Kitchen Remodeling in Aurora, Ohio

Aurora kitchens are rarely small. The problem is usually shape, not square footage. Larger homes in Barrington and Walden tend to have a kitchen that opens straight onto a two story great room, which looks impressive and leaves very little usable wall for cabinets. Storage ends up scattered across a deep corner, a shallow desk nook and a pantry sitting too far from the range.

Closer to the middle of town, off Aurora Road and Treat Road, the houses sit lower and the kitchens are more closed in. Those rooms usually have one doorway in the wrong place and a run of upper cabinets that stops well short of the ceiling.

Around Aurora Shores the footprints tighten again. Galley layouts are common there, and most of the work is about getting the sink, the range and the refrigerator out of each other's way.

We design for the room in front of us. That means measuring the actual walls, checking where the plumbing and venting already run, and putting the storage where the cooking happens.

The island is usually first. Aurora homes often have an island that was sized for the room rather than for the work, so it is either too narrow to prep on or too wide to walk around comfortably. We resize it and put real storage inside: deep drawers, a waste pull out, and seating that does not block a drawer front.

Honey oak raised panel doors are second. A lot of Aurora kitchens still carry them, and moving to a lighter shaker or bevel door changes the room more than new flooring ever will.

Third is the dead corner. Nearly every large Aurora kitchen has one, and it is usually holding a stack of pans nobody can reach. A corner unit with a pull out gives that space back.

Resale is worth being plain about. In Aurora, buyers walk into the kitchen first and they compare it against every other house on the market in the same school district. A dated kitchen in an otherwise updated house is the thing that stalls a sale.

Start with a measured plan, not a product list. Once the layout is right, the door style and countertop decisions get much easier.

Permits go through the City of Aurora building department. Replacing cabinets and countertops in the same layout usually does not need one. Moving plumbing, moving a gas line or taking out a wall usually does. We tell you which side of that line your project falls on before anything is ordered.

Plan for living without the kitchen. Set up a temporary sink and microwave somewhere else in the house before demolition starts, not after. Families with children at Aurora City Schools often time the work around the school calendar for exactly this reason.

Bring photos of your current kitchen and a rough measurement to the first showroom visit. It makes the session useful straight away, and you leave with a layout instead of a brochure.