Creating a luxurious kitchen can really change the way you see and use your home. The problem, however, lies in the idea of spending a small fortune in order to make the kitchen of your dreams, only to have this same kitchen deteriorate in a matter of months or years. How do you prevent this from happening? Well, you need to put an emphasis on durability both during the design and the maintenance stage. So, here are the top six tips that you should use in order to make your luxurious kitchen last a long time.
1. Learn how to Clean the Kitchen
The first thing you need to learn about cleaning your kitchen is a proper cleaning order. You clean the oven last, seeing as how doing it first would spread the majority of germs across the kitchen. More importantly, you need to understand that you can’t clean the kitchen with any of the methods that you would normally use for other areas of your home. Here, you have to work a lot more with various homemade solutions made with ingredients like vinegar, baking soda, lime and bleach. Seeing as how the majority of these compounds are acidic, you need to stick to the recommended doses and rinse it out after the appropriate amount of time in order not to damage the surfaces.
2. Inspect the Equipment
When buying appliances, it’s vital that you pay attention to the way they’re working. A lot of people deliberately turn the bling eye towards malfunctioning appliances. Why? In order to avoid the hassle caused by having to repair the equipment or the cost of repairing it. However, this is huge mismanagement of your kitchen, seeing as how the majority of appliances give out warning signs that things will soon become worse. A minor (read less expensive) repair now can save you from a major (read more expensive) repair in the nearest future. In other words, it’s in your best interest to regularly inspect the equipment and keep an eye out for any early signs of malfunction.
3. Do not replace Appliances right away
Another thing you need to understand is that when first designing your kitchen, you need to make sure that every element fits in its place. This is why a simple appliance replacement may be more than just that. It’s potentially an act that will break the visual homogeny of the place. So, you should probably consider a replacement instead. The most frugal way to approach this situation is to look for suitable home appliance parts online and get in touch with a credible repair service. This way, you can have the situation resolved in no time and still stay on the budget.
4. Buy Quality
The reason why some kitchen materials are cheaper than others is often due to the fact that they’re made from less durable materials. Keep in mind that more expensive isn’t necessarily more durable but there are a lot of scenarios where this is the case. When budgeting your kitchen, keep in mind that this is a project that you’re not doing every day. Sure, you may not replace your kitchen for the next 10 years but the quality of the elements that you choose will also determine how long this initial impression of freshness will last. A kitchen that’s of a higher quality and made from more durable materials will look new for a considerably longer time.
5. Read every manual
Chances are that every single appliance and kitchen element that you buy has its own set of rules for proper handling. Abiding by these rules could, potentially, prolong its useful life by quite a while. However, in order to do so, you first have to come by this valuable information. The simplest, most straightforward, way of dealing with this situation is to just read the manual. The majority of these elements and all of the appliances come with a manual. If you’ve misplaced yours, you can always look it up online. Ideally, you would do this while designing the kitchen but even doing so afterward doesn’t seem to be a bad idea.
6. Check who you’re dealing with
Finally, you need to keep in mind that the group of people that you’ll collaborate with in order to make the kitchen of your dreams may be directly responsible for the end result that you get. For instance, when buying appliances, you should only deal with authorized dealers. Sure, others may offer you a better price but you have no idea what hides behind this discount. When working with plumbers, only go for those with a proven reputation in your neighborhood. Ideally, you want WOM recommendations. All in all, doing a background check on people, not just materials and appliances, is a good start to making a dashing kitchen that will last you a long time.
In conclusion
In the end, you need to understand that having a luxurious kitchen might be quite important but having a functional kitchen still seems to be far more important. Regardless of this, it is always in your best interest to make the kitchen last longer and remain fully functional for years to come. Like any other asset, your home needs continuous investment in order to maintain its value (both resale and lifestyle quality value). The way in which you budget and distribute these resources is completely up to you.