Don’t Start Your Kitchen Remodeling in Chicago Until You Read This
Sorry for the clickbait title, but there’s truth to it! Love cooking up a storm in your kitchen, but not so in love with the idea of entertaining due to its outdated décor? After the bathroom, the kitchen is one of the most renovated parts of the house. And in Chicago, kitchen remodeling is one of the hottest trends today!
While this can be one of the more disruptive home renovations, consigning you to a temporary lifestyle of takeaways and microwave meals, it is definitely one of the most rewarding. In the end, you get a gorgeous dream kitchen and increase the value of your home!
If you’re in Chicago and thinking about a kitchen remodel, you’ve come to the right place. Studio MAK is a team of interior designers with many years of experience in kitchen remodels. In this article, we’re going to share our best tips for making your dream kitchen a reality.
Design Is About Intent! Why Remodel Your Kitchen?
Updating and upgrading your kitchen comes with a lot of benefits, especially if you’re a foodie! But even if you’re more likely to burn water than cook up a sumptuous 7-course experience for your guests (e.g. when you forgetti the spaghetti), there are good reasons to remodel a Chicago kitchen.
Create a Functional Space
Kitchens are at the heart of a house, and a well-designed kitchen is the perfect space for cooking and entertaining where thoughtful design puts everything in close reach.
Create a Beautiful Space
Kitchen designs can be a very personal thing; if you’ve just moved in, a once-loved kitchen’s unique features can soon become an irritating eyesore. Make it yours!
Add Value to Your Home
Modern kitchens are full of high-quality materials and technology, instantly adding tens of thousands of dollars to the value of your home. Need we say more?
Save the World
Upgrading your kitchen with energy-efficient appliances and fixtures not only saves you money on your bills, but it also helps you do your part for Mother Nature!
All of these can be achieved with just one kitchen remodel that is designed around your lifestyle, your personal taste, and your family’s unique needs. If you’re not in love with your kitchen, then a remodel is the smart thing to do.
Knowing what you want from your new kitchen is the most important thing, as this is going to inform the design. An experienced interior designer can help you with this, as they know how to translate your ideas into reality. Their knowledge of design, materials, and current trends helps them to take your thoughts and turn them into touches of design that enhance your life and the value of your home at the same time.
But first, you’re going to need to find the right interior designer for you. There are a ton of Chicago interior designers who can help with home remodeling, but you can only choose one (I know a great team wink wink)!
How to Find the Best Interior Designer for a Chicago Kitchen Remodel
First things first: this is your kitchen, and what you want is the most important thing. Before you contact anybody, make sure that you have a clear idea of what you want. Design ideas can be hard to explain, so the easiest thing to do is to start collecting pictures, material samples, colors, and anything else that inspires you.
This isn’t just fun, it’s also a great way to collect a lot of visual information for your interior designer and give them a clearer idea of what you want. It’s also going to help you with your first step, which is finding a shortlist of designers.
One way to find a great designer is to ask friends and family about their recommendations. Another is to look online. You should always check out design portfolios to make sure that an interior designer’s natural style matches yours.
After all, if you want a minimalist kitchen remodel, hiring an interior designer who specializes in cozy living spaces may not give you the result you dream of. We recommend shortlisting 3 to 5 interior designers.
Next, you will need to interview them. Most will come to your house to look at your kitchen and hear your ideas. Watch how they communicate:
Personality: Do you like them? Is this someone you will enjoy spending time with and who you feel you can talk to if things go wrong?
Communication: Are they listening to you and interested in your ideas? Do they have good feedback? Do you feel heard?
Professionalism: Do you feel like your personal space will be respected? Do they have a network of suppliers and contractors?
Make sure you use this opportunity to talk about your budget, too. At Studio MAK, we specialize in luxury kitchen remodels, so we like to get early alignment on budgets.
You can also check their online reviews to see if they have a good reputation. Ultimately, you want someone reliable that you can trust. Everyone loves the result of a kitchen remodel, but the remodeling process itself can be tough.
You want a professional who can make sure the work is done on time, on budget, with minimal disruption to your life – which means someone who can deal quickly with any issues as they come up!
By the end of this process, you should have found the right person to help you.
What to Focus on in a Chicago Kitchen Remodeling Project
When you’re starting to think about a renovation, it can be intimidating – that’s why you have me! Where do you even start? Once you’ve shortlisted a couple of interior designers in Chicago, I suggest making a list of things that you don’t like about your current kitchen space.
This could be the awkward layout, the ugly 1990s cabinets, the countertop material that collects stains, or anything else that bothers you.
Once you know what you don’t want, you can focus on what you do want. If you’ve been collecting inspiration, you’ll already have some great ideas. If you haven’t, take a leaf out of an interior designer’s book and start thinking about design flow.
Design flow is how well a room layout works. For a kitchen, you want a design flow that gives you space to cook while putting everything in easy reach with thoughtful, optimized storage. If you entertain a lot, you should also consider how your layout can enhance the experience.
The kitchen is a functional room, so spending time considering the layout and its flow is an essential first step to bringing your vision to life. You should also consider the design of the rest of your house and how your remodel fits into that.
Beyond this, everything comes down to your personal tastes and budgetary limitations. There is a huge choice of cabinets, countertops, flooring, and backsplash materials and colors. Typically, you’ll want something easy to clean and visually appealing – while also being durable enough to withstand the thrills and spills of cooking.
Don’t forget lighting; today, lighting is a very affordable way to create a unique ambiance using accent lighting and spotlighting. If you want to make the most of lighting, then you’re going to need to consider how the light plays with the materials you want to use.
Finally, appliances. If you love appliances but hate the clutter they cause, consider how and where you might be able to store them when not in use. The last thing you want is a new kitchen where you still have to get on your knees and scrabble around the back of a cavernous cabinet stuffed with impulse buys!
Start Your Chicago Kitchen Remodel with Studio MAK
Studio MAK has been remodeling kitchens in Chicago for many years now. We’ve got a lot of experience under our belts and understand your natural intimidation at starting the process. It’s disruptive and there are so many things to do!
We get it. We’ve worked with a lot of people in your shoes and helped them get through the tough part to their dream kitchen. It’s always worth it! Our team is dedicated to helping you at every step, from first concept to final reveal. Our job is to deal with the messy parts and make the journey as smooth as possible for you and your family.
We take the time to understand your needs and design a kitchen that is built around your unique lifestyle, sourcing the best materials and creating designs that fit around your ideas.
Work doesn’t start until you approve the design. We also work with Chicago’s most reliable and professional contractors and suppliers, which means we have access to great deals and professional workers, minimizing the chances of issues as the project progresses.
If you think we might be the right interior designers to help you build out your dream kitchen, book your free consultation!
