Village Squire, 1979-10, Page 8Spotlight on kitchens
After years of being ignored the kitchen
is getting the attention
Alter mane gars of being the forgotten
room in the house the kitchen is finally
gelling the attention it deserves.
The emphasis being put on the kitchen
can be seen in the growth of supply firms
tor the kitchen, not just for appliances as in
the past hut in manufacturing cupboards.
iu Shops that help co-ordinate kitchens and
in design firms for kitchens. Nearly every
building supply firm today has a kitchen
centre in its showroom and special shops
such as Seaforth Kitchen Centre and
Baechler Kitchens and Interiors in
Goderich set out to fill the every need of
those planning to renovate an old kitchen
or plan a kitchen for a new home.
"People are spending the dollar in the
kitchen where it should have been all
along." says Bill McKee a long time
architect in the residential area who now
works in the design for Baechler Kitchens
and Interiors. Until recent years, he says.
people would be willing to sink a large
amount of money into a fireplace in their
livingroom that they might never never
light a fire in and yet they'd have nothing
in their kitchen. And the kitchen is where a
great deal of time is spent.
Spending money in the kitchen can also
be a good investment in improving the
resale value of a home experts agree. Real
estate experts say an attractive up-to-date
kitchen can often make a house easier to
sell. The woman who is going to have a
major say in whether or not to buy a house
often looks at a kitchen first because she's
the one who'll likely spend the most time
there.
Experts differ though on how much you
should spend on remodelling a kitchen.
Some use as a guide that you shouldn't
spend more than 10 per cent of the value of
your house on improvements to the kitchen
including appliances. Thus, if your house is
valued at $40.000 you could spend $4000;
$b0.000. you could spend $6000 and so on.
Bill McKee however says that the amount
to spend on the kitchen depends on how
6 Village Squire, October 1979
Kitchens today are not only functional
ago.
high it is on your priority list. If you're a
middle-aged person who works out and
spends little time in the kitchen then it's
not worth putting a lot into the kitchen. If
you're the kind of person who likes to
spend a lot of time in the kitchen then you
may want to splurge a little in this
important room.
If you're planning to build a new home or
make an addition to an older home that will
house a kitchen, Bill McKee recommends
you plan your kitchen first from the inside
before worrying about the outside of the
building. He and Robert Baechler agree
that many of the problems they encounter.
in kitchen planning is that the architect or
but have a decorative flair unheard of a generation
builder designed with the outside of the
house in mind and forgot about the
function of the inside. Moving a window six
or eight inches one way or another may
make little difference to the overall look of
the house they say but it can make a good
deal of difference to designing a pleasant,
bright, functional kitchen. If the building is
designed with little forethought given to
the inside it leaves kitchen planners with
all their options cut off, Mr. McKee says.
The biggest change he's seen in the last
15 or 20 years in kitchen planning besides
the new attention being given to kitchens,
Mr. McKee says is that function is now a
prime concern in kitchen planning. Even a