Kitchen & Bathroom,Wardrobe & Closet Design Plans

Our Kitchen Design Process

The staff of KBC Kitchen Designs is available to share their creative ideas and professional expertise with you. To initiate the design process and create the home you desire, we recommend the following:

• Tour our state-of-the-art kitchen design showroom to develop ideas about what types of kitchen cabinets, countertops, and fixtures suit your tastes, and arrange for a complimentary consultation with a designer at your home.

• A designer will meet with you in your home to see the space, discuss your ideas & budget and offer suggestions for your kitchen design plans. Measurements will be taken at this time.

• Meet with the designer at our kitchen design showroom where you will be presented with a preliminary first plan and budget.

• When a final design plan is developed, a design portfolio will be prepared for your review, including floor plans, elevations, an appliance schedule, detailed cabinet selection information and a schedule of payments.

• We place your order and arrange for delivery and/or installation.

We look forward to working with you from concept to completion.

The environment is an increasingly key issue, so wanting to plan an eco friendly kitchen design is understandable. Here are a few tips to creating a green kitchen.

For starters, let’s talk about lighting. Kitchen lights can take up a lot of electricity, especially when being used in the daytime to light up darker areas of the kitchen. An eco-friendly solution is to install a sky light or extra windows to bring as much natural light into the kitchen as possible and limit the amount of electricity needed. Domed skylights allow you to keep UV rays out and still enjoy a bright and airy kitchen.

Your kitchen floor is another area where you can look to be greener. Using materials like bamboo, cork, renewable wood and biodegradable lino are all environmentally friendly alternatives and still function and look great.

Insulation can be eco-friendly and limit the amount of heating you need, saving you money on bills. Spray foam insulation is the latest green craze in kitchen design and keeps the room warm when it gets cold outside.

Much like you floor, you can get your kitchen storage to be produced from environmentally friendly materials such as bamboo or any other kind of sustainably harvested wood. As an added touch, you can get built in recyling units, so it becomes less of a chore to seperate your papers and plastics.

If you want to go the extra mile then you can also get kitchen taps that will only turn on when an object is placed under the faucet. This means that taps won’t be left on when they’re not needed and water won’t be wasted.

To get hot water you can use some eco-friendly solutions like solar powered heaters or tankless water heaters that both reduce the amount of energy needed to turn water hot.

Also consider fitting energy efficient windows which come with a special kind of glass to reduce the amount of UV rays that enter the room but also retain light and heat.

We’ve got more information on eco-friendly kitchen design listed below and can also divert you to some of the leading retailers of environmentally friendly kitchen solutions.

Eco-Friendly Cabinet Doors  Eco-Friendly Kitchen Cabinet Doors  Unfinished Cabinet Doors  Replacement Kitchen Cabinet Doors  Cabinet With Doors  Louvered Cabinet Doors  Wholesale Cabinet Doors  How To Build Kitchen Cabinet Doors  Kitchen Cabinet Replacement Doors 

Kitchen Remodel Ideas That Will Achieve a Modern Look For Any Budget

Kitchen Remodel Ideas. You’ve finally decided that you have to update your kitchen before it drives you mad. You have been staring at the same four walls, dingy cupboards, and worn floor for way too long now. You are tired of squeezing past the counters when the fridge door is open, and throwing stuff into another room just to make room for food preparation on your counters when it’s time for a family dinner at your house. You will need some careful planning if you are going to attempt implementing some of your kitchen remodel ideas. The fundamental components of a kitchen remodel project undertaking are all the same whether it be a big job or a little one. You choose your style which could be modern, contemporary, grandma’s old country kitchen, or a wild and crazy look all your own. Certain color paints will look better with various appliances and cupboards. You would not want to choose a dark color on your walls if you already have dark oak cupboards or a deep dark marble floor. Choosing materials to work with can often be a stressful event. If you stick to your budget, you will not risk ending up short on cash if your original home decorating ideas do not work out

If you need to replace your cupboards, you can try looking in the local paper or in the online classifieds for deals. If you can get away with just a fresh coat of paint, new doors, or even glass panels for a modern look without the cost, then you may want to consider that option.

Flooring options no longer need to be a concern. You can get laminate flooring tiles for even a few dollars a tile. Counter tops can run you a pretty penny if you do not do some homework first. You do not need to spend thousands of dollars on stone, marble, stainless steel, or solid surface choices when you can spend a third of the price for laminate or ceramic counter tops. These lower cost counter top surfaces are a great way to incorporate your kitchen remodel ideas into a newer more modern look everyone will enjoy. Other benefits to this type of counter top are the ease of cleaning, and the resistance to slashes,dents or scratches from food preparation.

