The thrill of a kitchen remodel makes everyone excited (especially the family chef).
New countertops, gleaming appliances, and custom cabinetry can turn your home into a showpiece. But there lurks a common pitfall that derails even the most ambitious projects.
We’ve seen it countless times in our work with kitchen remodeling projects in Cleveland. Homeowners rush into demolition, material selection, and design choices without laying proper groundwork. The result? Blown budgets, extended timelines, and kitchens that don’t function as needed.
Proper planning is the mistake for most remodeling projects. It supports every decision you’ll make. Without it, your dream kitchen might turn into a costly nightmare.
The Crucial Step: Planning
Why do homeowners so often neglect good planning? The motives vary. Some feel pressured by a lack of time. Others want to save money by reducing design fees. Most just do not value it.
The consequences come home to roost. Projects take months to deliver way beyond schedule. Budgets explode. Functionality gets cut. What could be a pleasure becomes a stress and a source of regret.
The numbers don’t lie. National Kitchen and Bath Association reports kitchen remodels run anywhere from 10-25% more than initial budgets. With good planning, it gets smaller. Our strict approach means clients receive real prices from day one, avoiding in-process surprises that drain pockets and patience.
Planning isn’t preventing problems, it’s making possibilities. A planned kitchen remodel optimizes your investment, provides function, and provides a room that serves you for years to come.
Top 5 Mistakes People Make When Planning a Kitchen Remodel
Underestimating the Budget
Budget miscalculations destroy more kitchen remodels than anything else. Owners use outdated numbers in making estimates or fail to factor in such elements as permits, structural modifications, or temporary kitchen installations.
A realistic budget must cover everything from tear-out to trim. We always include a 15-20% contingency to cover unexpected problems. When water damage uncovers behind outdated cabinetry or it’s time to go to code with electricity components, a buffer like that keeps financial panic at bay.
At SemBro Design & Supply, our estimating strategy consists of a thorough review from experience in over 500 kitchen remodels. We do it by category so clients can have a clear sense about how money’s being spent and be able to make smart decisions about where to splurge and save.
Neglecting the Kitchen Work Triangle
Your kitchen has to function as beautifully as it does. The work triangle—fridge to sink to stove—takes a central role in kitchen operation. When that triangle gets wider or gets cut by islands and/or cabinetry, cooking day in and day out becomes a drudgery.
Common layout errors include placing the refrigerator in a location that’s too far from prep stations, placing the dishwasher in a spot whose open door blocks traffic flow, or giving cooking stations insufficient landing space. These errors may be tiny on paper but lead to a hassle in real life.
Proper kitchen planning considers how you how you use your kitchen. We analyze traffic flow, cooking habits, and home activity before making a decision. A carefully planned work triangle can save you a mere seconds a task, and those seconds equal hours saved time in a lifetime.
Choosing Appliances After Cabinetry
Selecting appliances later in design can be costly headaches. The cabinet space, power needs, and plumbing locations depend entirely upon your appliance sizes. When that perfect refrigerator does not fill out the space allocated to it, you’re left with high-end adjustments or second-best choices.
Appliance decisions determine everything from how to lay out the gas lines to ventilation needs. A high-end stove may require special venting, and a massive refrigerator may require a reinforced floor. These factors have to inform your cabinet design, not fight with it.
We start by choosing major appliances with each kitchen design. This way, your cabinetry can be designed to accommodate your appliances to a tee—not vice versa. Our designers create full plans with your chosen appliances already included in them to prevent you from paying for expensive modifications during installation.
Overlooking Proper Lighting Design
Light transforms your kitchen experience. Lighting does not, however, fall high in a standard remodel, and you can be left with dingy work spaces, unbecoming glare, or rooms that feel unwelcoming.
Effective kitchen lighting combines three categories: task lighting to provide illumination to work zones, ambient lighting to provide a room with a general illumination, and accent lighting to accentuate architectural details or display spaces. If these levels harmonize, your kitchen will be warm and functional.
Our certified designers create lighting schemes with design intent, workstations, and natural sources in mind. We can suggest under-cabinet LED’s to cut through countertop shadows, dimmable pendants to transform from food prep to social events, or considerate recessed lighting to eradicate dark areas. Lighting designers confirm successful kitchen lighting reduces eyestrain and makes food preparation safer.
Insufficient Storage Planning
Kitchens collect a great deal—appliances, cookware, pantry staples, and more. Without planning for storage, even massive kitchens can fill up and clutter very quickly.
The consequences of storage failure creep in unnoticeably. Counters fill with unused appliances. Cabinets overflow. Drawers overflow with utensils. What was once a neat dream kitchen becomes a headache.
Smart storage designs transform kitchens. Pantry pull-out systems make use of tight spaces. Deep drawers provide more storage space for pots and pans compared to conventional cabinets. Vertical dividers transform awkward spaces into perfect storage spaces for cutting boards and baking sheets.
Our designers thoughtfully utilize each kitchen space. We learn about your cooking habits, inventory what you already have in your kitchen, and design storage to address your specific requirements. The result? Everything in its place and a place for everything—neither style nor kitchen space sacrificed.
The SemBro Difference
What sets us apart from everyone else? We’ve refined our planning method with hundreds of successful kitchen makeovers. Our designers do not design great rooms—our designers design kitchens that work.
With over 500 kitchens remodeled, we have tackled and overcome almost every challenge a remodel can provide to us. Our in-house staff of 50+ professionals ensures quality control from beginning to end, from demo to ultimate hardware installation.
Our certified designers have more than a decade of experience to apply to each and every project. They have a combination of aesthetic vision and practical experience, combining to produce kitchens that are both visually appealing and functional. This blend of design skill and technical ability produces results beyond expectation.
The Path Forward: Your Kitchen Transformation
Ever experienced that butterflies-in-the-stomach and queasy-in-the-stomach feeling when you’re thinking about renovating your kitchen? You’re not unique. You worry about shelling out a fortune in costly mistakes or that your dream kitchen will never exist.
But that nervousness is your best friend because it shows you care.
You understand planning value, work triangle relationships, and timing in reference to storage and appliances.
Your kitchen is not a room, it’s a location for making memories.
Contact our team to transform your kitchen the right way.
