10 Custom Features You Need in Your Kitchen...and 3 to Avoid

You are getting ready to design your custom kitchen with Neighborhood Builders and this is such an exciting stage of your custom home design process! After all, the kitchen is the heart of the home. You cook and often eat in there, have your morning coffee there while checking your emails, your kids do homework there, and you even entertain in your kitchen! This means you want to make sure that you make your kitchen not only functional and beautiful but also full of all the little details that will make your custom kitchen luxurious.

Here are 10 things you just might want to consider when you design your custom kitchen.

10 Best Features for Your Custom Kitchen

1. Commercial-Style Range - A commercial-style range puts extra cooking power at your fingertips, meaning that you can cook that fancy four-course meal for your in-laws in no time flat. Plus, a commercial-style range will also help your kitchen look more luxurious, upscale, and custom.
2. Vented Range Hood - Of course, if you are going to do any type of cooking in your kitchen, you will inevitably burn something or make a pan smoke at some point. And if you have young kids distracting you while you cook, you will probably have smoke fill your kitchen at least a couple of times a month. This is why a range hood that is vented to the outside is a custom kitchen design essential!
3. A Pot Filler - A pot filler is a spout above your range that you use for - you guessed it! - filling heavy pots with water so that you don’t have to carry them back and forth to the sink. This will save your back and shoulders when you are simmering a delicious stew, and will also save you from burns when you need to top off your boiling pasta water. Which is why a pot filler is a custom kitchen design must-have.
4. Pull-Out Kitchen Trash - Have you ever had to deal with your toddlers trying to pull trash out of the kitchen trash can? Or, do you just dislike the unsightly black or stainless steel pillar that is constantly floating around the kitchen and catching your feet when you walk by? A pull-out kitchen trash hidden in an extra-large drawer solves those problems for you! And with your trash and recycle bins out of sight (and not stinking up your pantry cupboard), your kitchen style is just a little more custom and complete.
5. Extra-Deep Drawers - Extra-deep drawers are perfect for storing all your heavy pots and pans, kitchen appliances like your toaster and crockpot, as well as your kitchen towels and aprons. Why use drawers instead of cabinets? Because you don’t have to try to climb inside a drawer to pick up your heavy pots and pans and throw out your back. This will make your custom kitchen feel much more luxurious to you.
6. A Two-Drawer Dishwasher - Having dishes pile up in the kitchen sink makes even a custom kitchen look messy. Which is why you want to include a two-drawer dishwasher in your custom kitchen design. You can run one of the dishwashers while you continue to load up the other drawer, meaning that there will never be another stray dirty dish in the sink the next time your mother-in-law decides to just pop over without warning.
7. A Walk-In Pantry - A walk-in pantry is one of the ultimate components of a custom kitchen. With a walk-in pantry, you can always make sure that your pantry is organized. Plus, everything you need is easily within reach!
8. Built-In Refrigerator - If you want a truly luxurious look to your custom kitchen design, then you want a built-in refrigerator. Then, your refrigerator will be disguised as one of your custom kitchen cabinets. And it will still be filled with all the up-to-date features of the finest refrigerator out there.
9. Custom Lighting - Some kitchens rely on just a few hanging lights above the kitchen island and some can lighting in the ceiling. But this leaves the space on the counters directly under the cabinets rather dark. Plus, your kitchen will just look, well, bland. To solve this problem you will want custom under-cabinet lighting! Would you like an extra custom kitchen design feature? Then you will want some custom lights inside your cabinets! This will definitely help you find your favorite mug early in the morning when you don’t want to turn on the bright over headlights.
10. A Grand Island - No custom kitchen is complete without a grand kitchen island! A kitchen island is the heart of your custom kitchen, which is the heart of the home. So you want to make sure that you have plenty of space for bar stools on one side of the island so that your kids can do homework and you can sit with your breakfast for a lovely quiet morning before running the kids to school and heading into work yourself. Having your sink on the island can be a very nice feature, too, if you have kids and you want to be able to clean up the kitchen while keeping an eye on them in the living room or while they work on their homework at the island with you.

3 Custom Features That You Might Regret

Of course, you can get a little carried away with some custom kitchen trends and end up creating a kitchen that you regret. Here are three custom kitchen style trends you might want to stay away from.

1. Too Much Open Shelving - A few open shelves or floating shelves can help give your kitchen a modern feel. However, if all your kitchen shelves are open, you will end up with an over-cluttered look. After all, we all have to put those plates and mixing bowls somewhere!
2. Marble Countertops - Marble countertops are beautiful, but they are also easy to nick and scratch. This means that marble countertops could make your custom kitchen look worn after a while.
3. Appliance Garage - The idea of an appliance garage (a covered space under the upper cabinets where you can hide large appliances like the toaster or the blender) can sound quite luxurious and useful. However, an appliance garage clutters up the counter just as much as the actual appliance. This also means that an appliance garage still takes up valuable counter space. It is a much better idea to just put your appliances in one of your extra-deep drawers or cabinets.

Now it is time for you to design your own custom kitchen! Are you looking for a Des Moines home builder? Then contact us today!