As an interior decorator or designer, you know that the kitchen is one of the most important rooms in a home. It is a high-traffic area and families tend to congregate there to plan and make delicious meals. However, when it comes to designing the perfect kitchen, it’s easy to blow your clients’ budgets and force them to make decisions that may end up sacrificing the room’s sense of style. If that’s the case for you, this guide will help you make design decisions that will make the room stylish without making any design sacrifices -- and tell you how to do it inexpensively.
1. Remove Excess Clutter from the Kitchen Area
Decluttering the kitchen is an aesthetic point -- it’ll make the kitchen stand out so it’ll really pop when visitors enter the home. Becoming minimalist doesn’t cost a thing, too.
Have your clients remove anything that is unnecessary from the kitchen. Completely get rid of any item your clients no longer use and have them store things that get used less than three times a year elsewhere. Remove any TVs or radios and put them in another high traffic area. You can have clients store the coffee maker, toaster, tea pot, electric can opener and other small appliances either in an appliance garage or in a kitchen cupboard. Remind your clients that when the kitchen counter is clear and tidy, it’ll act as motivation to keep it that way.
2. Create a Focal Point to the Kitchen That Works With the Family Lifestyle
You may be tempted to fill the kitchen with all sorts of fixtures and furnishings, but this can create visual confusion and cause an uneven stew of things that are all trying to cry out for attention in one place. This will also help to blow your client’s budget faster than you realize. What you should do, instead, is select one or two focal points and devote a good part of your client’s budget to those items. Make sure that what do you works with the lifestyle of the family you’re designing for.
There are quite a few things that you can do, so long as you only pick a project or two. For instance, you can add brightly colourful furniture, such as chairs, if your client’s family has a penchant for a particular hue. Just make sure to keep the rest of the kitchen a neutral colour to accent the tone. You could also add bold tiles as a backsplash. Or maybe you could accent the kitchen island’s countertop. The sky’s the limit, really, but, once again, be careful that you don’t overdo things.
3. Update the Cabinet Style
You can provide a high quality of style for a lower price simply by updating the existing cabinets. You don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater, either. For those customers that like their kitchen layout, you can:
- Repaint their cabinet doors.
- Replace their cabinet doors.
- Update the cabinet’s hardware and accessories.
If your client does want to replace the cabinets entirely, you can save money by buying stylish and inexpensive IKEA boxes, and then dedicate a larger portion of the budget to placing custom doors, components and accessories on or in them. And the choices you have are endless.
Swedish Door has various styles of doors to choose from, along with different types of wood species. If your client is looking for something a bit more traditional, you could get barn-style doors. Or if your client is using IKEA’s Euro-style boxes, they can choose from something more contemporary if it matches the style of the rest of the kitchen and house. Essentially, you have many different options when it comes to getting something that’s of high-quality for a lower price.
Don’t be afraid to check out the possibilities, and dare to dream when it comes updating the cabinets and all of its components.
Ready to get started?
Here at Swedish Door we’ve got a team of professionals ready to sit down and help you with your next kitchen renovation project.
