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Small Kitchen Remodeling: Why Online Costs And Real Quotes Are Both True · USA Cabinet Store Remodeling Podcast

• 0:05
  Welcome back to the Remodel Report by USA Cabinet
• 0:08
  Store. I'm Chris. And I'm Jessica. Jessica, today
• 0:12
  is small kitchens. And you opened our prep call
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  with a sentence I have been thinking about all
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  week. Say it. A small kitchen is the most expensive
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  room in your house per square foot and the least
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  forgiving one. Least forgiving how? In a big
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  kitchen, a mediocre decision hides in a corner.
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  In 80 square feet, every cabinet, every hinge
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  swing, every appliance depth is load -bearing.
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  There is nowhere for a mistake to hide. Okay,
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  before decisions, money. Because the internet
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  told me $10 ,000, and my contractor friend laughed.
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  Both numbers are real, and this trips up almost
• 0:47
  everyone. Angie's 2026 data puts the average
• 0:51
  small kitchen remodel around $10 ,500, with a
• 0:54
  range up to about 20. Our own 10 by 10 cost guide
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  puts most professionally completed projects at
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  20 to 45 ,000. How are those both true? Because
• 1:04
  the national average blends everything. Do -it
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  -yourself projects, cabinet repaints, hardware
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  swaps, rural labor rates, all in one number.
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  A contractor's quote describes one project. Your
• 1:18
  kitchen, demolished, rebuilt with new cabinets
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  and counters and licensed trades in your market.
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  So the $10 ,000 number is not a lie. It is a
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  different project. $10 ,000 is a real budget
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  for a cosmetic remodel where the layout stays.
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  It is not a full professional remodel. If a full
• 1:37
  remodel quote comes in at half the going rate,
• 1:40
  do not celebrate. Ask what is missing, because
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  something is. Usually permits, electrical, or
• 1:46
  cabinet boxes made of the cheapest board on the
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  market. Where does the money actually go? Same
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  place it goes in big kitchens. Cabinetry takes
• 1:55
  30 to 40 percent, labor 20 to 35. And here is
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  the trap of a small room. The plumber does not
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  charge half price because the kitchen is half
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  the size. Fixed costs stay fixed, which is why
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  cost per square foot is the highest in the house.
• 2:11
  All right, decisions. You say layout outranks
• 2:14
  everything. Cabinet color is reversible. Layout
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  is forever. And in a small kitchen, there are
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  four honest options. Galley, L -shape, U -shape,
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  one wall. Rank them. No ranking, only fit. The
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  galley, two parallel runs, is the most efficient
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  cooking layout ever devised. It is what restaurant
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  kitchens use. If your room is a corridor, embrace
• 2:39
  it. The rule is 42 inches of clear aisle for
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  one cook, closer to 48 for two. And the L? The
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  L suits rooms that open into dining space. It
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  breathes. Its tax is the corner cabinet. A blind
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  corner without a pullout mechanism is storage
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  you own but cannot reach, so budget the few hundred
• 3:00
  dollars for a lazy Susan or a blind corner pullout.
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  In a small kitchen, no storage is optional. U
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  -shape? Maximum storage and counter. Three working
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  walls, two corners to solve. Below about 90 square
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  feet, it can start to feel like standing inside
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  a cabinet, so it wants a light palette and good
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  lighting. And one wall. Studios, open plans,
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  true compacts. Counterspace is the scarce resource
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  and the fix is a peninsula. Which brings us to
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  the question every single consultation includes.
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  The island. The island. An island needs about
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  42 inches of clearance on every working side.
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  Run the math and the room needs to be roughly
• 3:44
  12 feet wide before an island stops being furniture
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  you sidestep. In 70 to 100 square feet, the honest
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  answers are a peninsula, a narrow rolling cart,
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  or nothing. So when a designer sketches an island
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  into a 10 by 10 kitchen? They are decorating,
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  not designing. Let's do cabinets. A third of
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  the budget, you said. Where do small kitchens
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  win? Four moves. First, go to the ceiling. That
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  12 -inch dust gap above standard wall cabinets
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  is the most commonly wasted storage in America.
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  Full height uppers or a stacked second row converts
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  it and pulls the eye up so the room reads taller
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  I feel like old advice said decorate up there
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  baskets a fake plant Old advice did say that
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  including an old version of our own article.
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  Honestly, it is a grease shelf Enclose it move
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  to consider frameless construction American framed
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  cabinets have a face frame around the opening
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  Frameless cabinets skip it, which widens every
• 4:45
  opening and adds usable interior volume in the
• 4:48
  exact same footprint. Europe went frameless decades
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  ago because European kitchens are small kitchens.
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  Over 20 linear feet of cabinets, the recovered
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  space is measured in drawers, not inches. And
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  you sell both, so this is not a sales pitch for
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  one. We sell both, and in small kitchens we reach
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  for frameless lines like Ultra Craft and Balfour
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  Mott more often. Stand in front of both in a
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  showroom with the doors open, and the argument
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  makes itself in about 10 seconds. Move three.
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  Drawers beat doors in base cabinets. A base cabinet
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  with doors makes you kneel and excavate. A deep
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  drawer brings the back of the cabinet to you.
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  It costs more per cabinet, and it is the upgrade
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  our clients thank us for a year later. Because
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  base storage gets opened dozens of times a day.
