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How to Measure Your Kitchen For Remodeling Plans
When you've made the decision to remodel your kitchen, there are many different steps that you will need to take in order to create an effective and efficient plan. The most important of these steps is to accurately measure the different elements of your existing kitchen. This will create a good kitchen design plan, and allow you to start mapping out the layout of your new room.
The drawings don't have to be beautiful, just effective overhead views of the kitchen that you are trying to create. You should bring your sketched layout to a designer or salesperson who will assess the feasibility of your plan and double check the measurements.
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Kitchen Measuring Tools
1. 25 foot metal tape measure
2. Graph paper
3. Pencil and pens. Different colors will help accentuate different elements.
The first step in measurement is to know the dimension of your room. If you are building a home, your contractor or architect should be able to provide you with schematic dimensions. If you are remodeling your kitchen, you can measure the space carefully to create the sketch of your room. We will detail the best ways to measure your room below:
How to Measure Your Kitchen
There are several symbols that you will use in your room plan. You should indicate the locations of the windows, doors, entryways without doors, electrical outlets, light switches, and telephone jacks.
Measuring Walls
Measuring the walls is the first step in the plan. In order to obtain accurate measurements, you should:
1. Start in one corner and measure along the length of the wall to the opposing corner,
2. Record the measurement of the wall on your sketch,
3. Measure the next wall's length,
4. Continue these steps until all walls have been recorded,
5. Measure the height of the walls.
Windows and Doors
Once the walls have been measured, you can add the windows and doors of your kitchen. To measure effectively, you should:
1. Number the windows on your sketch, starting from the upper right corner.
2. Continue numbering in a counterclockwise direction until you reach the starting point.
3. Follow this same process for the doorways.
4. Measure the width of the windows. Make sure to measure from the outside of the trim, rather than the glass pane.
5. Measure the height of the window (trim to trim), and the height from the floor to the bottom side of the window.
6. Repeat this process for the doorways as well.
Utilities
1. Find any existing plumbing and gas lines in your current kitchen.
2. Measure the distance for each from the walls on either side and the distance from the floor.
3. Follow this same procedure for any electrical outlets, light switches, lighting hookups, and telephone jacks.
Appliances
If you are planning to retain any of the existing appliances from your kitchen, you should measure these as well. Mark these dimensions of your floor plan and where you would like them to be placed.
Make sure that all of your measurements are in inches, and to be as accurate as possible. In this way you will create a layout that will allow you to efficiently plan your remodeling project. Headaches and delays can be avoided with an effective plan. This is the first step in remodeling your kitchen space, and one of the most important.
