Tag: DC Kitchen remodeling

Kitchen Remodeling in Capitol Hill

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Our Kitchen Remodeling Process: Capitol Hill

Kitchens are used for more than just cooking meals. Your family comes together in your kitchen every day to laugh, talk about their day, and enjoy great food. You make guests feel right at home with a cup of coffee or tea from your kitchen. Having a beautiful kitchen not only improves your home’s appearance, but gives you the luxury and comfort you want to feel at home. Replacing old countertops and cabinets can really spruce up your kitchen and make it feel new. Expanding your kitchen can give you a little extra room for that breakfast nook you desire. Whatever the project, remodeling your kitchen can give it new life.

Remodeling or renovating your kitchen can also add significant value to your home. As a homeowner in Capitol Hill’s competitive housing market, you know the importance of increasing your home’s equity. Remodeling your kitchen—no matter how big or small the project—can increase your home’s value, which will pay off in the housing market in the future.

Many of the houses in Capitol Hill are small, which means these houses are equipped with small kitchens. Remodeling a tiny space presents a unique challenge, but is by no means impossible. In fact, working with small spaces inspires creativity in learning how to best remodel the room and make the most of your limited space. You can design many simple renovation projects to greatly improve your small kitchen.

Finding creative and unique renovation solutions for every project and setting to make your project come to life is the true hallmark of an excellent home design and remodel contractor. Finesse Design has the expertise to tackle any renovation or remodeling project and bring your vision to life, even in the smallest of homes in Capitol Hill.

The Finesse Design Experience

We deliver more than a service; it’s an experience. We understand that there are a lot of contractors to choose from, so why choose Finesse? Whether you are planning a new kitchen or bath, creating a basement apartment, or even imagining an addition to gain more space, when working with a remodeling contractor, it’s about the experience. Our clients have the benefit of working directly with the partners of Finesse through the entire process. From the initial consultation, through planning and design, to producing and finishing your renovation, we are by your side sharing over 50 years of design and construction experience. The best part of it all is we make it fun and enjoyable for you, and deliver an outstanding new space you can’t wait to start living in.

How do we Complete our Projects? The Finesse Experience Includes the Following Steps:

  1. Complimentary Consultation: We provide a complimentary in-home consultation to get started. During the consultation, we listen to your project goals and identify any challenges we might face during the renovation process. After the consultation, we will be able to determine price range and timeframes for your project
  2. Design and Concepts Phase: We re-visit your home to complete measurements so we can start to prepare multiple design concepts, including floor plans, elevations, and 3D views. We share all parts of the design process with you, and want to hear your feedback at every step. We will explore the pros and cons of different designs with you, work to create a design we both agree on, then communicate with our subcontractors to finalize pricing.
  3. Construction Phase: Before construction begins, we hold a pre-construction meeting to discuss access to your home, temporary protection placement, the plan for the first week, and more. During construction, we provide weekly progress reports via email. Once construction is complete, we complete a walk-through and identify any other items necessary to completing the project.
  4. Warranty: We offer a comprehensive warranty plan for two years. We check in at the end of the first and second years to make sure you’re still satisfied with our services.

When you’re looking to renovate your kitchen, choose a contractor that will give you beautiful results with quality that’s built to last. Contact us today at (703) 337-2822 or Info@Finesse-Design.com to schedule a free consultation!

Top 10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Design Build Firm

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Choosing a remodeling firm can be challenging. You meet with several firms who seem friendly, professional and they have beautiful portfolios that showcase their experience. However, it is a big decision- it’s your home! Apart from purchasing your home, remodeling may be one of the biggest investments you make. Whether you are living through the renovation or relocating during construction, you will spend weeks to months with this firm. How do you make sure you are hiring the right firm? Here’s a list of the top 10 questions to ask before choosing a design build firm.

1. Are they licensed and insured?

Any firm you consider should be licensed in your specific jurisdiction. The license should be held by the company only. Ask for the company’s business license number and verify it online. It is also important that the company you hire is insured. It is good to know what is covered under the company’s policy and how much coverage they have.

