Have you ever spent a few hours preparing food in your kitchen and felt exhausted by its outdated design and frustrating layout? If so, maybe it is time to rethink your space and put together a completely new kitchen design. As you’re planning your kitchen renovation, here are a few elements to consider and include.

Choose Your Floors

One of the first steps of renovating your kitchen is to choose your new flooring. The color and material of your new flooring could determine other features of your kitchen, such as layout, materials, and color scheme. There are many different types of kitchen flooring that are popular, so you have options to choose from that will match your needs and lifestyle. Carpeted kitchens are definitely outdated since they can be germy and difficult to maintain. However, there are lots of other flooring options that are current and stylish including wood, stone, tile, vinyl, and more. Lately, many homeowners have even made a statement with their kitchen flooring, including stenciled tile or wood laid down in a pattern.

Order Your Appliances

Once you’ve chosen your flooring materials, it is important to order your kitchen appliances. Kitchen appliances can take weeks, even months to arrive, so this is definitely a step that you’ll want to do ahead of time. Sometimes you can buy kitchen appliances directly from the store, but usually, large amounts aren’t held in stock. There are lots of different styles of kitchen appliances that are currently popular. Appliances in black and white are certainly timeless, but metallic colors such as silver, gold, and copper have also risen to popularity. Some people have even started to go back to a vintage style of appliances with small, pastel fridges. Of course, m3ake sure that you choose kitchen appliances that will match your needs and your kitchen aesthetic.

Pick a Countertop Material

Next, you need to choose your countertop material. While bright, pristine marble countertops are always popular and beautiful. However, more affordable options have also come back into popularity in recent years. Popular countertop materials are quartz , acrylic, natural or recycled wood, glass, stone, and even concrete. Regardless of the material that you choose, large, solid countertop surfaces are considered a must-have in kitchens currently. They will also ideally be resistant to heat and easy to maintain. Most important of all, having lots of space to prepare food will facilitate your time in the kitchen.

Select Cabinets

Another important step in your kitchen renovation is selecting cabinets that will make the most of your space. Adding kitchen cabinet space lets you enjoy cooking as you declutter your kitchen space. However, cabinets not only function as storage space but can also bring character and color to your kitchen. In 2021, custom cabinets with fun color pops have become very popular. Many homeowners have even added cabinet doors to some of their appliances, such as their fridge, to make the entire kitchen feel cohesive and expensive. 

While white cabinets have reigned for many years, fun color pops such as earthy greens and jeweled tones have brought personality to many kitchens this year. Keep in mind that your cabinets determine the overall aesthetic of your kitchen, so choose a design and color that will fit your needs and personality.

Design Your Floor Plan

Now that you’ve ordered your appliances, countertops, and designed your cabinets, you need to nail down your kitchen floor plan . Open floor plans have become very popular in recent years to make your kitchen feel bigger. This is also helpful if you often host family or friends and experience a lot of traffic through your kitchen. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have an island countertop, but it does mean that you might want to give additional space between the island and the rest of the countertops. Make sure that you design a floor plan that works for your space and your hosting and preparation needs.

Consider Storage Space

Even though you’ve already planned out your kitchen cabinets, it is important to consider some other storage space needs that you might have. For example, if you have a storage pantry that has been feeling cramped and disorganized, you might want to renovate the layout of your pantry. If you have space in the area of your home to expand your pantry, that is one easy way to add extra storage space while still maintaining the aesthetic of your kitchen. If you can’t expand your pantry, it is still pretty easy to add storage bins and organizers to make better use of your pantry space.

Add Decorative Shelving

Once the essential bones of your kitchen layout are laid, decorative shelving can be a great addition to your kitchen. If you have beautiful dishes that you would like to display, consider having open-faced shelving with some type of glass or transparent material. Floating shelves, made of wood or marble, can also add a very stylish pop to an empty wall. It can also be really fun to style this type of shelf with some heirloom dishes, candles, greenery, and charcuterie boards. Stylistic shelving can be both functional and decorative, as well as fill any unused space in your kitchen area.

Finishing Touches

Once you have all of these elements of your kitchen in place, it is time to choose some finishing touches for your space. Of course, your kitchen won’t always be clean, organized, and pristine, but having a few finishing touches to make your space look cohesive and put together can be very helpful. This could be anything from a statement chandelier or pendant light to some decorative dishes or stylish hanging cutting boards.

If you finish reading this article and are inspired to renovate your kitchen, don’t waste any time in getting started. Make sure that you keep in mind each of the suggestions and steps that have been discussed in this article as you’re planning your kitchen update. As you plan out each element of your space, you’ll end up with the kitchen you’ve always dreamed of.

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