It takes a lot of work to revive a tired kitchen. Hiring in a skip, stripping out the units down to the floor, replacing everything with new, on-trend designs…hang on a minute, that seems like an awful lot of expense and, if we’re honest, a lot of waste too! Do you really want a skip full of perfectly serviceable units sitting on your driveway for weeks on end, and months of upheaval just to ‘freshen up’ your old kitchen, or is there an easier, quicker and (most importantly) a cheaper way of doing things?
For years, The Kitchen Restoration Co. has been doing precisely that. When we started in the business, we quickly realised that not everyone wants to rip a perfectly good kitchen out every ten years or so and start again. Our commitment to the three ‘Rs’ (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) meant that complete kitchen replacements didn’t sit well with our company ethos. So we went down another route – refurbishment. And we think that it’s something you should consider too; especially if you’re working to a tight budget. So let’s take a closer look at the three Rs, why they’re so important in kitchen refurbishment and how adopting these principles has made us the UK’s number one kitchen refurbishment company.
The Three R’s
Reduce
Let’s start with Reduce. There are two things you want to reduce when you start a kitchen refurbishment – waste and cost. What refurbishing rather than replacing a kitchen does is cut down on the amount of waste going to landfill by reducing the amount of waste material you discard.
It also means that you can reduce the cost of your refurbishment and still achieve a showstopping effect, all on a budget. With a little imagination and some professional help from our experienced design team, you can produce the same kind of result you would get by replacing the whole kitchen from the ground up.
Reuse
Next on the list is Reuse – why replace a perfectly serviceable unit for the sake of aesthetics? Reusing your existing units and freshening them up with replacement doors or drawer fronts is not only an ecologically smart thing to do, but it also makes life easier for you. In the majority of cases, we have found that the structure of the units is actually perfectly suited to the owner’s requirements and the existing design layout of the kitchen.
What most kitchens need is an injection of good design and updated styling to bring them back to life. Does it really matter if the unseen ‘bare bones’ of your kitchen are the ones you had put in originally? As long as they are still fit for purpose then there’s no need to replace them, and you can reuse a good percentage of your kitchen.
Recycle
This does follow on from ‘Reuse’ in that you are effectively ‘recycling’ part of your kitchen design, whilst reviving the visual aspects of the styling. But in an age when we’re all a lot more aware about our impact on the planet and its dwindling resources, recycling is becoming even more important. With a refurbishment, some of the material that is replaced can be taken away and recycled to make new kitchen units and doors, keeping your carbon footprint down to an absolute minimum.
Our commitment to the ‘three Rs’ has helped make The Kitchen Restoration Co. the UK’s number one kitchen restoration experts. We don’t just ‘start from scratch’ when we design a kitchen – we work with what you already have to save time, hassle and money, and cut back on the amount of waste produced. We think it’s a great starting point from which you can go on to create a truly beautiful kitchen.
