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  1. #1
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    Default Kitching Renovation Tips and Advice

    Hit me with your best kitchen renovation tips. We are getting ready to gut our kitchen, replacing everything. We are knocking down the walls to the pantry and adding a cabinet pantry but those are the only walls going. Anyone done a kitchen project lately? I've been working with a designer and have picked my cabinets, narrowed counters down to 2 quart patterns, and finalized the layout. I'm still working on appliances but I have it narrowed down enough. Helpful input appreciated on:

    Sinks - I want one large bowl sink. What material do you have and do you like it?
    Faucets
    Backsplash (I'm going with tile and thinking of sticking with relatively neutral subway tile but I'm open to suggestions)
    Dos and Don'ts or anything you love about your kitchen or would change

    I'm so excited for an updated kitchen but I don't want to make any big mistakes!

    ***I just saw that I apparently cannot spell kitchen but I can't edit the title, so there it is!***
    Last edited by carolinamama; 05-03-2021 at 01:59 PM.
    Mom to Two Wild and Crazy Boys and One Sweet Baby Girl

  2. #2
    SnuggleBuggles is offline Black Diamond level (25,000+ posts)
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    Drawers or cabinets with pull out shelves for all lowers vs just open space.
    Lots of lighting options. I find that the under cabinet lights really come in handy when I cook.


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  3. #3
    WatchingThemGrow is offline Blue Diamond level (20,000+ posts)
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    We love our drawers everywhere. I got them made with a stack of 3 because I like that we can open the dishwashers and the drawers and move the clean plates literally 2ft to the correct drawer.

    We invested in custom cabinets because we had some weird tweaks that needed to be done to make the most of our space. We had a vent running through 3 cabinets and out the exterior brick wall and didn’t want to change that. We recessed a giant pull-out pantry into what was a closet on the other side.

    Also, got 14” or 15” deep cabinets and the extra inches make them hold so much more!

    For backsplash, we used really oversized white subway tile and had it laid in thirds. It’s so calming because there are less grout lines.

    I found a place that helped quartzite cost less than quartz and it is lovely to have this natural stone that’s unique. It’s called ocean pearl. I wanted simple, clean, and calm. Our clutter was everywhere when I snapped this pic, though!



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  4. #4
    AnnieW625's Avatar
    AnnieW625 is offline Black Diamond level (25,000+ posts)
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    Default Kitching Renovation Tips and Advice

    Here is my last big kitchen renovation tips/likes from a post from late last year. Not much has changed with my opinions so I am just reposting this. If I had to suggest one tip it would be to buy a toaster/smart oven and make sure your BBQ is in working order. We used our Cuisinart countertop oven non stop for the two months our kitchen was being remodeled.

    Three other things we have in our current house we didn’t have before:
    *an island w/electrical plugs, and storage doors for cookie sheets and metal pans.
    *a pull out garbage bin in the island
    *an appliance carousel in the cupboards

    We remodeled the kitchen of our old house in 2019.
    Here is my list:
    Cabinet related
    *Pull out drawers
    *Pantry, if space, if not a lot of built ins (we have this in our current house)
    *Cabinet carousel for small countertop appliances (another thing we have in our current kitchen that is great....these were super popular in the late 90s/early 2000s when my kitchen was last remodeled)
    *Narrow tall cabinet for cookie sheets/cupcake pans

    Hardware related
    *substantial feeling pulls or knobs. I don’t care for this cup style (and maybe the ones we had before were cheap as a few of them broke in our old house), but I know they are popular. Franklin Brass hardware from Amazon is great; we splurged on a bunch of $10-$15 each Emtek pulls in our old house because my designer recommended them (and I did love their uniqueness), but when I needed knobs to match and needed about 20 of them and didn’t want to pay $10 a piece for another 20 of them and I found some great knockoffs on Amazon (as recommended by posters here). Franklin Brass is not an Amazon exclusive brand as I have seen their stuff on Wayfair, and Houzz.

    Countertops:
    I love the marble like quartz counter tops vs. granite because they are light and bright and you can go with so many colors on the wall and the cabinets. We had Cambria’s Statuario Maximus and loved it. I have also seen some beautiful ones like this onethat have some blues and tiny hints of gold in them that would look amazing on large spaces.

    Appliance related
    *built in oven, we had a GE Cafe in our old house, and have a Kitchen Aid in the current house and we have been happy with both. I think I liked the controls on the GE a bit more, but the Kitchen Aid works just fine.

