Remodeling Archives – Three Week Kitchens

Oct 12 2017

Remove Lead and Asbestos from Your Home

A kitchen or bathroom renovation can bring many positive changes to your home, but it can also uncover some not so pleasant things lurking beneath the surface. Lead and asbestos are two of the most common hazards that are found in paint, insulation, and other materials used in older homes. If your home was built before the 1970s and hasn’t been renovated in a while, lead and asbestos abatement might be part of your remodeling project. Here are some tips on what to look for and how to make sure these hazards are removed from your kitchen or bathroom for good. Lead Health Risks Lead-based paint was not banned until 1978 and was very common in homes built before that time. According to the EPA, the older your home is, the more likely that it will have lead paint — nearly 90 percent of homes built before 1940 have it. Continue reading

Oct 04 2017

All About Hanging Bath Towels and Bath Mats

Do you take your bath towels and bath mat for granted? If you’re like most of us, you probably use them every day without much thought to where they are stored or how they are preserved. Whether you have a large or small bathroom, it’s important to make sure that towels and mats have enough space to properly dry between uses. Otherwise, they’ll quickly turn musty and moldy. Maybe you’ve even experienced this in your current bathroom. Remodeling your bathroom is a great time to re-evaluate how these essentials are stored in between uses. Don’t skimp on the small stuff — here are a few ideas for caring for your bath towels and bath mats. Hooks, Bars, and Racks No matter how small your bathroom, there’s room to properly hang bath towels and a bath mat. One of the most popular options is a towel bar that’s mounted to the Continue reading

Sep 19 2017

Make the Most of a Small Kitchen

When it comes to a kitchen, bigger is not always better. Sure, you might dream of having a huge, open kitchen filled with cabinets and appliances. But in reality, the size of your kitchen is what it is unless you undertake a major renovation to change it. Rather than dwelling on what your kitchen doesn’t have, focus on how to make the most of the space you do have. Doing this will ensure that you are comfortable in your kitchen no matter what the size. Think Vertical One place you might be able to expand your space is up. Extend cabinets or shelves all the way to the ceiling to make the most of the limited storage space. Store rarely-used items at the top, and add a stylish rolling ladder to help you reach them when needed. Consider adding glass fronts to higher cabinets so you remember what’s in them Continue reading

May 15 2017

Ask These Questions Before Your Kitchen Renovation

The kitchen is the center of many households, and the decision to remodel it is not one that should be taken lightly. Before you sink your hard-earned money into a renovation, it’s important to ask yourself some hard questions about how the space is used, how you want it to look, and how quickly you need the renovation to be complete. Coming into a consultation with honest answers to these questions will help the process run smoothly for you and your designer. Kitchen Use Everyone can say that their kitchen is used for cooking and eating, but beyond that surface level how is it really used? Factors to consider in answering this question are how many people are in your family, how often you entertain, and whether you plan to sell your home. Someone who entertains often will likely want a more open concept, while someone who is in their Continue reading

Jan 31 2017

Give Your Kitchen a Vintage-Inspired Look

Kitchens play a key role in our childhood memories. From family dinners to helping mom cook for the first time, nearly everyone can recall not only what they did in the kitchen but how it looked, too. Even with today’s trends toward ultra modern appliances and fixtures, there’s still room to bring that vintage look into your kitchen. The term “vintage” generally refers to styles that originated between the 1930s and 1950s. Think bright colors, rounded edges, and designs that seemed very modern at the time. Here are a few ideas for mixing old and new in your kitchen: Appliances On the larger side, an icebox freezer or oven with built-in storage cabinet can make more of a statement. Colors like yellow, blue, pink, and green, were popular in the 1940s and 50s. A farmhouse-style trough sink also evokes a vintage look. Choose from original appliances that have been Continue reading

Nov 25 2015

Tips for Designing the Right Kitchen for Your Home

Trying to figure out exactly how much kitchen you need? It is sometimes harder than you might think to find the perfect balance of your dream kitchen versus what’s actually practical and affordable. Here are a few tips that might help you in your decision making process: Keep the neighborhood in mind. If you ever plan on selling your home, the value of the homes around you means just as much as the condition and value of yours. If yours is the only home on the block with dated cabinetry and worn fixtures, you could be jeopardizing your long-term home value. Likewise, you’ll want to avoid frivolously over-spending on unnecessary features that would be uncommon in homes of a similar value. Don’t be too personalized. Not only will potential buyers not like the overly personalized look of your home, but you’re also more likely to get sick of it at Continue reading

