For many people, their kitchen is among the most used rooms in their home. If you are considering remodeling your home, your kitchen is a great place to start. Here are four things you may want to do during your kitchen remodel.

Take Out the Wall

While newer homes are usually built with an open floor plan, if you live in an older home, you may not have an open floor plan. Whether you want the area between the kitchen and dining room to flow better, or you want an even more open floor plan, there are several things to consider if you want to remove a wall.

What’s inside the wall? The walls within your home likely have an assortment of things running through them. This may include air ducts, water pipes, gas pipes, and electric wiring. When taking down a wall, these may need to be rerouted.
Is it load-bearing? While a load-bearing wall can be removed, it is going to be more difficult and cost more to remove than it would cost to remove a wall that is not load-bearing.
Do you want to remove the whole wall? In some cases, especially if it’s a load-bearing wall, you may not want to remove the whole wall. Instead, you may simply want to create a larger entryway to the kitchen.

If you are unsure of the answers to any of these questions or you are unsure how to safely take down your wall, do not attempt the project on your own. Contact a professional, who can answer any questions you have about your wall and help you safely and efficiently take out a wall, thereby creating a more open kitchen.

Upgrade Your Lighting

It is important to have great lighting in your kitchen. Before starting on your kitchen lighting upgrade, decide what areas of your kitchen lighting need upgraded the most. If you’ve found that you have inadequate lighting in your kitchen overall, you have several options.

Add multiple lighting options. Mixing hanging lights with recessed lighting will help your kitchen to feel brighter overall. You can install a dimmer switch or have multiple light switches for those times when you don’t need quite as much lighting.
Get better light bulbs. While this will not solve your lighting problem on its own, having the most efficient light bulbs will help you to get the most out of the light features in your kitchen.
Consider adding more natural lighting. Many kitchens already have windows and, in some cases, even a sliding glass door. If you can, increasing the size of your kitchen window will give you more natural lighting.
If you have an open floor plan, increase the natural lighting in a neighboring room, thereby increasing the natural lighting in the whole space.

If you have lighting issues in specific parts of your kitchen, install task lighting. This will give you increased lighting in specific areas of your kitchen. You may want to consider adding lighting above your stove, under cabinets, or in other areas of your kitchen where you have found that the lighting is inadequate.

Upgrade Your Flooring

If the flooring in your kitchen is looking a little worn or outdated, upgrading your kitchen flooring should be an essential part of your kitchen upgrade. When deciding to do this, it is important to consider both the material you want to use for your flooring and the color and design of flooring that you want. When deciding on the right flooring for your kitchen remodel there are several things to consider.

The coloring and style of your cabinets, countertops, and appliances. While you likely don’t want everything to be the exact same color, you also will not want your flooring to clash with anything else in your kitchen. Of course, you can also start with your flooring and then pick the cabinets, countertops, and appliances based on your flooring.
The openness of your floor plan. While you do not need the same flooring in your whole house, the flow of your flooring is especially important in an open floor plan. If there are doorways or columns to define one room from another, you might be able to use different flooring in different rooms. If, though, you have a completely open floor plan, where your kitchen, dining room, and living room flow together, you will likely want to use the same flooring throughout the space.
Your current lighting situation. If your flooring is dark, it is going to make your kitchen feel darker. If you have great lighting, this will likely not be an issue, but if your lighting is not ideal, you may end up regretting going with the darker color.
Your own preferences. Of course, this is really the most important thing to consider. Some people like hardwood flooring or laminate that looks like hardwood floors. Others prefer tile or another flooring option.

Before redoing your kitchen flooring, it is a good idea to look at a variety of options. Look at different materials to see what’s available. Look at the different color and design options. Feel the options, especially if you plan to walk around your kitchen barefoot a lot.

Add or Upgrade an Island

If you have the space, a kitchen island is a beautiful, functional addition to a kitchen. One of the biggest benefits of an island is additional space. This includes additional storage space as well as additional counter space. To save space in other parts of your kitchen, you can even add your sink or an appliance to your island. An island is also a great place to add extra seating. Pull up a few barstools to create a great place for your friends and family to socialize while snacking or while waiting for food fresh from the oven.

Of course, these are just four of the changes you might want to consider. If you are interested in learning more about remodeling your kitchen or you need the right team to help you create your dream kitchen, contact us. At GreenWood Build Design, we are dedicated to helping you create a beautiful cooking oasis in your home.