Neal's Home Remodeling and Design Blog

Whether you're planning for aging in place, or you just want your home to be more accessible, universal design concepts can be applied throughout your home. To get the most out of a universal design mindset in you home, not only should you look at major considerations in the kitchen and bath, but also pay attention to the ways in which those ideas can be applied to all areas of your home. Here are 4 Universal Design features that can make any room in your home “user friendly” for a lifetime.

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Original Blog Post 10/09/2012 Updated 7/18/2016

If you are planning to remodel a kitchen, you will need a floor plan design. The design should address the basic functions of a kitchen including food prep, cooking, storage, appliance use and clean up. Other areas to consider in your kitchen plan may include space for informal dining, a beverage center, a message center, or a walk-in pantry. As long as people have been using kitchens, fitting these various areas in has been the key challenge. While there are many variations, most kitchen floor plans fall into one of 4 time-tested designs.

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Sometimes a kitchen can look like it is working just fine, but under the surface there are issues that the homeowner can easily detail for you. This was one such project. Under-utilized spaces, inefficient details, and dark cabinetry with no personality were just a few of the issues.

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It's a definite in the design world that strict adherence to a single design style just won't work for some homes and some homeowners. It's these instances when the all-encompassing "eclectic" look is a great solution. Defined by not really being definable, the eclectic kitchen is one where styles intermingle. The difficultly with eclectic kitchens is that, without some boundaries, things can start to get out of hand. Without some guidelines, eclectic can easily turn into cluttered and uncomposed. To avoid that fate, here are 5 eclectic kitchen design ideas for creating balance in your kitchen. The kitchen featured here is a 2013 NARI Local Contractor of the Year Residential Kitchen winner. To see more photos of this project, click here.

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