Remodeling Your Kitchen for Guest-Friendly Appeal and Use

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If you enjoy having guests over for parties and other social gatherings, your kitchen should be accommodating. But how do you get it to be that way when it isn’t even close? For optimal results, your kitchen should be custom-designed for your exact needs and those of your guests. This way, everyone is happy with the final product and you can relax knowing your guests are happy. Hiring a design build contractor is one of the best ways to ensure a custom guest-friendly fit to be enjoyed for years to come.

Nice Cabinets Make a Kitchen Stand Outkitchen-gathering-electrical-safety-resized-600

When you enter a kitchen, one of the first things you notice will be the cabinets. This is why it’s so important to have the right ones for your particular kitchen. Style and potential usage are huge factors in cabinets that will be both useful and attractive. Also, think about the feelings you want to invoke in those who enter the kitchen area. Guest-friendly design is about capturing a specific emotion, such as togetherness or excitement. A design build contractor can help you achieve a customized look that is tailored to all of those needs and more.

Go For Beautiful, Yet Functional Countertops

Fancy countertops will wow your guests, for sure. When choosing which materials are best, also consider the functionality. When you entertain often, it’s important to have a surface that’s durable and easy to clean off. But of course, you also need that wow factor. Talk with your contractor about which options fit your needs, as well as your style and budget.

Flooring and Lighting Help Highlight the Space

Make sure your guests can move around comfortably, as well as have a stunning visual experience by paying close attention to the flooring and lighting. Kitchen flooring should be easy to clean up but should also be desirable to the eye. This is especially true when you frequently entertain guests. Lighting should be beautiful to the eye, fit the style of the space, as well as highlight the preparation and serving areas without being too overwhelming.

Cooking and Prep Space Should Allow For Socializing

When entertaining guests, you should be able to join in on the fun, even during food prep. This helps ensure that your guests have their needs met and keeps everyone socializing with each other. One way to do this is to combine the cooking and eating areas. Some people make this entertainment option possible with an open floor plan. Your contractor can help you decide what’s best for satisfying everyone involved, as well as your budget.

A Functional Entertainment Area Keeps Your Guests Coming Back

Speaking of entertainment, the area your guests will be served in should be custom-designed for the best results. Keep the above advice in mind, as well as things your guests enjoy. It’s a good idea to take notes when you think of ideas. That way, when you meet with your contractor, everything is easier for you to present and nothing is forgotten.

 

Multiple Room Renovations

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Multiple room renovations can be fun and rewarding. Jazz up your living space by creating an open floor plan with the use of one or more rooms. Open up a small kitchen and add useful space by connecting it with a living or dining area. No matter which rooms you’re planning to remodel, contact your experienced licensed contractor to get started with your ideas right away.

Opening Up a Small Space By Combining Areas

If you have an area of your house that is fairly small, try adding more space by combining it with another area. Knock down a wall or so to create a more open area. This is common in the kitchen home-designarea, as many people like to view the living or dining area while preparing meals. Remember that only a licensed contractor should do this kind of work, as it needs to follow code and requires building permits.

Creating a Fluid Living Space

Going for even more flow than is offered in joining two rooms? Try creating a fluid living space by combining three or more rooms. Some may choose to do this with the kitchen, dining, living, and playroom areas. That way, everything flows together nicely and the space available is also maximized. Others may do this with a child’s bedroom and playroom or a parent’s office with the playroom (for keeping a closer eye on smaller children). Whichever areas your family would use together the most or access from each other the most make for the best fluid spaces.

Open Master Bedroom Additions

Looking for more room to relax, but need an easy way to get to and from the bed and relaxation area? Try combining your master bedroom with another adjacent room for more space. An open floor plan in your master area can help things flow more easily. Obviously, you may want a door or wall separating the toilet area. However, some enjoy the comfort of an open floor design that brings multiple rooms together as one master bedroom. This often includes the sleeping area, a lounging or game area, and the master bathroom.

Open Floor Basement Ideas

Whether your basement serves as a master getaway, a family retreat, a gaming and lounge area, an exercise space, something else, or all of the above, try an open floor plan. By opening things up, you can make a smaller space seem big and a bigger space seem like a luxury. Open floor designs make it easier to get to each area and also help you maximize space. Oftentimes, they create a more organized look and feel as well.

Should You Go With an Open Floor Plan?

Before deciding on an open floor plan, consider your lifestyle. If you enjoy having a more fluid layout without so many walls and doors, this option may be the right choice for you. Talk with a licensed remodeling contractor about your ideas, needs, lifestyle, and budget to find out what works for you. Their experience with a large variety of options will help you explore and discover the ideas that fit your family’s lifestyle.

