We have a galley style kitchen and are also thinking about renovating real soon...possibly the fall. Our kitchen is small, so there are limited possibilities on what we can do with regard to decorating. What we want to focus on is adding more cabinet and counter space.
From the minimal research that I've done, I've read that Ikea kitchen cabinets are pretty good quality and affordably priced. There's another place that I've gone to out on Long Island called
Consumers Kitchens & Baths, and they carry a good selection of Kraftmaid cabinets. I prefer the one on one attention that you get at a store like Consumers, but haven't really done price comparisons with stores like Ikea, Home Depot or Lowe's yet. For the floor, I'd like to find out some more about cork flooring. Everyone tells me that it's a comfortable surface to stand on as opposed to ceramic or porcelain tiles...and I think it may be cheaper too and easier to maintain.
We've also been trying to figure out what appliances would be best for our kitchen. Sometimes what we've wanted is not necessarily what would fit best. For instance, we've been eyeing one of those refrigerators with French doors and a bottom freezer drawer. It turns out that the depth on this style refrigerator may be too deep.
We'll have to keep looking in the meantime. On color, since the kitchen is smallish, I'm thinking that lighter colored appliances would be a better fit overall.
I'd also love to hear from folks that have done renovations.
