Kitchen Designing

Do It Yourself: Design a Kitchen

Designing your own kitchen is an opportunity for you to get exactly the sort of culinary workspace you want. Too often people inherit a kitchen when they buy a house, but they don't bond with it. According to Home Addition Plus, people spend more time in the kitchen than in any other room in the house, so renovating your kitchen will make it a more attractive area. It will also increase the value of your property. Kitchen renovations are not cheap, but designing what you want will be worth the effort.

Instructions

1.  Get the horizontal measurements of your kitchen. Measure each wall from corner to corner and record the length. Calculate from the outside edge of each door and window casing their widths, including the casing frame. Find the distance from the nearest corner to the gas feed line, the drain line and the water supply lines. Also mark in the switches and electrical outlets on your sketch.

2.  Do your vertical dimension calculations from the floor to the ceiling. You also have to record how far the casings and window stools are from the floor and the ceiling.

3.  Construct your basic plan. Write down all the dimensions onto a blueprint piece of paper. Make copies of the initial blueprint so you can sketch in different ideas, such as where you want the cupboards.

4.  Keep your structural considerations in mind. You may want the stove on the other side of the kitchen, but unless you get an extension for the gas line, that isn't possible. The same is true for your water connection.

5.  Determine where you have to put your major appliances. If you have already bought them, check the dimensions and sketch them in accordingly. Use your square and double check to make sure they will fit.

6.  Calculate your area triangle. This is the space from a worktop to an appliance and back to another worktop. It could be, for instance, from the cupboard to the stove and then to the sink.

7.  Plan a sink base cabinet. Work from the sink corner to the next major appliance. Size the cabinets so that you are not left with a gap that is more than three inches.

8.  Identify the sorts of materials you want for counter-tops and cabinets. Keep this consistent with the theme of the kitchen you are designing. Gingham curtains, for instance, look great in a colonial kitchen, but a touch out of place in high-tech modern one.

9.  Pick the finishing touches such as wall paper, floor coverings and paint.

Below is a link to a PDF file on How to measure and to design your kitchen with Apex's Interior Designer.

Click here to Download a PDF file for How to measure and  (A guide to planning a and creating the heart of your home.)