By Anne Brennan, Special to the Tribune
When Pat Paul decided to remodel the kitchen in her Chicago condo, she had done her research. After browsing through design magazines and with the experience of previous remodels, she knew the rules about renovations: Think work triangle, durable flooring and easy-to-maintain countertops.
Then Paul went ahead and did what she wanted anyway. Mostly, she wanted to keep the kitchen in the style of the 1924 building she lives in. That explains the hardwood floors and marble countertops–usually no-nos in kitchens. Water ruins wood, and marble is hard to care for, according to the conventional wisdom.
Yet several months and $40,000 later, Paul still loves the results: an Arts & Crafts-style kitchen with stone-colored cabinets, a farmhouse sink, peninsula, new butler’s pantry and new lighting.
“I’m happy. It’s old-fashioned but up-to-date,” she says. “It’s new and shiny, but it looks like it’s been there a long time.”
Like a lot of homeowners, Paul discovered that when it comes to renovating, some assumptions aren’t necessarily so. Your Place talked to several industry experts to find out what’s true and what’s not when it comes to updating the heart of the home.
MYTH: Every kitchen needs a work triangle.
REALITY: What really matters is function.
The kitchen work triangle, the area connecting the sink, the refrigerator and the stove, is a classic design.
“The triangle still works because it’s the kitchen work center,” says Rani Jain, a kitchen and bath specialist with KDA in Chicago. She designed Paul’s kitchen. “But more people are cooking [at the same time], so we try to do more than one workstation. If you have a big island, you can have a prep sink. Then you’re not in each other’s way.”
As the kitchen has broadened to become the place for friends and family to gather, many are being designed with various prep, social and work areas. Some even have double islands. One island is for clean up, prep and storage. The other island is the primary workstation, with a dishwasher, sink and stovetop.
“Most clients come in with certain beliefs, like the work triangle,” says Dave Karlson of Karlson Kitchens in Evanston. “They want good design. It was correct [in the past]. It’s old-fashioned. Today, it’s a different animal.”
MYTH: Leave everything to the pros.
REALITY: It pays to do your homework.
“The public today is so educated,” says Ed Beaulieu, a kitchen designer at the Expo Design Center in Vernon Hills. “Everybody shops and is doing their homework.”
Customers shop online and comparison shop, and they negotiate down to the last dollar, he says.
With kitchen-themed magazines, books, TV shows and Web sites, “the consumer is more aware of what’s going on,” Jain agrees.
Scouring home magazines paid off for Paul, for example. She tore out a photo from a magazine and used that as her inspiration. Her kitchen is almost identical to the photo, she says.
But it’s always important to get a pro’s opinion, Beaulieu says. “It’s a much larger adventure than it appears upfront,” he says.
MYTH: There’s a master plan that fits all homeowners.
REALITY: Every design is individual.
Remodels involve all sorts of issues, from whether you’re right-handed to how big your budget is.
“Design can be very personal,” Karlson says. “I can think something looks good. The client might not. There are a lot of variables we take into consideration. The rules are somewhat flexible.”
For example, while cooking and entertaining are hot trends, having a top-of-the-line kitchen probably won’t be a priority if you don’t like to cook or you’re always eating out, Jain says.
To save counter space, a small household might get by without a double-bowl sink, she says. That wouldn’t work for a large family that uses a lot of dishes.
MYTH: Bigger kitchens are better.
REALITY: Size doesn’t really matter.
“A small kitchen can be nice, if it’s well designed,” Karlson says. Most of the kitchens photographed for magazines are huge. They need to be to show off all those high-end appliances and other bells and whistles, he explains. But in reality, big kitchens can involve a lot of back and forth when cooking.
“Function is a higher priority,” he says. “You can have a big kitchen that’s hard to work in.”
Small spaces can be made more efficient and even made to look bigger, sometimes with simple tweaks, such as installing cabinets that are less than the standard 24 inches deep.
MYTH: Dining rooms are required.
REALITY: Some homeowners don’t miss them.
“We’re not as formal as we used to be. It can be wasteful,” Karlson says.
“In the city, spaces are so small,” Jain says. “We tear down walls to make the living room and kitchen one area. We’re doing away with dining rooms.”
MYTH: Solid wood cabinets are your only (expensive) option.
REALITY: Cabinets will cost you, but there are ways to save.
Because cabinets often eat up 50 percent of a remodel budget, consider all your choices and whether your investment will pay off at resale. In other words, you don’t want to put Gucci-priced cabinets in a $400,000 house. It will be a waste of your money, Beaulieu says.
“Wood isn’t the only way to go,” Beaulieu explains. Three-sided boxes of manufactured fiber density (MDF) with wood face fronts and doors are less expensive.
Also, many kitchen design experts suggest buying Ikea cabinets and splurging on professional installation of the pieces.
MYTH: Moving plumbing fixtures and pipes will break the bank.
REALITY: Optimistically, plumbing takes up 5 percent of a budget on a gut remodel.
If you’re moving kitchen fixtures a foot way from their original spot, it’s not going to be a big deal, Karlson says. He emphasizes that estimate is only if all goes well (no problems with building codes, etc.). If you’re planning to move the sink from a north wall to a south wall, obviously, that’s a different–and more expensive–story.
“With plumbing, you don’t want to cheap it out. You’re only going to open the wall once,” Karlson says.
MYTH: Your remodel will be free of stress, come in under budget and be ready for company by (fill in the blank).
REALITY: This belief really is a myth.
“People expect the design to be done in 30 days,” Beaulieu says. “But ordering and delivery takes a minimum of four weeks for cabinets–sometimes 12 weeks for upscale cabinets. People come in and say they want to get something done for Easter. It isn’t going to happen.”
Paul can relate to this time-line quandary, although she stuck to her budget. Her project began in July and finished one week before Christmas.
“The contractor was helpful at times when I couldn’t make a decision,” she says. “It was stressful and scary to make these decisions. It gets to be endless in the end.”
But in the end, although her marble countertops have a dab of orange stain from the fruit sitting on it and a few scratches here and there, she’s thrilled–and having a dinner party soon.
“All in all, it’s beautiful,” she says. “And I tell my friends: If you don’t like it, don’t tell me!”
