Published on Jun 10, 2026
Welcome to another Q&A session where I answer questions from y'all on the internet.
Today's question is:
Kolten identifies functionality as the leading reason homeowners decide to remodel their kitchens. He points to the many late-1990s and early-2000s homes in the area where the overall layout may be acceptable, but the cabinets were poorly designed and offer weak storage function, something owners are eager to upgrade. The second major driver is flow. Some homeowners find their existing layout doesn't move well, so they remove walls to open the kitchen up to the living room or create the open-concept feel they want. By reconfiguring the layout entirely, they improve how the space flows and gain more usable square footage. In short, better storage and better flow are the two motivations he sees most often behind kitchen remodels.
Specifically with kitchens, functionality is really a big factor. A lot of these older houses, there are a lot of early 2000s or late 90s houses where the layout isn't horrible, but some of the cabinets themselves are poorly designed, so they don't have very good storage function. A lot of people are looking to upgrade that. And then you also have the people where their layout isn't very friendly as far as flow goes, so they blow out walls and make the kitchen, living room, or whatever open-concept they're going for flow better by changing the layout completely and achieving more usable space. So the two big drivers I see are storage and flow. With the older homes, the cabinets just weren't designed to store things efficiently, so people want that upgraded. And once they open things up and change the layout, they get a kitchen that actually works the way they live and gives them more usable space.