Shopping for appliances can be overwhelming! When you visit the appliance section of a home improvement store, furniture shop or kitchen center, there are so many appliances on display that it is easy to get confused and make the wrong choice or an impulse purchase. In my recent post, Five Easy Ways To Make A Kitchen Feel More Spacious, I talked a little about how I rushed into purchasing new appliances instead of waiting and searching for the vintage style appliances of my dream kitchen. *This post contains affiliate and/or sponsored links.
I didn’t realize there were so many more options available online or by special order either and I ended up purchasing an expensive package from the show room without reading reviews first. Now I realize that when it comes to choosing appliances for a kitchen, there are many important factors to consider such as budget, size, color, style, and consumer reviews. I also found that there are so many more options available online. Today I will be sharing some tips on t choose the right appliances for your kitchen based on the lessons I learned the hard way.
In most cases, appliances aren’t really designed with decor in mind. Instead, they are made to appeal to the widest possible audience. Color is an important factor to consider. For example, if you have all white appliances, adding a stainless steel dishwasher to the room, might not be the best choice. Then again, you might want to mix and match, or choose fun, colorful kitchen appliances.
Because appliances take up so much space, it’s also essential that you really plan the best layout for them in your kitchen, and consider all of the options available. Knowing the different sizes of appliances on the market could alert you to new possibilities for your new kitchen or remodel. Many compact or standard size refrigerators are still sufficient as far as food storage goes, and can save a lot of space in the kitchen. If you are limited on space and think a dishwasher is out of the questions, there are also space saving dishwashers that can be a real time savers. If you are looking for convenience and energy efficiency, you might also consider a “Smart” appliance. These appliances are bit pricey to begin with but will save money in the long run.
There are also counter depth refrigerators and space saving microwaves. These types of appliances might be special order, so they are unlikely to be on display in a show room. While there may be a lot of appliances at the store, there is often not much variation in style other than size and color. By doing some online research you can find a wider variety of appliances that will be a perfect match for your requirements.
When approaching any kind of remodel or large home purchase it’s always worth starting out with some inspiration. For your kitchen, websites like Pinterest and Instagram can be perfect, giving you the chance to see how others have designed beautiful spaces with various colors and styles of appliances. Along with inspiration though, practical knowledge can also be very helpful. Use the current top five here guide or another consumer review website will help steer you towards picking the best possible choices.
Because we chose a very well known and pricey name brand of appliances we assumed we were getting the best of the best. The appliances were very attractive, and we paid more than our budget thinking that they would last for years to come. Sadly, we have not been happy with any of the appliances, and only later after reading reviews we found that many other customers have had the same complaints.
Stainless Steel Appliances Pinterest
When making this type of purchase it may seem that the research will never stop, and the final stage is more of the same. Reading reviews surrounding the items you’re choosing will be essential before you take the plunge. While giving you the chance to understand a certain appliance’s benefits, this can also give you a good idea of what might go wrong with it in the future. No matter how much you love the look of an item, avoid those with bad reviews that are likely to break down or cause problems. We have had nothing but trouble from our “fancy” expensive stove! You live and learn!
It even pays to do research on small kitchen appliances. I am looking into buying a new toaster because the pricey one we bought now spills crumbs out of the bottom and all over the counter top with each use! Through research I discovered vintage reproduction appliances, and I really love all the products by Smeg.
Smeg 2-Slice Toaster-Pastel Green
Once you have an idea of what you’ll be looking for it’s time to do some shopping. Getting an idea of what is already out there can often be one of the best ways to find an option which you like. Searching websites which sell a wide variety of appliances can help ensure that you aren’t missing any possible options. Amazon is a great place to shop online with a wide variety of products and easy to access customer reviews with each product. Best of all you can shop from your favorite chair instead of being pressured by a floor sales associate!
As I mentioned above, when you visit a show room you are likely to find many options, but most of them are similar in design with the exception of bells and whistles added. Shopping online however, opens a whole new realm of possibilities. I did not even know there were so many fun retro styles and color options until after we had already bought and installed our appliances. You can also opt to refurbish a used vintage appliance and If you’d like to save money by doing the repairs yourself, the first thing you need to do is make sure it’s an easy enough fix. While plenty of easy repairs can be done DIY, and spare parts can generally be bought easily such as electrolux dishwasher spare parts to repair a you still need to make sure it’s an easy repair to handle on your own.
Hopefully, with this post in mind, it should be a lot easier to start finding appliances that will not only match the theme of your kitchen, but will last too. A lot of people settle or get impatient; choosing the ones they like the most out of the options that are available at the store, or even picking the cheapest ones instead of doing a little research. If you are looking to update your appliances, even if it’s only your coffee maker or microwave, be sure to do your homework first! I recently had to schedule a technician to come here for the fourth time in two years to fix our “high end” appliances. Turns out, all the reviews on the appliances we chose are bad, and we could have saved a lot of time money if we would have read those reviews beforehand. Instead I just had to purchase the packaged deal on the spot in order to get a 24 piece set of cookware as a free gift with purchase! Oh well, as I mentioned before, you live and learn! I always say that if my negative experiences can help someone else, then at least something good has come from them.
I hope this post will help you make wise shopping decisions the next time you are in the market for some new appliances. Happy shopping!
Amber
7 Comments
It’s good that you point out that reading reviews will be essential for you to figure out just what you want. My stove was really old, and it won’t turn on anymore. I think that I’d like to get an electric or a gas one. I’ll need to do my research and find the right cooking appliance for my home.
April 4, 2018 at 4:50 pmI want to make sure that I get the right appliances for my kitchen. It makes sense that I would want to do plenty of shopping around! That way I can ensure that I find the right one for me.
May 2, 2018 at 9:34 amMy husband and I have recently begun a kitchen renovation project and we are now looking to add durable and attractive new appliances to our budget. I found it interesting that you mentioned the importance of beginning any renovation project with inspiration from pictures with regards to color, shape, and style. You did a great job of explaining how other resources like Pinterest or Instagram could help to give the both of us a better idea regarding our kitchen appliance decisions.
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May 26, 2018 at 10:15 pmVery useful article. Thanks.
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July 16, 2018 at 5:13 am