What are the main ingredients when cooking up a cost-effective kitchen?
We grilled renovation and design experts to find what makes the hottest kitchen - and how to incorporate that into your next renovation budget.
One Auckland designer with 20 years' experience says the island is the most valuable part of a kitchen - because it's where families come together.
"A separate dining room is considered old fashioned. People are often combining living spaces and kitchens," she says.
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Two of the biggest selling points to bear in mind when renovating a kitchen are new tiles and smart branded appliances like dishwasher and refrigerator.
A cost-effective kitchen is not only a good-looking but also practical says Smith & Sons Renovations general manager Reon Paterson. Kitchen design and a layout are the main priority.
“None of the styles really matter until you think of a layout first,” Paterson says. "Having lots of space in the kitchen area is a win too. People always admire a nice and spacious kitchen and you don’t want to cheap out on that.”
One builder who mainly works on high-end residential properties says the kitchen layout is what sells a house.
He recommends sticking with a simple open plan design with plenty of storage. He recommends eliminating clunky handles (they date a design) and installing soft close drawers, and good lighting. He says LED light bars under wall cabinets is also a cost-effective way to upgrade the kitchen.
“A good island bench is important because at the end of the day the client wants to see themselves not only in the kitchen but entertaining as well.”
Automation is a popular but expensive way to effectively upgrade your house, the builder says. A trendy way to add value to your kitchen is to make it “smart” by installing internet ports for your dishwasher, dryer and connecting fridges to the Wi-Fi.
“You can automate just about anything. You can have all the lighting to go on or off as you enter the room," he says. "We'll get to the stage where light switches are a thing of the past. You can have heat pumps turn on before you get home or underfloor heating to turn off at a certain time of day.”
If your budget is smaller but you still want a cost-effective upgrade, work on the new kitchen bench top, say renovation pros Carrie and Mitchell McIntosh, who have done up three Waikato homes in five years.
They’ve painted the walls and kitchen cabinets white, installed a new kitchen bench top, a shiny new splash back wall and added a little bar table.
“It changed the look of the whole house,” Carrie says.
