What to Consider When Choosing Kitchen Appliances

May 10, 2018

Building a custom home is an exciting process. You get to work with your builder to design your dream home from the ground up! As you’re planning your dream kitchen layout and design, don’t forget about your appliances, big and small. Here’s what to consider when choosing kitchen appliances:

Energy Efficiency

Most new appliances are built with energy efficiency in mind. As you’re exploring appliance options with your custom home builder, energy efficiency is a feature, and a benefit, to keep in mind. It tends to be more important for larger appliances, like your refrigerator or oven, but it’s still something to keep in mind for smaller appliances, like a microwave or even a blender.

Cooking Style

Kitchen appliances cover a wide variety of kitchen tools and your cooking style will help you determine what you do or don’t need. For example, you may need a blender, but not necessarily a food processor, or perhaps your cooking style means you need both. Your cooking style, if you’re the main person using the kitchen, will likely determine aspects of your kitchen layout, design, and, of course, appliances.

Storage

Storage is important when it comes to your kitchen appliances. It’s not only about how much some of them can store, as is the case with refrigerators and freezers, but also about how the appliances themselves can be stored. Your kitchen design will make allowances for large appliances like the refrigerator and oven, but what about all of the other stuff?

You’ll have to make sure the additional appliances you add have space on your counter when in use and in a cabinet or pantry when not in use. The storage you need can also be affected by your cooking style. Will you need to store a bunch of stuff in the refrigerator? Freeze even more? This may determine the type of refrigerator that fits best in your kitchen. You may even decide that adding an extra, standalone freezer is what you need.

Function

How appliances function is another good consideration when choosing the best fit for you. Sure, basic functions are relatively standard, but what else do you need? When it comes to the oven, for example, a traditional oven is likely suitable for most people. If you’re a heavy baker, however, a convection oven may be a better fit for you. If you entertain guests often or find yourself cooking for a lot of people a lot, a dual oven may be the best choice.

Do you want a refrigerator with a built-in ice and filtered water dispenser? How about smart technology – do you want some of your appliances to be able to connect to your phone? All of these function considerations from overall structure to small details can help you choose the right kitchen appliances for your lifestyle.

Kitchen appliances can make or break the experience you have in your kitchen. Plus, they are essential to design your kitchen for entertaining. Keep these considerations in mind as you evaluate appliances and share them with your custom home builder. They can help you narrow down the options so you end up with the kitchen of your dreams.

Contact Custom Home Group at 717-284-4090 to get started on the path to your custom home!