Are You Ready
For Your Beautiful,
New
StarCraft Custom Kitchen™?

OK, you've done all your homework.

You have a good idea of what you want in your new kit­chen after reading all about designing and planning a kitchen. You know about cabinets, countertops, flooring, lighting and the basic rules of kitchen design. You understand the con­struc­tion process and have a budget in mind. And, you are prepared to deal with the temporary incon­veni­ence of a major remodeling project.

Looks like you're ready.

The next step is completing our com­pre­hen­sive Kit­chen Ques­tion­naire. When we have received your ques­tion­naire in our e-mail, we will contact you to set up your first design conference. And, welcome. It's the first step of a long process, but it's something you won't regret.

Not quite ready yet…
Get started with…
Our Newest Kitchen Planner Kitchen Planning Book
Click to Enlarge
Click here to contact us for more information. For a very limited time, get your own personal copy of our popular, fact filled, completely revised StarCraft Kitchen Planner — your detailed guide to designing and building beautiful and functional kitchens. Don't miss out.

Order Yours Now
 
Limited availabity, restrictions apply.

Then move on to our articles on kitchen design and planning fundamentals…

You need to learn as much as you can about kitchens. You, after all, are the primary kitchen designer. All the professional does is refine your ideas into a workable plan. The smarter you are about kitchen design, the better your kitchen will be.

The articles on this site were written by our kitchen and bath design staff to help you learn what you need to know about kitchens. These have been widely reprinted on many other web sites, but here are the very latest revisions of the originals. Take the time to read about the many interwoven elements of a well-designed kitchen. Start with our complete articles index.

Recreating Your Old Kitchen

Your kitchen is probably the most actively used room in your home — on average you spend over 1,900 hours each year in the kitchen. More than just a place where food is prepared, it is also the administrative and social hub of your home. Unfortunately, it is also likely to be the worst designed room in your home, and the most expensive to fix.

Contemporary kitchen - Click to Enlarge
Click to Enlarge

 We combined a small 1980s kitchen, little-used dining area and an awkwardly placed utility room to create this striking contemporary kitchen in stainless and espresso-stained maple with ribbed glass cabinet door inserts and diagonal tile flooring. Even new homes commonly have kitchen problems — primarily because whole-house plans used to construct new homes are seldom developed in consultation with a kitchen and bath design specialist. The kitchens look good. In fact, the kitchens often look great. But they don't really function very well.

The good news is that the value added to your home by an updated kitchen will offset most of the cost of your new kitchen. A kitchen is generally considered by real estate professionals to be one of the remodeling projects that pays for itself when you sell your home. (Another is an updated bathroom.)

Go to "Budget Kitchen" New On a Budget?

A terrific new kitchen does not have to break the bank. Even without a grand budget, you can have a grand kitchen.

Learn the kitchen designer tricks for packing a lot of wallop into a modest budget for a stunning kitchen that looks like it should have cost a fortune…, but didn't.

Don't worry though, we'll never tell.
Continues…
 The bad news is that the cost of adding all those splendid features you have always wanted can be a little jaw-dropping.

That is where we come in.

We know how to plan and build wonderful kitchens that conform to all of the accepted design rules and building codes. We know that most of our customers do not have enough space for a "designer" kitchen. So we have become the small space specialists — using imagination, ingenuity and creativity to pack more features and utility into less room.

Cabinet Basics Everything you should know before choosing your kitchen cabinets.
Go to "Cabinet Basics" Cabinets more than any other item determine the style of a kitchen. Flooring, fixtures, lights, appliances and countertops are important, but the cabinets define the kitchen's decor. Whether your preference is mission, shaker, traditional, country or urban ultra-chic, your cabinets determine the look and feel of your kitchen. But there are so many choices. How do you pick the cabinets that are just right for you?
Continues…
 Most importantly, we know how to design affordable kitchens by careful substitutions of less expensive alternatives that will still give you that special look and feel.

Designing and building the right kitchen can be a daunting task.

Just sorting through the incredible variety of options available for cabinets, countertops, flooring, appliances, organizers, accessories and lighting can take an enormous amount of time and effort. We help you pare down these choices into something manageable, then incorporate them into a kitchen design that is uniquely yours.

Getting that design just right requires merging the available space with the features you desire, then compressing it into something you can afford.

