Since kitchens are the heart of our homes, we aspire to ensure they are practical and beautiful. Unfortunately, kitchen renovations can be costly, sometimes exceeding our allotted budget.
However, this shouldn’t stop us from designing and having our dream kitchens. It is possible to do kitchen renovations in Calgary without exceeding our budget. All we need is careful decision-making and enough forethought with the help of the following tips and tricks:
1. Plan & Prioritize
Before you embark on any renovation projects, it would be best to identify what’s important. To get started, ask yourself this: Which elements require primary updates?
It is probably your lighting, cabinets, or worktop. Or maybe you are looking to update the décor to revamp the space’s aesthetics.
By prioritizing these, you can concentrate on important matters and prevent unnecessary costs in your kitchen makeover project.
2. Allocate the Budget to Every Renovation Aspect
Once you determine the amount of money to spend on the entire project, ensure you list every expense you plan on and divide the budget among those categories.
If you are working with a professional contractor, you may spend about 18% on labour. Therefore, ensure you factor all that into your costs. We have listed the kitchen renovation expenses based on our findings:
- Labour -18%
- Countertops – 10%
- Floors – 7%
- Design – 4%
- Plumbing & fixtures – 4%
- Miscellaneous – 1%
3. Concentrate on Every Surface-Level Change
Unless you already have a valid reason, avoid ripping out your cabinets and rebuilding them from the start. Cabinets are usually the greatest part of our kitchens, so the expense of rebuilding them may run into dollars because you will need new countertops, too.
One of the most affordable renovations is those focusing on every surface-level change. This involves refinishing or repainting cabinets or replacing the cabinet doors or hardware but leaving all the built-in structures intact. By prioritizing these surface changes, we can make a visual change without spending on new structures in our kitchen.
4. Reuse Materials
Saving money on our kitchen renovations involves more than just making compromises and cuts. It also involves using what we already have.
Reusing some appliances and cabinets is a great way to save cash on our kitchen renovation projects. Cabinets, especially, are expensive. So, you might want to reface the doors, but your cabinet body remains untouched.
5. Choose Splurge Features
This discussion about savings and budget-friendly makeovers doesn’t necessarily mean we shouldn’t indulge in several luxuries. After all, it is our kitchen, and we deserve nothing but the best.
Therefore, we should assess our budget and choose a few splurge fixtures or features. These can be several beautiful pendant lights or painted tiles for our backsplash.
6. Assess the Current Layout of Your Kitchen
Before you proceed with your project, first assess the current kitchen layout. As a homeowner in Calgary, you must prioritize the following aspects:
- Plan for every work with a walkway width of about 42 inches for you to cook
- Allow passageways of about 36 inches wide
- Measure the floor space accurately
- Make sure doorways are 32 inches wide or more
In conclusion, there will always be hiccups and surprises when renovating our kitchens. Regardless of how we plan and prepare ourselves, a few things will still vary. This is why having a professional renovator we can trust is a perfect way to navigate the entire process.
