Kitchen Renovation

Check out houzz.com for thousands of kitchen pictures. Determine what you think you like. (Ie. I picked a tile floor, cherry cabinets, corian counters etc) go to a kitchen store to see samples in person. Along with a kitchen design store, Home Depot and Lowes have design people that can help you too if you have accurate dimensions of your existing kitchen. Have fun!!!

Lowes did mine. They were awesome and you can go high end down to budget friendly. I went with middle grade. I cannot say enough good things about them! They will design a whole kitchen for you. You do not have to go to an expensive kitchen designer to have a beautiful kitchen.

I have had a couple of kitchen designers come out. One from a kitchen and bath company and one from a major hardware store. They will do measurements and do up some drawings at no charge.

We did one yrs ago.
I started by going to kitchen showrooms. If you do that, you will see tile vs hardwood on the floor. White cabinets, light oak cabinets vs cherry cabinets. Then, counters. I love granite. Marble is too porous. There are others out now...
Stainless steel appliances have been out for a while. They are almost impossible to keep clean. You will need to pick out the appliance color, too !
If you are worried about what will be out of style in 5-6 yrs from now...Ask the designer that, too.
French Country is timeless.
Also, go on the HGTV website.
Home Depot and Lowes also have kitchen designs set up. They have designers !
Your local library might have a stack of kitchen design magazines you could borrow.

There are sooooo many options: books, internet, t.v., cable, home improvement stores, contractors.....

figure out your budget, get a binder, start collecting ideas of wants/needs, figure out a style to go with......

I agree with the advice to begin on Houzz.com. Look through there to see what ideas you like, and then from there you can decide what materials would fit into your budget. If you have any home shows in your area that are coming up, go to them. There, you will see many companies that do custom cabinetry, countertops, tile flooring, wood flooring, you name it. That can be another way to find ideas, as well as to speak to contractors who fabricate and install all of the various finishes.

When you're finally clear on what you want to do, shop around. Don't be afraid to check out places like Home Depot, Lowe's, and even IKEA for your cabinets. You don't always HAVE to order custom cabinets - and in fact, going with stock cabinets can be a great way to save money and still have a beautiful kitchen.

Just ordered our cabinets yesterday from Home Depot. We worked with their designer, Joy. She was fantastic. We talked with Lowes and Amish cabinet makers. The Amish were more expensive (customer). Lowes acted like they didn't want our business. Joy called and was very prompt with design changes or questions she had. She is very detail oriented and if something didn't look right she would explain and give us a solution.

Good luck! We are gutting ours and I'm so excited!!