New Year Renovations: Kitchens

We are back for the second post of our three-part blog series on New Year Renovations inspiration and ideas!

If you happened to miss last week’s blog post on Living Room and Bathrooms, you should head over there and read it. It does a great job of explaining why you should be thinking about home renovations when making your New Year’s goals and resolutions.

This week, we're taking a look at kitchens. The options for renovating your kitchen are nearly endless, and they're always a good investment. Kitchens and bathrooms are some of the best home renovations to hold their value. While kitchens can be a costly renovation, they are likely to pay for themselves with the value returned. That being said, not all kitchen renovation projects need to be costly. Don’t underestimate the value of the inexpensive tweaks and design touches that you can do to your kitchen.

Pro Tip: Minor home improvements can produce major returns. In fact, Remodeling magazine reports that in 2016 a “Minor Kitchen Remodel” on average has better financial returns, 83.1%, than a “Major Kitchen Remodel”, 64.9%.

“Minor Kitchen Remodel” refers to renovations like replacing the cabinet door fronts including its hardware, replacing laminate countertops, repaint trim, replace resilient flooring, replace wall oven and cooktop with new energy-efficient models.

Let’s take a look at what we’ve put together for kitchen renovation ideas and inspiration. Happy renovating!

Two-tone kitchen cabinets

The idea of mismatching your kitchen cabinets seems a bit counter-intuitive. When was the last time you have seen a kitchen with cabinets that were purposefully a different colour or texture? Not often we'd assume. But you don’t need to go too crazy with this concept. Think about keeping the upper cabinets a more neutral tone for that clean and consistent feel, and get creative with your lower cabinets using more natural colours or various wood textures. You will be pleasantly surprised by how great this can look.

Coloured stainless steel appliances

That’s right folks, polished stainless steel doesn’t need to be your only option. Consider opting out of those shiny silver appliances for black stainless appliances. If the black does not suit your kitchen, consider an alternative such as a bronze finish. You’ll be impressed with the sleek appeal that they have.

Workspace islands

One of the most common problems homeowners encounter with their kitchens is a lack of space. Usually, that means a lack of cabinet storage space or simply not having enough counter space for prep work. Having a workspace island, otherwise known as a “workhorse island”, can solve a lot of your kitchen headaches. Not only do they provide extra counter space for prepping, but you could have an additional sink, added cooktop, room for seating, and additional deep storage.

Openness (open concept)

We know from our last week’s article how popular open concepts can be in households. How can you apply an open concept to the kitchen? Typically this means having the kitchen effortlessly flow into your dining or living space. Another popular concept is incorporating an indoor/outdoor flow to your kitchen and living space. You can achieve this by utilizing a bifold door is a stunning way to open up your living space to the outdoors.

Automation (touch-activated faucet)

Automation technology has started to infiltrate your kitchens. Rather than avoid it, you may want to embrace it. The technology will likely make your life much easier. Faucets with sensors that are motion or touch-activated save you the hassle of turning your tap on and off in between tasks or when you have goopy, sticky hands. Meat thermometers that notify you on your phone when your roast has achieved the optimal temperature. Now that is nothing short of awesome.

Surprising backsplash and countertop pairings

If you like the idea of two-tone kitchen cabinets but aren’t ready to take the leap quite yet, this might be an option for you. Mixing up your backsplash and countertop pairings can be a great way to jazz up your kitchen. Playing it safe with the neutral tones and white can definitely work, but have a little fun and consider some of these backsplash and countertop pairings.

We will be back next time to complete our New Year Renovations series by taking a look at your home's exterior and yard, and if you missed it, be sure to check out our last blog post on living spaces and bathrooms!

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