Where do I start?

That’s the biggest question when faced with an old, outdated kitchen. Or bathroom.

Where do I start?

It can be a daunting task, but it’s not impossible, and can actually be quite fun, if you get yourself in the right frame of mind. The main thing is to not look at a kitchen, or bathroom (or any remodel for that matter) as a chore that you would rather not do, but look at it as an opportunity to make your life more pleasant and even more fun. Yea. FUN. We all like fun.

So, where DO we start? Well, we start at the beginning. Think about what you have, and then what you want. Start making a list of everything that you want. All of it. Just write it down. Even the most inane things, put them in. Who knows, one of your most obscure thoughts may be the one thing that it turns out that you don’t want to live without. So, put it all on your list.

And take this list with you EVERYWHERE. Put it on your phone, tablet, even on old fashioned paper. But be sure you have it so that you can write down your ideas. You may be in restaurant and see something that makes you just go “WOW, I want that” So write it down. It won’t do you any good if you forget about your awesome idea!

And take pictures too. We all have cameras on our phones now, so use them. See something. Click away. It doesn’t cost a thing to take a picture, and it’s worth a thousand words. Also, if you see something in a store, be sure to take a picture of the label, or write down the information. It’s a terrible feeling when you have found the exact right doohickey that you NEED, and have no idea where it came from.

Another good source for ideas is online. A lot of us spend time everyday just browsing different websites. And maybe you’re looking at something totally unrelated to your remodel, and you see a picture of something you like. Well, just PIN it. Download the extension for Pinterest and use it. There are also thousands of others who are looking for remodeling ideas and have done the same thing. So you can even see their ideas and pin them to your board. If you absolutely refuse to use Pinterest, then you can bookmark the page, save the page or do a screenshot. It’s your list, so do it your way. There is no right or wrong.

Now, you have gigabytes worth of information saved up so you can start planning your remodel, but first we need to organize this chaos. Depending on how you took down the information, there are different ways to organize it. I could try to explain how to do this, but it would turn into a grad school level course.

This is where you came in. You have to do all the organizing too. And do it. You will remember things you saw weeks ago and get all excited about your remodel all over again.

I suggest you have 3 general categories to file things under. The first is obvious. It’s the “must haves”. These are things that are not negotiable and that you have to have included in your remodel. You may be surprised but most of the time, this list tends to be quite short. Why? Because we don’t really need as much as we think we do. Sure, the built in lift for the mixer is nice, but is it necessary. You need to be sure to ask yourself the important question, can I live without this? Is this something that I absolutely HAVE to have?

Next week: Onto Category 2 – The Nice to have List

-Curt Thacker
Kitchen and Bath Designer