    *a large range hood. After having this one from Zephyr in our prior kitchen I don’t think that much else is adequate. We had a smaller Zephyr Breeze unit prior to this unit and it worked quite well for being a smaller unit as well, but it was not ducted and after having a ducted unit I would only do a ducted unit again. Zephyr makes a bunch of different sizes of high powered hoods and none of them are crazy expensive either. I like the under cabinet model vs. the chimney style because you get slightly more cabinet space above (we put our large 8 qt. stock pot, and oils that I continually reached up to grab while cooking).

    Large refrigerator: we had a counter depth unit in our old house and it was fine because it was small space, but even in our larger kitchen now we have a non counter depth and the extra 2” it sticks out doesn’t bother me. We got more fridge for maybe 2/3rd of the price of a counter depth. We currently have this Whirlpool (bought it about a month ago when the Kenmore Elite (that came with our house) compressor died) and it has been fine. TBH though it does look a little vanilla compared to the to the Kitchen Aid with the slightly nicer handles and it is caddy corner to the Kitchen Aid oven so it would be nice if they did match, but I wasn’t going to pay $400 more for essentially the same fridge with different handles). However if I was remodeling I would probably not balk at the price, but when funds have been budgeted elsewhere (bathroom remodel, and 2nd bathroom refresh) we needed to save some money on a replacement we weren’t really planning to make.

    Gas cooktop. We currently have a Dacor 5 burner 36” cooktop and it works great. In our old house we had a 36” GE gas cooktop and it worked well and wasn’t fancy at all. The Dacor definitely heats up a little faster and has had a bit of learning curve vs. using a mid range GE cooktop. I wouldn’t go less than 5 burners. I am a sucker for the look of the Thermador star burners so if I were putting one in a new kitchen then I would definitely look at one.

    Miele dishwasher. We bought the Futura Crystal model in September when we noticed the Whirlpool we had wasn’t washing dishes and was just not working the way it should’ve. The Miele has been life changing in regards to dishes. We have super hard water and with the added salt option and Jet Dry we have clean dishes. It is amazing. We can also fit a ton of dishes and pots and or pans in it. The Futura Crystal mode has been discontinued so we got it for $500 off regular price for buying a floor model. We have the older version of this model with the outside controls similar to this classic model, but it has all of these options on that are on the new model. We usually run the standard 2 hour wash. If you don’t need a water softener option then the model below this one (Classic Plus, I think might be a good option). I would also start looking for showrooms with floor models of the old model.

    We had the older version of this Kitchen Aid dishwasher (without the 3rd rack and was ironically Wirecutter’s top dishwasher recommendation....had no clue when I bought the floor model for $500 in early 2019) in our old house and it was great and initially thought we would just buy the new model with the 3rd rack, but I thought the set up of the 3rd rack was awkward and I liked the set up on the Miele better, and for the same price I got a great proven dishwasher that should last 15-20 years.

    Countertop level or higher built in microwave. We had a GE Profile at our old house and it was amazing. I miss it. Our current house had a built in unit at some point and it died and the owners put in a Magic Chef countertop unit in the space. When the countertop microwave dies we will buy another built in. They aren’t that expensive, maybe $350 and another $100 for the trim.

    Sink/faucet:
    Loved our Kohler single farm house sink. I would buy another. Ours was white cast iron.

    Get a nice sturdy faucet. Ours was Moen and it was solid, but not overly expensive. We currently have a Glacier Bay (Home Depot house brand) and while it works just fine it isn’t super sturdy and it feels loose even though DH has tried to tighten it up.

    What I would put in my dream kitchen that I haven’t listed above:
    *Pot filler
    *Dual built in microwave/oven unit like this GE Cafe one
    or one similar from Kitchen Aid (my grandma has a Kitchen Aid that is awesome!)
    *Scotsman Nugget Ice Maker
    *wine fridge

    What I wouldn’t do again:
    I would not buy an LG fridge or a Kenmore Elite fridge that is a rebadged LG. LG compressors are known to fail, and there are legal settlements that LG has to cover the repair of you have one of those models, but it is a pain to figure out which models are affected. The compressor quit on the fridge that came with the house out of the blue on an estimated 5-7 year old fridge. I called LG who wouldn’t even address the issue and said it was Kenmore’s service issue and when I called Kenmore I got nowhere on the non human serviced call center (pushing 0 got me nowhere) and the only option was to schedule a service call on a previously purchased service contract. This left me with a very bad opinion of LG appliances in general.