G to "Mis en Place"
New Mise en Place:  What We Can Learn about Kitchen Design from Commercial Kitchens

Ccommercial kitchens are probably the ultimate design for efficiency and economy of movement. The process of preparing and serving a lot of appetizing, attractive and well-prepared food in a very short time means there is nothing in a professional kitchen that is not needed and everything needed is right at hand…
Continues…
Our computer assisted, three-stage design process organizes and focuses your planning efforts. We will guide you step by step through the process required to turn your ideas and dreams into a beautiful and functional kitchen; first by working with you to develop a full-color concept design, then drafting a full set of working construction blueprints, and finally by building your kitchen using the latest cost-saving techniques and materials.

Our design-build process is widely recognized as the fastest and most economical way to remodel your kitchen. Studies conducted by Pennsylvania State University for the Construction Industry Institute found that the design-build approach to remodeling takes on average 33% less time and costs up to 30% less than conventional remodeling. We combine everything under one roof: carpentry, cabinetmaking, counter tops, plumbing, electrical, heating and ventilation, even tiling and glazing, so that every aspect of the work is coordinated and controlled.

We guarantee your satisfaction with our workmanship, and back up that guarantee in writing with a full three-year warranty on our work. No other remodeling firm that we know of has this much faith in the quality of its craftsmanship.

Our common-sense, adaptive design and building practices result in kitchens that are precisely fitted to our clients.

New and Traditional Countertop Choices
Go to "New and Traditional Countertop Choices" A countertop takes a lot of abuse. You put hot pans on it, cut on it, scrape and scratch at it, scour it, and spill hot liquids on it. Yet after years of abuse, your countertop is expected to look as good as ever — and mostly they do. Today's countertop materials are truly miracles of modern engineering, evolving so rapidly that even if you’ve replaced a kitchen countertop in the recent past, you’ll probably be surprised by the many options in materials and styles now available.
Continues…
Every kitchen we build is unique. We do not build cookie-cutter kitchens or ask our clients to adjust to a kitchen that does not quite fit because it is the only one we can buy from our preferred cabinet factory. We don't use factory cabinets, so we are not limited to stock sizes and features.

Go to "Coordinating Architecture and Interior Styling" New Can Your Mod­ern Kitchen Fit Your Old House?
How to modernize your kitchen and still keep its unique historical character is one of the questions we are asked frequently.

How do you make a fully functional modern kitchen look like it could have been a part of an original Victorian house? See how we coordinate your interior spaces with your house's heritage architecture.
Continues…
 All of our cabinets are custom custom fitted to you, your kitchen space, your work habits and your life style. But even with all of this customization, our prices are usually lower than those charged by big lumber stores for their factory-built cabinets.

When you are ready, fill out our kitchen questionnaire. This will get us started with a unique design for your kitchen.

If you are not quite ready yet, take a look at the list of articles in the right panel. This is a just a few of the many remodeling articles we have on our site to help you get started. A murch more extensive list appears below, and even more articles are listed in our Index to Articles.

When you finish reading, contact us and let us know how we can help you build your new kitchen.




Need to know more about kitchen remodeling? Try these articles:
  • Adapting a Kitchen to a Budget — A Case Study (Sidebar)
    If you feel you cannot afford a great kitchen, think again. A terrific kitchen does not have to break the bank. You may have to get creative and even make a few compromises in your original grand design, but you will end up with a wonderful kitchen that will look good and serve your needs for years to come.


  • Adapting a Kitchen to Human Dimensions and Movement - A Case Study (Sidebar)
    Few homeowners are of average height, average girth; have average reach or average range of motion; or use their kitchens in an average manner. Yet almost all kitchens are arranged and sized using standards written for the the mythical average person. Unless you happen to be that perfectly average person, standard kitchen dimensions and arrangements may not be right for you. Here is how we adapted one kitchen to the physical characteristics and limitations its owners.


  • Behind the Scenes — The Hidden Kitchen
    Behind the beautiful new cabinets, under the sparking countertops, beneath the gleaming tile floor are the invisible bones and sinew that make the kitchen work - electricity, venting, heating and plumbing. Find out all that's needed behind the scenes.


  • Body Friendly Design: Kitchen Ergonomics
    Planning for efficiency and ease of use are more important than ever in kitchen and bath design, and in the context of universal design has become the hot new topic among kitchen and bath designers. Every aspect of kitchen and bath design is being given a new, hard look, from countertop and toilet heights to the optimum placement of the microwave and dishwasher and the best depth of the kitchen sink.


  • Cabinet Basics
    There's oak, maple, hickory, ash, cherry. Faced and unfaced. Framed and frameless. Custom, semi-custom and manufactured. MDF, Melamine, Thermofoil, even steel. So many choices. How do you pick the cabinets that are just right for you? Click here to find out.


