How to Save Money on Renovating Your Kitchen
If you want to enjoy a new kitchen but don’t want to break the bank, here are a few tips that you might want to consider.
13/10/2020
If your existing kitchen is looking a little tired and dated, you might have been giving some thought to getting a kitchen renovation. Remodelling your kitchen has a range of undeniable benefits and can be one of the best ways to upgrade your home and breathe new life into the room. Whether you simply want to improve your quality of life at home and enjoy your cooking that much more, or are planning to sell your property in the future, you can’t argue with the fact that a sleek new kitchen adds a lot of value to the property in many different ways. But the downside is that a kitchen remodel can be a lot of hard work and expenses. This project is often one of the most expensive ones that a homeowner can take on, but the good news is that there are plenty of savvy ways to save money both in the short- and long-term.
If you want to enjoy a new kitchen but don’t want to break the bank, here are a few tips that you might want to consider.
Consider Working with a Professional
Many homeowners make the mistake of believing that going down the DIY route is going to be the best way to save money. However, this isn’t always the case. Unless you really know what you’re doing with DIY and are confident in your ability to fit a kitchen, it’s almost always much more cost-effective in the long run to work with a professional kitchen design and kitchen renovations firm. Offering kitchens in Perth, Kitchen Capital are a professional kitchen design company who can work with you to ensure that you get the results that you want. Unlike doing it all by yourself, working with Kitchen Capital means that you can avoid any potentially costly mistakes or messes that could end up cutting deeply into your budget, plus a professionally designed kitchen is likely to last you for much longer without running into any issues. If you like, you could hire a kitchen designer but save money by taking on some of the work yourself.
Shop Around
When it comes to getting cabinets, countertops, tiles, backsplashes and everything else that you are going to need to put your dream kitchen together, don’t just go for the first option offered to you by your renovation firm. While many firms can make it easier for you by sourcing and purchasing these items on your behalf, you can often save a great deal of money by sacrificing the convenience and shopping around yourself. Visit a few different stores, get some quotes and don’t be afraid to negotiate.
Online Appliance Shopping
Unless you’re looking for a really specialist or niche type of appliance, most of the big appliance brands are best bought online for the biggest savings compared to heading to a kitchen showroom. In fact, shopping online often means that you have a bigger choice of brands to explore and you can take advantage of online-only sales for even bigger discounts. Do a bit of research to ensure that you find what you are looking for and read customer reviews for the appliances that you’ve got your eyes on before making the purchase. You can often find great deals from the online appliance and electrical stores that are holding sales on sites like eBay and Amazon, so don’t forget to check these sites too to see if you could grab a bargain.
Consider Cheaper Appliance Brands
Most people will only notice the brand of the appliance when they’re looking at the front of the appliance that bears the logo. To save money on your appliances, it might be worth considering opting for cheaper brands that work just as well if your appliance is only going to be hidden behind a cabinet door. You might really want that SMEG fridge, but is there much point if you’re never going to be able to see it and a fridge available at half the price is going to do the exact same job? Instead, splash out on better, more well-known brands for your oven, hob and any other appliances that are always on display as this can improve the resale value of your home. But for appliances that tend to be hidden away, there’s really not much point in investing a lot into expensive brand names.
Shop Around for Your Worktop
Depending on the type of kitchen worktop that you want, shopping around and getting it yourself can save you a considerable amount of money. If you want wooden or laminate worktops, you can often save a great deal by purchasing the lengths of worktop that you need online, with several trusted online retailers to choose from that are much cheaper compared to buying from a kitchen showroom. Work out how much you will need for each run of your worktop and allow a little extra than needed for cuts.
Don’t forget that you can always make the most of wooden worktops by utilising any offcuts as a luxurious chopping board. If you’d prefer a quartz style or granite worktop, going directly to the quarry or stone fabricator is the best way to get a good deal. While this requires a little more research and shopping around compared to going directly to the kitchen showroom, it’s a sure way to save a great deal of money on getting what you need.
Purchase Kitchen Accessories Online
Some kitchen fitters will offer the option to completely kit out your kitchen with all the accessories that you need, but this can come at a high mark-up. And, there’s always the risk that they will include accessories that you might not have gone for yourself in your kitchen. This is another area where it pays to go online and shop around as much as you can. Consider some of the smaller items that you often use in your kitchen like pop-up sockets, spice racks, pegboards for organising pots and pans, shelving and wooden cutlery trays. While they’re all really useful to have in your kitchen, taking the time to source them yourself can save you a great deal of money.
Shop for Storage
Storage solutions are key for any functional kitchen but sadly, including them all in the price of your refit can be costly. Instead, it might be worth asking your kitchen builders to simply include the basics so that you have the option to shop around for certain storage solutions to take advantage of a cheaper price. Items like integrated bins, corner solutions, pull-out wirework and under-cabinet lights can all be found online and installed easily for a much lower price compared to purchasing them already installed with your cabinets.
What to DIY
Finally, it’s a good idea to leave the heavy lifting to the professionals, but there are some aspects of your new kitchen that you can do yourself. For example, you might want to save money by finding plain wooden cabinets and giving them a fresh lick of paint yourself to achieve the desired colour for your kitchen. Once you’ve decided on how you want your kitchen to look and feel, painting or wallpapering is another job that is worth doing yourself to save money.
Getting a new kitchen doesn’t have to be expensive. Working with a professional where needed and taking on the rest yourself can save you a lot of money while still getting the best results.