What Every Kitchen Fitter Wishes You Knew Before Starting Your Renovation

Designing your perfect kitchen is something that many people dream about having the opportunity to do, however it can also be one of the most overwhelming projects to take on when renovating a property. After all, while it’s simple to switch out things such as cabinet doors, decorative accessories, and update wall colours, it can be more challenging to make changes to fixed units, tiles and worktops. So, here are a few things every professional kitchen fitter wants you to know.

Essential Advice from Experienced Kitchen Fitters

Design with practicality in mind

While you might love the look of kitchens with two ovens, the reality is that they will sit unused, simply taking up valuable space unless you are a keen cook who loves preparing food for yourself and your loved ones.

Similarly, it’s often not enough to simply have sufficient storage. Instead, kitchen fitters recommend ensuring that you’ve got enough of the right types of storage to suit your needs. So, while having a few deep cabinets will enable you to store large appliances with ease, this type of cupboard isn’t ideal for lots of smaller items because you’ll need to play a game of Tetris every time you want to access something at the back!

Pro Tip: Having a vision for how you want your kitchen to look is never a bad thing, however, it’s important to prioritise the elements that will enable you to interact with and enjoy your kitchen in ways that align with you and your lifestyle.

Consider how you want your kitchen to feel 

Understanding the feelings you ideally want to experience when you’re spending time in your dream kitchen can inform countless design decisions, so it’s worth spending some time at the start of your planning process considering this.

Let’s say that you want your kitchen to feel uplifting, help you to clear your mind of the stressors of modern life and leave you feeling restored. Keeping unnecessary clutter to a minimum is key to achieving this kind of atmosphere in a room, so you’ll really want to think carefully to guarantee that you have enough storage to make this a reality.

One way you may achieve this is to design and install a dedicated cupboard to house your small electricals, such as your kettle, toaster and bread bin. Everything will be in one easy to access place, however, you’ll also easily be able to tuck away wires and breakfast-making accessories behind cupboard doors for a clean and streamlined look.

If you want your kitchen to feel light and airy, you may choose to design a space without wall-mounted cupboards to emphasise the sense of height in the room. However, to ensure you’re not compromising on precious storage space, you could opt to make your kitchen slightly larger to accommodate extra base units and reduce the size of your living area.

Don’t forget the details 

It can be easy to get caught up in the most aesthetically pleasing elements of designing a kitchen. However, it’s very often the small yet highly functional elements that get overlooked, such as ensuring your cabinets are deep enough to store your belongings, choosing a worktop that will be durable enough to suit your lifestyle, and thinking about the most appropriate place to position a bin. 

Don’t scrimp on features you really want 

While creating a budget is an important part of almost every kitchen renovation project, it’s almost always worth investing in the pieces you really want, even if you’ve found an alternative you don’t love at a much lower price tag.

Let’s say that you’ve had your heart set on a tap that comes with a hefty price tag. While you could find an alternative, it won’t be exactly the same, and you’re quite likely to find that it just doesn’t live up to your expectations once it’s been installed. So now, not only will you end up spending more money on the tap you wanted originally, but it may need to be installed differently. This may mean covering up holes in your worktop and drilling new holes, which will take your kitchen fitter more time and add further costs onto your total.

Consider the proportions of your space

Whatever size space you’re working with, spending time considering the proportions of the room will help you to choose cabinets, islands, furniture and accessories that will look right at home.

While a compact kitchen island can be an ideal option in a Victorian property, it would look tiny and out of place in a larger open-plan contemporary space. So, to make sure you aren’t wasting time, money and resources, it may be helpful to work with a kitchen fitter to settle on the right sized features for your space.

Pro Tip: It’s not always easy to visualise how things will look in a room, so it can be helpful to mark out key features with tape to determine whether there’s either too little or too much space around them.

Your kitchen fitter will love Happy Doors kitchen cupboard doors 

Stylish, well-constructed and easy to install, we’re certain that both you and your kitchen fitter will love your new Happy Doors kitchen cabinet doors and accessories. Please contact us today with any questions or queries by emailing hello@happy-doors.co.uk or calling 0345 257 2526.

Frequently Asked Questions 

Do I need a professional kitchen fitter? 

Working with a professional kitchen fitter can help you to achieve a high quality finish, so it may be worth budgeting to hire one. Plus, they’ll also have the tools, skills, knowledge and experience to solve problems if things don’t always go to plan.

Do I need to rip out my existing kitchen and start from scratch?

If your cabinets are still in good condition and can be configured to a layout that works for you, keep them! Replacing cabinet doors is easy, regardless of whether you’re looking for modern slab style doors or something more traditional.