Kitchen Renovation – A Modern Perspective
Since ancient times, the kitchen has been considered a home, the preservation of which played a big role for the whole family. A modern kitchen should also be not only a functional room, but also a beautiful, cozy decorated one. In this article, we will introduce you to the advice of professional designers and builders who will tell you how to properly make repairs in the kitchen, choose furniture, how to choose a color scheme and what materials are best to use.
Repair stages
As in all preparations for renovation work, when renovating a kitchen, we recommend following a clearly defined plan, as kitchen renovation is not an easy task. The complexity of the renovation is due to the strict requirements that are imposed on the kitchen space. After all, the kitchen should combine an attractive appearance, convenient arrangement of furniture and household appliances, and functionality.
The entire kitchen renovation process can be divided into two main stages – planning and design and finishing.
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The first stage is the choice of design. Here you decide what you will do: major or cosmetic kitchen renovation, European renovation or exclusive renovation with the involvement of a designer. But do not forget that the kitchen is a room whose functionality is built according to special laws, so it is better to entrust the choice of kitchen design to a professional designer.
The second stage is the actual renovation. You need to start the renovation by preparing the room: completely free it, that is, dismantle the old communications, ceilings, wallpaper, plaster, tiles from the walls, sockets, old floor, baseboards, and then take out the garbage. Well, the space for the realization of designer fantasies is ready.
Design project of the kitchen of your dreams
It is always nice to be the designer of your own apartment, including the kitchen. Here it all depends on your imagination and color preferences. You can use several different styles, and as a result you will get your own, absolutely unique and one that will suit you perfectly. If you want to keep the entire kitchen in one style, do not forget that it should be comfortable and cozy for you.
So, let’s move on to drawing up the design. According to designers, the ideal shape of a kitchen room is an elongated rectangle. It is with this shape that less space is required for convenient arrangement of the kitchen with furniture and household appliances.
As for the choice of color design, everything is simple here. To increase the volume and space of the kitchen, albeit visually, it is better to use light shades. But do not forget that white requires additional color accents and bright decorative elements. Such color accents are created by small decorative elements, curtains, wall decorations, clocks, towels, napkins.
To create a warm, relaxed atmosphere, light yellow, lemon or apple shades are perfect. Such combinations create the effect of freshness and cleanliness in the kitchen. The green range soothes, helps improve mood and stimulates appetite. For spacious kitchens and dining rooms, a design option in red, orange and yellow colors is acceptable. Since orange has a beneficial effect on the nervous system, improves the functioning of internal organs, and elements of red in the decor make the kitchen much brighter and more cheerful. But if you have a standard small-sized apartment, it is better not to use these colors, because these saturated shades visually reduce the volume of the room. Kitchens made in blue tones look very bright and cheerful.
When choosing a color solution for the kitchen interior, the question of the color of kitchen furniture, household appliances and accessories is also considered. Currently, wooden kitchen furniture made of light wood is very popular.
Another important point when preparing the design project of your dream kitchen is to avoid heavy curtains. On the contrary: for the design of windows in the kitchen it is better to use transparent and translucent tulle. It is desirable that the kitchen curtains are also cheerful and bright.
List of rules important for kitchen renovation
- When renovating a kitchen, the first thing you need to do is know the dimensions of the kitchen furniture to understand what the filled and free space will be. For tall furniture and appliances, the best place is along the work area.
- For the convenience of cooking, it is best to place kitchen equipment – stove, sink, refrigerator, hood, and, if available, dishwasher – in the technological sequence of the process, i.e. cooking, food storage (refrigerator) – sink – processing (workbench) – stove.
- It is very important to carefully consider the electrical wiring diagram, calculate the load, select cables, and understand exactly where the sockets, switches, and hood should be.
- Remember: the kitchen is a wet room, the ceiling in it should be built from moisture-resistant materials. And in order for the renovation to please you for a longer time, sparkling with cleanliness and freshness, it is necessary that these materials are also washable.
