How to start a kitchen renovation: the main stages
The kitchen is the heart of every home - in the kitchen they cook, eat, communicate and relax from everyday work. Every housewife spends a third of her life in the kitchen, and every woman wants the kitchen to be as functional, comfortable, beautiful and cozy as possible. This article will tell you how to achieve this and where to start.
Do-it-yourself kitchen renovation is not an easy task, especially when it comes to capital. How to start a kitchen renovation to get the expected effect?
Depending on the additional options for using the kitchen and the number of households, a home council is held in order to determine who wants to get what from the renovation of the kitchen space. Often the kitchen is used for its intended purpose, as well as the dining room, but if the area is sufficient, it can be used as a lounge with a TV. Based on this, a kitchen renovation project is drawn up.
Kitchen renovation work plan
So how do you get started with your kitchen renovation? The first thing to do is to free the room from everything that will interfere. The second is to remove the old wall, ceiling and floor covering. Recently, the ceiling is most often installed stretch or trimmed with plastic panels. Both options are great - but expensive. If a major overhaul is being carried out, it is better to do everything to the highest standard and forget about repairs for several years!
As they say: when purchasing an expensive thing, the amount of money paid for it should be divided by the years of use and be glad that you bought it relatively cheap! So you need to proceed from how many years you will operate your transformed kitchen space before a new renovation.
Another important nuance, many are trying to repair apartments themselves. It is good if there is some skill in doing such work, but no matter how hard you try, the quality of the work will be unprofessional. The layout of the room, the decoration of walls, ceilings, floors, electrical wiring and plumbing require a competent approach - you should not save on your own safety and comfort.
Kitchen renovation is a responsible step, you need to start it by preparing a kitchen project with a specialist, which will be the embodiment of your dreams. A professional will calculate everything to the smallest detail, take into account all the wishes and provide a ready-made estimate, which will fully show how much and what material is needed for the repair.
Work order
Each repair, and not only in the kitchen, includes a certain sequence of actions.
So, the main stages of kitchen renovation:
- Change of electrical wiring;
- Replacing an old sink
- Water supply and sewerage;
- Then proceed to finish the ceiling;
- Then the walls;
- Floor finishing.
The main thing in do-it-yourself repair work is their sequence. First, wiring and replacing old sockets, and then puttying and wallpapering, and not vice versa. Even if you decide to carry out repairs yourself, invite a consultant who will tell you what is really necessary and what should not be done. The consultant will calculate the cost of spending on building material, tell you the addresses of stores where there are discounts, and tell you how vinyl wallpaper differs from liquid wallpaper, etc. No matter how hard you try to do everything yourself, you cannot know all the nuances of construction work. Therefore, it is more rational to invite specialists who are known firsthand, but those whom you personally know about how they completed repairs at neighbors, friends or your office.
When starting a do-it-yourself kitchen renovation, choose the right strategy and follow it scrupulously to achieve the final result - a cozy and multi-functional kitchen!
How to create a kitchen project - where to start
When designing a future kitchen, you can make a lot of mistakes, which you will have to regret later. However, armed with useful information, troubles when creating a kitchen project can be completely avoided.
We measure accurately
Any do-it-yourself kitchen renovation begins with a detailed measurement of the room. Even in new buildings, not to mention old houses, the walls are not the most even, so the width and height of the walls should be measured at several points: closer to the floor, in the middle, at the level of the expected upper shelves.
We draw ourselves
There are many special programs for kitchen design. There are professional software products that require a long study. The easiest way is to use those posted on the websites of large manufacturers. As a rule, in such programs you can choose a ready-made kitchen project. In addition, when designing a kitchen in such a program, it will be possible to immediately estimate the cost of furniture.
There is one more thing: in all kitchen salons there are designers who, having the size of your room, will create a kitchen design project in a matter of minutes, taking into account all the wishes of the customer. Most of the time, this service is free.
We do not save on the main
Depending on the materials used, textures and fittings, the price of a kitchen can vary significantly:
- The countertop, usually the most expensive element of the kitchen, can cost several hundred thousand rubles if it is made of natural or artificial stone, and only a few thousand rubles if it is made of plastic.
- It’s the same with fronts: solid wood cabinet doors look great, but they hit the pocket big. What you should not save on is door mechanisms: choose the highest quality from those offered.
Trying to avoid mistakes
An uncomfortable sink, an inappropriate height of the work surface, a soiled countertop, a kitchen apron on which every dried drop of water is visible - even one of the above troubles can poison the life of any housewife. Therefore, when creating a kitchen design project, consider how practical this or that solution will be. From the obvious: the smallest stains will be visible on glossy facades, just like on a glass kitchen apron. The seams between the tiles on the backsplash will have to be washed almost every day to keep the kitchen looking neat.
Surfaces with a rough texture, especially dark ones, are extremely impractical to use.
All other features of the kitchen design, such as the colors of the facades and their combination, the filling of the cabinets, are so individual that they do not need any advice. When creating a kitchen design project, the main thing is to remember that in this room, more than anywhere else, not only the aesthetic, but also the practical component is important.
Redevelopment - a new life for the kitchen
Often the location and layout of the kitchen do not suit the owners. But the kitchen is not only a place for the daily serving of the labor service of the hostess, but also a room for doing what you love, for solitude, or tea drinking with friends, neighbors. The only way to make it cozier, more modern, more convenient is to redevelop the kitchen.
If you decide to redevelop the kitchen and increase it at the expense of other premises, then you should ask what is possible and what is forbidden to do.
In this case, the design project of the kitchen may have to be coordinated in many organizations. This process is troublesome and time-consuming. It is easier to use a ready-made kitchen project that includes your wishes, without drastically changing its size. There are various layout options, a more convenient and functional arrangement of furniture and kitchen equipment. Here are some ideas for this:
- Swap the sink and hob. This allows you to increase the working surface without transferring communications. The hood remains in place, usually it is located in the corner. The movement is carried out no more than a meter. The length of the gas hose is enough for such a permutation. Above the cooking surface is a wall cabinet with a corner folding door. Folding table - continuation of the window sill;
- Removed the door to the corridor. At the same time, the color of the walls, floor and baseboards of the corridor is combined with the interior of the kitchen. The chimney and gas pipe are hidden in a wall cabinet. Water supply passes in the basement of kitchen furniture, the heating pipe is placed under the eaves;
- The door to the corridor is removed, the doorway is walled up. The wall between the kitchen and the living room is dismantled under an arch or a sliding door. The washing machine is placed in the corridor near the newly formed wall.
Surprisingly, the problem of redevelopment of kitchens concerns not only rooms with a small area. Often large kitchens turn out to be unnecessarily scattered, they lack integrity, since the entire space is divided into numerous zones. The problem in this case is solved very simply - in the center of the kitchen there is a dining table, which, as it were, connects all the design elements into one.
Creating a kitchen project with your own hands involves many aspects - design, furniture layout, appliances, communications and other issues. But, if as a result of its implementation the kitchen redesigned by you becomes your favorite place, then time, effort and money are well spent.
Attention, only TODAY!
