Kitchen to order – useful tips

Recommendation points

• Which is better: a factory set or a custom-made kitchen
• What is the best way to proceed if there is not enough money to purchase a custom-made kitchen
• Recommendations for those who have the opportunity to order the manufacture of a kitchen

Before buying a kitchen set, almost everyone has a number of similar questions related to both the correct choice of the kitchen model and the possibility of its most efficient placement in the available space.

This article will help to understand some of the nuances of the owners of small apartments, kitchens in which have niches and ledges. As you know: a lot of such housing has been built, so these issues concern many future owners of new kitchen furniture..

However, some people are trying to solve this problem even before purchasing a headset by removing all niches and protrusions using drywall structures. However, this method is applicable for rooms with a large area; for small kitchens, of which the vast majority, it is not suitable. Those who decided to take such measures soon regret it, since even one square meter, “stolen” in this way, has the most negative effect on the functional characteristics of the kitchen. At the design stage, it seems to many that a small area that they decided to sacrifice for the sake of aligning the line is not able to significantly affect the further operation of the room, in practice everything happens differently. Therefore, the only correct and logical way out of such situations is the correct selection of a kitchen set.

Which is better: a factory set or a custom-made kitchen

Until now, more than half of buyers are still thinking about it. Although the answer is obvious, it is still worth dwelling in more detail on the comparative analysis of this furniture. The first thing that attracts us to the finished products for sale in furniture showrooms is their relatively low cost and the ability to pick up the purchase on the day of payment. In principle, all the advantages are limited to this, since then we are forced to solve a number of problems, of which the first is the installation of a headset.

Experience shows that even if you managed to find a model that is more or less suitable in size for your kitchen, then rarely when it fits perfectly into the available space.

In addition, often during the installation of such a headset, it is required to cut some modules so that they are located in a place where gas and water pipes or other communications pass..

These are just a few of the obstacles you can face when furnishing your kitchen. It mostly concerns rooms with straight walls. When the room has niches or protrusions, and in some cases both, the installation of the headset is accompanied by the alteration of many lockers. Moreover, it is extremely rare to achieve the desired result, and in the end, your kitchen will not have the furniture that you expected and really wanted to see. The edges protruding beyond the main line in one place, retracted modules in another and the gaps between them – this is the most likely picture that may appear before your eyes after work.

Therefore, if there is a financial opportunity, it is best not to waste time, but to go to the office of an enterprise that manufactures custom-made kitchens and conclude a contract for the manufacture of your furniture. In this case, you will have every guarantee that the headset is ideal for your room. In addition to the requirements for the full correspondence of the sizes of furniture and the room, the ergonomics of the space and the ability to choose the most suitable decors for MDF, chipboard and countertops are taken into account. But we will discuss all this in more detail a little later, but for now we need to consider another option for installing a kitchen in such rooms..

What is the best way to proceed if there is not enough money to purchase a custom-made kitchen

Knowing which furniture is best is clearly not enough to order it. You must have at your disposal a certain amount. What to do to those people whose budget does not allow to order a kitchen at the moment, but they cannot postpone further its purchase? After all, few people want to use a headset, which is inconvenient and not suitable for many articles for this room. In such cases, if you are ready to incur additional, not very large expenses, it is recommended to “fit” the furniture to the required dimensions even before the installation. It is quite possible to do this today, alterations do not take too much time and money, in a couple of days you will be able to use a new headset that will be adapted to your room.

How to do it in practice? Everything is very simple: today, most of the furniture salons selling furniture, in order to withstand high competition in this market and not lose their customers, in addition to trading in factory products, engaged in production. Usually, not far from the exhibition halls, there is a workshop with all the necessary equipment, where the alteration of standard modules takes place. What assemblers usually do at the address with a jigsaw and other simple tools, it has now become possible to perform accurately and accurately using a panel saw, edge banding and drilling machine. In addition, the workshop has a lot of hand-held power tools that will provide better processing of some parts. In principle, this whole process is somewhat reminiscent of the manufacture of furniture according to individual sizes, only it will cost much less.

However, very often we make a mistake that can negate almost all efforts. A similar event for the alteration of a standard headset should begin in the same way as the manufacture of custom-made furniture – with a call to the measurer to his home. Naturally, in the case of a factory kitchen, this service must be paid for, so some buyers, in an attempt to save money, refuse it and come to the store with their own sketch and room plan, which most often contain inaccuracies. Due to such inaccuracies, which non-specialists do not attach much importance to, the kitchen will not be able to be installed the way both customers and contractors would like it. It turns out that by trying to save a small amount, people can lose much more. Therefore, it is highly undesirable to refuse to call a specialist who will not only correctly take measurements, but also give a number of practical recommendations on changing standard modules and their location in the room..