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  And four was the corner money. Spend it. Every
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  corner in an L or U needs a mechanism. That is
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  the whole rule. Smaller stuff. Give me the interior
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  fittings that earn their inches. A six or nine
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  inch filler pullout beside the range turns dead
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  filler strips into spice storage. A toe kick
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  drawer under the sink stores sheet pans and space
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  that is otherwise air. Vertical dividers hold
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  cutting boards upright. One tall pantry cabinet,
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  even 18 inches wide, can replace a whole wall
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  of shallow shelving. What about the ceiling pot
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  rack? Every small kitchen article for 20 years
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  has the pot rack. Honest emotion. In a farmhouse
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  with 10 -foot ceilings? Lovely. In a compact
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  room with 8 -foot ceilings, it hangs visual clutter
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  at head height, exactly where a small kitchen
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  can least afford it. Deep drawers store the same
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  pots invisibly. Color. The old advice was paint
• 6:31
  everything white. Not wrong. Just no longer the
• 6:34
  whole story. The industry association's 2026
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  trends research, surveying over 600 designers,
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  still has neutrals dominant. But warm wood tones
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  are surging, white oak leading. For small kitchens,
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  the formula is a light neutral perimeter, one
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  warm element and restraint. And the two tone
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  look everyone wants? Works at this scale with
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  one rule. The darker tone stays low. Base cabinets,
• 7:03
  the peninsula. Uppers stay light. Dark upper
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  cabinets compress a small room from eye level
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  up. Lighting. You called it the most underrated
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  line item. Per square foot, nothing beats it.
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  Think in layers. Ambient from the ceiling. Task
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  where you work. Accent for depth. And the non
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  -negotiable layer in a small kitchen is under
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  cabinet task lighting. $200 to $600, and it removes
• 7:30
  the shadow you are currently chopping vegetables
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  in. It is the biggest perceived size jump per
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  dollar in the room. Appliances, I sense strong
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  opinions. One strong opinion. Scale is a design
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  decision. The fastest way to shrink a small kitchen
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  is a 36 inch professional range and a deep refrigerator.
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  A 30 inch range cooks the same dinner. A counter
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  depth fridge gives back aisle inches exactly
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  where clearances are tightest. An 18 or 24 inch
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  dishwasher fits households that run at half full
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  anyway. Mainstream now, and small kitchens love
• 8:06
  it for a sneaky reason. The flat surface moonlights
• 8:09
  as landing space when you are not cooking. In
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  a room short on counters, your cooktop doubling
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  as a counter is real square footage. Over the
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  range saves counter space but puts weak ventilation
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  over your cooktop. A microwave drawer or a shelf
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  spot costs more and vents better. That is the
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  honest trade. Pick your priority. Okay, rapid
• 8:32
  fire, the skip list. I name it, you rule on it.
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  The Forced Island. Skip. We covered why. 12 feet
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  of width, or it is an obstacle. Open shelving
• 8:44
  everywhere. One run, curated near the sink. A
• 8:48
  whole kitchen of open shelves photographs beautifully
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  for one week. Then real mugs and cooking grease
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  move in. The 36 inch range. Skip in 80 square
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  feet. You gain a burner you use twice a year
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  and lose aisle, storage, and proportion. Moving
• 9:03
  the sink to the other wall? Skip without a layout
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  reason. Relocating plumbing costs thousands and
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  usually buys little in a small footprint. Keeping
• 9:13
  the layout is the single biggest cost saver there
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  is. Spend the savings on drawers. Last big question.
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  Is remodeling a small kitchen even worth it?
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  There's a whole real estate forum thread of people
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  nervous? that small kitchens hurt resale. The
• 9:28
  thread is right that context matters. A compact
• 9:31
  kitchen is expected in a condo or a starter price
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  home and a harder sell in a big suburban house.
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  But here is what the remodel changes. Not the
• 9:41
  square footage. The verdict. A dated small kitchen
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  reads as a project the buyer inherits. A well
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  -designed one reads as finished. And finished
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  is what sells. And the return numbers back that
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  up. They do. Industry cost versus value data
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  consistently shows minor and mid -range kitchen
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  remodels among the best returning projects in
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  the house, while $75 ,000 majors return roughly
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  half. Small kitchens are by definition minor
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  to mid -range. A $25 ,000 small kitchen done
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  well is one of the more defensible checks a homeowner
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  writes. Landing time. Three things to remember.
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  One. Know which project you are pricing. 10 ,000
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  is a cosmetic refresh, 20 to 45 is a full professional
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  remodel, and a quote at half the going rate is
• 10:30
  missing something. Two, layout outranks everything.
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  42 -inch aisles, soft corners, and a peninsula
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  instead of a forced island. Three, in a small
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  kitchen, spend where your hands go every day.
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  Drawers, lighting, full -height storage. Skip
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  what photographs well and works badly. The remodel
• 10:51
  report is brought to you by USA Cabinet Store.
• 10:54
  Family -owned since 2011, with more than 14 showrooms
• 10:58
  across Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Texas,
• 11:01
  New Jersey, Florida, and Tennessee. Bring your
• 11:04
  measurements to a showroom and a designer will
• 11:06
  sketch your footprint and price it honestly.
• 11:08
  The consultation is free. The full written guide
• 11:11
  with the cost table and the layout comparison
• 11:13
  is linked in the show notes. Designed for the
• 11:16
  person cooking in 80 square feet, not for the
• 11:18
  photo. See you next episode.