With their experience and know-how, home improvement pros like Sterling Works can certainly transform your kitchen into the kind of space you envision. But they can’t renovate a room on the strength of skills and savvy alone. As the client, you must give them sufficient input throughout the kitchen remodeling process.
Here are several items you should provide your contractor from the get-go, setting the tone for your project. Remember: they can only give you what you want if you give them what they need.
Floor, electrical, and plumbing plans
The design plan is just one of several your contractor will work with. Before the crew can begin following this, there’s a handful of others you need to share.
For example, the remodeling team needs the floor plan of your current kitchen, which outlines the locations of doors, windows, lights, cabinets, and counters, as well as the dimensions of the room. They also need plumbing and electrical plans. Contractors will use these to understand and reconfigure the kitchen space. The documents will tell them details like whether there is enough existing wiring to support new or additional appliances, or if there is enough space to fit newer features like islands.
You might still have copies of these renderings from the time you constructed or purchased your house in Atlanta; otherwise, you could track them down from a previous architect or realtor.
A list of goals and objectives
The next thing your contractor needs is a checklist of your kitchen remodeling goals and objectives. How exactly do you want them to modify the current room? Are your goals to have more light, more workspaces, or more cabinets? How do you want to meet these goals – by opening up windows on a wall, or installing new lamps? Carving out counter nooks or adding an island? Building new cabinets on the walls, or devising other pull-out storage options?
You don’t need the clearest picture of what your kitchen will look like once you approach a contractor. Designs can develop along the way. But you do need to provide ideas you and your contractor can refine.
A bag of samples and ideas
Thankfully, you don’t have to rack your own brain to find some sense of your kitchen’s ideal design. Numerous websites, like Houzz and House Beautiful, offer countless images of different kinds of kitchens. You can pick these apart for inspiration on everything from overall layout, to countertop finishes, to faucet and ventilation styles.
As you present these initial picks, the contractor would then be able to weigh your aesthetic preferences against your practical concerns – the very same ones you outlined in your goals and objectives.
Sources:
Checklist to Avoid Kitchen Design Problems, BHG.com
The (Don’t Get Burned) Kitchen Remodeling Guide, ThisOldHouse.com