Nov 12 2015

Determining the Right Layout for Your Kitchen Appliances

When you’re working on remodeling your kitchen, it can be difficult to get your layout exactly how you want it. After all, you need to be able to balance the size and shape of your appliances with the goals you have for space and functionality. One concept you can use to create a more efficient layout in your kitchen is the “kitchen work triangle.” The three points of the triangle are the three key elements of your kitchen—the stove, the refrigerator and the sink. The general theory is that having these three elements in close proximity to each other (but not coo close) will make the kitchen easier to use. Obviously exactly how you set up your kitchen depends on the space you have available, but it’s a good theory to keep in mind. Here are a few other things to take into account when determining the right layout for Continue reading

Aug 14 2015

The Toughest Parts of Remodeling a Kitchen

Have you ever looked at your kitchen and had a grand vision of what it could become? Of course, for most of us, our dreams of the perfect kitchen tend to glance over the amount of work that needs to be done, as well as the difficulty of that work. If you do not have professional training, you could be in for a lot of frustration if you attempt to create your dream kitchen yourself. Here are some of the toughest parts of remodeling a kitchen: Electrical work. While a lot of people have experience with woodworking and general construction, electrical work is more of a niche field. It’s extremely necessary in kitchen remodeling, especially in major overhauls where you are changing the location of outlets and lighting fixtures, the way the room is wired and more. One wrong move with electrical work could be extremely dangerous. Adding a new Continue reading

Aug 09 2015

Great Lighting Tips to Consider for Your Kitchen Remodel

As you plan out your big kitchen remodel, don’t forget the lighting! Great lighting can really be an aspect of your kitchen that highlights all of its best aspects and can be the finishing touch you need to be fully satisfied with your upgrades. Here are a few tips to make sure you’re getting the most out of your lighting in your kitchen: Plan it out ahead of time. You want to make sure all of your lighting makes sense and flows well with your design. Before you go ahead with making any purchases, make sure you’ve got a solid plan in place for how you want your space to be lit. This will help you to avoid spending more money than you need to on redoing any areas of your lighting in the kitchen. The number of fixtures and how they’re placed will depend on the size, layout and Continue reading

Aug 04 2015

The Benefits of Hiring a Professional Kitchen Designer

There are a whole lot of homeowners who will take a look at a picture of a newly remodeled kitchen and think, “Wow, I should give that a try myself!” While there are definitely certain parts of a kitchen redesign project you can take on yourself, you are most likely going to need professional help with the bulk of the project to ensure it turns out exactly the way you want it to and to certain be that the end result adds value to your homes equity. Here are some of the main benefits of hiring a professional kitchen designer: You’ll save time. Unless you have a fair amount of professional experience and training yourself, attempting to take on a kitchen remodeling project by yourself will almost certainly take significantly longer than it would if you hired a team of professionals to do it for you. You’ll avoid a lot Continue reading

Jul 29 2015

Practical Reasons to Consider Remodeling Your Kitchen

While many people choose to remodel their kitchens simply for aesthetic reasons, there are plenty of other reasons an upgrade might be necessary. Here are a few of the most common functional reasons people remodel their kitchens: Lack of space. A lot of people like to add more counter, cabinet or floor space to their kitchens, because they don’t have enough in their current setup. It could be something as simple as changing the shape of a counter or the position of a refrigerator, but adding extra space can make a huge difference in the functionality of your kitchen. Traffic flow. Do you often have guests over, or have more than one cook in the kitchen at a time? If so, adding more space around the main work area and turning your kitchen into an open plan design could be a great way to give you some added convenience and Continue reading

Apr 24 2015

Hidden Remodel Costs

Five Factors that HGTV Forgot to Mention You can’t swing a dead cat these days without hitting a designer or builder bemoaning the disservice “home renovation” shows perform when they tout ridiculously low kitchen and bath remodel costs. The Internet (that gleaming beacon of all information factual and trustworthy) can be even worse! Here’s the thing: if it were all fun and games, everybody’d be doing it. These shows paint an awfully rosy picture, but there’s a lot of information they’re leaving out. Choosing to invest in a remodel is a major financial decision for most households, and being prepared with the right information is the first step toward the success of the project. If remodeling projects were really as easy as they seem on TV that same dead cat would hit drop-dead gorgeous kitchens with every swing. Here are five hidden costs of a remodel that HGTV forgot to mention: Materials Continue reading

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