Complete Kitchen

There are a huge amount of companies out there saying that they can provide you with a the complete kitchen. This usually means that they want to sell you a set of complete kitchen appliances, complete kitchen cabinets, counter tops, lighting, and more. A complete kitchen is everything from the floor to the ceiling and everything on every wall. These stores and dealers are usually trying to get you to pick from a catalogue of pre-designed kitchens or sit down with an interior designer to help you think about everything from cabinets to breakfast nook design ideas. However, you do not need to do things that way. You could pick out the pieces you want separately. However, the pre-designed kitchens are usually very pleasing to the eye and are easy to decorate. On the other hand, a complete kitchen makeover could just mean kitchen cabinet door refacing or buying new kitchen cabinet doors.

Designing a complete kitchen can be a fun activity for any home owner. The kitchen is a room that most people spend a lot of time in and you want to make sure it is comfortable. The appliances such as refrigerators, stoves, microwaves, dishwashers,corner kitchen sinks, regular sinks, kitchen islands that look like furniture and more need to be functional and spaced appropriately. The counters need to be pleasing to the eye as well as easy to clean and large enough to accomodate your cooking and storage. The cabinets need to be sapcious so that you can store lots of dishes, pots and pans, but they also need to look nice. There are lots of pieces to making your compelte kitchen a success. A visit to a complete kitchen center at your local Lowes or Home Deport might be a good place to start.

The first thing you need to decide when you are looking to purchase or install a complete kitchen set or do a complete kitchen remodel is what kind of a kitchen you are hoping for. Do you want something contemporary, modern, or country looking? Everything that you put in your kitchen will depend on this first decision. The three pictures to the right show you these three overall choices well - contemporary, modern, and country.

Once you have decided on your overall theme, the next step in filling your complete kitchens should probably be the appliances. These will take up the most room and you need to plan your cabinetry and counter tops around where you want the major appliances like the stove, the sink, and the refrigerator. You not only need to decide where you want the appliances, but how large you want them to be and what kind of facade they will have. Stainless steel appliances are very popular right now, but another trend is to get your major appliances like the refrigerator and dishwasher with a facade that matches your cabinets so that they look like any other cabinet. You can pick out these appliance sat any complete kitchen and bath store in your area or any large department store.

Once you pick out the major appliances and decide where you want them, you can then measure the space you have left and decide on what kind of cabinets and storage spaces you will have. You might have to make adjustments to your appliance choices so that the cabinets will fit. Most cabinets are made to standard sizes so you have to try to make it work. However, if you have enough resources you can arrange to have cabinets custom made to fit any space you desire. Two important details not to be forgotten are the kitchen doors and the cabinet hardware or kitchen cupboard handles. The cabinet or kitchen doors can be chosen separately from the cabinets if you have something specific in mind. Cabinets are not usually sold with hardware so you need to make this decision separately. This very small detail can make a huge difference in how the kitchen looks. For example, in the modern kitchen photo above, the absence of hardware make the room look more sleek and modern than if there was hardware like what we see in the country kitchen photo. When thinking about storage space, you also want to consider the walls and the ceiling. You can hang hooks on the walls to store utensils or pots and pans. Another popular trick is to install a large pot rack over a kitchen island to hang all of your pots and pans from. This saves a lot of cabinet space.

The island is also a very popular way to increase your work surface and storage capacity. If you have the square footage, using the middle of the kitchen for an island can give you a lot more room to work with in your complete kitchen. If your kitchen is small, then a permanent island might not be a possibility. However, you can by roll away islands that you can bring away from a wall when you want extra counter space.

After the cabinets and appliances are picked out the next big step is to decide on your counter tops. You first want to decide what material the counters will be made out of. The least expensive option is laminates, but the more popular choices these days are granite or Corian. There are advantages and disadvantages to all kinds of counter tops. You need to make the decision that is right for your lifestyle and budget.

A complete kitchen will not be finished with just the basics like appliances, cabinets and counter tops. You will need to decide on a floor and back splash. The floor should be something that can be cleaned easily because it will get dirty quickly since you will be preparing food there. Carpet is not appropriate for a kitchen under any circumstances. You can have small rugs thrown around for your comfort when you are standing for a long time, but the floor in general should be hardwood, tile, laminate, or stone. All of these materials can be cleaned with a broom and mop and you can wipe away spills easily. The back splash is the space between your counter top and the upper cabinets. Most people will complete their kitchen by adding touches of color or themes here. You can use, wall paper, stenciling, marble tile, travertine tile, porcelain tile, or lighting to enhance your back splash. In the contemporary kitchen photo above, you can see how modern kitchen lighting like under cabinet lighting makes the back splash come alive.

No matter what your decision is as to how to get your complete kitchen, through a company that markets them or by picking and choosing pieces from various stores or dealers, you will need to make all of these decisions. The use of a pre-designed complete kitchen will make the decision easier, because you will not have to think about the overall theme or decorating concepts. But, if you are adventurous enough and have enough imagination, you can make a complete kitchen for less if you plan it yourself.