THE KITCHEN GUIDE BOOK

When budgeting for a kitchen you need to figure out what is a reasonable amount to spend on your kitchen. If Spending 50,000 dollars on a kitchen in a house that cost 90,000 then it is safe to say your over doing it. A good rule of thumb is 20% or less of a homes value for a kitchen budget.

As an example we will take a middle of the road house that is worth $305,000. 20% of $305,000 is around $60,000, seems a bit much when you think about it.  Maybe we'll start with 50,000 for a start in your kitchen pricing which equals around 16%. 50,000 sounds like a lot to but is easy to do if not doing any of the work yourself, and using upper end materials. Please visit the How to Save Money Kitchen Remodeling page for kitchen remodeling ideas with a skimpy budget.

Let's say you have $50,000 set aside just for a kitchen remodel. Saving a chunk for unseen problems, design changes, or material upgrades is a must. 20% off of your $50,000 = $40,000 to be divided up on the different labor and materials categories. Depending on what is important to you will decide how much gets spent where. To get an idea of the cost of each of the different categories you need to start pricing out the materials, and getting bids on the labor. Putting together an accurate kitchen remodeling budget is a bit of work. 

17.5% Appliances = $7000
2%   Paint/Drywall = $800
4%   Plumbing = $1600
17.5% Counter tops = $7000
5%   Electrical = $2000
12% Back splash/Flooring = $4800
42% Cabinets = $17,600

All this equals a $40,000 kitchen budget for materials, and labor.

A well done kitchen lighting layout can really jazz up a regular looking kitchen without breaking the bank. The key to a good Lighting design is a layered effect of many different kinds of lighting. In this kitchen lighting guide the lighting categories will be divided up into Main kitchen Lighting, Cabinet Lighting, and Decorative Lighting.

                                             Main Lighting

The main lighting in a kitchen is the lighting that is turned on as someone first walks into a room. Yes the big oak wooden fluorescent light boxes are out of style.

Many people use recessed cans in a kitchen for main lighting especially in 8' or lower ceiling situations. The typical recessed can light is 6" round but there are can lights of many different shapes, sizes and bulb types. The round sizes go from 2 inches up to 8 inches. There are cans meant for specific bulb types that come in regular incandescent, fluorescent, LED, and line/low voltage halogen and xenon. With the regular incandescent cans a fluorescent, or LED light bulb could always be used. There are descent working dimm-able LED bulbs out there.

Recessed Can Main Lighting, Accent in Ceiling and Cabinets

Monorail track lighting can also be used as the main lighting in a kitchen especially if the ceiling is higher than 8' or angle vaulted. Monorail really can be a nice decorative and useful main lighting option. Decorative small low hanging Pendant lights, high hung large general lighting pendant lights, as well as directional task lighting head lights, can hang from monorail. Monorail is bendable and connect-able allowing for many interesting shapes to be created to fit a kitchens shape.

Monorail as Main Lighting Monorail for Vaulted Ceiling

                                                    Cabinet Lighting

Cabinet Lighting is divided in to under cabinet task lighting, inside cabinet show piece lighting, and over cabinet ambiance lighting.

There are different lighting types that will work in an under cabinet lighting situation, but to me the best most useful type to use is the linear bar style under cabinet lights seen in the picture below. The Linear style Lights come in different lengths to fit the bottom of different cabinet widths, which helps put out a nice general useful light pattern. Linear under cabinet lights come in different finishes, bulb types and sizes to fit different sizes of cabinets. 

The typical finishes are white, black, bronze and stainless steel in case you want to match your appliance finish.

The bulb types for under cabinet lights are LED, Xenon, Halogen, and fluorescent. For me there really is only a choice between LED and Xenon; Fluorescent light quality and bulb life is no good, and halogen lights get really hot. Led under cabinet lights would be my first choice because there is very little heat generated, the bulbs last forever, and the light quality is great. The xenon under cabinet lights are more cost effective, do generate a fair amount of heat, but are dimm-able.

Inside cabinet lighting is show piece lighting and is best done with puck lights. Puck lights come in different finishes same as under cabinet lights, different bulb types, and can be low voltage or line voltage.  As in under cabinet lights my first choice would be the LED puck lights, and second the xenon for the same reasons as the under-cabs. Not a huge amount of light is needed inside of an enclosed space like a cabinet.

Over cabinet lighting can be done with puck lights or with LED rope lighting that provides a general light.

