If you are thinking of renovating your kitchen, or even just changing where you store things in your kitchen, here are a few ideas that will help you to know where to start and where to end up when you are done.
Picture - First thing you need to do it picture how you want your kitchen to look. Walk it out. Think about where you will stand when you cook, do the dishes or roll out a pie crust. What will you need in those areas for storage, for work space and if you will need easy access to the sink or an outlet.
Plan - After you have taken time and thought it through (maybe even lived in the kitchen you have for a while so you know what you really need) you need to plan the best placement of your appliances and what are the most important things you need. Like where to store your big cooking utensils and where your drinking glasses need to go. If you plan it all out, there will be little room for error when the time comes.
Prioritize - A budget can get away from you during a renovation or even if you are just trying to reorganize. Are deep drawers important for housing large pans or casserole dishes? Make sure those things make your list. What about adding some inexpensive open shelves in an area so you can grab what you need quickly. Or remove a couple of cabinet doors for open shelving. Maybe you will just add some new storage (like a pantry) to make up for what you don't have storage wise in your kitchen. Make of list of what is most important to least important that way if you see the budget slipping through your fingers, you will have the top things on your list for sure first.
There is no real 'right' or 'wrong' way to a great working kitchen. If you are the one cooking, it needs to make sense to you and be a great tool to help you use your kitchen the best way you can!
