There are online kitchen design services that enable you to design your kitchen online. Such services enable you to select various components of your kitchen to fit the space you have available, and then have it made up and delivered to you ready for installation. Some firms will also carry out the installation
What are the advantages of an online kitchen design service over simply calling someone in to do it for you? Cost is one benefit: it is a lot less expensive to do it yourself online than for somebody to come to your home and do what you could do just as easily yourself. Another benefit is that you get exactly what you want, and you can not blame anyone else if it is not to your liking.
How is it done? Here is how to design a kitchen online using one of the online kitchen design services offered by some kitchen cabinet manufacturers. Keep in mind that when doing this, your cooker, oven or hob is not included, and neither are washing machines and dishwashers. You must make space for these in your design. Here is what you have to do:
1. Draw Up a Floor Plan
First measure the size of your kitchen: the width of each wall and the floor area available and draw a diagram of this to scale. It is easy to do if you use graph paper or your supplier may offer a floor plan service. You can then select the various cabinets fit the space available to you. Leave free wall space for a table and floor cooker unit if you need them, and identify the space you want filled with kitchen units.
2. Select Your Base Kitchen Cabinets
First select your base cabinets. The choice will depend on the service you are using, but one high-quality furniture company that hand-makes custom furniture offers a variety of base units in widths from 9 to 60 inches wide, all by 24 inches deep and 34.5 inches high. Units offered include normal storage cabinets, 9 and 12 inch wide pull-out spice racks, waste units, drawer units, corner Lazy Susan, sink base and base for a dishwasher.
There is also a 24 inch wide and 84 inch high pantry unit with seven shelves. You can mix and match all or any of these to fit the space available to you to the nearest nine inches. You can then select your upper cabinets.
Select Your Upper Cabinets
Most online kitchen design companies will offer wall racks in the same width selections as the floor units, and the firm in mind offers normal cupboards, plus wine racks, spice racks and plate racks, and also special doors units for sitting above fridges and microwave ovens . You can easily design your own kitchen online using these options.
4. Choose Your Door Style and Moldings
Having selected the range of cabinets you need, you can then choose the door and molding styles. You have a range of options available, and each cabinet can be in a different style if you wish, though it makes sense to have them all the same. Where a difference would be good is to have glass panes in some of the upper cabinets.
5. Wood and Wood Finish
You can select your online kitchen design in a range of woods, typically oak, maple or cherry, either natural or tinted with a range of wood stains. One firm offers 21 wood effects, 11 different glazed finishes and if you prefer your kitchen cabinets to be painted, seven different colors of paint. These can be mixed of course, and you could have white painted wall units with light oak floor cabinets.
6. Select the Hardware
Finally, when you design your kitchen online you can choose your own hardware from the options provided. You can select from a range of handles and knobs for the floor and upper units. It is advisable to select the same hardware for all the cabinets in your kitchen.
7. Specify Unique Dimensions
Not all online kitchen design firms offer this service when you design your kitchen online, but some enable you to specify unique dimensions that vary from the standard sizes. This is very useful because it enables you to fill in all your wall space without unsightly spaces. So you might want one cabinet a few inches wider or narrower to completely fill a wall either side of your cooker, for example.
This service offers to be offered by firms that customize their furniture for their clients – generally found only with true craftsmen that hand-make their kitchen furniture to order.
Once you have completed all of this, your order is constructed for you, finished to your specifications and delivered. The cabinets can be professionally installed for you or you can do this yourself. Online kitchen design is easy when carried out this way, and knowing how to do this should give you the confidence to design your kitchen online.