Archives for July 2017

July 21, 2017 By

Design Tips for a Small Kitchen Makeover

Design Tips for a Small Kitchen MakeoverJust because you have a limited amount of space doesn’t mean the kitchen of your dreams can’t become a reality.

Many great kitchen ideas can be adapted to fit kitchens of all shapes and sizes.  With the right flexibility and a little bit of creativity, you can add personality and functionality to even the smallest of spaces.  Here are a few of our top tips for adding a touch of pizzazz to your small kitchen.

Multi-Purpose

Whenever possible, double-up on the usage of your space.  If a space is only used for one thing, that’s less space you have to work with in the rest of your kitchen!  Think outside the box – integrated appliances fit more effortlessly in your kitchen than standalone appliances do.  Space behind your doors or cabinets can be used to hold shelves and racks, doubling up storage space.  Breakfast bars can hold pots and pans.  The only single-purpose thing you should have in your kitchen is your fire extinguisher!

High Cabinets

Many cabinets stop well before the ceiling.  That ends up being a lot of wasted space – space you could be using to store those only occasionally used items such as bread tins or cookie cutters.  Yes, you may need a stepladder or sturdy chair to get those things down when you need them, but if you only need them once every few months, the tradeoff is definitely worth it to open up more storage space.

Get Professional Help

The experts at Solid Surface Ca and Bertone Woodworking can help you come up with all sorts of creative ways to maximize the value of your kitchen.  From finding the right appliances to designing the best storage solutions, we can help you create a kitchen that will make you happy.  Come on by and talk with some of our designers, get some one-on-one advice for moving forward, and see what we can do for you!

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July 21, 2017 By

Do I Have to Redo my Kitchen Floor Before Refacing my Kitchen Cabinets?

Do I Have to Redo my Kitchen Floor Before Refacing my Kitchen Cabinets?There is a common and pervasive myth that refacing kitchen cabinets requires a full redo of your floor.  This is a myth, however!  When you get your cabinets refaced, the original body and framework is left in place.  It’s just reinforced, not removed.  That means not only do you not have to have your flooring company work first, but that there’s actually several benefits to waiting on your flooring until your refaced cabinets are finished.

First of all, waiting on your new cabinets allows you to make a more informed flooring choice.  New cabinets can make accents and finishes on other parts of your kitchen stand out, affecting the color, style and finish of your kitchen.  That might mean a different color or finish of flooring would work better in your newly redesigned kitchen.  By finishing the cabinets first, you get to take some time to see how they look before locking yourself into a particular flooring design.

In addition, if you lay a floating floor down before you finish work on your cabinets, your floor will not be able to expand or contract with temperature changes.  By laying floor under your cabinet bases, you’re compressing your floor underneath heavy cabinetry and countertop materials.  It’s possible, then, that your floor could buckle, bulge or even break.  Laying your flooring adjacent to your cabinets prevents any of those nasty scenarios from coming to pass.

A reliable and licensed cabinet manufacturer – like Bertone – will know how to customize their cabinet installation around your kitchen design plans.  Whether your fix your cabinets first and your floor later, or if you want to install a new floor now and place kitchen cabinets around that, they can work with you to ensure you get the best possible outcome in your kitchen.  Check us out today!

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