2. Can the organization provide you with an outline of their process?

It is important to have a clear understanding of how the firm will develop, manage and execute your project. The firm should schedule regular meetings and discussions to review design ideas, material selections, timelines and budget.

3. Is a permit required and who is responsible for obtaining it?

Most districts require a building permit for a project and there may be several permits required depending on the scope of the project. Obtaining a permit can be costly and time consuming. However, as a home owner, it serves as a source of protection. Permits come with regular inspections by building officials and projects that are built “to code,” are built to a good quality standard. It is important to understand who is responsible for obtaining the permits and how permitting fees will fit into the contract and budget.

4. Who is responsible for overseeing / supervising the work?rk?

There should be a project manager assigned to your home that you can communicate with regularly.

5. What is the projected timeline for the project?

The firm should be able to provide a time frame for your project by comparing it to previous projects of similar scope, the current project schedule, and the number of carpenters in the field.

6. How will the firm monitor and stay within budget?

This is a very important question to ask, especially if you would like to stick within a strict budget. The firm should assist you with selecting finishing’s by eliminating options that are outside of budget and sticking with options that work best for both your budget and aesthetic needs. The firm should also regularly update you with an allowance sheet that shows what you’ve budgeted and selected for.

7. Do they have a list of references you can contact?

A design build firm should be happy to provide a list of references with similar project scopes. Contacting these references should give you a good idea of how your project may go.

8. Do they provide a design and construction agreement?

You should be provided with both a design and construction agreement. The design agreement should include the “as-built” of your home in a 3-D rendering, and multiple concepts depending on the scope of your project and your project goals. A construction agreement is equally important and should outline your entire project. The construction agreement should include: 3-D renderings of your project, a project schedule, schedule of values, and a summary of allowances.

9. How will they protect your home?

Home protection varies depending on whether you are living in the home during the construction and keeping belongings in the home vs. if you are completely moved out during the renovation because the whole home becomes a work zone at that time. In general, the firm should be using Ram-board floor protection for hard surfaces, and protection tape for carpeted floors. The carpenters should leave your home in a broom clean state at the end of every work day. The firm should also provide a lock box to ensure the home is secured at the end of each work day.

10. Do they offer any warranty to their work?

It is important to understand what is covered under warranty and for how long. Be sure to collect warranty information on manufactured items such as appliances, cabinets, windows, etc.

These ten questions should make you more comfortable and confident when choosing a design build firm. Thanks for reading! Leave a comment down below if you have any questions for us.

Finesse Design Remodeling is an award-winning full-service design-build firm specializing in fine renovations and restorations in the Washington DC Area.

DC Kitchen Remodeling: Tips to Ensure You Get the Most Out of Your Kitchen this Spring

Posted on | by Finesse Design Remodeling | 1 Comment on DC Kitchen Remodeling: Tips to Ensure You Get the Most Out of Your Kitchen this Spring

Spring season in D.C. is a time of rejuvenation. It is also a time in which many homeowners begin working on projects to spruce up their space so they can improve their quality of life and time spent home with loved ones.

Below are several tips to ensure you have an appropriately designed DC kitchen so you can truly maximize your space and get the most out of your home.

Do you have adequate space in your kitchen?

There are many important aspects to consider with a functional kitchen. Take for instance the placement of your refrigerator, sink, and cooking areas, and the placement of your countertop areas. A poorly designed kitchen will prevent you from using your kitchen appropriately, and it can even result in accidents.

If you feel like your kitchen doesn’t have adequate space, then why not open up your kitchen to your living or dining area?

You can take advantage of removing load bearing walls and re-supporting the structure in a different way. This is an ideal way of opening up your kitchen space and can greatly improve the way it functions. This will also make your kitchen and your living space look bigger than it actually is and accommodate more people in both areas at the same time.

Is there a proper traffic flow in your kitchen?

A poorly designed kitchen space can also impact your traffic flow. If you have more than one person in charge of cooking, or you like entertaining guests in the kitchen, then having a narrow walking space can cause a traffic jam.

