Kitchen Renovation Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs

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Renovating your kitchen is a great way to increase your home's value and improve your living quarters, but it can also have bad consequences if you're not careful. Depending on the scale of the renovation, you might be living elsewhere while it's going on, which can be expensive. It's never fun to be barred from your own house, and even if you can remain there while your kitchen is being upgraded, having ongoing construction where you eat and prepare food can be disruptive.

But when it's over, you'll love how your kitchen renovation improves the atmosphere and functionality of one of the rooms you spend the most time in. But it also pays to be cautious, so here are some common renovation mistakes which you should take great pains to avoid.

Measure Everything Ten Times

It's better to excessively check that you've measured everything correctly than to fail to do it enough. You don't want to be building custom shelving which looked great in the blueprint, but then realize that it leaves you with insufficient storage space for food and cooking utensils.

This means you must measure what's there today, and also what is scheduled to be there down the road. Measure, measure again, and when you're done that, measure eight more times!

Don't Take on More than You Can Handle

Most people have never done a renovation themselves, but it can be tempting to try a DIY job. This is OK for small projects, but don't set out to install new plumbing if you plan on learning how to do it from YouTube. 

Whenever it comes to working with plumbing or electricity, let an experienced and certified handyman do the job. Sometimes trying to save money can cost more down the road if you need to patch up mistakes. 

Make a reasonable assessment of your skills before deciding to tackle a job, and err on the side of caution when considering which jobs may be too difficult to do yourself. 

Be Cautiously Bold

There's a difference between striking design and trying too hard, or falling for a fad. There's a danger in playing too much into the current trends, as it may go out of fashion as soon as it came in. This doesn't mean you need to be boring, though.

Keep the aspects of the renovation that are expensive and complex timeless, and make a splash with things that are easier to change, like paint. If years down the road you decide you want to re-paint the room, that's a much smaller job than tearing the fundamentals down and starting again. If you're going to really commit to something bold, make sure you really like it!

Kitchen renovations can cause problems if you're not careful, but they can make your mood and your home value soar if they're done properly. Just be careful to measure and consider the future needs of the room, only renovate what you're confident you can complete, and be timeless when you're making the new plans.