Gregory Contracting
10510 South Ave STE B,
Chisago City, MN 55013
(651) 213-0668

Our kitchens have always been the beating heart of the home, but they’ve been working overtime since the healthy at home initiative launched.

In addition to being the place to prep and cook meals, your kitchen is also a virtual office, a virtual meeting space, a classroom, a coffee shop, or a place to host a Zoom happy hour.

While your kitchen and you multi-task, there’s a bright side. It’s a great time to take a hard look at what works and what doesn’t in your kitchen now, and what you’d like to change or add. Starting planning your kitchen remodel now will pay dividends later.

The Work Triangle

We all prepare most of our meals at home (with occasional takeout or delivery). Spending more time in a kitchen can help you see the shortcomings of your current space. Though we won’t always be this home-bound, leaning the lessons learned in these more extreme situations will make spending time in the kitchen a lot more enjoyable when it is normal again.

A lack of counter space makes chopping, preparing and cooking more difficult. Your work triangle — the distance between the sink, stove and refrigerator is obstructed or inconvenient. Because more family members live together, your fridge may be one of the pinch points, with a lot of people coming and going for drinks and snacks. If cooking is a team sport in your family, you might want more than one work triangle.

We’ve also seen a real boost in at-home baking during the crisis. If you’re a bread lover, you’re going to need all the space you can get.

It is possible to do all this work at counter height, but serious bakers take a page from the pros and use a station a little lower than counter height. With a lower counter, you can gain more leverage and muscle. Think of what counter material you want. Many bakers and pastry chefs prefer the coolness of marble when working on their doughs.

Storage Space

With all of us trying to limit our trips to the grocery store, we’re bringing home more food at a time. Which means it’s more challenging to pack away everything, especially for growing kids and teenagers. There’s no denying storage space is limited.

Adding storage space to your kitchen is one of the biggest requests we get, even in more normal times. We often add cabinet space, drawers, and islands to boost your storage capacity.

The pantry is a great addition, offering you a place to store shelf-stable items like canned goods and dry goods.

Appliances & Tools

You might find that your current array of appliances aren’t cutting it. Consider whether you can make do with a larger range or cook top– would you benefit from adding burner space? For those who love baking, it is possible they may want to have multiple ovens, and installing them on the wall could help relieve the strain on their backs or knees. Additionally, ovens can do more than ever. They can perform various functions, like convection, warming, or proofing.

It’s hard to find space for your refrigerator, and your freezer is fuller too. Think about how you would like to utilize either your refrigerator or freezer, and what design would best suit your life. Different configurations appeal to different types of fans, some like a French-door freezer, while others enjoy a side-by-side look.

When it comes to a kitchen remodel, we can help. We’ve got a lot of experience designing and building kitchens that work as well as they look. Give Gregory Contracting a call, and we can get started creating your dream kitchen.