The ideal width of a kitchen walkway is usually three feet but varies depending on a number of factors. If you are considering an island or peninsula in your kitchen, you should think about the size and placement of this feature as this can contribute to a narrow walkway and bad traffic flow if not designed correctly.

The location of doorways around your kitchen also dictates how traffic will flow through the space. A poorly located door can direct traffic right through a critical kitchen prep area, which will interrupt you while cooking or tidying up. Lastly, it is important to consider the arrangement of your kitchen appliances, tools, cabinets, workstations, cookware, and others to create proper traffic flow in your kitchen.

How about efficiency?

Have you ever had a hard time working on a meal because your kitchen design was outdated? Dated, malfunctioning products or an outdated kitchen scheme will cause you to be inefficient with your meal preps, which can create a stressful situation and make you want to work and entertain less in your kitchen.

Implementing more modern features, maximizing the function of your cabinets, and designing specific work zones will help you be more efficient in your kitchen. Modern appliances are also easier to manage and use, giving you more time to spend entertaining your family and friends rather than laboring all day in the kitchen.

Have you considered the location of your kitchen?

Easy access to other rooms, such as a porch or a deck is ideal for your kitchen. Having an outdoor grill off the kitchen makes it simple to add healthy grilled options to your warm weather dinner routine. Additionally, your family and guests will surely enjoy dining on freshly cooked meals al fresco with the freshness of spring in the air.

If this is not possible, but you still want to bring in some fresh air, try getting your kitchen rearranged to have access to bigger windows without compromising the function of your kitchen.

What is the island’s function in your kitchen?

Many kitchen designs have islands, and these kitchen islands are not just about being pretty. Some homeowners want to have the convenience of enjoying a meal inside the kitchen or creating a gathering space for family or entertaining. Other times, the primary goal of an island is incorporating a different workspace or enhancing the prep area.

If you want to use the island for eating or seating, it is imperative that if this is in conjunction with a primary work area that appropriate space considerations are taken into account. This is especially important if you have a cooking surface in your island for the safety of a seated individual. As mentioned earlier, you must also consider whether you have enough clear floor space to allow for proper traffic when incorporating a kitchen island. Having a kitchen island can be an elegant way to add storage and function to your kitchen, but it doesn’t always mean you need and can have one.

What colors should you use?

Trying out new colors for the kitchen is a great idea, especially as we now enter the spring season. This year, there are a few trends in color schemes that can bring spring inside your kitchen. Greenery and jewel tones which focus on natural colors of nature can be refreshing and eye-popping, especially in the kitchen.

Two-toned cabinets can change your kitchen’s ambiance dramatically. If you have a small kitchen, using shades of white or other light colors can make the whole room brighter and bigger.

We hope you found these tips helpful. For additional tips, be sure to join our community of DC homeowners below who received weekly tips and insights from us – straight to your inbox.

Cheers!

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DC Kitchen Remodeling Proper Heating and Cooling and the Work Triangle

Posted on | by Finesse Design Remodeling | 1 Comment on DC Kitchen Remodeling Proper Heating and Cooling and the Work Triangle

Here at Finesse Design Remodeling, we want every household in D.C. to have gorgeous and functional spaces, and this should also be true for your DC Kitchen Remodeling. For the next few weeks, we will talk about important factors to consider when remodeling your kitchen. You can check out last week’s tips for proper sub flooring and lighting here. Without further ado, here are this week’s tips:

Elizabeth Mitchel

Partner at Finesse Design Remodeling

When you are planning for an upcoming kitchen renovation, it is very important to consider the work triangle of the space. This is a common term used by kitchen designers and refers to the three primary work areas of the kitchen- first your kitchen sink, second being your cooking areas such as a range or cooktop and third being your food storage as in your refrigerator.

It is very important to make sure that the placement of these three primary areas of your kitchen are properly placed within the space. You want to make sure that they are not shoved up next to each other or too far away. You need to make sure that they are basically forming a triangle. You must also make sure no one leg of this triangle is shorter than four feet, if you can help it, and no leg of this triangle is no longer than nine feet long, again if you can help it. This will make sure that you have a very efficiently designed kitchen that will work for you.

