A kitchen remodeling is tricky to get right. You’ve got to strike exactly the right balance between form and function, as nowadays it’s a room that’s used for both practical purposes (preparing food) and for entertainment (dining). So it’s not just about integrating the appliances into the design in a space efficient way or making sure that storage is plentiful and accessible, it’s also about getting the aesthetic just right and creating the right atmosphere in the room. No single feature makes a contribution on all of these levels as significant as the cabinetry that’s chosen does.
During the design and planning stage of a kitchen renovation, our team always emphasizes the importance of selecting quality cabinets for this reason. Want to know what benefits can be experienced if you spend a little more to implement better quality cabinets during your kitchen remodeling? Well keep reading!
More Than a Box and Some Hinges: Our Kitchen Remodeling Experts Talk About Quality Cabinetry
Why are we placing such a high level of importance on the cabinets you select; they’re just boxes with some hinges and a door, right?! Fundamentally, you would be right in saying that, but really, your cabinets are so much more than what they appear. Here’s why you should carefully select your kitchen cabinetry when undergoing a kitchen remodeling project and a few reasons why you would be wise to opt for a quality option!
- Cabinets Occupy a BIG Surface Area – Your kitchen cabinets will have a considerable impact upon how your new kitchen appears from a visual perspective after a kitchen remodeling has been done. Why? Well, simply because of the sheer amount of space they occupy in the overall design. If you walk into any kitchen, quite possibly the first thing you always notice are the cabinets. Even if the rest of the kitchen’s fixtures and fittings are top notch, if poor quality cabinets are used, they will make the overall design much less impressive. However, choose the right cabinets and the rest of the design often seems to fall into place!
- They Outlast Lower Grade Cabinets – In today’s day and age there’s a cheap, generic, mass-produced option in every type of market and the kitchen remodeling industry is no different. You can pay as much as you want or as little as you want for kitchen cabinets, but there is a big difference in the quality of the product you receive, most noticeably in terms of longevity. Higher quality cabinets installed as part of your kitchen remodeling can last for as long as 15 years, while lower grade options may need replacing in as few as five. So as you can see, while you may end up spending a bit more initially, you will almost certainly end up ahead in the long run. And not only are the materials more durable, but because they’re higher quality, it’s also usually possible to have these cabinets refinished rather than just replacing them, further lengthening their lifespan.
- Combined Form & Function – When you opt for a lower quality option, you typically only get one of these attributes or none. This because they are not designed in a way that uses the interior space of the cabinet particularly effectively and while the lower grade materials may be able to imitate more prestigious materials reasonably well for a time, it won’t be long before their appearance starts to look a little worn. However, quality cabinets offer you the best of both worlds, often containing much more complex interior designs to allow for the efficient storage of your kitchen utensils and supplies, while retaining a stunning exterior appearance. After all, nothing looks quite like pine or mahogany than real pine and mahogany does.
- Irregular Shaped Spaces – No Problem! – Our Toronto kitchen remodeling team must have visited thousands of kitchens in Toronto over the years and we can tell you that many of them had certain areas that could only be described as being “irregularly shaped.” While that doesn’t have to be the end of the world and won’t necessarily ruin the room’s design, it does make it difficult to utilize stock cabinets (the lower quality options typically found in big box stores). These cabinets are made to pre-determined specifications and it’s very, very unlikely you’ll find an option that fits in with your kitchen’s irregular shape perfectly. The result is cabinets that either don’t fit flush to the wall or cabinets that leave ugly gaps that do nothing more than gather dust. In these situations, our kitchen remodeling team would always recommend opting for a higher end, custom solution that can be made to measure. Not only will they perform better, but they’ll make your kitchen look a lot more complete too.
- Your Own Design – A kitchen remodeling project is your chance to put your own stamp on your kitchen and project your own identity onto it. Perhaps you’ve been living with a kitchen that the previous owners had put in or maybe you’ve always lived in rentals and had no say in the matter. So now that you’ve got the chance to incorporate your own tastes and preferences into the design of one of your home’s most important rooms, why would you choose to use something generic, designed by someone aiming to please the average Joe? With higher quality cabinets you get much more say in the matter and you can influence the appearance and features that your new cabinets possess both inside and outside.
If you’ve decided that you’ve had enough of your current kitchen and would like to update it but don’t know where to start, get in touch with the team of professionals at Karen Homes. We’ve been involved in hundreds of kitchen renovation projects, as well as bathroom renovation and basement renovation work, and we are highly skilled at being able to bring a client’s vision to life in a cost effective manner.