#Kitchen Design

Visit our  Kitchen Showrooms  and get a feel for our range of colours, materials and ideas

Kitchen Design can seem like a daunting subject, there are so many things that go into making a kitchen.  Before you really get into designing your kitchen, the first thing you need to do is assess what you want from your new kitchen. Ask yourself what do you like about your current kitchen? What do you dislike about your kitchen? What things would you do to improve it? What kind/style of cooking do you do? Frying, baking, grilling etc. We have a Smith Smith Kitchen Design Questionaire  you can download and print to help you figure out what you want or to help your designer figure out what you want.

Kitchen Designers what do they do?

Working with a professional can take a lot of the uncertainty and stress out of the process  of planning and building a new kitchen. Consider your designer a partner who can envision (and prepare for) possibilities that won t occur to you and manage the technical details. If the countless door style, finish, and hardware choices seem overwhelming, imagine how the load increases when you add measurements, ordering and installation into the picture.  Smith Smith employ some of the best and most experienced designers in the industry, you can be sure they will help you through the entire process.

Kitchen Layout plays an important role in how you will use your kitchen.

Once you have worked out what your needs are, you can start collecting and collating information, pictures, and ideas about how you want your future kitchen to look.

• Buy a scrapbook or folder and collect pictures from magazines, brochures, the internet etc
• Visit our showrooms to get some good ideas on design and various finishes. Showrooms are great because you can get to touch and feel the quality of the finishes.
• Kitchen Plan

Kitchen Styles

• Contemporary Clean lines and open spaces, with high gloss cabinetry to reflect light and stone benchtops, highlighted with a feature glass splashback and modern appliances
• Classic Minimalist industrial style with woodgrains and stainless steel give you the i can cook feel.
• Heritage A classical old style heritage kitchen usually contains profiled doors, corbells, decorative columns, capping, molding and fancy glass inserts.  While they might look elegantly old they take advantage of the modern technology that is in use in the kitchen industry.

Designers tend to keep in mind things like  users height and size and are able to make adjustments to the cabinet sizes to make the kitchen more suitable for the end users.  This is something that would probably not be considered if you did not consult a professional designer.

Kitchen Timeline

How long will a kitchen renovation take? There are a lot of factors to consider, things like design time, if there is an existing kitchen in place, if there is structural work that needs to be done, how busy the kitchen manufacturer is, how busy the trades people are etc.  Smith Smith Cabinet Makers usually try to keep kitchen turn around to about 8 weeks as a general guideline for a complete kitchen renovation. The following is a list of the overall steps from start to finish.

• Design
• Check Measure
• Production
• Stripout
• Delivery
• Installation

The usual sequence of work to be done at your place of residence is

• Disconnect all existing services
• Remove existing cabinetry, appliances and fittings
• Relocate windows and walls (if necessary)
• Install basic plumbing and electrics (commonly known as a rough in)
• Install floor (depending upon whether the floor runs under cabinetry or not)
• Install cabinetry, benchtops, and splashbacks
• Install appliances and lighting
• Install final plumbing and electrics
• Seal and paint

If you wish, you can organize your own trades people, however you need to do it in the correct order otherwise there may be costly revisits, extra work and additional costs.

Provide all trades and cabinet makers with plans that have details of the position of existing and new services (plumbing, gas and electrics), details of appliances, sinks and taps.