If the kitchen is equipped with MDF facades, then you need to be prepared for the fact that it can only be reduced in depth, and the width will remain the same. If you have not yet purchased an oven and a cooker hood, but are going to do so, then you need to remember that these kitchen appliances have different widths. This allows all the elements to be selected in such a way that they can optimally fit into the available space. True, it is not always possible to expose the headset even after the intervention of the masters. All the same, protrusions are formed so that they do not “cut your eyes” and you do not bump into them, it is advisable to round off the countertops in these places and paste over them with a shock-resistant PVC edge. Of course, you should not expect the same result as installing a custom-made kitchen, but still it is much better than tormenting yourself by installing furniture cases that have standard dimensions. Additional costs associated with performing these works will range from $ 100 to $ 200. The more exact amount, of course, is determined in each individual case by the managers of the furniture salon.

Recommendations for those who have the opportunity to order the manufacture of a kitchen

As a rule, most kitchens in such apartments are not very wide and elongated. Each designer has his own opinion about which furniture is best for a given room, but there are also fundamental principles that will ensure the maximum functionality of your headset. It should not be forgotten that in most cases there is still a soft kitchen corner or, when there is very little space, a dining table and chairs. Therefore, drawing up a kitchen project should begin with determining the places where the refrigerator, sink, oven and dining group will be located. According to the result obtained and the remaining space in the room, it will be possible to pick up the rest of the kitchen modules. If you do not follow this plan, the end result may not be entirely successful..

Since the sink and the stove are more or less tied to the water supply, sewer and ventilation duct, they may be next to each other. Not only communications can affect their location, but also a number of other factors that are individual for each individual case. Despite such some difficulties, the distance between these modules should be equal to 400-500 mm. Compliance with the rule requiring the delimitation of zones for cooking and washing dishes will save you from many inconveniences in the further operation of the kitchen. Therefore, if there is such an opportunity, then it is necessary to use it, even in the case when you like this furniture design less – you do not need in this case for the sake of beauty to sacrifice functionality.

If there is a financial opportunity, then it is best to opt for an artificial stone countertop..

Particular attention should be paid to the countertop. If there is a financial opportunity, then it is best to opt for a work surface made of artificial stone. In addition to excellent aesthetic and operational characteristics, it allows you to get rid of joints in different places of the kitchen set.

Rather, the connecting seams, of course, will be present, but no one will see them. In addition, in this case, you can be completely sure that moisture will not seep through these connections. The rounded edges of the artificial stone countertop are also resistant to water, which guarantees the durability of this furniture. If there are not enough funds for the purchase of an acrylic surface, and you decide to install postforming, then preference should be given to products that have moisture resistant properties. Otherwise, places with cut software and PVC-trimmed edges may swell over time.

A bar counter or a small “peninsula” plays a special role in the ergonomics of such a kitchen. Since the length of the room is quite large, by placing such a similar element of kitchen furniture between the main working area and the refrigerator, we save time and provide ourselves with additional conveniences by taking out or storing food. You can decide on the size and design of such a structure based on the available space and your own preferences. Many people like the bar counter with a pipe and various accessories put on it, others prefer the more rigorous models of the “peninsula”. It is noteworthy that in this case there are no restrictions for the client’s imagination, you just need to skillfully combine everything, take into account the dimensions of the room – this element should not prevent you from freely moving around the room. It will be very convenient to use the microwave installed on a stand specially mounted for it. Firstly, there is a refrigerator next to it, which makes it possible to quickly get and warm up the food you need. Secondly, at the same small table, you can have a snack on the go, without wasting much time and without making another mess in the entire kitchen..

Not only the countertop in the places of transition from one zone of the kitchen to another has a curved shape, the shelves of the module located under it and the wall cabinet are also rounded. These elements of the kitchen set can be either closed with curved MDF facades or remain open. Most often, the second option is chosen in order to save money, since one such door with installation can cost from $ 50 to $ 80, the price depends on the decorative coating and fittings chosen by the customer. Also, the reason for the absence of facades on such modules may be the impossibility of making a door exactly repeating the radius of curvature of the shelves, since manufacturers make them according to certain templates. If you place an order for a non-standard case, then the cost of such a service will increase significantly. Therefore, many clients prefer to leave these cabinets open or postpone the installation of facades until better times, which is also quite feasible..

Each of the proposed options is good in its own way, even in the case of factory furniture, because everyone has different material capabilities, and almost everyone has an equally great desire to make their home as cozy and comfortable as possible. If you adhere to the above recommendations, then you can perfectly arrange furniture in a kitchen that has an even more complex configuration. Just do not neglect the opportunity to get recommendations from specialists, despite the fact that you will have to pay for the consultation.