Hi, my kitchen is awkward but technically functional and my bathroom is slooooowly falling apart. We are hoping to rearrange the layout of both, so it will likely be fairly extensive work and will require hiring people. I’d appreciate recommendations for websites that go through others experience, how to think our way through the design and material selection process and anything else you think would help.
Our personal situation:
Our house is a 90’s brick home with internal brick walls.
IKEA has many tempting items but we aren’t sure if the quality would last the next 25 years. Maybe if we opt only for their higher end options?
We already have all our appliances for our kitchen as the sellers put in all new items to get it sale ready, so it’s just everything else that we need.
I will probably start a new post with our current layout once I have some ideas on what’s possible.
I don’t have any resources to share right now but I’m interested in this topic! My kitchen is 40 years old and I’d love to replace our tile countertops that never feel clean. Ideally I’d also change the floor plan to better accommodate two cooks, but I don’t think our budget will allow that. My husband and I have cycled through a bunch of different ideas, and it would be nice to settle on something so we can get serious about making it happen. I don’t think we’re done changing our minds yet though.
We renovated a rental property 2 years ago. After looking at a number of options we went with a Bunnings Kaboodle kitchen and are happy with the result.
Kaboodle have designers (they do a full measurement and design and if you go ahead the cost of this (can’t recall but not too bad???) is subtracted from the kitchen cost.)
We found it very worthwhile having the design done - the designer had all the accurate measuring tools, we were complete newbies at kitchen design, he knew the product line inside out. He was also happy to answer questions through the build process - not sure if they all do that. We generally used higher end options where there was a choice - we wanted a durable solution.
A builder friend put the kitchen together. He is a bit of a perfectionist and was pleasantly surprised with the Kaboodle quality as were we! If you’re interested maybe look at the Bunnings Kaboodle website. Please excuse my over-enthusiasm - the renovation touched most of the apartment and was painful and stressful but in the end the kitchen ended up being easier than we expected.
Ikea cabinetry is decent quality and they have and online designer tool which will spit out a full shopping list. Their plumbing fixtures are not so great. Countertops I would suggest not doing light coloured solid surface (ie. Corian) since it can stain. I recommend undermount sinks for both kitchen and bath- removes that icky seam where everything gets stuck where the sink edge meets the counter. Not a personal fan of vessel sinks since it’s hard to clean under them.
OK, this is an old thread but it has exactly the questions I want to ask (preparing for a master bath addition and a full kitchen remodel in the house I am buying).
What are your favorite design sites? And where do you source things for reasonable prices?
Personally interested in US based distributors for the sourcing, as I cannot afford to ship a soaker tub from Austraila or Italy. But good design sites can be from anywhere.
I am hoping this will be my forever home so also very intersted in incorporating many accessibility features.
I should probably drive down to Portland and copy @anomalily and @aaronpk 's design binders…
For stuff like faucets and sinks I’ve found excellent deals on eBay or Amazon Warehouse Deals for open box items. If you’re getting faucets note that the big brands all have cheap lines now that aren’t the same quality. Look online at a plumbing store like Ferguson to make sure you’re getting a plumber-grade model (the retail price is usually a giveaway though).
Random tip: I was trying to choose between two sizes of light fixtures, and decided to ask the live chat on the manufacturer’s website (Kichler). They gave a very fast answer based on dimensions, and sent me a link for 30% off!