Although brand new stainless steel appliances may be a desire in completing you kitchen remodel ideas these can be an unnecessary cost if the appliances you currently have are working well. If you find your current appliances seem crowded or make your kitchen appear smaller than you would like, wait until your favorite department store has a sale, or hunt down a wholesaler who may have a price you can afford.

Small Kitchen Remodeling

Small Kitchen Remodeling Tips – 4 Helpful Tips to Make Your Small Kitchen Look Bigger

Small Kitchen Remodeling. If you have a small kitchen and you want to make it look bigger than it normally is, you can. This article looks at three very important tips that can help in giving that small kitchen of yours the big look it needs and make it actually more spacious than it really is.

1. Use light colors: As hard as it seems to believe there are certain colors that help to give the visual impression of more space. And these are light colors. So, if you need to make your small kitchen appear bigger, use light colors instead of dark colors. Dark colors are said to reduce the size of a room or kitchen and are therefore not the best types to use when you want your kitchen to look bigger.

2. Use customized cabinets: Using customized cabinets help you save space in your kitchen more than if you had to buy and install just about any cabinet. By using customized ones you make them based on the space you have available. Customized in this sense means that they are made to fit the particular space in your kitchen and not the other way around. In this case they have to be made after the measurements of your kitchen are taken, so that they will be made really to fit.

3. Use customized furniture: Since you don’t have too much space in your kitchen, using customized furniture helps you save space. Such customized-furniture will be built mainly to take up particular space in the kitchen. With this also, the exact measurements of the space where they will be have to be taken and the furniture made to really fit into that space.

4. Maximize storage space: Ensure that every space is used in such a way that it serves dual function. For example, the bottom of the sink can be used as a spot for storing things. Since you don’t have a lot of space you shouldn’t waste any. Every space that is available will serve one purpose or another.

Do the above and you will be shocked to see your previously small kitchen now looking much bigger than it really is. And yes, it will then be able to take more things than it did before doing the above. And trust me – many of your friends who previously told you that your kitchen is too small will marvel at how big it now looks after you have done the above. And who knows – you might end up becoming a kind of “go to person” when it comes to making a small kitchen look big without necessarily increasing the space.

Porsche Design Group and Poggenpohl Mobelwerke GmbH present their first co-designed P”7340 kitchen in the United States on April 11th, 2008. The Porsche Design kitchen will be on display at Poggenpohl”s showroom (Suite 138) in the Merchandise Mart, Chicago — and will be unveiled during a Kitchen/Bath Industry Show event, April 11th from 5:30 until 8:00 pm. The innovative kitchen, designed especially for men, features an innovative aluminum titanium framework, purist styling and high-quality materials.

 Poggenpohl Porsche Design Kitchen for Men.  Click Here to Download Image The new Poggenpohl Porsche Design kitchen responds to trends that show an increasing number of men are interested in cuisine and entertaining. The P”7340 kitchen”s sleek and functional design specifically addresses male customers from its exclusive sensor controlled Miele appliances to the unmatched audio system.

    The new kitchen will be sold in Poggenpohl studios around the world and will be available in the United States in summer 2008. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes all your cabinets need to give your kitchen a whole new look is a bit of basic repair or a few minor improvements. Changing your pulls, for example, can completely alter the look of cabinetry as can Refacing or Repainting them.

If your cabinet doors droop or shut poorly, repair or change the hinges. First, try tightening the screws. If a screw won’t tighten, remove it, squirt a little white glue into the hole and insert some broken-up wooden toothpicks to fill it up (wipe off any excess glue). After the glue dries, cut the toothpicks flush with the surface using a utility knife, and drive the screw into the refurbished hole (you may have to drill a small pilot hole first).

Cabinets are the heart of a kitchen’s organization and the key contributor to its appearance. Hundreds if not thousands of styles are made from a broad range of materials: fine hardwoods, laminates, veneers, painted particleboard, and more.

From the highest quality models to the bottom-of-the-line units, all cabinets have one thing in common: Fundamentally, they’re boxes.Some of the boxes stand on the floor and are capped with countertops while others hang from the walls. Some are fitted with doors and shelves; others hold drawers or other specialty accessories.

A kitchen-cabinet system is made up from several separate units, joined together side-by-side. Base cabinets may have drawers, doors, shelves, or pull-outs, or a combination of these. Plumbing bases have no shelves or drawers, reserving the space for a sink and plumbing. Upper wall cabinets offer storage above counters and appliances.

