How To Upgrade Your Kitchen

The kitchen is known as the heart of the home. Kitchens are the most used space in the house and serve as the central hub for entertaining and creating memories with family and friends. Renovating your kitchen also provides the best ROI, so how can you get the most out of yours?

Keep reading for tips and tricks to help you make small improvements to your kitchen while making a big difference to the look and feel.

Maximizing The Storage Spaces In The Kitchen

No matter how big or small your kitchen is, you always end up needing more storage space. Here are a few resourceful and creative ways you can maximize your storage space in your kitchen.

- Take advantage of open wall space by adding in open shelving, pegboards or even magnetic strips to hold your knives or other things like spice bottles.

- No matter how many cabinets one has but in the usual scenario toe-kick space under the cabinets stays untouched and wasted. One option is to add touch open drawers in the toe kick area.

- If your cabinets are tall and have extra headspace then consider adding in another shelf. Another option would be to add in baskets that hang just below the shelves.

- If you’ve got cabinets that are not attached with cabinets on both sides, you can use both sides to hang stuff. You can mount small shelves or hang small items here, along with installing magnetic strips or a spice rack.

- Increasing the length of upper cabinets all the way to the countertop provides more storage

- In some cases, filler spaces are not avoidable in upper cabinets or base cabinets. Adding pull out storage in the filler spaces is another smart solution to maximize storage space.

Maximizing Counter Spaces

Many homeowners struggle with counter space in their kitchen. Here are a few ways you can maximize yours:

- Install a pullout cutting board in a drawer.

- Create a coffee/tea prep area inside your cabinet instead of leaving coffee/tea makers on the counter

- An empty wall can house a collapsible counter, to be folded away when not in use.

- Utilize wall space for storage and to put things that are not in use to clear up your counter.

- Microwaves and toasters can take up lots of precious space on your countertop.

i- Consider installing a microwave in a built-in upper cabinet

ii- Have a microwave with a built-in exhaust fan to be installed on top of the stove.

iii- Nowadays microwaves are available that can be installed as drawers in the base cabinets

All these above-mentioned solutions will help achieve a clean tidy look in your kitchen

Creative Organization Inside The Cabinetry

Cabinets can be a pain to organize but thankfully there are countless solutions in the market to solve this problem:

- Suspended baskets or shelving inserts can give you tonnes more available storage space.

- Lid and plate holders are also very handy to store frying pans, cutting boards, tray dividers and more.

- You can also convert a big open space in your cupboard into a set of drawers instead. Then you can further organize those into sections.

- Pullout pantries provide tons of very effective organized storage spaces inside the cabinet

- There is a wide variety of lazy susan, magic corner and blind corner cabinet mechanisms are available in the market to maximize storage space inside the corner cabinets.

- Slide-out organizers for pots and pans, spice jars, cleaning supplies and utensils are some of the wonderful solutions to have.

- Nowadays, due to three different types of waste bins: recycle, compost and garbage, it is important to have a proper space in the kitchen to put them. Pull out garbage bins with two or three bins are a must-have in the kitchen to keep it tidy looking

At Reflection360, we design/build spaces that work for you and not the other way around!

Choosing Professionals To Build Your Home Can Make All the Difference

A lot goes into building a home. This includes the hiring of many professionals so that you can get the job done right and have a home that you and your family can enjoy for years to come. Choosing the members of your building team is one of the most important decisions you will make in your home building process. Quality professionals might cost you a bit more than those less experienced, but the investment you make will be worth it in the long run. At Reflection360 you call us and we will take care of the rest. 

Why Is It Important To Build According To Building Codes And Standards? 

Building codes are created for our safety so our houses can be our sanctuary. Following them while designing and building is a one-time investment for the future and safety of your home. Not to mention, it is required by all professional home builders to follow these building codes. 

As a homeowner, you are able to decide who you want to hire, what you want to do yourself and who you want to delegate to. The following will provide you with a brief guide to what type of professionals are available and who you should consider hiring when you are building your own house. 

Designers 

Getting a solid design with personalized space planning to enhance functionality for your house is one of the first steps you will need to take before you can start the process. Now, you could have a vision for your house or you could be clueless about what you want. This doesn’t matter, because either way we at Reflection360 will help you get to the end goal. At Reflection360, we understand the importance and practicality of wanting a house that works for you and not the other way around. 

Project Managers 

Project Managers are part and parcel of any construction project. Project Managers are the people who handle most medium and large-sized construction projects. At Reflection360 our Project Managers are responsible for assigning jobs, creating work schedules and overlooking the quality of work on the ground. We at Reflectection360 take time management and deadlines very seriously.

Tradespeople 

You will also need to hire licensed electricians, plumbers, carpenters, engineers, framers, carpenters, etc. to take care of these components of your home. These professionals specialize in their respective trades and will get the job done right. You may think it would be a good idea to save on your budget by taking on these smaller components on your own, but if you are not professionally trained, you are bound to make mistakes that will cost you a lot more down the road. 

While it is entirely possible to become an “owner-builder” yourself, this approach is hugely exaggerated. Those who have done it exaggerate the money they save and never mention how much time it actually takes them to complete the project. Most don’t mention the difficulties or risks they had to take. Like many success stories there are, there are hundreds of other nightmare stories of things going wrong. Before going down this path, take a good look at what is required to succeed should you do it yourself without the help of professionals.