Well, you could try of course, the designs that you can flick through on the websites are many a times really attractive. But when it comes to your kitchen, would they be easy to install having bought the prefab kitchen that you have chosen or might there be some problems? If you think about it for a moment, buying an off-the-peg kitchen may seem a great idea to save money, but in the long run, this choice could cost you dear and leave you spending well beyond your budget and seriously out of pocket.
How a kitchen looks in a catalog might look can be very different from when you have installed it in your home. While you may have a reliable builder who can install your kitchen what he and his team can do is to install it well, but if there is a problem. For example, if you got the dimensions of your kitchen wrong even a little bit, the installer will say “sorry that is your problem”. When you have sorted it out, the installer and his team can return to work and complete the job. But as you hit the table in frustration, you will realize that the person responsible for this project is you and you have no one to turn to.
Your first thought maybe that this is going to cost me a lot of money, but actually this is not entirely true. Take a moment to list and evaluate the advantages. A professional kitchen designer whom you have found should be able to show you a successful track record and a portfolio of satisfied clients in your neighborhood. The best kitchen designers will point out that it is not the installations that went like clockwork that make them the best and therefore the designer that you should choose. Rather, they will point to how they were able to come to the assistance of a client whose kitchen project hit problems or a major obstacle such as finding hazardous wall filling material when the kitchen was being prepared.
If you are refitting or rejuvenating an old kitchen in the home you have recently bought, you will often not know the problem that you are staring at until wall boards and plaster have been torn down. Anything from asbestos sheets to lead pipes could be found behind the old kitchen cabinets, now what are you going to do? If you have an experienced kitchen designer in your team you need not worry as he and his team will know how to sort out the problem. A few quick calls to their excellent contacts will get your project back on track in no time.
Your kitchen designer is also responsible for sourcing and buying the kitchens that will be installed in his client’s homes. If you think about this for a moment, you will quickly understand that buying in bulk and selling on to individuals and their families makes perfect sense, as you should be able to share in the discounts that the kitchen designer can enjoy thanks to the fact that they are very important clients of the wholesale suppliers. A good kitchen designer and installer should allow you to make sure that this is a win-win situation for both of you.
Listen to the plans that your kitchen designer has for your coming new kitchen installation. One of the most important questions to ask is “Thinking about my current kitchen cabinets and units, is there anything we could re-use without full replacement?” Unless they are damaged or ruined, the answer should be yes. The best kitchen designers are prepared to go to some lengths to minimize the amount of change that needs to be made in your existing kitchen and is very conscious of the need to preserve and not throw away perfectly good kitchen equipment material. If it is possible to replace doors, decoration, work tops, hobs, built in fridges and ovens and so on, then this is all they will advise you to do.
Next, as the old kitchen material is being removed, you should ask the kitchen designer where it is going and satisfy yourself that each piece is being sent for recycling or safe disposal and not just being dumped so it becomes a biological hazard.
This is where the best kitchen designers show their skills that set them apart from the rest. Sit down with them to examine the amount of natural light that you will be able to expect in your kitchen and the colors you should choose for your walls, tiles or floor boards to enhance and benefit from day time light. Next, as you move to the evening and night, do you want your kitchen to exude warm soft lighting and informality? Or do you prefer brighter more simplistic primary lighting that makes it more functional in appearance? Of course, you could blend the two with clever lighting and wall decoration, so turn to your kitchen designer and you will find informed help is close at hand!