Corey Fitzgerald Photo – KDZ Designs
Welcome to 2025! With the new year, are you thinking about updating your home? The hub of many homes is the kitchen, and according to a 2024 Houzz & Home Study, 27% of homeowners in the US remodeled their kitchens, making it the most commonly renovated room in the home.
If you are a regular reader of on-line design articles, follow interior design influencers, etc. you may feel like you can’t hope to achieve the “looks” that you see. And you don’t even know where to start. How do you know what’s right for you?
https://www.npr.org/sections/
What if you start with asking yourself a bunch of questions?! Before you think about any selections, or your budget…what if knowing who you are helps you figure out how to create the best space for you?!
- Start with how you live now, and figure out more about yourself (and anyone else who lives in your space, including a partner, children and/or pets)!
- What motivates you and do you want to make changes in your life?
- When you walk into your home, do you feel comfortable, calm and supported by it?
- Or do you feel agitated, wish you could be somewhere else, and see everything’s that wrong with it?
- Or maybe, you just feel neutral.
- Take a look at my blog post, Interior Design, Self-Reflection and Your Home, where I take a deeper dive into these questions.
www.uhhospitals.org
https://oregoniansforcleanair.org
Now let’s focus on the kitchen, and ask and answer even more questions!! These are all things that when I work with clients, I want to know…
- How much do you cook in your kitchen? Daily, a few times a week, rarely? Do you cook meals in advance? Or, do you bring home take-out a lot, eat out more, or heat up leftovers?
- If your kitchen is used often, who’s the main cook in your home and do other family members help in the kitchen? If so, what do they do?
www.ikea.com/ - Do you clean and straighten your kitchen daily? Are you okay with some things on the counters, or do you prefer to have the counters as clear of items as possible? Do you have help in cleaning your kitchen?
- How much counter-space do you have now? Does it provide enough prep area? Do you have appliances on your counter?
- Do you eat in your kitchen? Is there an island or a kitchen table? Is there a separate dining room, and do you use it, and how often do you use it (rarely, only on holidays, often during the week, every night)?
Photo by Corey Fitzgerald, KDZ Designs Mid-Century Modern Kitchen Update - What kind of storage do you have in the kitchen and near-by (pantry, only kitchen cabinets, etc.)?
- Do you buy a lot of fresh foods that need refrigeration? Do you have a large family and buy in bulk and need a lot of storage?
Photo by Corey Fitzgerald, KDZ Designs Mid-Century Modern Kitchen Update - Do you have adequate lighting in your kitchen – for example, can you see well when doing prep work and if you eat in your kitchen, is the surface where you eat well-lit? Can you see to clean the kitchen, including the floor?
www.lampsplus.com - What are the colors (cabinets, walls, flooring, etc.) in your kitchen and what is its overall style? Do the colors and style work with the rest of your home?
- If you have pets, do they eat in the kitchen and do they have a designated area for their food and water?
Corey Fitzgerald Photo – Cosmo, the greyhound
A better sense of direction…
Based on your answers to the above questions, you will get a sense of how much use your kitchen gets, who uses it, and what you might be missing and that translates to identifying the best materials to use, storage solutions, color and style selections, etc. You can do on-line searches that call out pros and cons of materials, style selections, etc.
For example, If you are someone who cooks daily, and you are planning a kitchen renovation, you would select countertops that are the most resilient, like quartz, for example. Doing an on-line search you can also evaluate if quartz countertops are in your budget. And you could repeat this kind of search for the best lighting for prep areas, storage options for cooking supplies, etc. If you are looking for the most budget friendly options and are planning on updating a few things about your kitchen, you might choose to change the wall and cabinet colors, adding new cabinet hardware, and updating decorative light fixtures.
