10 Tips for Installing a Kitchen... Part 1/3

We intentionally choose to have a compact kitchen for a few reasons, but the key reason was space. We wished to have as much room for people as possible.

This is the second kitchen I have designed and installed from scratch. Along the way I have learned a few useful lessons:

1) Understand what you need/want in the Kitchen
Before you start any designing or shopping be sure to gather all the information you need for making informed decisions on design such as:

• How are you going to use the kitchen?
  Gourmet meals or vacation fare - and remember you are going to have a BBQ...
  

• What appliances?
  (stove: gas or electric; fridge: ditto; microwave; dishwasher (ugh!); range vent)
  

• What size of appliances do you need"
  Remember this is the cottage - you aren't living there 24/7 or at least not yet...
  We choose 24" appliances - not only are they cute, they are very space saving

• What do you need to store?
  (dishes, pots/pans, glasses, mugs, dry foods, can goods, etc... and do not forget the small appliances: the toaster, kettle, Martguerita maker...
  

• Dealing with garbage and recycled material, and then is composting

• What can you afford? - the most important question!
  

2) Design, Plan
The best thing we did is get one of those designing layout forms. Those are those things with all the lines on them. You use it to layout to scale the design. We actually used an online layout tool that IKEA has. This works well if you are intending to buy your cabinets from IKEA.

But then there is a bunch of things you have to do:

• Get exact measurements for all the opening (doors, windows, etc) in the kitchen area. Remember this includes any molding around them. REMEMBER I said exact measurements.
  
• Decide what materials you want for the cupboards, the counter-top, the back-splash
• Where do need lighting including overhead, and under the wall cabinets.
• Are you going to have a valence on top and/or under the wall cabinets?
  

Then there is the triangle rule. That rule states that you should design the position of the fridge, stove and sink so that they form a triangle.

Coming:
In the next post we discuss the next 3 tips

Suppliers mentioned:
IKEA
Home Depot
RONA

Related Posts:
Cottage on the Edge: How to Make Quiet Kitchen Drawers!
Cottage on the Edge: Quiet Cupboard Doors!
installing a cottage kitchen
installing a kitchen countertop: a few tips...
the kitchen construction site
We Have Water!

;-)