Stock Cabinets For Designing The Perfect Kitchen
If you are renovating a kitchen or building a new home
, the design service is usually free of charge if you are purchasing a line of cabinetry, such as Kraft Made, Thomasville or other special order brands. However, if you are remodeling with stock cabinets, you usually have to design the layout yourself and this can be intimidating. Designing a kitchen is not like choosing a metal tree wall decor from the metal art sculpture store.
However, the fact that readymade cabinets are engineered in standard sizes make the design work with ease for you. Bottom or base cabinets are engineered to support a countertop that is twenty-four inches deep, although widths can vary. If you require a cabinet to fit an odd measurement, this can be problematic. However, in this case, a local cabinet maker can probably make the odd piece for you at a reasonable price; this means that you won't have to special order the entire kitchen.
Planning your Layout.
Use 1/4 inch graph paper to create a scaled drawing of your kitchen including locations and widths of door, windows, future painted wood wall art. Unless you are changing the plumbing, note that in your drawing. Do not lock yourself into the current layout but instead be open to new ideas. For example, don't be hampered by the current location of the stove; it's not that difficult to rewire the new location. Likewise create scaled cut-outs of the appliances as well as the width and depth of the cabinets; height of the cabinets is not important at this phase of the process.
Kitchen Rules for Successful Designs.
Kitchen designers know certain things will and will not work based on their years of experience and the following are rules you must keep in mind.
1. Never put a set of drawers in a corner or the space next to it will be inaccessible. Your best option for a corner is a lazy susan or a cabinet with a blind opening in a corner.
2. Even if you have counter space on both sides, do everything possible to keep your stove out of a corner because you won't be able to reach the space in the back corner of the corner cupboard beside it.
3. If the corner cabinets are not at minimum 18 inches wide, the opening may be too narrow to use properly.
4. Lay out your design for as many drawers as possible: From mixing spoons to hot pads you can never have too many drawers.
5. Go for energy efficiency: Avoid putting the refrigerator next to the stove or your electricity bills will skyrocket and your refrigerator will wear out before its time.
6. Create an efficient work triangle between the sink, stove and fridge. If you have to lay out the appliances on one wall, avoid having the stove in between the sink and refrigerator.
Upper Cabinets.
You can make an elevation drawing after the lower cabinets and appliances are laid out. This is simply a scaled representation of how the kitchen will look when viewed straight ahead as opposed to your our previous drawing which was an overhead representation. Show the width and height of your windows and doors on the elevation drawing and draw a dashed line to represent where the bottom of the upper cabinets will be. Generally, this measurement is about 54" from the floor, but you can place them 52" if you are shorter. This will give you a visual as to how the upper cabinets will hang in the kitchen.
Since upper cabinets are 12" deep, go back to your overhead drawing and draw a dotted line on the plan 12" from the wall wherever you plan to place an upper cabinet.
Next, pull out the elevation drawing and make in-scale paper cutouts of available cabinet sizes and line them up above your base cabinets in the drawing. Strive to create a balanced layout between the door patterns and lines between the lower and upper cabinets. If they do not line up perfectly, create symmetry in your layout or balance several smaller cabinets against a larger one.
Now make a list of everything you need by size and quantity and go comparison shopping.
by: Fred Thompson
Enjoy Cooking Outdoors Renovate Your Kitchen With Metal Cabinets Crown Molding - Changes Your Home Into A Palace How to get rid of PPP at home Finding Time To Work At Home Cholesterol 4 Things To Consider Before Starting A Remodeling Project Adirondeck Chair Plans - Act Now ! Making A Step Chair - Don't Skip this Information ! Home Espresso Machine – Brew A Cup of Espresso In Your Home Excellent Info - Natural Enlargement Has Been Proven To Work - Add Up To 4 Inches To Your Penis From Home! Make A Camp Chair - Act Now ! Updated Facts - All Natural Penis Male Enlargement With Easy Exercises - Get An 8 Inch Penis At Home!