Prep Work

By Anthony Maucieri, President of East Hill Cabinetry in Briarcliff Manor

Things to think about before meeting with your kitchen contractor

Kitchen renovation projects can be an exhausting and overwhelming experience for even the most savvy (and style conscious!) of Westchester homeowners. The key to an efficient and organized project is—you guessed it!—preparation. To get ready for that first meeting with a prospective contractor, there are three basic questions you need to ask yourself: what do I want from my kitchen, when do I want the work completed, and how much do I want to invest in it?

Function

Determining what you’d like from your new kitchen may seem like a very broad question, and it certainly takes plenty of elements into account. The best way to collaborate with your kitchen designer is to determine what you hope to use the room for and communicating those functions.
Spaces for entertaining, for meal preparation, and for large great rooms are some requests we often hear from local homeowners. Like to bake? Need extra burners? Entertain often? Special physical needs? These are also critical to convey. Some couples enjoy cooking together, and require more room and prep areas to account for that. Others enjoy baking, so we create a separate baking center to accommodate the extra pans or mixers required, sometimes including a lower-height baking counter. Many families want a special work area for the kids so they can supervise and help with homework while preparing dinner.

Many clients opt to go with pull out drawers in base cabinets for more accessible storage.

Style

Function is critical, but fashion is important, too, and homeowners would do well to consider the aesthetic attributes they want. Clients sometimes have a hard time conveying their design preferences to their kitchen contractors. If you don’t know whether you move toward modern, swing toward a SoHo loft style, or crave a classic country look, create a scrapbook from home magazines, ads, Internet images, and other photos to show design elements that catch your eye. Color, wood, layout, accessories, and other details help in the design process.

The objective in this Millwood kitchen was to create a functional work area for extensive meal preparation in a Zen-like setting.
Another exercise to help focus your ideas would be to create a “wish list.” Create an inventory of what you’d like to incorporate into the room. A built-in banquette? A warming drawer? A big island? Other examples include increased storage space, more eco-friendly products, special pullouts for plates and bowls, or a double wall oven. Many times, sacrifices have to be made, and prioritizing these goals makes those decisions quick and painless.

Timing

Finding the just-right contractor isn’t going to work for you if he can’t start until 2011. Determining when you want to both start and complete your project is an important step in the planning process. Products have different lead and construction times; time constraints can further assist professionals in selecting products under consideration. For example, semi-custom lines of cabinetry usually carry four-to- eight-week lead times, while custom lines can run anywhere from six to 14 weeks—sometimes longer. Dealing with an imported line could entail an even longer wait. Contractors often have projects scheduled months ahead of time, so having a clear picture of when you want to start work helps them figure availability.

Cost

Once you have a grasp on what and when, it is time to figure how much. Beginning with an unreasonable budget is a recipe for lost time and frustration. National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) studies show that nationally, kitchens account for 15 to 20 percent of a home’s value. (Due to the high value of housing in Westchester County, a more accurate number might be 10 to 15 percent.) Regardless, it’s important to remember that you will see a return on your investment: some local realtors expect that you’ll have a 100 to 110 percent of your investment in added value to your home. Using these guidelines along with your personal financial picture should give a framework to create a reasonable preliminary budget.
As designers, our job is to use our expertise to translate these goals and parameters into a set of solutions. Determining the details—or, at least, mostly figured out—before you begin will result in a more organized and efficient project.

Anthony Maucieri is president and founder of East Hill Cabinetry in Briarcliff Manor, which provides custom, semi-custom and frameless cabinetry.