    I don’t know if I would buy a GE French door fridge again either. I thought I absolutely raved about ours, and it worked great for about 9 months before the bottom freezer started to ice over and cause water to leak out the bottom freezer. This is a known issue with GE fridges as well. Thankfully it was $100 or so fix to have the repair clear the water line, but it was pain because it happened right before we moved.

    If you know a good contractor and or of a good cabinet/kitchen remodeling store I would consider using the cabinet store for kitchen design. I had no idea that they offered this service so we hired the same interior designer (that we used for our bathroom) to plan out our kitchen and then it turned out the cabinet store our contractor recommended had the same design services, carried flooring and tile options, and pulls and knobs. We would’ve saved the design fee had we known this. Plus the interior designer’s measurements for the cabinets were slightly off and some of our cabinets had to be redesigned at the last minute. We opted to go this route for our bathroom remodel and refresh. I found the company we are using in one of those contractor mailers you get in the mail. So far so good, and the company employs their own designers as well.

    What I would do again:
    Buy floor models. Except for the gas cooktop and the microwave at our old place the rest of the kitchen appliances were floor models. I saved a bunch of money by doing this.

    Use wood like tile. We have used Arizona Tile for two
    remodels and will be using for our current bathroom projects. It looks like hardwood, but is so easy to clean.

    I would consider hiring a color consultant to pick paint colors. We did this at our old house and it was so helpful. We have done it for our bathroom projects as well. So far I am happy with the service we chose this time and we have to go get samples of the paints she recommended.


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    Last edited by AnnieW625; 05-03-2021 at 04:29 PM.
    Annie
    WOHM to two wonderful little girls born in April
    DD E, 17
    DD L, 13,
    baby 2, 4-2009 (our Tri-18 baby)

  5. #5
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    I LOVE LOVE LOVE our huge blanco sink. It’s amazing. Indestructible material and looks great.


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    DD (3/06)
    DS1 (7/09)
    DS2 (8/13)

  6. #6
    erosenst is offline Sapphire level (2000+ posts)
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    I only scanned the above replies - so I apologize for any duplicates. Having said that - I always like when I see multiple people sharing the same ideas!

    * Biggest thing - MEASURE. Everything. We designed our pantry so that the big dog food bin fit under the lower shelf. There a 'slot' for the step stool. There's a shelf at "my comfortable height" that's tall enough for the KitchenAid Mixer. Similarly - the upper cabinets are wide enough to fit all of our everyday dishes on two shelves. There are spaces above the range to hold cookie sheets, cooling racks, etc.

    * A lot of people suggested a pot filler. We didn't do it and I rarely regret it, but once in a while I do.

    * If possible see if you can recess the refrigerator, which gives a countertop depth look without the price. We were able to design ours so that it backs into a broom closet, and we took the space from there.

    * Lots of outlets. Code requires a lot so you may be fine - but if you use appliances on the counter/island think about how far you'd have to run a cord if there weren't an outlet there. It's really really cheap to add them while everything is open - and really hard afterwards. We have one outlet in our pantry and I occasionally wish we had two (one on the other wall).

    * We did a combo of drawers, and cabinets with pullouts, on the bottom. I'm not sure I'd change that but some have strong preferences so think about how you use the space.

    * We have a Blanco sink - LOVE IT. There are other similar brands but they had the design/color I wanted. I love the look of the squared off ones, but they're supposed to be really REALLY hard to keep clean so that's a no from me.

    * Not sure how much space you have, or how much you cook/entertain. I've heard a few recently who have put in a second dishwasher. I could be on board with that .

    * I may have been the one who recommended checking Amazon Basics for hardware. We used that - saved a ton and they are REALLY nice quality. I was pleasantly shocked.

    * See if the cabinet under your sink can be the newer doors/bottom drawer. It gives you more usable space.

    Think that's it for now - have fun!

  7. #7
    SnuggleBuggles is offline Black Diamond level (25,000+ posts)
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    Our house came with a recently remodeled kitchen. I love that they put in an instant hot water dispenser. I don’t need a pot filler but I do love quick super hot water for lots of things.


    Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by AnnieW625 View Post
    Here is my last big kitchen renovation tips/likes from a post from late last year. Not much has changed with my opinions so I am just reposting this. If I had to suggest one tip it would be to buy a toaster/smart oven and make sure your BBQ is in working order. We used our Cuisinart countertop oven non stop for the two months our kitchen was being remodeled.