Everything written above must be taken into account and clearly thought out at the initial stage of the repair – drawing up a design project.
Materials for repair
As mentioned earlier, the kitchen is the only room in the house in which furniture must be selected before the start of the repair. Various coatings and surfaces of walls, ceilings, must be made of moisture-resistant materials. After all, the process of cooking is inevitably accompanied by the appearance of various contaminants, which can often only be removed with the help of detergents. But here the hardware stores pleased us with their diversity, so the choice of materials for kitchen repair is simply huge.
Ceiling. Experts advise painting the ceiling with water-based paint, covering it with decorative polyurethane foam boards, and installing it from metal or plastic panels (suspended ceiling).
Walls. One of the best options is to decorate the kitchen walls with ceramic tiles. The ceramic apron is calculated, already knowing at what height the kitchen cabinets and built-in appliances will hang and stand. Another option for decorating the walls is bamboo or glass wallpaper for painting.
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Floor. The final point in the kitchen renovation will be the replacement of the floor covering. Today, the most common option for the floor covering in the kitchen is ceramic tiles or ceramic granite , since tiles are an ideal decoration for any kitchen, and besides, they are easy to care for. Such a floor will last for more than a dozen years.
Another option for covering the kitchen floor is laminate or linoleum. Combined options for covering the kitchen floor are also possible: for example, tiles are laid in the work area, and laminate is laid on the rest of the floor. Laminate floors are durable, moisture-resistant, do not wear out, and are easy to install. The real service life is 10-20 years.
And only after all the finishing work is completed, you can begin installing sockets, switches and lamps. The final stage will be the installation of kitchen equipment and furniture.
Equipment placement
Stove. The stove is, without a doubt, one of the main kitchen attributes. It can be both traditional and with separately made elements. When installing the stove, you need to be very careful, especially if it is a gas stove.
Kitchen faucets. Two-valve kitchen faucets equipped with a flexible spout are especially popular with buyers, followed by straight classic spouts with a slightly thickened or flattened shape. We will focus on choosing a kitchen faucet in a separate article.
Extractor hood. It is absolutely impossible to imagine a modern kitchen without an extractor hood. Moreover, the kitchen today is not only the hostess’s workplace, but also a dining room or living room. As in the entire apartment, there should be clean and fresh air. The power of the extractor hood is calculated taking into account the volume of the room.
Microwave ovens. Microwaves are convenient mainly for quickly heating up ready-made food and for quickly defrosting products. It is advisable to install the microwave oven at eye level. If you intend to build it into the upper row of cabinets for this, make sure that at the same time air access is ensured to the ventilation holes on its body.
Refrigerator. The most rational way to place a refrigerator according to the rules of kitchen interior design is in a block with kitchen furniture.
Lighting. In addition to the convenience of placing equipment, dishes, appliances and products, for productive and comfortable work in the kitchen, good ventilation and lighting are also necessary . To do this, an exhaust device must function above the stove, and all work areas (including the stove) must be illuminated by local lamps. In the area of each work table (if there are several of them), at least two electrical outlets must be installed (preferably combined in one block) for connecting kitchen appliances.
Furniture. Considering that many of us spend most of our time at home in the kitchen, the desire to give its interior a coziness is quite natural. A warm and cozy atmosphere is provided by: a dining table with a corner sofa or soft chairs; soft, diffused light from a table lamp standing on it or a lamp hanging low above it; decor and paintings on the walls; flowers in floor vases and other living room surroundings.
Interesting facts
Every year, the population of planet Earth, engaged in cooking at home, spends an average of 3 trillion hours in the kitchen.
The word “kitchen” has its roots in ancient times. Etymologists believe that the concept originated in Latin and literally meant a room where people cook or cook. The word “kitchen” came to the Slavic language from the German language. Until then, until 1717, the modern kitchen was called a scullery.
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