Brian Bielski

Partner at Finesse Design Remodeling

We’ve had a lot of homeowners who have requested a little sunroom addition or maybe we enclose a porch and they want to make sure that they have the proper heating and cooling. To ensure that you have the proper heating and cooling is kind of expensive. There’s a couple ways you can do it, you can either specify an entirely new system for just the addition, or you can what’s called a mini split.

A mini split is a sort of a cassette that can be matted on the ceiling or the wall and there’s an outdoor unit with it. What you don’t want to do is tap into the existing home’s ductwork and simply try to pump air into that space. It’s not going to work. Number one reason is it’s like trying to force air into a vacuum-packed can- it’s not going to happen. You have to have return air. That’s additional ductwork that has to be considered.

On top of that, typically when the mechanical contractor sizes the equipment for the home. They do with that what they call manual J’s which is low calculations that tell you what size unit you have based on the square footage of each room, how many windows, doors and things like that. That unit is sized for the house the way it is and not for the addition, so if you are going to try to heat and cool a new addition, you are going to need to consider an entire new system to handle that capacity that it needs.

We hope these DC Kitchen Remodeling tips help you!

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DC Home Remodeling: Spring Temperatures and 2017 Design Trends to Consider

Posted on | by Finesse Design Remodeling | 7 Comments on DC Home Remodeling: Spring Temperatures and 2017 Design Trends to Consider

If you reside in the D.C. area, then you know winter temperatures weren’t predicted accurately by our groundhog friend, Punxsutawney Phil. The first day of spring is Monday, March 20, and spring-like temperatures are here already (minus the snow from the other day). This means spring cleaning and home projects are soon to be underway.

Instead of waiting until spring to release our home design trends for you to consider with your upcoming interior home design and remodeling projects, we figured it would make better sense to go ahead and release some insights now. So without further ado, here are some popular trends in 2017 for you to consider:

The Colors of 2017

The Color of Nature

The beauty and colors of nature can put anyone in a good mood, especially inside your home. One current trend that is stunning in the modern household is the wood element as it provides a feeling of getting closer to nature. Panatone also named “Greenery” as their 2017 Color of the Year, is a vibrant and refreshing shade of green reminiscent of lush foliage. A great way to incorporate this dramatic color into your home is through the addition of potted plants in your décor.

Jewels Tones are big for 2017

The colors from jewels tend to capture the attention of many designers as well as homeowners. The saturated and bold colors of jewel tones, from emerald green to sapphire blue, is perfect for accents in home furnishings and art pieces.

Taupe or Shadow

Whether you prefer the drama of “Shadow” as Benjamin Moore does, or a softer version such as “Poised Taupe” by Sherwin Williams, these trendy purple shades for 2017 will surely bring class and warmth to your space. Neutral yet impactful, when combined with other colors, they give joie de vivre (enjoyment of life) inside your home. A departure from 2016’s Color of the Year, “Simply White”, these new neutrals further demonstrate that 2017 is all about color!

The Kitchen

The Two-toned Craze

Two-toned themes have maintained popularity in kitchens. Most two-toned kitchens use rich wood finishes combined with lighter hues of white or cream. However, grays, blues, and even navy are making a presence especially when tempered with or with luxurious champagne bronze or brass tones. These color combinations let the whole kitchen look well designed, rich, and fabulous.

Everything Clean and Simple

One popular trend with kitchen designs today is a simpler and clean look. Many homeowners, for instance, prefer to have cabinets with simpler door designs such as a slab or shaker profile. The simpler door style goes hand and hand with the more dramatic trending kitchen tones of 2017.

Quartz on the Countertop

Tiles on your kitchen counter or mainstream granite colors can give your kitchen an outdated feel. Although some homeowners still prefer granite countertops for both their kitchen and bath, quartz composites are starting to get more attention. Quartz has the same durability as that of granite but because it is a manmade product, it lends itself beautifully to contemporary or transitional designs. Plus, quartz countertops are non-porous, so sealing is not needed.

