Wednesday, May 17, 2023

5 TALL KITCHEN PANTRY CABINET IDEAS THAT CREATE A UNIQUE FULL WALL EFFECT



One of the first things people look at in a home is the kitchen. From family meals to friendly get together, it seems to be the one room of the house everyone ends up in. Being that it’s the heart of the home, it’s easy to see why. It’s because of this that it’s no surprise the kitchen is often the first task on the remodel list. 

Tall kitchen pantry cabinets are rising in popularity for these remodels and for good reason. Often stretching floor to ceiling, they’re not just a place to store items; they’re a statement piece that’s impossible to go unnoticed. 

Are you considering full wall pantry cabinets for your home? Look no further! Stick around and find out why these tall kitchen cabinet ideas are sure to make your kitchen the envy of the neighbourhood. 

PROS OF WALL PANTRY CABINET IDEAS

  • Plenty of Storage: The level of storage full wall pantries offer is by far their bigger advantage. You’ll no longer have to choose between what goes into the pantry cabinets and what has to be stored elsewhere. 
  • Accessibility: Full wall pantries provide much more accessibility as well. Sure, you’ll have the higher cabinets filled with lesser used items, but the ones at standing level offer ease of use all year round. 
  • Overall Aesthetic: The full wall effect of this design makes for a truly customized look that you don’t see in every kitchen. The height of the cabinetry accentuates the ceiling height, making the room feel big. 
  • Versatile Interiors: Tall kitchen cabinet ideas aren’t minted to just regular shelving inside, though they can if that’s what you’d like. You can also install pull out wire baskets for food storage or wood drawers for everyday items. 

CONS OF WALL PANTRY CABINET IDEAS

  • Added Expense: Unfortunately these tall beauties come at a cost. It’s no secret the cost of wood has gone up; that fact aside, just the sheer added amount of custom cabinetry needed to create this look will add up quickly. 
  • Loss of Counter Space: In the case of full wall pantry cabinets, you have to give space to get space. It just depends on which kind matters to you most. With cabinets spanning the full length of the wall, you’ll lose counter space in some areas. 
  • Lack of Vertical Storage: It might seem impossible that you’d have less vertical storage when the cabinetry takes up the full wall, but it’s true. With the limited ability to move internal shelving, you may be stuck storing some things sideways.

1. Appliance Hideaway

The extra storage created by tall kitchen pantry cabinets isn’t just for food and kitchenware. You can use the space as a small appliance hideaway for commonly used items like microwave or coffee makers. They’re incredibly convenient when it comes to other appliances you put on the counter weekly too but you’d like to store out of sight when they’re not in use. 

In the example above, they chose to go with hinged, half folding doors which make the entire interior space completely accessible. The half doors folding keep their width from stretching beyond the counter, making them easy to move around. A shaker style with a gray finish and gold pulls, this pantry wall is both subtle and stunning. 

2. Floor to Ceiling Cabinets and Drawers

If the main goal for your kitchen pantry cabinets is space then the floor to ceiling style is for you. High cabinets can be used traditionally for seasonal items where the midlevel ones and below offer nearly endless storage for kitchenware and beyond. The cabinets aren’t the only highlight of this pantry wall though.

The addition of plenty of drawer space is unparalleled. No more having to decide what gets a drawer and what doesn’t. In this kitchen, bright white carpentry is finished off with crown molding adding an upscale feel. Coupled with dark flooring, the contrast is a complete knockout. 

3. Sleek Push to Open System

Depending on style, some homeowners prefer a more sleek and minimal look. The push to open pantry wall systems can provide just that. These types of tall kitchen cabinets usually split into less sections than a normal cabinet system too; some cabinet faces even come as one solid panel. 

The kitchen above shows the best attributes of the push to open system, one being the lack of cabinet pulls on the faces of the doors; the other being the smooth and sleek finish. Both coupled together give the entire pantry wall a polished and modern design with soft, clean lines.

4. Fridge Integration


The idea of major kitchen appliances being made to blend in is a newer concept but one that seems to be gaining momentum. Some people prefer a cohesive look without the differentiation in color and material that large appliances bring to a space. It’s for that reason that fridge integration is extremely common when installing a full wall pantry. 

In this kitchen, the fridge goes almost completely undetected. Appearing as a larger cabinet face with drawers below, the fridge meshes with the surrounding white cabinetry for a seamless look. While the larger pulls on the fridge itself might give it away, it’s still able to blend with the surrounding brushed nickel pulls elsewhere. 

5. Touches of Luxury

 


One of the best elements of a full pantry wall is how customizable it is. You don’t have to stick to one color, texture, or design format. You certainly don’t have to sacrifice touches of luxury for added cabinet space. You can have the best of both worlds! 

The kitchen above is proof that there’s no one way to fill kitchens with tall cabinets for storage. An elongated fireplace adorns this pantry wall creating a unique and homey cook space. If a fireplace isn’t your style you can dress up the cabinet faces using another material or try more opulent cabinet pulls to achieve a more luxurious feel. 

Tall kitchen cabinets simply raise the bar for storage and aesthetics in any culinary area. Do you want your kitchen to appear new? There are only a few drawbacks to take into account.