 

You Want a Dream Home Gym

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You want a dream home gym. But when would you have time to use it, amid chasing kids around? Inviting a sitter over during every workout may be impractical for your lifestyle. Use your home gym more by creating an attached playroom for your kids to enjoy while you’re working out. A reputable and licensed remodeling contractor can help you create the best space for your personal comfort, wants, and needs.

Watch Kids Easily While You Work Out

Every parent knows that when the kids are out of mediterranean-home-gymsight, it’s not a good thing. Keep an eye on those kiddos while getting in your exercise time by remodeling your home gym to add a playroom. Discuss with your contractor whether having a clear viewing area from the workout space or creating an open-style multipurpose area is best for your family’s needs. Think about which would be easier not only to watch the kids, but also to keep smaller children from accessing dangerous equipment.

Extra Exercise Space For Kids Too

Since you’ll be working out anyhow, why not add some good exercise options to your child’s attached playroom? Some options might include indoor playground equipment, children’s sports and gym equipment, or child-sized yoga balls and mats with built-in storage for watching workout videos on television. To ensure the kids don’t get bored while you’re working out, it is recommended to create an area that includes a variety of free play and exercise options. Built-in storage is a good way to stow away a large number of things that can be accessed easily.

Busy Kids Are Happy Kids

Because you are creating a space customized just for the kids, this should be a happy place for them. Your licensed contractor can go over your wants and needs to be sure it’s exactly the space to keep your kids busy in. While you take advantage of having a  home gym, the kids can do the same or simply play. Your family’s lifestyle will play a major role in the design. After all, busy kids are happy kids and they will only be busy if they like what they see in the space. So be sure to tell the contractor all of your children’s desires and your comfort and safety concerns upfront.

Convenience All-Around

Once you have a fresh new custom playroom added to your home gym, things will be so much more convenient. No more waiting for babysitters to show up or scheduling your workout time so that it’s convenient for others. No more rushing out the door to the gym and spending extra time on the commute. No more having to leave the kids behind for a workout. You can involve them instead and create a great opportunity for bonding that lasts a lifetime. Sure, some gyms have childcare or family classes, but it’s much more convenient for all involved to do it yourself at home, if at all possible. Some kids may be more comfortable exercising in their own home, which is more convenient when they need anything.

As you can see, there are many reasons building a playroom could greatly enhance your home gym time. Talk with a good contractor today to make your home gym dreams come true.  

 

Ideas for Basement Rooms

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Deciding on what to use your basement for can be a fun and exciting process. Room choices can vary significantly, depending on your family and lifestyle choices. Remember to cover all bases when deciding on ideas for your basement rooms. Whether your basement is finished or unfinished, these ideas will get you thinking and should help you in completing the process.

Wet Bar with Dance Hall

This popular basement room option is useful for a variety of lifestyle choices. If you enjoy entertaining friends and dancing the night away, you could benefit from creating this space right in your home. No need to make reservations or get yourself on the lists of exclusive clubs. This area can also work for creating kid-friendly smoothies and other fun drinks. Your child’s birthday party could very easily be a big hit with a space like this.

Efficiency Kitchen or Apartment

hdivd1204-basement-music-room_lgBasement kitchens can be great for parties, events, and more. Whether you simply want to make your guests comfortable, have an extra space for older kids to hang out in, or make an entire space to rent out, an efficiency kitchen or apartment will be of good use. Consider the intended usage of the space to decide whether the kitchen is enough or a whole apartment area would be better.

Playroom or Daycare Area

Kids like to have their own space, and having a basement playroom allows you to keep toys and such out of the main living area. Also, if you run an in-home daycare, the basement is the best place to do it. Because you have the space, you can have the kids’ books downstairs, so they can have their own library and reading area. Combining the reading and play area keeps play choices versatile. Kids with a comfortable space to read and study in are more likely to do so, as it’s readily available. The same is true for adults. Therefore, if you have no kids, you can create a more adult-oriented zone.

Family Game Room

Game rooms are a popular option and what better place to have it than the basement, where space options may be more versatile? Whether your family’s idea of gaming consists of board games, electronic games, computers, table games like pool, or all of the above, choosing to make a game room gives your family a lasting fun space.

Fitness Area

Having a workout or dance area can be beneficial in many ways. No more worrying about gym membership. Just exercise in your own space on your own time. This room can be whatever works for your personal family needs. Some may opt for exercise machines. Yet others may choose yoga mats and balls. Still others might do better with a dance bar and proper flooring for dancing. Some people may even choose to have space for a combination of the above or other fitness room choices. No matter your family’s style, a fitness room can be beneficial to your health and lifestyle.

