2025 is the year of interior upgrades! Improve the look and feel of your home while increasing its value with a kitchen or bath renovation. Whether you’re planning a complete overhaul or a few key updates, to ensure success during your remodel, you’ll want to spend some time planning out the most important pieces. From budget and design to installation and final product, we’ve put together a guide to help you plan your kitchen or bath renovation for 2025.
Setting Your Budget
Determining your budget will always be the first step in any remodel project. Remodeling projects can be costly, so setting and sticking to realistic financial expectations from the start is crucial to ensure you and your team stay on track throughout. Your budget will act as a guide for every other decision during the remodel process.
Budgeting tips:
- Calculate your max: Determine a comfortable price range and add approximately 10-15% on top of it to account for any unexpected costs.
- Break it down: By categorizing your budget you can easily identify where to splurge and where to stay within the financial boundaries (cabinetry, countertops, appliances, etc.).
- Determine financing method: Consider how you’ll be paying for the remodel and where the extra expenses will come from should problems arise during the remodel. By planning ahead, it can save a lot of headache once your living space has been torn apart.
Define Your Goals
Determining your goals for a remodel may seem pointless, but it can actually be extremely helpful for your remodel team to know what the end goal of the remodel is and why. For example, if your goal is to add extra storage to maintain clear countertops, your remodel team may go the extra mile to offer custom knife blocks in the top drawer next to the stove or a paper towel holder under the cabinet next to the sink. Clear goals will help you and the design team make the best choices about the design, layout, and features of your remodel.
Creating a Design Plan
Once you’ve set a budget and defined your goals, it’s time to design! While it may be fun to design your dream kitchen or bathroom on your own, stay open minded to what your designer has to say as well. They have years of experience and have seen thousands of different layouts, which could influence your decisions and help you get the best bang for your buck.
Get your design plan together by:
- Consulting with a designer: While you can choose to “DIY” a kitchen or bath remodel, hiring a professional designer can help you make the most of your space and open your mind to options you didn’t even know existed.
- Picking your priorities: Whether you’re remodeling your kitchen or bath, you usually have an idea of what is most important to the finished look. Be sure to highlight those in your design plan.
- Configuring your layout: The end goal of your kitchen or bathroom remodel will determine the layout of the space. If you want to focus on making meal prep easier, your kitchen remodel may include a large kitchen island for prepping vegetables. If you want your bathroom to feel more spa-like, adding space for a soaking tub could be top of mind for adjusting the layout of your bathroom.
Materials and Appliances
Creating a functional and aesthetically pleasing space requires intentional effort when choosing the materials and appliances for your kitchen or bath remodel. Consider materials and finishes for their look and for durability and maintenance efforts required to keep them looking new for years to come.
Cabinetry and countertops: For kitchens and bathroom countertops, materials like quartz, granite, or marble are great countertops options. Because the countertop is a focal point, it may be beneficial to choose that first and then choose cabinets that fit your aesthetic and offer durability.
Flooring: For kitchen flooring, consider materials like hardwood, tile, or vinyl that would be easy to maintain but also aesthetically pleasing. For bathrooms, tile is often the popular choice for its water resistance and variety in bathrooms.
Fixtures and hardware: Sleek, modern fixtures can elevate the look of both kitchens and bathrooms without breaking the bank.
Energy-efficient appliances: Interested in saving energy? Choosing energy-efficient appliances, like refrigerators, ovens, and dishwashers, can help save on utility bills long after your renovation is complete. Similarly, modern showerheads and toilets in the bathroom can decrease your home’s water usage.
Create a Timeline
Staying on track for your kitchen or bath remodel can become challenging with so many pieces involved, which is why creating a detailed timeline can become one of your most useful tools for your home renovation.
Create your timeline by:
- Setting a start date: By working with your contractor to choose a date, you and the remodel team will be on the same page about the planning, material selection, demolition, and clean up.
- Setting milestones: Breaking your project into phases (design, demolition, installation, etc.) and setting a timeline for each is a great way to create action steps with a clear goal.
- Expecting delays: In an ideal world, all remodels would stay on schedule, but it’s important to anticipate potential delays due to unforeseen circumstances like shipping delays, availability of materials, etc.
Hire the Right Contractors
The final, and potentially most important, step in planning for your remodel is hiring an experienced contractor. Whether you’re looking for a full kitchen flip, remodeling your bath, or just a partial upgrade to one or the other (or both), a reliable and trustworthy contractor like O’Hanlon Kitchen & Bath will make a huge difference in the overall success of your project.
We understand that hiring someone to work inside your home can be intimidating, so here are some recommendations to narrow down your choices a little easier:
- Look for an experienced contractor to deliver high-quality work to your home.
- Ask potential contractors for recent references and photos of previous work on similar types of projects.
- A licensed and insured contractor should have no issues providing their license and insurance ID.
A kitchen or bath renovation can be just what you need in 2025 to reset and fall back in love with your home, but it requires planning, attention to detail, and the right team to bring your vision to life.
Ready to start your remodel? Contact O’Hanlon Kitchen & Bath today to begin planning your dream kitchen or bath for 2025!
