Kitchen Reno
I need a kithen that beckons instead of the one that repels.
I need and would love help with my new kitchen project a whole new kitchen or as much as I can afford. I would appreciate any comments on cabinets, flooring, lighting, and counter tops. I may have to keep same appliances, if I can’t afford new ones. Since I have never used corian, granite, or quartz, I do not know how I will like any of them. So I need you that have, to help me by sharing your experience with those or any other products. I also am in a quandary about flooring since there are a lot of new products and many totally unfamiliar to me.
I do want cabinets that are all wood, so I will sacrifice on other things, if I must.
I am working with this store that will work within my budget and I am just starting, but I know that budget will be the puzzle, juggle, and squeeze of a most painful kind.
I am told it will take 12 ot 15 weeks and I do live near the restaurants and stores, and the most positive thought I have will be that I won’t be cooking for a while. That is my worst thought also. Maybe I will learn the art of outdoor cooking and it is warm enough here for that.
Please, I have googled, I will google, and use all available people near me but I also want you to share anything that you think will be helpful. If it is ok, I will continue to blog about my progress. Maybe some of you will decide you could use some kitchen work as well.
I do so hope you can and will help.
Oh ,Rose how exciting for you ! A new kitchen eh ? I can’t help you with any advice ,but I will be most interested in following up your progress !
At the moment I’m spending my money on trips instead , although my house could do with a bit of a lift ! Never mind it’s one or the other , and I have chosen the other 🙂
NMOD. I have traveled, and You havent seen my kithen. I think I will post some pictures. i bet yours is OK. I bought a location and a yard with two oak trees, huge. So I need a kitchen that beckons me to enter. I think I will edit my blog and start with that line.
Thanks. I was hoping that many of us could help or use kitchen info.
Congrats Rose.
That’s great. One piece of advice you already said was google. As far as counter tops, corian is a lesser expensive alternative for solid surface. I would read up on Soapstone as well. I personally wouldn’t do the Quarts. It needs maintenance and is very brittle. Soapstone is expensive but not as brittle and if you accidentally scratch it or chip it’s repairable unlike quarts or granite. Be sure to check references on counter top contractors. I am replacing my tops in the near future. I will save for the soapstone. Hope this helps. “J”
I have to recheck “soapstone”. i know the old fashioned laminate suited me just fine and is half the cost. People go Ga Ga over granite and i can only guess what the new materials will be. laminate was good for 50 years and now we got all these choices.i may stick with laminate and stainless steel drop in sinks. They are cheap and I have never made a bad food and blamed it on my counter tops or sinks.LOL. Cabinets. i could use that money on all kinds of special effects. Let somebody else pay for fancy counter tops and sinks. The stainless steel sinks will match the SS appliances. Cabinets, lighting and appliances are the priority.
jsmile. anything helps. Is it possible you are mixingup quartz and granite? I think I have heard the opposite. Soapstone is another word for WHAT? . Is it corian? It is so confusing. thanks. We both will know more.
Quarts and granite are different. Soapstone is also a natural material. Soapstone is softer but very durable and heat resistant. If you are happy with laminate then I would certainly use it. To be honest, for the price of either the granite, quarts or soapstone you can likely do the laminate and cabinets. When I remodeled my kitchen I kept the old cabinets. Refinished the face frames and did new doors. They look like brand new cabinets for a fraction of the cost of new. Although it’s “not in style” now another option for counter tops is ceramic tile. The nice thing about ceramic tile, corian and laminate is the wide variety of colors.
Hello Rose,
Let’s come to corian, granite, or quartz to begin with. These materials are very heave as
you can imagine and they are very sensitive. Best for you to buy out of my view are
table tops made out of wood. They are less sesitive and very easy to clean.
2nd the flooring material. In Germany we have plastic materials ( Linoleum ) with a design that matches real tiles from Italy. These materials are very robust in daily use and easy
to clean too. On top of that they are less expensive. Please have look on livingfloor.com
just to get an impression.
3rd cabinets made out of wood are very goog. If you don’t like the design of the
front it doesn’t matter. Kepp the corpus and have the doors renewed the style you
like.
You need more answer. Feel free asking me again. Michael
Thank you, vonMichael. i so, so appreciate this. I have a budget. I want to make choices and get good value. Ilove the idea of linoleum that matches tiles from italy. Flooring can be changed fairly easily. So I will go to that website. If I work with this store i have to get all my cabinets and counter tops from them. I may be able to do flooring separately, but they carry a wide selection. The weight is an issue.Wood counter tops would burn easily. Everything you say makes sense. I do wants all wood cabinets of good quality. I will cut corners other places.
Hello Rose,
I thank you for your answer. Sorry I’ve forfotten to tell you to keep an eye on
the costs for craftsman which can be higher than the prices for the material itself.
For cabinet renovation please get the first information on http://www.portas.de/kuechen. Here you can see the what I mean. I myself have a table top in the design of granite which is very insensitive, easy to clean and it didn’t cost more than 1/3 of granite.
On top of this it has a proven fire class on 1.0 which means absolutely very good.
I hope that will help you a bit and regards Michael
Very exciting for you rose, nice to have a kitchen you love especially when you enjoy cooking.
I have used caesar stone for bench tops and also have it at work on the reception desk, find it hard wearing, easy to clean and it always looks sparkly. Depending on the size of your kitchen you can get off cuts from a big job, much cheaper that way.
I have always had tiles on the kitchen floor which i am now finding a bit hard on the legs. Just putting PVC right through including on the kitchen floor. Does not scratch (good if you have pets) and you can use a steam mop on it. Comes in all patterns, wood grain looks like the real thing and as Michael said, the tile patttern looks like the real thing too. The planks I am getting slot into each other, no glueing. Hope this helps a bit, have fun with the planning xxx
Skippy thanks for taking an interest. I do like to cook and my kitchen has a nice space and two windows so it could be lovely but right now it is awful. need to check out what caesar stone is. Some of these are brand names.
Our UK materials etc are slightly different. however on the practical side I would avoid tiled floors in preference to plastic coated ones as cheaper and often are non slip as water on ceramic tiles can be very slippery if you are not careful and the older we get falls can cause real problems. Also I now regret the higher cupboards as they get harder to reach as we shrink and find it harder to stand and stretch into tall shelves. DItto make sure cabinet/work top heights are ok for you. Over here you can often get free design by getting folks to plan it and show what sizes you need etc, and then and find on line [as lots cheaper] and get someone to instal. I love ceramic tops as so much easier to clean and gives a nice clean flat surface in a worktop – but that is all down to personal preference. When I last did mine I got talked into stainless steel = changed it before fitted as a nightmare to keep clean – I have black glass fronted appliances in my black/white kitchen. I also missed my double oven so when it broke I changed back to double one.
MHB. I find all your comments useful. I heard stainless steel mentioned, but I think it would be noisy and smeary and paying for something, that doesn’t work for me is exactly what i want to avoid. So, I will stick with what I know and be cautious. Most of what i have used is less expensive and worked very well.I definitely profited from your comments. Thank you.
Good luck! I hope everything will be wonderful!