How-to-Increase-Storage-Space-in-a-Small-Kitchen

How to Increase Storage Space in a Small Kitchen

Usually after we’ve been in our homes for a few years, we begin to realize limitations in the original design. Storage, particularly in smaller kitchens, sometimes transforms from a minor inconvenience into a major annoyance. How can you increase storage space in a small kitchen?

Finding space for your food inventory, pots, pans, utensils, and small appliances can become a headache, often requiring you to store items in other rooms.

In many instances, we are forced to buy food in smaller, less economical quantities because we don’t have the storage space in the kitchen.

Is there a solution?

Consider a Kitchen Redesign

Kitchen space limitations have been around forever. Sure, adding a new wing to your home or moving to a new house are solutions. But these answers are not always viable or affordable.

More practical solutions often require design creativity on a smaller scale. Moreover, making better use of the cubic volume you already have. Experienced designers are able to address these issues in several economical and practical ways.

First consider working with a proven design build company to assess your situation, address the limitations, and offer you creative options to create a more efficient and ergonomic space for your kitchen.

Top 4 options to discuss with your chosen design build company

Upgrade the Pantry

Examine your current pantry and it’s contents. You may note that only about two-thirds of the total interior volume is full. Respacing the shelving to adjust the height and add one or two more shelves might be a workable option. You can then dedicate one shelf to tall goods as you adjust the spacing for the rest of your inventory. Remember not to let one or two tall items limit the potential for an extra shelf or two.

Additionally, pull out shelves or drawers can improve access and use space more efficiently. Attaching small-item racking to the inside of your pantry doors for spices and small containers can also help ease overcrowding.

Remodel or Replace Existing Cabinetry

If your budget permits, an experienced kitchen designer may recommend remodeling or replacing your cabinetry. While this is a practical improvement, you will also be enhancing the beauty of your home’s most important space. 

Modern cabinetry is designed to maximize your space by incorporating pull-out drawers, double or triple rotating racks, and additional shelving. You might also choose to extend the cabinetry height to add space for rarely used items.

Recessed Storage

You may have considerable unused space within the walls. Furthermore, creating an additional pantry with or without doors could be an option. This is accomplished by cutting between vertical studs can be a great option. As a result, it will provide a shallow cabinet or pantry, suitable for cans, spices, cereal boxes, or even some of those small appliances that are taking up counter space.

Kitchen Island

Adding a beautiful, functional kitchen island can improve your kitchen in the following ways.

  • Provide additional storage
  • Centralize and enhance your workspace
  • Create beauty and drama in your kitchen

An experienced design build contractor will work with you to shape and construct a center island that fits within your small kitchen to add efficiency and storage space. Fully plumbed and wired, a new center island will become a kitchen within a kitchen. It can be used to store frequently used items. From oils and seasonings to pots, pans, and small appliances while giving more counter space. 

Call Master’s Design Build for a Consultation

Brian and Cheryl Martin’s Master’s Design Build Group in Hatfield PA offers over three decades of remodeling experience. The company has designed, remodeled, and transformed hundreds of homes, bathrooms, exterior living areas, and kitchens. 

As a NARI Certified Remodeler, Certified Kitchen and Bath Remodeler, and Certified Remodeling Project Manager, the Master’s Team has won several awards for their creativity for projects throughout Bucks and Montgomery Counties and surrounding areas.

To witness some of the remarkable creations and executions by the Master’s Design Build Group, visit the Projects section of their website. Note particularly those incredible kitchen projects they have completed.

To arrange for your no-obligation consultation to discuss your kitchen or other upgrades, phone Master’s Design Build at +1-(215)-723-6162. 

Or, leave your name and brief information, and one of our professionals will contact you promptly.

New Home Addition Kitchen

How a New Home Addition Can Give You the Perfect Living Space

Sooner or later, many families encounter the dilemma of needing more space or, perhaps, a rearrangement of the existing rooms to be more functional. The desire for a new family room, bathroom, storage, or even an extra bedroom often triggers a need to sell and purchase another, more expensive home.

However, if you love your neighborhood or do not wish to uproot your kids from their schools, you have a better option. You can create the expanded living space needed with a new home addition.

A well-designed, aesthetically compatible addition to your home can create a notable improvement to your space. It can also enhance the exterior and create the feeling of a new, yet still familiar home. Here are some things to consider as you get started on your new home addition.  

Designing Your Addition

Working within the restrictions of your lot, a design build specialist can help. By determining how much living space you can add to the existing structure. Armed with this information, you and the designer can weigh your needs and budget to identify options for your addition. The design build specialist will also aim to maximize your improvement budget.