When you purchase a vintage home, you will find that the kitchen is not up to today’s standards for family living. In many instances, you may find that the entire house will need to have restoration work. When preservationists restore vintage homes, they usually keep the facade and the main living areas in the style of the home. The kitchen, however, is usually redesigned to meet the needs of their family.Vintage Kitchen

Vintage not only means the restoration of pre-World War I homes but also bungalows from the 1950s and ranch style homes from the 1970s. The design and purchase of a home is a personal choice and the styles from various decades appeal to many people.Vintage Kitchen

When kitchens became a separate room in the family home, there were work areas. Everything in the kitchen was freestanding including the stove, the refrigerator, and the sink. The kitchen table was the work area and the appliances were all one color, white. Some had cast-iron stoves. Floors were wood or linoleum.

The decades of the 1960s and 1970s did see changes in color in kitchen appliances but some of the colors got old pretty quickly. It was difficult for everyone to live with avocado green and gold for twenty years.

When planning a kitchen redesign for a vintage home, you want it to feel warm and inviting and homey. You also want the hardware to have a period feel. The availability of period materials has grown. You can find period pieces in antique stores and well designed reproduction hardware and appliances in home shopping stores. Architectural salvage companies go through buildings and homes to be torn down and salvage materials for re-use.Vintage Kitchen

The look and feel of a kitchen is determined by its cabinets. If you want to keep an historic feel to your kitchen, check with architectural salvage companies for wood and metal cabinets. You can mix these cabinets with freestanding antique or reproduction pieces. You can also add other vintage pieces such as an antique dresser or other items such as plate racks and open shelves. When refinishing your salvage cabinet finds, you should make sure that you strip, buff, and lacquer the metal cabinets to prevent them from rusting. Old painted wood cabinets have a tendency to warp when striped. You should do them one at a time.

Vintage Kitchen

You can use stone countertops in a vintage kitchen redesign. The stone should be honed to a soft finish. Vermont soapstone is a popular choice.

Flooring in a vintage kitchen redesign can be linoleum or wood. You may be able to find unused rolls of linoleum from early decades at an architectural salvage store. Many of today’s designs also complement the vintage kitchen. Linoleum companies are reproducing early patterns.

Many vintage kitchens, especially pre-war, used pressed metal in the ceiling. You can check for these at an architectural salvage store. An alternative is to use a heavy Anaglyptic paper. This is a cream colored paper embossed in a variety of period patterns. It costs less to install than pressed metal and when it is painted, achieves a similar look.

Since the mid-1980s, it has become easier to find authentic looking vintage stoves and refrigerators. Most old stoves are white but you can find some colors such as cream, green, or cobalt blue. Hoods used for venting were not used 100 years ago. In this case, you can have one built of the same wood as an overhead cabinet.Vintage Kitchen

It is not difficult to find antique hardware. In a vintage kitchen, you may want to choose antique brass, satin nickel, or blackened finish. You can find reproductions to fit just about any vintage period at your local hardware or home shopping store.

A kitchen redesign for a vintage kitchen can make your home warm and family friendly. It just takes a little time to find the right pieces.

1. To mark a short level line, you can use a level to extend the line from a measured point. Longer lines are best marked with a chalk line. Drive a brad at one measured point and then attach the chalk line; reel out the line to a second measured point, stretch the line tight, and snap the line on the wall. Then check the line with a level.

2. Once you’ve marked a line, use a 4-foot level to check it. Lightly mark a level line in any areas of concern and measure the difference between it and the original line. If a chalk line is “out” by only 1/4 inch or so in 6 feet, you can probably go with it. Usually the eye will accept mouldings that follow the floor line within these limits, especially baseboards. If the difference is more, use the level to re-mark the line, setting the line level or perhaps splitting the difference.

3. Remember that in moulding work the goal is to produce a pleasing result,not a mathematically perfect one. It’s a matter of eye. Your care and attention at this stage will be well rewarded down the line.

1.
To install wall-mounted cabinets, start by determining their positions and drawing a level horizontal line on the wall where the bottom of each cabinet will be located. Double-check your layout by lightly penciling the cabinets’ dimensions and placement on the wall.

2.
Align the top edge of a temporary 1-by-3 support rail with the line for the bottom edge of the cabinets and drive three or four 2-inch screws through it into the wall studs.

3.
Drill pilot holes through the sturdy part of the cabinet back or its support rail into wall studs. Screw the cabinet to the wall using two screws that are long enough to penetrate the studs by at least 1 1/2 inches.