 | Ray Fisher, co-owner and General Manager of the Cabinet and Remodeling department at Fisher Lumber. Ray has been serving the consumer, commercial and builders' needs for 31 years in the area of cabinets, cupboards and kitchens. He is a Certified Builder and Installer as designated by the National Kitchen Remodeling Council, and holds a 20-20 Design Certificate from the National Association of Kitchen Designers. You may contact Ray at Fisher Lumber (316) 531-2295, or by email at ray@fisherlumber.com. |
Home Improvement
2007-06-01 16:32:00
Jazzing up the kitchen - series
Answer: Sure. Your feelings and concerns are among the ones we hear most often. Over the next few issues, we will talk about several topics relative to kitchen design and remodeling. Hopefully they will be of help to you.
Last month we talked about the different arrangements one can have. There are several, from ‘Linear’ and ‘Railroad’, to ‘Peninsula’, ‘Corner’ and ‘Horseshoe’ arrangements. Some of these are candidates for any kitchen, and some are not. You see, of all the areas that must be considered when doing a complete or partial remodel of an existing kitchen, the biggest consideration is getting everyone involved to remember...kitchens are designed around space. Space for appliances, openings, cabinets and cabinet doors. Every fraction of an inch must be accounted for in a kitchen design.
With these things in mind, you can begin to rule ‘out’ or ‘in’ the arrangements that are candidates for your finished kitchen. Are you going to be using your existing appliances or buying new? If you are using your existing appliances, will you be changing their location? If you are buying new appliances, you will need to have the exact measurements and their location determined. Next you will need to make a decision on your cabinet doors and whether they will have a standard overlay or full overlay. An overlay is the degree or amount a door overlays the frame or front edge of a cabinet. You will also need to decide whether you want ‘exposed’ or ‘hidden’ hinges. All of these things directly influence space.
You may wonder why we talked about the different types of arrangements last month, before we talked about the appliances, doors, hinges and space considerations. It’s very similar to hitting a golf shot. Once you get the picture in your mind of what you want the finished shot to look like, all you have to do is execute around your talents and skills. In designing a kitchen, once we have an idea of what we want the finished kitchen to look like, all we have to do is execute around a given set of facts and space dimensions.
That is all for this month. Coming up in future articles we will be talking about types of wood, construction and the different styles of traditional, contemporary and transitional one can use to make that beautiful new kitchen most unique and functional.