    Three other things we have in our current house we didn’t have before:
    *an island w/electrical plugs, and storage doors for cookie sheets and metal pans.
    *a pull out garbage bin in the island
    *an appliance carousel in the cupboards

    We remodeled the kitchen of our old house in 2019.
    Here is my list:
    Cabinet related
    *Pull out drawers
    *Pantry, if space, if not a lot of built ins (we have this in our current house)
    *Cabinet carousel for small countertop appliances (another thing we have in our current kitchen that is great....these were super popular in the late 90s/early 2000s when my kitchen was last remodeled)
    *Narrow tall cabinet for cookie sheets/cupcake pans

    Hardware related
    *substantial feeling pulls or knobs. I don’t care for this cup style (and maybe the ones we had before were cheap as a few of them broke in our old house), but I know they are popular. Franklin Brass hardware from Amazon is great; we splurged on a bunch of $10-$15 each Emtek pulls in our old house because my designer recommended them (and I did love their uniqueness), but when I needed knobs to match and needed about 20 of them and didn’t want to pay $10 a piece for another 20 of them and I found some great knockoffs on Amazon (as recommended by posters here). Franklin Brass is not an Amazon exclusive brand as I have seen their stuff on Wayfair, and Houzz.

    Countertops:
    I love the marble like quartz counter tops vs. granite because they are light and bright and you can go with so many colors on the wall and the cabinets. We had Cambria’s Statuario Maximus and loved it. I have also seen some beautiful ones like this onethat have some blues and tiny hints of gold in them that would look amazing on large spaces.

    Appliance related
    *built in oven, we had a GE Cafe in our old house, and have a Kitchen Aid in the current house and we have been happy with both. I think I liked the controls on the GE a bit more, but the Kitchen Aid works just fine.

    *a large range hood. After having this one from Zephyr in our prior kitchen I don’t think that much else is adequate. We had a smaller Zephyr Breeze unit prior to this unit and it worked quite well for being a smaller unit as well, but it was not ducted and after having a ducted unit I would only do a ducted unit again. Zephyr makes a bunch of different sizes of high powered hoods and none of them are crazy expensive either. I like the under cabinet model vs. the chimney style because you get slightly more cabinet space above (we put our large 8 qt. stock pot, and oils that I continually reached up to grab while cooking).

    Large refrigerator: we had a counter depth unit in our old house and it was fine because it was small space, but even in our larger kitchen now we have a non counter depth and the extra 2” it sticks out doesn’t bother me. We got more fridge for maybe 2/3rd of the price of a counter depth. We currently have this Whirlpool (bought it about a month ago when the Kenmore Elite (that came with our house) compressor died) and it has been fine. TBH though it does look a little vanilla compared to the to the Kitchen Aid with the slightly nicer handles and it is caddy corner to the Kitchen Aid oven so it would be nice if they did match, but I wasn’t going to pay $400 more for essentially the same fridge with different handles). However if I was remodeling I would probably not balk at the price, but when funds have been budgeted elsewhere (bathroom remodel, and 2nd bathroom refresh) we needed to save some money on a replacement we weren’t really planning to make.

    Gas cooktop. We currently have a Dacor 5 burner 36” cooktop and it works great. In our old house we had a 36” GE gas cooktop and it worked well and wasn’t fancy at all. The Dacor definitely heats up a little faster and has had a bit of learning curve vs. using a mid range GE cooktop. I wouldn’t go less than 5 burners. I am a sucker for the look of the Thermador star burners so if I were putting one in a new kitchen then I would definitely look at one.

    Miele dishwasher. We bought the Futura Crystal model in September when we noticed the Whirlpool we had wasn’t washing dishes and was just not working the way it should’ve. The Miele has been life changing in regards to dishes. We have super hard water and with the added salt option and Jet Dry we have clean dishes. It is amazing. We can also fit a ton of dishes and pots and or pans in it. The Futura Crystal mode has been discontinued so we got it for $500 off regular price for buying a floor model. We have the older version of this model with the outside controls similar to this classic model, but it has all of these options on that are on the new model. We usually run the standard 2 hour wash. If you don’t need a water softener option then the model below this one (Classic Plus, I think might be a good option). I would also start looking for showrooms with floor models of the old model.

    We had the older version of this Kitchen Aid dishwasher (without the 3rd rack and was ironically Wirecutter’s top dishwasher recommendation....had no clue when I bought the floor model for $500 in early 2019) in our old house and it was great and initially thought we would just buy the new model with the 3rd rack, but I thought the set up of the 3rd rack was awkward and I liked the set up on the Miele better, and for the same price I got a great proven dishwasher that should last 15-20 years.

