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Kitchen Floor Plans

Kitchen Floor Plans

When designing a new kitchen, there is hardly anything more important than choosing your new cabinets. What other aspect of your kitchen takes up so much space and is as important as your cabinets? What is the single most noticed part of your kitchen? It’s simple, your cabinets! There are so many options regarding cabinets that making your decision can be overwhelming. When deciding on cabinets and options keep in mind how you use your kitchen and what amount of upkeep you are willing to have to deal with.

Custom vs. Stock

When designing a kitchen on a budget, you must evaluate whether or not custom cabinets are worth the extra cost. Stock cabinets can be equally impressive if the design is thought through. When trying to decide if you want custom or stock cabinets the main consideration is cost and delivery time. Custom cabinets can cost anywhere from $300-$1200 per lineal foot. Stock cabinets are much less, ranging from $75-$300 per lineal foot. Delivery times also vary greatly between custom and stock, with custom cabinets taking anywhere from six to twelve weeks for delivery. Stock cabinets are as they seem, in stock. They can typically be purchased and delivered within a few days time. When there are certain challenges in a kitchen design such as size, storage needs, or an irregularly shaped kitchen, custom cabinets may make the planning of the kitchen much easier. Custom cabinets are built to the specifications provided by the designer. Some people believe that only custom cabinets can provide a designer with the many choices of material, color, and shape. That is not necessarily true. Many local retailers only show a very few stock cabinet designs but, the manufacturer actually produces a wide variety of colors and materials to match your plans for kitchen décor.

Details, Details, Details

There are some newer options that are available to home owners that were not considered a few years ago. There are many manufacturers offering stainless steel cabinets as well as some that are building cabinets made of alternative metals such as zinc and copper. All of these materials will eventually develop a nice patina over time, creating a very warm feeling space. There are other materials that are being combined with traditional wood cabinets that help create a new look. Some manufacturers are combining wood and metals, such as stainless and copper. Another additive is glass. Glass is combined with both metal and wooden cabinets and can be clear, frosted or patterned, making the design possibilities endless. Then add details such as hardware and other accessories, and that should be enough to cause your head to spin!

A kitchen is definitely the true test of durability when regarding cabinetry. Not only are the cabinets exposed to heat thrown off by the appliances, but they are also exposed to moisture. Choosing a material that will stand up to all the perils of a kitchen can be demanding, but most cabinets if maintained will stand up reasonably well. If you choose carefully, you should have pleasing results for years to come. Enjoy designing your kitchen!

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James Smithstone is a home design enthusiast and loves writing about southern house floor plans with flexible new floor plans & layouts and all the most-popular home designs & features. Buy Energy Efficient Home Designs online with confidence!

How do I unite our open floor plan?

My husband and I just moved into our first apartment. The floor plan is very open downstairs, the living room and dining area are visible from the front door. Our color scheme for the living room is red black and cream for the reason that…well our walls are cream, our couch and love seat are red and the television, tables, and such are black. I love the idea but our dining area looks into the kitchen, which is blue. Should we cordinate the dining room with our red black motif? or should we go with the blue kitchen. (the kitchen has blue wall paper which we can’t remove)

I would make the dining area coordinate with the living room for sure and in order to make it transition better into the kitchen you could just do the dining room in black and cream, forget the red so it will go with both rooms O.K. and maybe just for a little colour you could buy a painting that has all of the colours in it, black, cream, red and a splash of blue…might look like you even decorated you kitchen blue on purpose, which is what you want people to think.