A Cook’s Kitchen – Customizing your dream kitchen on a budget
Designing the home of your dreams.
So, you’ve selected a custom home builder who loves unique designs as much as you do – good call!
Now that daydreaming of a future when you can enjoy a well-cooked meal with friends and family is that much closer to coming true. Speaking of meals in your new home, those must be cooked somewhere!
Let’s talk about your new kitchen, and some of the things you can be excited to enjoy in it… after it gets built.
PLAN AHEAD
Consider your ultimate goal for your kitchen, who you plan to spend time with there, you schedule and your budget.
There are three simple, but super useful actions you can take to maximize your efforts while working with your builder.
All three actions fall under one overarching thought: plan ahead.
1.What kind of cooking do you like to do?
You’ll want to know how you intend to use the space before you get down to building it. If you’re a microwave or telephone gourmand, maybe focus more on the aesthetics and hang-out space. On the other hand, pro-home cooks or chefs want maximum adaptability; consider adding a spice kitchen. But don’t think that serious chefs can’t have an aesthetic of their own! Get input from all of the cooks in your family.
2. Are you in a hurry to get things done, or do you have breathing room to be as meticulous as you want?
If your home needs to be built yesterday, lean into the expertise of your builder. You chose them, in part, because they are experienced and able; don’t be afraid to leverage that! If you don’t feel a heavy time crunch, really sink your teeth into hammering out a timeline. Talk to your builder about what a realistic time-frame looks like from blueprint to chopping veggies and sipping your favourite wine.
3. So, you’ve got a gameplan and (at least) a general timeline in mind.
You get to set the budget with the builder next! Don’t be afraid! Working with Victory Homes designers and builders means you don’t automatically need to sacrifice your dream kitchen for the budget. Take a look at some of our show homes to get a feel for our flexibility and attention to detail – your details.
Understanding the design and build process with your custom home builder
There can be a lot of confusion about how things are “supposed” to go on a custom home build. We get that, so we added the information onto our website for you can see how we do things at Victory Homes.
Here are some key moments of our design process as they relate to your epic new kitchen.
- Select your new home floor plan – as you browse our new home model floorplans, you will see that each offers a unique kitchen style, and while these styles can be customized to you, you just might find one that’s really close to what you like already!
- Selections – once you have selected your kitchen style, you’ll meet with our design stylist, appliance company, and our cabinet maker to review options like colours, finishes, and customized touches like dual wall ovens, under-counter disposal, or custom spice cabinets. Add soft-close to your doors and swap out cabinets for pot drawers if you like.
- Drawing approval – once we finish closely working with you on the design, our team will provide a complete breakdown, including drawings that need to be approved. Once you’ve approved your dream kitchen design, start planning the housewarming party; we’ll do the heavy lifting!
Tips for maximizing your new home space AND your custom-design kitchen investment
It’s true… when considering a new home build and where to position your additional investments, the kitchen and the bathrooms are the two primary features where you generally always see a return on the investment. A customized kitchen, or magazine-worthy bathroom, will always increase the value of your home should you ever decide to sell it.
But not all upgrades are equal (for example, disco lighting may not appeal to the everyday buyer, so might not be a good add! Lol). Consider the primary struggles that every active kitchen user experience – The 3 C’s: Counter space, Cabinet space, and Clean-up!
Nothing is truly “future-proof,” but you can extend the productive lifespan of your kitchen with simple design elements. Even better: having a versatile kitchen space adds additional value into your home by making your life easier in different ways.
Here are some simple (and budget-friendly) ways you can squeeze extra value out of your kitchen.
- Incorporating storage and function alongside aesthetic into your custom kitchen makes cooking simpler for you and ensures you’ll enjoy utilizing the space for years. Consider implementing multi-function appliances, surfaces, and storage rather than single use spaces and items. One example may be to build a cutting board into your countertop that, when you lift the board, has an opening directly into the garbage. You’ll be impressed with your increasing efficiency.
- Think outside the box for storage – literally! Think of ways you can incorporate hanging storage onto cupboards or over spaces that have nothing over them (like an island sink). You can even use this kind of thinking for things like coffee mugs.
- Consider utilizing semi-stationary modular or moveable fixtures like rolling islands. Alternatively, you can design non-traditional counter space designs (like a “U” shape) can be a game changer. Position yourself in the center and have three surrounding counters to work with!
- A great budget-friendly selection that many people may not realize is the option of switching traditional granite or Carrera Marble countertops for quartz! Quartz is man-made, comes in a variety of colours, and is cheaper for any new kitchen. You can opt for engineered (man-made) or natural, and the look can rival even the fanciest granite!
- And don’t be afraid of little touches… under cabinet lighting, a garburator with a soft push button in the counter (instead of reaching underneath for a switch), a water-dispensing refrigerator, a gas stove, a quiet dishwasher, or (my personal favourite) electrical outlets in your pantry! You would be surprised how convenient it is to turn your pantry into a breakfast bar!
Design extras to stage the perfect kitchen (declutter, personal touches, pops of colour, unique and timeline hardware and fixtures, etc.)
If you’ve never owned a custom-built home before, you’re discovering that working with a custom home builder opens up many possibilities. For example, here’s a question many of us have never asked:
What makes a kitchen your kitchen? Let’s talk about a few ways you can make the space your own!
- Many of us have a “junk drawer.” However, very few people actually want a junk drawer. Sometimes going through the junk drawer can give you fresh ideas for organizational potential. Be “inspired” and ponder how you can organize the old way of doing things. You can integrate recycling, mail and flyer (or old take-out menu) holders, a battery dispenser, and more into your new kitchen!
- Sometimes it’s not practical to paint a room in your favorite color (we’re looking at you hex code #ff0073) Still, your favorite colors can be used to do much more than just let your personality explode forth in a room. We have four words for you: Custom. Color. Coding. Trim. You can tell guests, “It’s in the cupboard with the blue trim” instead of: “look to the East, two cupboards to the left of the stove, look down by your knees – verily, that is the cupboard you seek!”
- Think about the last time your family hosted a big holiday meal. What fixtures could make holiday meal prep or cleaning smoother? Perhaps a pot filler that eliminates awkwardly angling the potato pot under the faucet. Alternatively, you could have ultra-deep sinks installed alongside a super-efficient garburator. Your first holiday meal in your new home can be exquisite from prep to clean-up!