    Countertop level or higher built in microwave. We had a GE Profile at our old house and it was amazing. I miss it. Our current house had a built in unit at some point and it died and the owners put in a Magic Chef countertop unit in the space. When the countertop microwave dies we will buy another built in. They aren’t that expensive, maybe $350 and another $100 for the trim.

    Sink/faucet:
    Loved our Kohler single farm house sink. I would buy another. Ours was white cast iron.

    Get a nice sturdy faucet. Ours was Moen and it was solid, but not overly expensive. We currently have a Glacier Bay (Home Depot house brand) and while it works just fine it isn’t super sturdy and it feels loose even though DH has tried to tighten it up.

    What I would put in my dream kitchen that I haven’t listed above:
    *Pot filler
    *Dual built in microwave/oven unit like this GE Cafe one
    or one similar from Kitchen Aid (my grandma has a Kitchen Aid that is awesome!)
    *Scotsman Nugget Ice Maker
    *wine fridge

    What I wouldn’t do again:
    I would not buy an LG fridge or a Kenmore Elite fridge that is a rebadged LG. LG compressors are known to fail, and there are legal settlements that LG has to cover the repair of you have one of those models, but it is a pain to figure out which models are affected. The compressor quit on the fridge that came with the house out of the blue on an estimated 5-7 year old fridge. I called LG who wouldn’t even address the issue and said it was Kenmore’s service issue and when I called Kenmore I got nowhere on the non human serviced call center (pushing 0 got me nowhere) and the only option was to schedule a service call on a previously purchased service contract. This left me with a very bad opinion of LG appliances in general.

    I don’t know if I would buy a GE French door fridge again either. I thought I absolutely raved about ours, and it worked great for about 9 months before the bottom freezer started to ice over and cause water to leak out the bottom freezer. This is a known issue with GE fridges as well. Thankfully it was $100 or so fix to have the repair clear the water line, but it was pain because it happened right before we moved.

    If you know a good contractor and or of a good cabinet/kitchen remodeling store I would consider using the cabinet store for kitchen design. I had no idea that they offered this service so we hired the same interior designer (that we used for our bathroom) to plan out our kitchen and then it turned out the cabinet store our contractor recommended had the same design services, carried flooring and tile options, and pulls and knobs. We would’ve saved the design fee had we known this. Plus the interior designer’s measurements for the cabinets were slightly off and some of our cabinets had to be redesigned at the last minute. We opted to go this route for our bathroom remodel and refresh. I found the company we are using in one of those contractor mailers you get in the mail. So far so good, and the company employs their own designers as well.

    What I would do again:
    Buy floor models. Except for the gas cooktop and the microwave at our old place the rest of the kitchen appliances were floor models. I saved a bunch of money by doing this.

    Use wood like tile. We have used Arizona Tile for two
    remodels and will be using for our current bathroom projects. It looks like hardwood, but is so easy to clean.

    I would consider hiring a color consultant to pick paint colors. We did this at our old house and it was so helpful. We have done it for our bathroom projects as well. So far I am happy with the service we chose this time and we have to go get samples of the paints she recommended.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Thank you for all this! It's definitely helpful to hear from people who have been through it. We have a Breville smart oven and use our grill all the time so hopefully we are set there. That's interesting about your designer. I'm using a designer, recommended by a friend with a gorgeous remodeled kitchen by her so I feel safe there. Friend is in the construction management business and super picky. I'm dreading the actual construction but I know we will get through it.
    Mom to Two Wild and Crazy Boys and One Sweet Baby Girl

  9. #9
    erosenst is offline Sapphire level (2000+ posts)
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    Quote Originally Posted by SnuggleBuggles View Post
    Our house came with a recently remodeled kitchen. I love that they put in an instant hot water dispenser. I don’t need a pot filler but I do love quick super hot water for lots of things.


    Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains
    Oh definitely agree with this. No question.


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  10. #10
    AnnieW625's Avatar
    AnnieW625 is offline Black Diamond level (25,000+ posts)
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    Quote Originally Posted by SnuggleBuggles View Post
    Our house came with a recently remodeled kitchen. I love that they put in an instant hot water dispenser. I don’t need a pot filler but I do love quick super hot water for lots of things.


    Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains
    I actually kind of agree with that even though my post above says a pot filler would be nice. The old owners of our current house disconnected the instant hot water because they had younger kids. When we replace the faucet (which is still a little loose) I will have Dh look at reconnecting the instant hot water.


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    Annie
    WOHM to two wonderful little girls born in April
    DD E, 17
    DD L, 13,
    baby 2, 4-2009 (our Tri-18 baby)

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