Essential Cooking Wares

Technology in the kitchen is catching up, which means you better be ready for more modern cooking tops and other appliances inside your kitchen. Induction cooktops are gaining popularity, especially when gas cooking is not an option. Built-in microwave drawers that save space with a modern appearance is also a great idea for the kitchen.

The Bathroom

Closer to Nature in Contemporary Style

Contemporary style with a touch of nature is now in. Whether it is your sink, tub surrounds, shelves or linens, the touch of nature with neutral wood and greenery colors is a 2017 trend. Most of these designs can be seen in spas where people go to aide in relaxation, and this trend has slowly dominated in the residential sector. The modern twist of nature-inspired bathrooms can easily attract homeowners because of its relaxing qualities.

The Tile Styles

Geometric tiles are getting more attention, creating a more artistic and unexpected twist from your classic square or subway tile inside the bathroom. Another style getting attention is Moroccan inspired tiles or encaustic cement tiles which feature different lines, shapes, and patterns. If you are not into attention grabbing patterns, then classic subway tiles with a contrasting grout may come as a better choice for you.

Contemporary Fixtures, Cabinets, and Sinks

Many homeowners want a contemporary style integrated with their whole interior design. Most of the contemporary fixtures, cabinets, and sinks are simple, easy to maintain and simply stunning. Undermount sinks are a staple in contemporary bathroom designs, and the greenery trend is also incorporated well on contemporary fixtures, cabinets, and tiles by using neutral colors and adding wooden elements in the design.

The Technology for Your Home

A Smart House in the Palm of Your Hands

Your whole home can slowly become easier to maintain and control with the help of cool new apps. Want to have a warm bath ready? Tap your iPhone. Want to have the lights dim during the night, or the air conditioning on a steady temperature during the day? Set it up on your smartphone, so you don’t have to come home with rooms that are too hot or too cold.

We hope you found these insights helpful as you embark on your home design and remodeling projects. If you are in the market for a free home design consultation, then don’t hesitate to contact us.

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DC Kitchen Remodeling: Proper Sub flooring and Lighting

Posted on | by Finesse Design Remodeling | 1 Comment on DC Kitchen Remodeling: Proper Sub flooring and Lighting

Here at Finesse Design Remodeling, we want every household in D.C. to have gorgeous and functional spaces, and this should also be true for your DC Kitchen Remodeling. For the next few weeks, we will talk about important factors to consider when remodeling your kitchen. You can check out last week’s tips for load bearing walls and GFCI units here. Without further ado, here are this week’s tips:

Brian Bielski

Partner at Finesse Design Remodeling

One of things that we see a lot of when we go into looking into people’s bathrooms or kitchens, older homes in D.C., Virginia, Maryland or wherever it may be, we see a lot of cracked floor tile. The reason is usually whoever installed that floor tile did not have proper subflooring. To install floor tiles, there is a couple of ways to ensure that you have the proper subflooring.

The American Tile Institute recommends a minimum of an inch and a quarter of sub flooring. That would be three-quarters of an inch plywood and a half inch of cement board tile backer, whether it be Durock, Wonderboard, etc. If you have that three-quarters plus half, you will not have any cracked floor tiles.

The other way you can do this is to go over the three quarter inch plywood. Schluter makes something called Schluter Ditra, which comes in rolls and has honeycombs and is made structurally to basically take the floor stresses off of the tiles. If you use Schluter Ditra plus three-quarter plywood, you will not get any cracks.

Elizabeth Mitchel

Partner at Finesse D­­esign Remodeling

Another important element to consider in your upcoming DC Kitchen Remodeling is the lighting in your space. There are four main types of lighting that your designer will be considering when planning for your renovation. The first type is the natural lighting of the space. This is the light that comes in through windows in the kitchen or through a skylight in the kitchen.

The second type of lighting that you should be considering is the general lighting. This is the artificial lighting that we need in the kitchen when it is nighttime or it’s a cloudy day. You can still get the proper light to be able to walk safely through the kitchen and be able to illuminate what you are doing. Types of general lighting would be recess lighting on the ceiling or other surface mount types of lights such as track lighting or decorative fixtures mounted to the ceiling.

