While your kitchen has always been the beating heart of your home, it’s been working overtime since we started the healthy at home initiative.
Now, in addition to being the place where you prep, cook, and clean up after meals, your kitchen may be a home office, a virtual meeting space, a classroom, a snack bar, a coffee shop, or the place to host a Zoom happy hour — or any combination at any given time.
While you and your kitchen are multi-tasking, there’s a silver lining. This is a great opportunity to take a hard look at what works and what doesn’t in your kitchen now, and what you’d like to change or add. Starting to plan your kitchen remodel now will pay dividends later.
The Work Triangle
We’re all cooking and eating most meals at home (with the occasional indulgence of take-out or delivery). Spending more time working in your kitchen can make the pain points of your current space more obvious. And while we won’t always be so home-bound, taking the lessons learned in this more extreme situation will make spending time in your kitchen much more enjoyable when we get back to normal.
You may find you want more counter space for chopping, prepping and cooking. You may find that your “work triangle” — the path between the sink, stove, and refrigerator — is obstructed or inconvenient. Because more family members are home together, you may also find one of the pinch points is at that fridge, with people in and out for snacks or a drink. If cooking is a team sport in your family, you might want more than one work triangle.
We’ve also seen a big surge in at-home baking during this crisis. If you’ve caught the bread-baking bug, you know you need space to, well, knead and roll-out your loaves.
Doing all that work at counter height is possible, but many enthusiastic bakers take a cue from the pros and have a station that’s lower than the standard countertop height. You can get more leverage and muscle on a lower counter. Think about what counter material you’d like. Many breadmakers and pastry chefs prefer the coolness of marble to work on their doughs.
Storage Space
We’re all trying to limit our runs out to the grocery store, and we’re bringing home more items at one time. If you’ve got growing kids or teenagers, packing away everything can be a stretch. There’s no question storage space is at a premium.
Remodeling your kitchen with an eye toward increasing your storage capabilities is one of the biggest requests we get, even in more normal times. We often add cabinet space, large drawers, and island space to boost your storage capacity.
A pantry is also a popular addition, giving you a place to organize shelf-stable items like canned and dry goods.
Appliances & Tools
You might find that your current array of appliances just aren’t cutting it. Think about whether you could use a larger stove or cooktop — would adding burner space help you in your day-to-day cooking? If you’ve discovered you love to bake, you may want more than one oven, and moving them to the wall could take some stress off your back or knees. Ovens can do more than ever, too. They can have multiple functions, with convection, warming, or proofing options.
Fridge frustration is real, and freezer space is getting more crowded. Think about how you’d like to use your refrigerator and freezer, and what design would suit your life the best. All configurations have their fans, some love the French-door with pull-out freeze, while others prefer a side-by-side design.
If you’re thinking about a kitchen remodel, we’d love to help. We’ve got a lot of experience designing and building kitchens that work as good as they look. Fill out the form below, or give us a call at 502-749-1586, and we’ll get started creating your dream kitchen.