When you hear the word “luxury,” you are likely to think of beauty, quality, and expense.
While it’s certainly true that luxury will and does cost more, that doesn’t mean there aren’t clever tricks you can employ to make something look more luxurious than it was manufactured to be. Luxury kitchens can cost upwards of six figures, so what can you do to create luxury for a more reasonable price tag?
Read on to discover the top luxury kitchen interior design choices for this year, so you can recreate them in your home.
Of course, what you choose to make your kitchen look more luxurious will depend on the style of kitchen you’re going for, but there are many features that most luxury kitchens share. Some of the things you can consider to make your kitchen look luxurious are:
· Install premium (or premium-looking) hardware for your faucet and door handles
· An island (the bigger the better, though not if you have to squeeze around it!)
· Marble or granite countertops
· Lighting over eating areas and open areas
· Cabinet lighting
· Well-finished tile backsplashes, or glass or metal backsplashes
· All-white, or luxurious dark colors used minimally
· Smart storage and often, a separate pantry
· No-expense-spared luxury appliances
· Tile flooring or premium-look wood
· Don’t add too much clutter
· Keep it spotlessly clean (this one is fairly difficult to do if you have pets and kids, but it certainly will make your kitchen feel more luxurious!)
There are two key things that make a kitchen high-end: quality materials and seamless design.
We can do all the tricks in the book, but if the foundation of the kitchen is made of cheap material, it’s just not going to look as good as a kitchen made out of solid wood and well-cut granite or marble.
Similarly, the luxury kitchens we see featured in Architectural Digest have been custom-designed by an experienced (and likely sought-after) kitchen designer. We can mimic what they do, and if you have an eye for design, you can likely achieve a beautiful kitchen, but there’s no replacement for years of experience.
Here are a few tips on how you can upgrade to a luxury kitchen on a budget:
1) Renovate what you’ve already got – if you keep the shell of your kitchen and simply replace what is visible, then you can save a lot of money. Just make sure your cabinets are in good condition.
2) Search for used kitchens and work with a carpenter or contractor to fit it for you – it’s surprisingly common for a wealthy person to buy a newly-renovated home only to rip out the kitchen and start over, even though it’s brand new or just a few years old. If you keep an eye out, you can sometimes get a serious deal by buying their “old” kitchen from them.
3) Buy luxury appliances used or second-hand – the same goes for luxury appliances. Do you ever assume someone bought something second-hand? Probably not, so don’t be afraid to get a deal!
4) Shop during sales – while top kitchen designers seldom discount their prices, you can get beautiful kitchens for far less than their retail price if you shop around July 4, Black Friday, or New Year’s Day.
5) Work with us at Skipp – if you’re looking for luxury on a budget, we’re here to help. Our customers save up to 40% on what they would pay for the same kitchen through independent contractors, and they have access to our top kitchen designers. To find out more and start your kitchen renovation research process, click here.
There are a few key things to look for:
· Open a door and look at the inside – can you see any sign that it’s made from anything other than solid wood? Is there any laminate peeling? Chips?
· Quality cabinets have joinery because they’re solid wood, and not made with screws
· There shouldn’t be any imperfections in the front pieces or doors of the cabinetry
· Are your cabinet doors light or heavy? Cheap kitchens have light doors that will slam easily if you don’t have soft-close hardware systems
· Shelves in your cabinets will typically be at least ¾” thick
· You shouldn’t be able to see any glue
· Drawers will often have two slides per side
· You shouldn’t be able to see any plastic
· The quality for its age – a cheap kitchen will often start to fall apart after just 5 years of use, while a quality kitchen may not need any maintenance for 15-20 years during regular wear and tear
In short, yes.
Solid wood is strong, durable, and sturdy, and can be heavily used for years without any sign of wear. Solid wood cabinets typically last for decades, which makes them better value in the long run, especially if you plan to live in your home for a long time to come.
Dark luxury cabinets were in style throughout 2020, and that trend is continuing into 2021. We’ve seen a lot of blues, but green is set to be a trend in 2021. If you love darker cabinets, now is definitely time to give them a try.
This really depends on what your budget is – custom and semi-custom cabinetry will nearly always win, because your kitchen will be fitted to your space and needs, and will last for a long time to come.
If you have a good budget, then our fully-tailored Skipp kitchens will be best, because they are designed based on yourlifestyle preferences, needs, and space.
If you have a minimal budget, then IKEA or something similar will be best, because you can buy a modern design with smart storage solutions at a minimal price. These kitchens may be a good option if you’re looking for a kitchen for a rental property or one you don’t plan to live in for long, or if you have plans to drastically remodel your kitchen in a few years’ time, but can’t live with what you’ve got. An IKEA kitchen will certainly be comparably cheap, but won’t be the type of product that exudes luxury or anywhere close to it.
Look for quality kitchen cabinets. You can always change up doors in the future, but ripping out your entire kitchen to start over in a few years is like throwing money away – it’s much better to invest in quality now so that you can simply renovate your kitchen to keep up with trends. A good cabinet will always support new doors and countertops.
If you’re looking for serious luxury, you can look to Snaidero, Rutt, and L’Atelier Paris. However, since these brands are going to set you back the price of an entire family home in many parts of the US, you’ll likely be better off working with Skipp and our designers to get a luxury cabinet and custom luxury kitchen design at a price you can afford. Click here to get started, and see how a luxury kitchen is within reach.
The cabinets! Unless you’re seriously going all-out for your countertops or extending your home and moving every appliance, your cabinets are going to be the biggest expense.
Many luxury cabinets cost around $1,000 per cabinet (the cabinet box, shelves, door and panels), so if you’ve got a big kitchen, you can see how quickly that would add up! Of course, there are always outliers (such as the Fiore di Cristallo, which uses Swarovski crystals for the countertop, handles, and more, and costs $1.6 million), but the cabinets are nearly always the most expensive part.
We’d all love a luxury kitchen, but often the kitchens we see on Pinterest and Instagram are just a little too far out of reach. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a kitchen that looks and feels luxurious because you fully-tailored it to meet your preferences and needs with the help of an experienced kitchen designer.
That’s exactly what you can do when you work with Skipp. Our simple process will take you from the kitchen you’re itching to get rid of to one you can’t stop looking at (and can’t wait to show off to your friends). First, we arrange one 30-minute in-person 3D scan visit to your home in order to get exact architectural measurements that we’ll use in generating your layout options.
Next, we generate different design ideas ,which you can narrow down through your needs and preferences until you find one you love. After that, you can work with one of our expert kitchen designers to tailor your design further, so your kitchen will be entirely unique to you.
Finally, we work with vetted contractors so you don’t have to do any project management – just sit back and wait for the results! Better yet, our customers typically save money on what they would have paid if they simply went through an independent contractor. Ready to get started? Click here to start your renovation estimate with Skipp, today.
