For a first conversation you need a sketch of the room from above, the length of each wall, the ceiling height, where the windows and doors sit, where the appliances are, and a handful of photos. A tape measure and ten minutes is enough. DADO takes its own measurements on site before anything is built, so your numbers only need to be good enough to talk about layout and a planning range, not good enough to cut cabinets from.
Draw the footprint of the kitchen on a sheet of paper, as if you were looking down through the ceiling. It does not need to be to scale. Label the walls A, B, C and D going clockwise from the door you walk in through, and mark which wall has the window and where the room opens into the next one. Every measurement you take goes on this sketch, so it becomes the one page you send us.
Run the tape along each wall at counter height, about 90 centimetres off the floor, from corner to corner, and write the number on the matching wall of the sketch. Then measure the same wall at the floor. In an older Vancouver house the two numbers often differ by a centimetre or two because the walls are not plumb, and that is worth knowing. Use whichever unit your tape is in, inches or millimetres, and stick with it on the whole sketch. Round to the nearest quarter inch or nearest five millimetres. If there is a stub wall, a chimney breast or a pantry opening, measure to it and past it.
Measure floor to ceiling in two corners and in the middle of the room. Old houses sag and new ones are not always level. If there is a bulkhead above the uppers, measure how far it drops from the ceiling and how far it comes out from the wall. That single measurement decides whether your new uppers can run to the ceiling or stop under the bulkhead, which changes both the look and the price. Note any crown moulding, exposed beam, or ceiling light that sits in the way of a tall cabinet.
For each window, measure from the nearest corner to the edge of the trim, the width of the window including trim, the height from the floor to the sill, and the height to the top of the trim. The sill height decides how tall the cabinets under it can be. For each door, measure from the corner to the trim, the width, and which way it swings, because a door that swings into the kitchen takes a run of cabinets with it. Mark the radiator or heat register, the thermostat, and any outlet or switch you know you want to keep.
Mark where the sink, the range or cooktop, the fridge, the dishwasher and the hood are now, and measure the width of each opening. For the fridge, measure the height and depth of the alcove too, and write down the model if you know it, because fridge sizes vary more than anything else in a kitchen. Note whether the range is gas or electric and where the water and drain come through the wall or the floor. Then decide one thing: is anything moving? Keeping the sink, range and fridge where they are keeps plumbing, gas and electrical work to a reconnection. Moving any of them brings in licensed trades and often a permit, which is fine, but it belongs in the plan from the first call.
Take these with your phone in daylight if you can:
A DADO designer works from your sketch and photos for the first conversation, gives you a planning range, and starts a layout. For most Vancouver kitchens that range lands between $30,000 and $50,000, and your wall lengths are what put it there. When the direction is settled, we come to your home and measure every wall, corner, window and service ourselves before the drawings are finalized. Nothing is manufactured from your tape measure. Measurements of your space are done by our team to ensure a perfect fit, and the cabinets are built to those numbers on a standard lead time of about four weeks from approved drawings. Your sketch gets the conversation started sooner. Our measure is what the kitchen is cut from.
With your wall lengths in hand, try the Vancouver Kitchen Cost Calculator for a planning range, read how much a custom kitchen costs in Vancouver for what moves that range, and book a free consultation when the sketch is ready.