 

Giving Your Kitchen The Ideal Look And Feel

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A beautiful kitchen makes a happy home no matter whether you are a mom, dad, son, daughter, grandma, or guest. A beautiful kitchen can become the showpiece of a home, which is perfectly ideal. Since the kitchen is oneof the highest traffic areas of any home, it is a real good idea to make a home a real showcase.

To do so, there are several different styles of color coordination and patterns that can be followed. If you are looking to remodel your kitchen, here are some of the options you can choose to make your kitchen that showcase you have always wanted.

Contrasting Colors– Many likeWorthington Kitchen Remodel the idea of selecting colors are opposite to one another on the color wheel. If you look at a color wheel you can see that colors are grouped according to the primary colors. Selecting colors that are diverse from one another can give an interesting look, which makes the kitchen kind of fun. For example, cherry red cabinets can be contrasted with green walls. If brown is the color of the cabinets, blue would make great wall colors.

Harmonizing Colors–in contrast to the contrasting colors idea, harmonizing colors are ones where the color schemes are chosen from areas of the color wheel that are in the same area. For most people they choose colors that are very close in shade to one another. White walls could have pale aqua or salmon cabinet colors, ivory appliances, and light yellow wallpaper schemes. These make for a great blending that looks so good because there is such a subtle difference between the different variants.

Speckling – one thing that many like to do is to choose to add speckles to the colors they are using for their kitchen. Often they select just one color for most of the items, including the appliances, cabinets, countertops and walls, then different colors of speckles. This allows the kitchen to have a very common look, yet different. Speckle colors on the wall can be different than that on countertops. It is a great look for sure.

Extreme Cabinet Colors – This works especially well if the cabinets are dark like a mahogany or a ebony. When light colors are used on the walls and appliances, the dark coloring of the cabinets makes for a very unusual look that contrasts so well because there is a real consistency in the way that the kitchen is designed. Light colors make the kitchen look cheery, while the darker cabinets add elegance and a high quality look. You’ll love it.

Accessories – In this look the kitchen is colored with different hues chosen depending upon the material. For example, all the walls would be one color. All the trims around the walls, flooring, windows, and ceilings would be another color. Cabinets would be a third color. Appliances a fourth. Countertops a fifth color. If there are bar stools or a breakfast area, it gets a sixth color. In fact, any furniture would be that sixth color. This kind of coloring makes the kitchen uniform and different. It is a clever look.

Making The Right Choice For That Home Improvement Project

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Making some additions or changes to your home can be a fun venture. Adding a new room, building a space above the garage, redesigning your basement, and expanding the kitchen are just a few of the things you can do to turn your home into an even more amazing castle. For those looking to do a project like this, the challenge comes in finding the right person to do the design and then looking for someone to actually do the work. This can be a lot of trouble, or it can be the ideal solution depending upon how you want to look at it.Worthington Kitchen Remodel

You should be aware that there are two different methods you can use to make the improvement: Design-Bid-Build, and Design-Build. The method will be determined by how much involvement you want in the project itself. Let me explain this to you.

In the Design-Bid-Build option, the homeowner finds a company or contractor that will do the design of the improvement. The homeowner then finds a different company that will actually do the work. These companies submit bids to the homeowner on what it would take for them to do the project based upon the specifications designed by the designer. Once a bid is accepted, the company that won the bid does the project.

This is the ideal choice if the homeowner wants to be more involved in the project itself. By selecting both the contractor and the builder, the owner gets to ensure that those who are involved in the project are right for each piece. There are some concerns you should be aware of, which I will come back to. In the Design-Build model, the company that is chosen to design the project is also the company that builds the improvement itself. This takes away an additional step the homeowner and streamlines the process.

While both have their benefits, there are some challenges that arise with both options. In the first option there is a great deal of limitation on the part of the home owner to make adjustments to the project on the fly. Consider that if a new room was being added onto the house. If, while the room was being built, the homeowner noticed that a window would have been ideal on a different wall there is little to no room to make the change. The builder did not design the room, and so you would have to go back to the designer to get the plans changed, and then get the builder to agree to make the change. That may not happen.

In the second option this is less of a concern. The owner can simply approach the designer and ask for the change, and since they are also the builders, it is less of a challenge to make this happen.

However, the second option comes with some challenges as well. Most importantly, a designer may not be as good of a builder, or vice versa. You may not be able to get as quality of a job done with choosing one company to do both pieces.

Adding an improvement onto your home can be great, and now that you know the benefits and pitfalls of both this will hopefully aid you in making an informed decision.

Read More about design build here: https://scotthallremodeling.com/design-build-services/our-process/