The third type of lighting that is very important to consider is the task lighting in the kitchen. This is most common with your under-cabinet lighting. This is important because it illuminates your work area so when you are prepping food or you’re cooking, you want to make sure you are able to see the countertop area clearly.

And the final type of lighting that especially designers like to consider is the accent lighting. This is to illuminate certain features in the kitchen, such as lighting that is placed above the crown molding over the wall cabinets to illuminate the ceiling. This type of lighting adds the little extra dimension of the space.

We hope these DC Kitchen Remodeling tips help you!

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DC Kitchen Remodeling Tips Load Bearing Walls and GFCI Circuits

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Here at Finesse Design Remodeling, we want every household in D.C. to have gorgeous and functional spaces, and this should also be true for your DC Kitchen Remodeling. For the next few weeks we will talk about important factors to consider when remodeling your kitchen. Without further ado, here are this week’s tips:

Brian Bielski

Partner at Finesse Design Remodeling

We recently posted a video where we talked about removing load bearing walls. And we want to qualify that when we do so, we’re re-supporting the structure in a different way. First of all, before we talk about how that is done, we need to know what a load bearing wall is.

In a residential situation, a load bearing wall is a wall that’s supporting the structure above, whether via floor or roof and there are several ways that you can do that. Sometimes load bearing walls are wood. We have 2×4’s, and 2×6 studs and they are supporting the floor load above or roof above. How do you remove a section of wall in opening up your kitchen to your dining room?

If you are dealing with wood structure framing, you can do that by sizing appropriate wood beams. It could be double 2×10’s, double 2×12’s, LVL’s (laminated veneer lumber) – these are designed to support high weight loads from above. And our engineer helps us decide what size beams that we have to put in place to support the span that we open up.

If we are doing a brick wall, which is a lot of jobs we do in DC Kitchen Remodeling, we take out the entire back of the house. How do we do that? There’s a method called stitching and in stitching what we do is we punch through the wall and we support it temporarily with support legs down to the floor which is supported down in the foundation. Then we take a big steel i-beam and we put it up there while we have to remove the brick.

If you are adding something like a French door, you can do two angle irons where you’re moving one side of the brick, putting in one angle iron then removing the other side of the brick and putting in that angle iron. These are the several ways of how we take out load bearing walls and putting in complementary support from what we removed.

Elizabeth Mitchel

Partner at Finesse Design Remodeling

Another important element to consider in your upcoming DC Kitchen Remodeling is the placement of the outlets. Code requires that all of your outlets in your kitchen be GFCI protected which means “ground-fault circuit interrupters”.

What this means is that the outlet is protected in case an appliance is plugged in and it falls in the water. There will not be any issue of electric shock being that the power is cut off to the outlet at the intersection of this. This being an important safety measure, you want to make sure that all the outlets are GFCI, but also code requires that you have these outlets every four feet in your kitchen.  And when you are taking into account your sink, it needs to be within two feet of the center of that sink.

So what if you are planning a new backsplash and you have some beautiful tiles picked out and you don’t want to have outlets interrupting that new pattern or tile material?

What we recommend to our clients is using plug molding. This is a strip of outlets that are GFCI protected and looks a lot like a surge protector. We mount these to the underside of your wall cabinets. This way, you are meeting the code requirement of an outlet every four feet but you have nothing interrupting your beautiful new backsplash.

We hope these DC Kitchen Remodeling tips help you!

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DC Remodeling Kitchen Tips: Adequate Storage & Properly Sized Hood Ranges

Posted on | by Finesse Design Remodeling | 1 Comment on DC Remodeling Kitchen Tips: Adequate Storage & Properly Sized Hood Ranges

We are thrilled to be sharing our home design and renovation tips with you each week. It is our intent to provide you with as many valuable tips as possible to help you better prepare for your next big home design and remodeling project. Think of us as your partners each step of the way!

Last week, we have shared some valuable kitchen tips which you can check out with this link. Here are some more tips to consider when remodeling your kitchen:

Elizabeth Mitchel

Partner at Finesse Design Remodeling

Another common complaint that we hear from our homeowner clients when we are planning for a new kitchen renovation is that their existing kitchen does not have adequate storage or countertop space. There are a number of things that a designer will take into account when designing the new kitchen to take care of this concern.

