it takes a couple of weeks, depending on the backorders. Sometimes it can be more than that. We also have a sense of which cabinet maker has the fastest inventory supply. We will be there to give you that feedback before starting the project. But usually, it is three to four weeks for us to get the cabinetry in, and get it delivered to your doorstep. Installation starts in phase four. We start with the base cabinetry installation since there will be some demolitions and some other things that we need to take care of. It also includes getting rid of the old cabinetry, disposing of them, and cabinet installation starting with the base cabinet. As soon as we are done with your base cabinets, we do not wait until the time that we will be done with your wall cabinets. We are going to schedule your countertop installation right away. The countertop team and installers start working at the same time while the kitchen countertop installation team is working with the wall cabinets. The countertop team can go there and check the countertop details and then they will create the final template and finalize the countertop order. When you are done with your cabinetry and countertops, you’re almost done. After backslash and some small details such as handles and hardware, you will be all set! It’s all ready for you to enjoy!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
If you are planning to remodel your kitchen soon, pick your date and time and feel free to start the conversation with us on Zoom, or just come to our showroom for an in-person meeting. Here is a question: Should we start our kitchen design with kitchen cabinets or countertops? As we talked about, it is always good to start with your cabinets. Because when you are thinking about budgeting, kitchen cabinets will play the most important role in your budget since it covers most of the whole project budget. Another factor is, we have tons of different countertops such as quartz and Silestone to show you. But at the same time, we have less availability when it comes to the kitchen cabinets. We don’t have thousands of door styles as it is limited, compared to the countertop models. It would be a smart move to start from the less available selection so you can expand your design better. We have hundreds of door styles that we can show you. So, it is always better to start with the kitchen cabinetry that you like. Because the main idea of your style is based on your cabinetry, not your countertop. We can always find something that is going to complement your cabinetry. When you are looking for countertops, we can find that countertop that will complement that cabinet style. But if we just start with the countertop, that is not going to give you the design feeling that you are looking for with kitchen cabinets. So pick your cabinetry first, then your countertop next. That’s the best practice, then you can go about picking your backsplash, floor tiles, and accessories, such as the handles and those kinds of things.
What Do We Get During the Showroom Appointment?
What you get is that we will sit down together to discuss the details of your project. Your personality is the starting point because your personal preference, living style, or cooking style will change the way that we look at your project. We have 3D CAD programs that are design programs to render your future kitchen. We will put your design details, measurements, and everything on our computer to create your render. This render is an image showing your kitchen before everything gets started. That is how we visualize your kitchen and everything in 3D mode. And we will also have a chance to give it the color, lighting, flooring, and other things to make it as real as possible. All cabinet types and door styles are available on this software, so we will be able to upload them on our computer to give you a realistic type of render during your visit. Before the visit, it’s important to have some sort of rough measurements for the estimate. When you just walk into our showroom, you will be able to get your estimate with this simple data that day. We will give you a 90% to 95% accurate pricing using your rough measurements. That’s what you get on your design appointment. You get your estimate, and you get your ideas. You’ll learn a lot from us because we’re talking about a huge showroom here. We have so many different samples, and it’s going to influence you in a way that you have always wanted to improve your design and create your dream kitchen. If you have something in your mind, any different ideas prior to the meeting, it may completely change after the meeting just because we will amaze you with the products that we have. We can show you samples, and then we can go from there. That is what you get during the appointment.Â
