Five tips for renovating your kitchen

The kitchen is often the heart of the home. It’s where families come together to cook, bond and enjoy each other’s company.

So where do you start if the ‘heart’ of your home is in need of some TLC and an upgrade?

To assist with this process, we’ve put together five handy tips to help kick start your kitchen renovation.

1. Create a kitchen that reflects your cooking style

If the purpose of your kitchen upgrade is to create a space you and your family can enjoy (as opposed to renovating for the purposing of selling your home) then it’s important that the kitchen you create reflects and supports how you and your family use the kitchen.

If you’re the kind of household that likes to regularly entertain and cook up large meals for family and friends, then you need to create a space that complements this.

On the flipside, if your cooking style is more simplistic and you’re less likely to be whipping up big feasts all the time, then you might like to look for a kitchen design that has an emphasis on appliance storage instead of large ovens and cooktops.

2. Place an emphasis on functionality

It’s important that your kitchen has good function and flow. You want your most used elements, such as your fridge, sink and cooktop, strategically positioned so that you can easily transition between them when cooking. Avoid placing your fridge and sink directly opposite one another. They are arguably two of the most high traffic areas and situating them close together is not the most efficient use of space.

Prioritise bench space too. It’s one of the most essential features in a kitchen and can make a world of difference to your prepping time. If you have the room, it’s a good idea to extend your bench space so you have more room to cook and prep.

If you have an island or are thinking of adding one, make sure there is adequate space between the island and other counters so that it’s easy to manoeuvre around your kitchen.

3. Maximise storage

Ample storage room is a critical factor for any well-designed kitchen. You want to ensure that no space is wasted. Find creative ways to make use of smaller areas and customise your drawers so they fit the items you need to accommodate, such as large pots, bakeware, bins etc.

If you’re working with a small space, don’t be afraid to incorporate shelving on the walls and add hooks onto pantry doors. You’ll be surprised by how much extra room this will give you and it will also add to the kitchen’s overall aesthetic. This approach to design will also help minimise clutter, giving the space a clean, modern and fresh appeal.

4. Provide enough power points

Be sure your newly designed kitchen has plenty of power points. There is nothing more frustrating than constantly needing to plug and unplug appliances and only being able to use one at a time because you don’t have enough power points.

Ensure you have enough installed so that you can easily multi-task when using the kitchen.

5. Work your hero appliances into the overall design

Gone are the days when appliances were merely for function. Today’s kitchen appliances tend to wow in design and aesthetic too, so much so that eye-catching mixers, toasters, kettles now often serve as features in a kitchen.

If you are partial to impressive looking appliances, be sure to create a kitchen space that accentuates them. You might want to include more space for them to be permanent fixtures of your kitchen layout instead of hidden away in cupboards.

If you are doing a complete revamp of your kitchen including buying new appliances, be sure to choose them in advance. It will be easier to find cabinets and countertops that fit your appliances (like fridges and dishwashers) when you have them sorted upfront instead of doing it retrospectively.

Looking to renovate other areas of your home? Find out what you should consider before renovating your bathroom.