How To Renovate Your Kitchen For Less
How To Renovate Your Kitchen For Less
I have many wealthy clients that I design for, and from the outside it seems like money is no object as we move through the project wish lists. But one thing I have learned in my time in this industry, is that wealthy people generally didn’t get wealthy by spending money they didn’t have to. Those close to me might categorize me as the less refined version of the word “frugal,” but I prefer words like “discerning” or “financially restrained,” but in a word, I’m pretty cheap. So you now have it on good authority that I come at this topic from a practiced and well worn point of view. I can attest to these strategies because I have done them. My friends and family might argue I should call this blog post “The Art of Getting Things For Free (or close to it).” So let’s get on with it.
Why We Love Kitchens
Kitchens are the guts, the heart, the heartbeat, the brains, the center etc of every home. It’s where people gather, have laughs, have food, have drinks, and sometimes have hard conversations. Humans are most likely to engage in meaningful conversations when there is a task being worked on, and they aren’t facing each other (like cooking or cleaning dishes). Have you ever noticed you get into deep conversations on the car ride home after spending an hour at dinner with someone?
So improving our kitchens and making them more functional, liveable, and fashionable is nearly always the first on the wish list in any renovation I’ve taken on. So how do we get those instagram kitchens without paying the instagram price tag? Here are 3 ways you can do it.
Buy Premade Cabinets
Here’s a little insight into how a custom kitchen is made: A designer interprets your wish list into a functional design and layout, those drawings are then taken to a cabinet shop. The cabinet shop will often redraw these drawings and make them into very precisely dimensioned shop drawings for the workers to work from. Then the millworkers will cut the box or carcass material to the exact dimensions, glue and fasten the boxes together, and then cut and fabricate the drawers, shelves etc. before assembling those. These boxes are very precisely made to fit your exact space requirements. That’s a lot of labour hours and a lot of cost to get boxes, drawers and shelves. So how do we get around this?
Look into buying premade boxes. The major pros of this option are: cost and time. Custom kitchens are often 2x what a premade kitchen would cost, and they often take up to 4-6 months of planning before install. If you have the space flexibility, and can handle your boxes being in increments of 6” (ie. 12” 18” 24” 30” 36”) in width, you can save a lot of money on items that will almost never be seen, and almost never noticed by anyone. You can spend some money and get custom drawer and door fronts also, which will really add to the custom aesthetic.
In good faith, I can’t avoid the cons of this option. You may lose some flexibility in that you’re forced to use the sizes and functions that the company has available, and sometimes the material they use is not good quality. But as long as you do your homework, other than the slides and hinges, kitchen boxes and drawers rarely wear out.
If you really want to save some cash, look at buying a used kitchen and using the boxes only, or keeping the fronts, which can sometimes be spruced up by refinishing or painting them.
Reuse or Repurpose Materials
If you know you’re doing a kitchen renovation in the upcoming months, start to regularly browse your local online marketplaces for items you can use. Reusing sinks, faucets etc can be great ways to add some style to your kitchen, while saving money. Pro Tip #1: Call some of your regional plumbers and ask them to call you if they remove antique or valuable fixtures. Often plumbers will replace fixtures for clients who don’t want to keep the old one, and the plumbers don’t want them either, so it goes in the trash. If a plumber can resell something for cash they got for free, they’ll keep their eyes open for you, and you’ll get a great deal. Everyone wins.
Pro Tip #2: If you are adding a window in the kitchen (or anywhere really) and you can be flexible with sizing and operation, give your local window supplier a call and ask what they have in their boneyard. Sometimes window suppliers have to take back windows that were ordered incorrectly and they can rarely be resold, as most projects have unique sizing, colour, and operation needs for their windows. So the result is having a dozen or more windows collecting dust in the back warehouse of a showroom. They may be anxious to get rid of them for a discounted price, rather than hold them for nothing. You get a new window, they recoup some of their costs. Everyone wins.
Pro Tip #3: Same with countertops. Call some of your local suppliers once you have an idea of your countertop needs and ask if they have offcuts or defects that will fit your project. Same as the window suppliers, they’ll want to get rid of these for often a discounted price, rather than hold them for nothing. You can often cruise through their yard and check out the pieces too. Everyone wins (notice the trend?)
Explore Alternate Materials
This one is my favorite. I love looking through inspo photos online and seeing people use interesting materials in unusual places. Be resourceful. Do you have to use tile for your backsplash? Could you use another waterproof material? A friend found a stainless steel offcut and saved thousands by covering his existing countertop in stainless steel. He just paid a few hundred dollars to a fab shop to cut and bend it to the correct dimensions. Concrete countertops are ones that I love. I made a couple for our house in the early days of our renovation, and they cost me $20 in premixed concrete, total. They’re durable, recyclable, and neutral in colour so they don’t get offensive when trends change. I love using baubuche, a german beechwood laminate for non wet area countertops. You can cut it with regular wood saws, it’s a very hard wood, so durability is high, it looks awesome once stained, and it costs a fraction of stone.
Reframe Our Vision
There are so many ways to achieve a great looking and functional kitchen without hemorrhaging money. If you can be resourceful and flexible, the online world can be very helpful in securing materials. In my experience, when clients have a very narrow vision of their future kitchen, they just end up paying more for it. And that’s ok, but if you don’t have the cash to pay for the big ticket items, expectation and reality start to rub up against one another, and some hurt feelings can result.
I hope these tips will help you get that beautiful kitchen you’re looking for, without mortaging the kids’ college fund to do it. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me, I try to answer all questions that come my way.
Thanks for reading…
Aaron
Albatross Design & Draft Youtube
For free construction and design resources, visit www.albatrossacademy.ca