Kitchen renovations can greatly increase the resale value of your home. A good kitchen renovation costing around $30,000 can raise your home’s resale value to as much as $100,000. 

New appliances are a key component of any kitchen. A full reno means that you’re replacing your fridge, sink, oven, dishwasher, and more—maybe even adding some new devices to make your house more modern.

But with so many options in so many price ranges, how can you choose the best appliances for your new kitchen? 

Should You Choose Regular Appliances or Luxury Brands?

Selecting a few brands to consider purchasing your new appliances from will narrow down your options and simplify the decision-making.

In some cases, purchasing a regular-brand appliance may be the smart move, but in others, having a luxury-brand product will be a worthwhile investment.

For example, if you’re living alone and don’t typically dirty many dishes, a standard dishwasher might make sense. But for a family with multiple children, a dishwasher with three racks and an hour-long wash cycle could be a lifesaver.

3 Benefits of Luxury Kitchen Appliance Brands

Regular brands can be significantly more affordable, but luxury brands offer many useful features and benefits.

1. Performance

Luxury appliances offer greater control and accessibility. Compared to regular appliances:

• Luxury ranges reach a more precise temperature at a faster rate,
• Luxury dishwashers clean more thoroughly with faster cycles, and
• Luxury refrigerators keep your food fresh longer, saving you money.

These benefits make the kitchen run smoother and can improve your cooking.

2. Life Expectancy

Luxury brand appliances are made to last a long time. This saves you the cost of replacement or repairs that are more common with cheaper appliances. 

The more you use an appliance, the more valuable a high-end appliance will be when you look at long-term costs.

3. Design

As prices go up, more customization options become available to you. Rather than offering the usual options of white, black, or stainless steel, luxury brands expand your options for color, trim, handles, and more. With built-in appliances you can even hide them in the wall and make them look like part of the cabinetry!

Extra Kitchen Appliances to Consider

Beyond the usual appliances you consider when remodeling a kitchen, there are others that can improve the value of your kitchen by improving efficiency and productivity.

Most of these extra appliances are sold by both regular and luxury brands.

If you want to serve large quantities of people, cook large, multi-course meals, or simply spend a lot of time in the kitchen, some of these supplementary appliances may interest you.

Warming Drawers 

True to their name, warming drawers keep your food warm at a consistent temperature. This allows you to cook multiple dishes without having to worry about any of the food getting cold. Perfect for serving lots of dishes at once – Thanksgiving dinner has never been easier!

Steam Ovens

Steam ovens are amazing for multiple reasons. They:

• save you the need for oil,
• retain moisture,
• cook more evenly,
• cook faster, and
• use less energy. 

Some ovens even have a mode combining convection and steam cooking.

Induction Cooktops

Tired of waiting such a long time for your water to boil? Induction cooktops can do it in half the time a gas range can. 

They use the power of magnetic fields to heat your pots and pans directly, creating less excess heat, and saving time and energy. 

They’re also easier to clean than other cooktops as the cooktop itself doesn’t heat up very much.

Tips for Choosing the Best Kitchen Appliances

Refrigerator

Consider your lifestyle before selecting a refrigerator. Do you cook often? Are there a lot of people in your house, or do you live on your own? 

If you cook a lot but don’t cook in large quantities, you might consider sticking to a regular fridge. But if you cook for a big family every day or frequently invite guests for dinner, upgrading to a high-capacity, state-of-the-art luxury refrigerator will make maintaining that lifestyle a smooth experience.

Other things to consider when choosing a refrigerator:

• Keeping food fresh – The average refrigerator has one compressor unit, but more expensive models can have two. This impacts how long your food can stay fresh inside without going bad. Being able to save your food for longer periods of time can save you more money in the long run, so an investment into a slightly more capable refrigerator can quickly pay itself off.
• Visual appearance – Refrigerators that are built-in to the wall allow for paneling that matches your cabinets to cover the fridge, hiding it when it’s not in use. This can improve the look of your kitchen especially if you have multiple refrigerators. 

Sink

Don’t overlook the sink. It usually needs to be installed first, so think about it when purchasing your countertop and cabinetry.

• Aesthetics – Ideally, the sink should fit well with the countertop, or it’ll stick out like a sore thumb. 
• Functionality – Consider the flow of your cooking. Do you tend to prepare ingredients right near the stove, or is it better to have the two areas a good distance apart?
• Quantity – Consider having two sinks: one for preparing ingredients and another for cleaning dishes.
• Depth – A large sink is great for vegetables and other big ingredients while a shallower bar sink is perfect to wash glasses and the like. Maybe there’s a need for both kinds in your kitchen.

Make your kitchen layout work for you. If you’re going to remodel the whole area, you might as well make it as convenient and effortless for yourself as possible.

Oven

If you cook or bake frequently, you might want to put a special focus on the oven during your remodel. However, there are many things to consider when purchasing one. 

Your range and oven itself can be purchased separately and placed in different locations in the kitchen, if that’s more convenient. Or you could buy a standard, one-piece oven-range combo and do all your cooking in one place.

Additionally, look at the features of the oven including durability, heating time, and cook speed. While some ovens excel in one or two of these departments, high-end appliances tend to excel in all of them.

Some ovens cook more evenly than others, and some are more precise with temperature. It’s all about looking for a balance between your budget and the features you want.

Dishwasher

Dishwashers are another important appliance for the busy cook.

Having to go over some stubborn dishes again by hand after taking them out of the machine is inefficient and frustrating. Fortunately, dishwasher technology has improved a lot in the past few years and with newer models, even the toughest stains won’t be an issue!

Some models can do half a dozen loads a day, six days a week, and still manage to last 13 years. That’s a lot of durability and a great investment if you’re doing lots of dishes! Odds are you won’t use it nearly that much, so with that kind of longevity, you might never have to buy a dishwasher again!

 A high-end dishwasher may be one of the best investments you can make in your kitchen.

The Best Appliances for the Ultimate Kitchen

There are so many things to consider when remodeling or updating your kitchen. The number of appliances out there is overwhelming, and the price tags on some of them can be daunting. 

Cheaper appliances may seem like a clear choice on the surface, but maintenance costs can catch up to you fast. That expensive refrigerator might save you a lot more money and stress than you’d expect.

Sometimes a practical and relatively inexpensive appliance is perfect, but if you’re going to pay a lot of money on an appliance, it’s important to ensure that it’s worth it in the long run.

Pay attention to the features, performance, and life expectancy of each appliance and make an informed decision before you buy it. Carefully selecting the best appliances for you will ensure you end up with the ultimate kitchen.