There are several alternatives available to you if you want to remodel your kitchen in Los Angeles. You have a wide range of design options, from contemporary to traditional. As a result, we offer you the best and most complimentary post about kitchen remodelling designing in Los Angeles.


Monday, May 8, 2023

CAN I BUILD A HOME ADDITION WITHOUT A PERMIT?

 

If you’re in the beginning stages of planning your home addition you’ve probably got endless questions. Afterall, building something from the ground up is a huge undertaking. It’s an opportunity not everyone gets, so if you’re one of the lucky few who do, you want it done right! That’s where proper permitting comes in. 

Maybe you’ve heard there’s ways around building permits for home additions or maybe you’re confident you can do the work on your own with the city being none the wiser about permits. Before you get ahead of yourself though, take a closer look at the permit requirements for your home addition. Weigh the risks with us below and you be the judge. 

CAN I BUILD A HOME ADDITION WITHOUT PERMITTING?

In a word, no. You can’t build a home addition without a permit; At least not without consequence. Even so, this doesn’t keep some homeowners from trying and succeeding, either by doing the work themselves or hiring an unethical contractor or handyman. Unfortunately, they’ll find this shortcut presents a slew of problems that could have easily been avoided. 

Even if you try to be sneaky and build without a permit (and sometimes it seems much easier to do so), the bottom line is that permits for home additions are there for your safety. The permitting process allows the city to check your plans for flaws and later inspect the work, ensuring it’s up to the safety standards required by the state. 

WHY PEOPLE BUILD HOME ADDITIONS WITHOUT PERMITTING

  • DIY: The DIY (do it yourself) movement is still going strong with many homeowners taking matters into their own hands. If they can’t do it, they might have a family friend or relative that can. The desire to “do it yourself” coupled with personal connections can lead to building an addition without permit.
  • Cost: The price of obtaining a building permit can deter some from applying for one at all; Though the cost of the permit, generally in the hundreds, is nothing in comparison to the penalties incurred if you’re caught building without one. 
  • Timeline: Homeowners with their hearts set on starting their addition as soon as possible might be more prone to bend the rules. Permitting may take a while between submitting the actual plans and application and then waiting on the permit to become available. 

RISKS OF BUILDING A HOME ADDITION WITHOUT A PERMIT

Can a home addition be built without permitting? Sure. Is it your best option in the long run? Certainly not. There’s more than a handful of reasons why building an addition without permit is a risk without rewards. Check out some of these reasons below, noting the consequential and legal ramifications:

  • Loan Obstacles: There’s no guarantee of mortgage companies approving a home’s financing if the home has unpermitted work. This can pose major issues when it comes time to sell (more on that later) or for those who acquired a home without knowledge of the permitting issues. 

Lenders will likely require an in depth inspection of the unpermitted work to be submitted with the loan application. Others may only approve the loan if the project can become permitted and then approved by inspectors. Even after all of this, there’s still a chance the loan application will be rejected altogether. 

  • Penalties: If making retroactive corrections weren’t enough, building an addition without permit almost always leads to penalties. The cost of these penalties varies based upon exactly what work was done without the permit. Fines for building without permit can be upwards of $600 and into the thousands if the penalty isn’t paid within a certain amount of time.

States like California take accountability to the next level, upping the penalties significantly for any contractors who have been found not using proper permitting. The Contractors State License Board states that penalties can reach up to $5,000 for those operating outside their permitting safety standards. 

  • Resale Issues: You may think you worked the system and successfully constructed a home addition without permitting but when it comes time to sell you may think differently. Going into the selling process your home won’t be appraised for as high a value as your square footage deserves since the addition wasn’t done under permits. 

Many prospective homebuyers may also become uninterested once they’re made aware of the unpermitted work. It’s mandatory for the current homeowners to report their unpermitted work in the selling process and some buyers might not want to take on the hassle of getting it up to code or the risk of insuring it as is. 

  • Insurance Problems: Insurance companies want to be sure that the project they’re insuring has been approved by all the right entities. You’d be hard pressed to find an insurance carrier that doesn’t perform their due diligence with regard to permitting when a homeowner specifically requests build coverage for an addition. 

Even if the carrier doesn’t ask for this permitting proof upfront, you’d likely run into problems if you need to make a claim on incidents during the build of the addition. Once they find that it wasn’t properly permitted, you’ll be on the hook to cover the amount of the incident. 

Similarly, it’ll be near impossible to find coverage for the addition itself once it’s complete if it was done without permitting. Trying to make a claim with your current carrier for anything falling under this new work will undoubtedly be denied, seen as negligence on your part by the insurance carrier. 

  • Faulty Results: One of the biggest risks of building an addition without permit is ending up with a bad final result. The permit application can make certain there’s no potential issues in your design, especially when it comes to structure. Improper foreknowledge can lead to structural instability and lack of other support materials. 

The same can be said for virtually any part of the build from the wiring down to the floors. At the end of the day, a project of this size requiring this much time, effort, and money should produce a perfect product. There’s no need to risk any other outcome. 

Are you looking to add more space to your home in Los Angeles? Adding a room addition can be a great way to increase your living space and home value. On other article, we will discuss some important things to consider when planning a room addition in LA.

AVERAGE COST OF ROOM ADDITION IN LOS ANGELES

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