Cabinet Lighting Pucks and Linear Under Cabinet Lights

                                                Decorative Lighting

Decorative lighting in this article will describe trim lighting, and decorative pendant task lighting.

An example of trim lighting can be seen in the picture at the top of this page, and below where LED tape lighting, can be mounted behind the trim to provide a dramatic effect. Trim lighting is often done in a split level tray ceiling situation.

Decorative pendants over an island or peninsula can add some flair to a kitchen. Pendants come in many colors and shapes to fit anyone's style. The smaller pendants usually are halogen,xenon, or LED all fine choices since heat output is less of a factor. The larger pendants can be incandescent, or fluorescent.

The higher end pendants will have imported hand blown glass where no two pendants look exactly the same. In some cases like in the pictures below giant pendant lights can serve as a rooms general lighting.

If just planning a new kitchen then add some lighting in some of the places that have been discussed in this article. For a little extra cost lighting can go a long way to spice up the look of a kitchen. Make sure there is a detailed lighting design plan to help the electrical contractor.

For more general information visit the web site Kitchen Lighting Ideas.

Author, Max Wall  ABC Kitchen and Bath.

Very Large Pendants for Main Lighting

Triple Pendant Over Island

Large Colorful Glass Pendants

How To Do A Kitchen Cabinet Design Plan

Before any cabinets are ordered a very detailed kitchen cabinet layout plan drawing showing the size and type of every cabinet in needed. Every cabinet filler, every finished side or interior, every decorative panel/glass doors, a crown detail, every appliance opening, ECT! 

Cabinet design lingo is to put the width first, then the height, and then the depth. A 24" wide, by 42" tall, by 12" deep wall cabinet would be a W2442 12. It seems like every cabinet company has their own lingo like MWW would be a micro wave wall cabinet. The Place where you're buying the cabinets can help putting your plans into a cabinet companies lingo. Most companies use the same language that is used on the kitchen design software 2020.

Start your cabinet design Layout by drawing the dimensions of your kitchen with doorways and hallways. On the cabinet plan also note the floor to ceiling heights. Make sure your measurements are exact. Walls are never perfectly plumb so never squeeze cabinets between two walls without a filler,(something some designers I know seem to forget). Carefully note the location of window and door trim from each wall to know what cabinets will fit.

First draw in the corner cabinets, and the cabinets that have set widths. A typical sink base cabinet is 36", and a corner base cabinet lazy susan is also 36".  A regular wall corner cabinet is 24" wide. In cabinet appliances also determine the width of a cabinet like a 30" built in microwave needs a 33" wide by 18" deep cabinet at least. Having the appliances picked out and having the specs is needed for the final cabinet plan.

Next draw in the appliances and the exact openings needed. The dishwasher must have a 24" opening and usually can't move too much with out a lot of rough plumbing.

Ranges need an opening of 24, 30", 36", 40" 42" and 48". The typical everyday Free standing range opening is 30 inches. Most appliances need working area around both sides, like 3' if possible. 

Fridgerators normally are 36" wide, but range from 30" to 48". If there are fridge panels that surround the fridge then add 3" for the width of the wood to the space the fridge will take up.

After the critical cabinets and appliances are placed then just fill in the rest with what you can fit in. Cabinet widths come in increments of three- 9,12,15,18,21,24,27,30,33,36,39,42,45,48. decide on what type of storage goes where like drawers or shelves. If the widths don't come out perfect like they never do, then use fillers. Standard base cabinets are ether full door (BFD), or with one drawer at the top. Drawer bases (BD) are typically either 3, or 4 drawer. 

Think about heights and how they relate to your kitchen cabinet design layout. Do you want your upper cabinets to go all the way to the ceiling or do you want a gap. As a general idea in a regular 8' ceiling if you want the cabinets to go to the ceiling then 42" high wall cabinets are needed. If you want your crown molding to go to the ceiling then 39" or 36" wall cabinets would be needed. Two layer crown molding is most often needed when going all the way to the ceiling because no ceilings are perfectly level, and the top layer of crown can move up and down with the ceiling, (see picture below).

The height of your wall cabinets are also determined by the height if your tall cabinets and your fridge panels. The choice you made on the size of wall cabinet also determines the size of your tall cabinets. 42" wall cabinets means that your tall cabinets are 96", because countertop height is 36" + countertop to bottom of wall cabinet is 18"+ height of wall cabinet 42" all equals 96". If your wall cabinets are 39" then your tall cabinets are 93", and a 36" wall Cabinet would make the tall cabinets 90".

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