The final design may present a different solution than what you first anticipated. For example, while a new ground floor master suite might be your dream, you might add a new family room onto the home while converting the old family room into the master suite. 

White kitchen with a new home addition dining area.

Maybe your old kitchen is too small, and you need more space and additional storage. Perhaps you’d even like an adjoining dinette area. You could consider expanding the existing kitchen space by taking out the exterior wall and extending the space outward. Your new kitchen could provide more natural light, counter space, and storage. Not to mention ergonomically-situated appliances and perhaps even a center island with plenty of accessories.

Influencing Factors for New Home Addition

As you and your design build expert begin to envision your living space addition, specific considerations are important. Some of these include:

  1. Identify the addition’s footprint limitations based on lot lines and zoning setbacks to ensure everything will fit. If your plan does not work, you might consider building up rather than out. 
  2. Check with your Homeowners Association. They often have rules limiting alterations, presumably, to protect the value and appearance of the whole neighborhood.
  3. Consider ways elements like wind and temperature might affect the interior of the home with the new addition.
  4. New space means higher HVAC demand. Make sure your existing system has enough capacity to manage the entire home. If not, a supplemental or upgraded system may be required.

Working with Your Design Build Expert

A company that works with you to design the addition while also executing the construction offers many advantages:

  • While designing your new space, the design build professional understands the real cost of labor and materials. This knowledge will eliminate “budget shock” when you take your design plan to a separate builder. 
  • Communication is improved. The designer stays with the project from beginning to end to ensure your ideas are executed as you hoped.
  • Design to build is seamless. You experience no confusion of intent as designs are transformed into reality.
  • Project disruption is less because the designer can create a strategy to schedule all phases of construction to minimize interruption.
  • Your design should incorporate compatible rooflines and angles to have the addition complement the homes’ existing design. 
  • The total cost of a design build addition is usually less since it involves only one profit center.

Contact Master’s Design Build Group for Your Professional Home Addition

Headquartered in Hatfield, PA, award-winning Master’s Design Build brings almost two decades of experience to creating beautiful remodels, additions, and home improvement designs in homes throughout Buck and Montgomery counties in Eastern Pennsylvania.

For an initial in-home consultation to discuss your dream addition, call Master’s Design Build Group at 1-215-723-6162. 

Or, simply leave your name, phone number, and a message on the Contact Us Page of the website. 

Bathroom remodel with decorative tile floor and shower.

Remodel and Maximize Bathroom Space

A well-executed bathroom remodel can add more to the desirability of your home than just about any other upgrade. The personal satisfaction and the tranquility that a beautiful spa-like atmosphere and serene bathroom setting impart will be well worth the cost, time, and temporary imposition that the remodel requires. Here’s why to work with a design-builder to remodel and maximize bathroom space.

Whether your space is small and needs to be enlarged or is equipped with decades-old tile, cabinets, and fixtures, an experienced design-build company will help you create a stunning new bathroom. Your elegant dream bathroom with enough storage to accommodate all your needs is right around the corner.

Reimagining Your Bathroom 

If your current space is inadequate, you have at least three options to improve your situation. You might consider:

  • Extending the existing bathroom space into an adjacent area.
  • Adding onto your home to create additional space. An addition might also mean creating a new space for another purpose such as a family room.
  • Redesigning the existing space to be more efficient and user-friendly.

First, take a critical look at your existing bathroom. Are there essential elements that you like and wish to keep, just in an upgraded version? Do you need more space to store necessities like towels, beauty and medical supplies, and other items? Are the tap and lighting fixtures outdated? Are the floors and walls faded and chipped? Would you like a new tub or shower? How about moving the toilet out of sight? 

From this analysis, you will be able to articulate your wishes more effectively to your designer.

Considerations for a Modern, Upscale Bathroom Remodel

Once your space is defined, you can begin to make decisions about the style you want to incorporate. Your designer can help you choose from various themes that may include Traditional, Country, Modern, “Shabby Chic,” Modern, or something else entirely. All of your decisions regarding flooring, wall coverings, fixtures, lighting, and cabinetry will stem from your general theme selection.

Flooring

Depending on the style and color scheme, you have a wide range of choices for flooring materials. Granite and marble add Old World elegance to any room. Porcelain tile, vinyl, linoleum, wood, or combinations of these can work well with many themes in your new bathroom. You should also consider the benefits of heated flooring.