  • Cabinet Door Styles
    There are an almost infinite number of cabinet door styles available. Here is a chart of just a few dozen of the styles we build. We could not possibly show them all. There are too many. Since we are an entirely custom cabinet builder, we can make any door you can describe.


  • Comparative Kitchen & Bath Cabinet Construction
    Some cabinets are made better than others. Learn the differnce between a cabinet that is solid, well-built and will last a long time, and all the others.


  • Designing Efficient and Effective Kitchen Lighting
    The kitchen is more than just a place to cook and eat. It usually serves as the administrative and the social hub of the home. The kitchen uses a lot of energy for lighting. That makes this room an important place to use efficient lighting. While remodeling your kitchen, you have the perfect opportunity to create a highly efficient lighting system. Find out how.


  • Distributed Cabinet Manufacturing: Today's Cabinet Making Revolution
    Local and regional cabinetmakers are catching up the the factory manufacturers in creative technologies to make custom cabinetry that rivals factory cabinets in price, but exceeds factory cabinets in creativity, construction and finish.


  • Finding Some More Kitchen Space
    In many cases, existing kitchens are just too small for any real improvement in space management. Learn where to get more space, or at least the illusion of more space for your new kitchen.


  • Fine Furniture and Built-Ins
    We craft fine furniture and built-ins to match any decor or preference. From traditional to avant-garde, from Chinese to French Provincial, there is no look we cannot reproduce.


  • Flooring Options for Kitchens and Baths
    Wood, stone, vinyl, ceramic tile, laminated flooring. What are the pros and cons of each? Learn the fundamentals of kitchen flooring.


  • Guide to Nebraska Hardwoods for Cabinetmakers and Woodworkers
    Most of the fine native American hardwoods commonly, and uncommonly, used in cabinetry grow and are milled into lumber in Nebraska. If you were not aware that hardwood is a Nebraska crop, read this detailed guide to Nebraska hardwoods.


  • Kitchen Ergonomics (Sidebar)
    The kitchen — unlike most other rooms in the home — is a workplace. The job of preparing and serving meals gets done there. Making that environment fit you is a most critical factor in your satisfaction with your kitchen.


  • Kitchen Remodeling on the Cheap: Simple, Practical Ideas for Creating Your Dream Kitchen on a Budget
    If you feel you cannot afford a great kitchen, think again. A terrific kitchen does not have to break the bank. You may have to get creative and even make a few compromises in your original grand design, but you will end up with a wonderful kitchen that will look good and serve your needs for years to come. Here are a few practical ways of reducing the cost of your new kitchen.


  • Mise en Place: What We Can Learn from Commercial Kitchens
    Organized to prepare a large variety of appetizing meals at a moment's notice, we can learn a lot about kitchen efficiency from studying commercial kitchens.


  • New and Traditional Countertop Choices
    Exciting changes are happening in the world of countertop materials. Options that simply did not exist 10 years ago are in every home store today. Is solid surfacing, laminate, stone or tile your best choice? Or maybe something more exotic. Take a look at the incredible selection of modern counter top materials.


  • Off the Wall Kitchens: Living Without Wall Cabinets
    Wall cabinets are unquestionably useful storage, but with drawbacks. A major disadvantage is that wall cabinets make a kitchen seem smaller by closing in the space at eye level — which is where we subconsciously judge how large the space around us is - and limit the number and size of windows in the kitchen. Can your new kitchen do away with wall cabinets? Probably. Find out how.


  • The Rules of Kitchen Design
    In 1944 the University of Illinois conducted a study of kitchen design and developed fundamental design principals that have been modified periodically from time to time, but are still very much in use today. Here are the 31 rules for designing great kitchens.


  • Saving Household Water
    Fifteen billion gallons of fresh, treated water are used in American households every day. It not only deletes our water sources to waste this water, but costs a fortune in electrical power to treat and pump it into our homes. Find out what you can do to reduce your impact on the environment while saving 33% of your water bill.


  • Solving Corner Cabinet Woes (Sidebar)
    Corner base cabinets are notorious as dark, difficult-to-reach storage space. Useful corner storage requires some pretty fancy hardware to make the space work. There are a variety of solutions, some better than others. But is is possible to make a corner cabinet effective storage with just a little prior planning.


  • Sources of Supply: Faucets
    Thinking about buying a faucet? Before your do, see our list of major faucet manufacturers with ratings and guidelines on what to look for and how to select a good, lifetime faucet.


  • Using Toe-Kick Space (Tips and Tricks)
    The toe-kick space under your cabinets can be effectively used for extra storage, to store kitchen and bathroom accessories and for truly dramatic lighting.