Improving our home flow

Why Visit a Kitchen Showroom Before Planning a Remodel?

22 March 2017

Timmothy Mitchelle

If you're planning a kitchen remodel, you may already have an idea of all the materials and style you want for flooring, the benchtops, the splashback, and the appliances. Before you make your final choices, however, you might want to visit a kitchen showroom with your designer or contractor. A showroom has demo kitchens laid out, with the actual benchtops, cabinets, appliances, and everything else you need in a kitchen. Consider why it's good to visit such a showroom before you even start planning your kitchen remodel.

Colours

Colours of materials like granite and porcelain can look very different in real life than they do in a magazine, and especially when spread out over a large area such as a benchtop or flooring. These colours can also look different when under artificial light versus natural light; if you visit a stonecutter to pick out granite for the benchtops, he or she may display those large slabs outdoors. You may then be quite surprised at the colour difference when the stone you choose is installed under fluorescent kitchen lights! A kitchen showroom can help you see the true colours of all these materials and how they'll appear under a home's artificial lighting as well.

Traffic flow

When planning a kitchen remodel, you may focus on the colours and materials of the appliances and other features, but may not know how to actually plan the footprint of your kitchen. An oversized island can be more cumbersome to work around than you realize, as an example, or you may find that placing the refrigerator in a far corner makes it virtually inaccessible. A kitchen showroom can allow you to actually walk through different layouts and footprints of a kitchen, so you can properly plan the placement of large appliances and where you might add accessories like a built-in bench for eating.

Storage features

A kitchen showroom may give you storage ideas for your kitchen that you had never considered, and which you might not readily find in a catalogue. For example, a showroom might have built-in shelves around the refrigerator for wine bottles, and you realize that you want the same storage in your kitchen! A showroom might display slide-out shelves in cabinets, an actual wine cooler built under the floor, and lots of other hidden storage ideas that can make a kitchen more functional overall. You can then include these in your kitchen and ensure no potential storage feature is overlooked.

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