Cabinetry, Counterspace, and Center Island

Your cabinetry is one of the most visible elements of your redesigned bathroom. While cabinets are essential for their functionality, the right style and material can make the room sparkle. The designer will attempt to create as much cabinet and closet space as possible, maybe even adding a center island if space permits.  

Sink and Fixtures

Bathrooms sinks and other accessories should be selected to match the rest of the bathroom theme. Sink styles include drop-ins, vanity tops, pedestal, vessel, wall-hung, or console types. They come in a wide variety of colors and materials (glass, vitreous china, porcelain, metal, and more) to match the rest of your décor.

Shower, Tub, Toilet

The vital elements of your bathroom, the shower, tub, and toilet are also available in many styles. A spa tub can provide the relaxing, perfect escape at the end of any day. A colorfully tiled shower enclosed in glass can add a greater sense of openness to the floorplan. To save on water usage, you might consider a point-of-use electric water heater for your shower.

Lighting

Dimmable, strategically placed lighting can alter the overall mood and appearance of your new bathroom. With fixtures that match the rest of your décor, you can shift from bright to relaxing instantly.

Contact Master’s Design Build for Bathroom Remodel Ideas

By being part of the design process and listening to your input, the  professional crew of a proven design-build company like Master’s Design Build will be able to:

  • Perfectly transform your plan into reality without any confusion
  • Reduce project time
  • Communicate with you through each phase
  • Establish realistic timelines
  • Reduce overall costs by performing every step of the project

Award-winning Master’s Design Build has been transforming homeowners’ dreams into reality for more than a decade. Headquartered in Hatfield, PA, Master’s Design Build works with clients throughout Bucks and Montgomery Counties and beyond.

Working with a design-builder to remodel and maximize bathroom space is a smart idea. To see some of Master’s completed bathroom remodels, visit our website’s Projects page. 

And to speak with a Master’s professional, phone +1-215-723-6162. 

You may also enter your name and information in our Let’s Talk section, and we will contact you promptly. 

Considerations-for-Remodeling-Your-Laundry-Room

Remodeling Your Laundry Room

When guests arrive, do you hurry to shut the door on a drab and disorganized laundry room so no-one can see inside? Consider remodeling your laundry room. 

In most instances, the laundry room is the most aesthetically challenged space in a home. Whether this important space is cramped and stifling, or just unsightly, homeowners everywhere are making changes.  

Remodeling a laundry room can mean improving its functionality with new countertops, or storage. Or, you might consider adding some dazzle to complement your otherwise beautifully furnished home. 

Furthermore, reimagining a different space in your home to create a comfortable, and user-friendly laundry room is the objective. 

Steps to Remodeling Your Laundry Room

Step 1: Expert Design Consultation

A refreshing remodel of any kind begins with your idea of what you want to accomplish. With these wishes in mind, a professional designer can offer suggestions that:

1) Improve the existing space. 

2) Expand the room to create more space.

3) Move the laundry room to another part of your home.

A laundry room does not have to be over-sized. However, the room should be well-organized, well illuminated, and ergonomically arranged to eliminate unnecessary bending, toting, twisting, and searching.

A significant laundry room remodel may include:

  • Additional counter space for easier sorting and folding
  • New, more efficient and attractive appliances
  • Built-in laundry bins 
  • Improved lighting 
  • Upgraded cabinetry
  • Additional shelving 
  • More electrical outlets
  • Ample closet rods for hanging clothes
  • An additional or upgraded sink and fixtures

Step 2: Choosing the Best Laundry Room Plan

With a clear understanding of your budget requirements, an experienced design-build professional can convert your laundry room wish list into a practical plan to renew your tired or outdated laundry room. 

Therefore an ideal laundry room remodel design should:

  • Fit within your budget.
  • Incorporate your dream features
  • Makes laundry a more manageable task with the ergonomic placement of workspace, storage, lighting, and appliances 

Once you have an idea of your ideal laundry room requirements, the design-build professional will make a plan that fits into your home. Either utilizing your current laundry space or recommending a new solution.

Step 3: Deciding on the Plan

Once the design-build professional has developed a plan that fits your budget and incorporates your dream features. You must approve the project to move forward. An experienced company like Master’s Design Build of Hatfield PA will work with you to create your plan, then seamlessly prepare to execute the remodel with their professional construction crew. 

Translating a detailed design into a beautiful creation works best when the same company is responsible for both the design and execution. In this situation, there is never a breakdown between the designer’s intent and the remodeler’s performance. 