One of the first things that we do is start by calculating a number of cubic inches you have in your existing kitchen so we can make sure that the new kitchen has more actual storage space than you currently have. On top of that, when we go through a new kitchen layout, your designer should sit down with you and go over each cabinet in the new design and what is going to go in each cabinet to make sure that that cabinet functions appropriately for the items that you plan on storing inside that space.

Finally, an item for countertop storage is to make sure you have appropriate landing areas on either side of every major point in the kitchen. There are certain formulas that kitchen designers use that are general guidelines and rules of thumb to make sure that your kitchen sink isn’t too close to the range or that your refrigerator has space nearby where you can set down a tray when you’re opening your door and getting things in and out.

Brian Bielski

Partner at Finesse Design Remodeling

One of the biggest complaints we get from people that are looking to remodel their kitchen is when they cook steak or fish, they are not getting the fumes or smell out of the house. The reason for this is that they don’t have a properly sized hood. And since a lot of our clients are buying these larger format ranges, they require a lot more air to be pulled out of the space.

If the hood is below 400 CFM, you don’t have to have what they call makeup air. But most of these larger ranges require hoods that are over 400 CFM- that’s cubic feet of air per minute. When you go over 400 CFM, you have to have makeup air.

Makeup air has a control wire to a motorized damper and when that hood is turned on, fresh air is drawn into the ductwork from the outside to make up for the air that is being pulled from the inside of the house. Your hood will not draw toxic fumes from your fireplace, windows, bathrooms or other ventilation sewers in the house.

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DC Kitchen Remodeling Removing Load Bearing Walls, and Toe Kick Heaters

Posted on | by Finesse Design Remodeling

We are thrilled to be sharing our home design and renovation tips with you each week. It is our intent to provide you with as many valuable tips as possible to help you better prepare for your next big home design and remodeling project. Think of us as your partners each step of the way!

For the past weeks, we have shared some valuable bathroom tips which you can check out with this link. For the next set of tips, we will be focusing on kitchen remodeling, to get that wonderful kitchen you’ve always wanted.  Without further ado, here are your tips for this week!

Elizabeth Mitchel

Partner at Finesse Design Remodeling

Many of the clients that we meet with are suffering with small and closed off kitchen space. This makes it very difficult to be able to entertain for family or friends or to be able to keep an eye on small children if you’re fixing dinner or breakfast. One of the solutions for this is to open up the kitchen to some of the neighboring living spaces such as the family room.

But some of our clients, whether they have spoken with a well-intentioned friend or neighbor, are under the impression that this is not an option for them because that wall they want to take out is load bearing or it has plumbing, electrical or ventilation ducting in it. And they have also been told that this is cost-prohibitive. That is not necessarily the case, especially if you are working with a licensed, professional design-build contractor. And you may be able to actually get that wall taken out of the way and it may be a lot less expensive than you realize.

Brian Bielski

Partner at Finesse Design Remodeling

At times when we come into these older homes in D.C., we have a situation where we have to cut radiators out to make room for more cabinets. And the problem becomes then what do you do about creating enough heat after you take the radiator out. A lot of people don’t understand that they may get special toe kick heaters that fit under the cabinet and you can buy them in either 120 volt electric, 240 volt electric or you can either get water toe kick heater.

They fit under the cabinets where they are invisible. They have a blower on them, which you can control remotely from your phone. And you can put a track grill in the toe kick on the cabinet which you can paint the same color as the toe kick so it “disappears” and that will blow warm air out so it’s making up for the fact that we removed the radiator to create more cabinet space.

Another thing that I want to talk about with toe kick ventilation is sometimes we remove a wall and there will be an air duct that traveled up and then diffused out the face of the wall. So rather than move the diffuser out of into the kitchen floor where it will be visible in either the hardware or the tiles, what we do is we blow it up the bottom of the cabinet with a 90-degree boot and we defuse it out of the toe kick. It is hidden and you’re still getting the air into the kitchen that you had.

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