Throughout the process, you will be communicating with the same individuals. This advantage translates to lower project costs, more efficiency, less confusion, greater accountability, and a shorter time from beginning to completion.

Step 4: Construction Phase

Once the project is a “go’, the design-build company should create a completion timeline that fits your schedule for the laundry room construction.  Additionally, all phases of the remodel, from scheduling the delivery of materials to adding the finishing touches should be planned to minimize disruption of your regular schedule with as little intrusion as possible. 

The design-builder will be communicating with you at each step, making the process as smooth as possible.

Step 5: Walk-Through

The remodel is complete only when you join the design-build professionals to inspect all the improvements you anticipated and to determine that your new laundry room is ready to go.

Contact Master’s Design Build

Serving Montgomery and Bucks Counties in Eastern Pennsylvania, the professionals at award-winning Master’s Design Build bring decades of experience in making homeowner’s remodel dreams come true.

Since 2003, when Brian and Cheryl Martin opened their business, Master’s Design Build has built or improved hundreds of laundry rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, family rooms, outdoor living spaces, master bedrooms, home interiors and exteriors and more throughout the surrounding communities.

To learn more about some Master’s Design Build transformations, visit the Master’s Gallery of finished projects. 

To schedule your initial consultation, visit the Master’s website, or phone +1-215-723-6162.

Remodel-Lighting-Design-Tips

Remodel Lighting Design Tips

When planning a remodel of your kitchen, bathroom, or family room, lighting considerations are essential. Whether natural or built-in, lighting must be both functional and mood-setting. Consider the following remodel lighting design tips.

In the process, the designer for your remodel or new addition should add significant detail to the lighting strategy, making sure you achieve the precise effect you are seeking for the room.

Layering Light

Your lighting systems should incorporate “layers” for overall illumination, task-related activities, and for accenting elements of the room. The design should be able to establish the right degree of lighting for every situation. 

No single lighting fixture can provide all you need. For example, the lighting required for preparation and cooking in a kitchen is significantly different than the more subdued lighting needed to create a more dramatic aura to the room.

Similarly, the lighting for reading in the family room will differ from what you prefer for entertaining, relaxing, or even watching television.

Creating Ambient Lighting

The first layer of light should illuminate the room without producing uncomfortable glare or excessive shadows. During the day, you may blend natural light from the outside with soft lighting within. 

The degree of interior light potential to illuminate an entire room depends on many factors. Those being a time of day, and the placement and types of lights. Also, the lumens of visible light capability that your artificial light sources produce.

Your design specialist will be able to recommend options for lighting the entire room while eliminating glare. Options may include chandeliers, pendant lighting, or flush mounted ceiling light fixtures. Attractive track lighting recessed into the ceiling is another option, while wall sconces and flexible LED tape lighting hidden in the ceiling recess can be a nice architectural touch.

Task Lighting

For reading, sewing, food preparation, or other close work, the light needs to be focused on a single area. In a den or office, light from a portable desk or floor lamp can complement other room lighting to allow for easy recognition. 

In the kitchen, under-cabinet lighting will illuminate workspaces and countertops. This option emphasizes the contours of the room and is shadow-free if properly placed. 

Additionally, pendant lighting suspended above a center island will make food preparation easier. As well as adding focus to the center of the kitchen.

Accent Lighting

Soft or harsh, lighting can significantly impact the mood you wish to project.

Use accent lighting to create a focal point in a room while creating a warm, dramatic effect in a newly added or remodeled area. 

Wall sconces and picture lights highlight certain areas of a wall without producing a harsh, glaring effect. And, dimmable, recessed lighting can be adjusted to create the exact mood you are seeking. 

Designing the Lighting Systems

Work with your designer and use these remodel lighting design tips to achieve the lighting effects that are required. Indeed, in a remodel or new construction, installing your lighting preferences in advance is far better. As well as less costly than trying to add them later. 

Contact Master’s Design Build

Serving Eastern Pennsylvania, Master’s Design Build is a premier home design and remodeling company. We have over a decade of experience serving Bucks and Montgomery Counties and nearby Pennsylvania communities. Master’s specializes in helping homeowners realize their dream homes.

Check out the Master’s Gallery of past projects to view some of their beautiful creations that have delighted previous clients.

Master’s Design Build is both a design expert and a foremost builder noted for exquisite craftsmanship. Thus, your project will move seamlessly from concept to completion. 

To discuss your design upgrades, including your lighting installation and remodel needs, contact the professionals at Master’s Design Build. We are located in Hatfield PA for a consultation at +1-215-723-6162.

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