Kitchen Design Mistakes (And How to Fix Them!)

hi everyone it's nick welcome welcome back to my channel okay in this video today we're gonna be talking about kitchen design mistakes i did living room design mistakes before and i'm gonna be doing this as part of a series identifying different mistakes that i see over and over again in different rooms of your home but today we are talking all about the kitchen and mistakes that i see over and over again now i'll be honest some of these are really going to be sort of renovation focused or things that are kind of permanent changes and that's just kind of the nature of the kitchen but i do think that if you're renting or you're not planning a full renovation there's still going to be some information in this video that i think you still will find useful okay but before i get to the rest of the video i want to thank today's sponsor which is wayfair that's right wayfair so recently i did a video actually called buy this not that from wayfair so you know i'm a big fan of wafers products but i'm not gonna lie i think they only saw half that video so shh and the reason i recommend wayfair's products is because there's something there for everybody no matter what your design style what your color scheme whatever you like there is something on wafer for you and i bet you didn't realize that wayfair actually has their own youtube channel and on there they actually have a series called swapping carts which is where you get usually a couple or two friends and they sort of shop for each other and they sort of pick products from wafer's website some of them are hits some of them are misses i'm not gonna lie so it's a little bit like it's couples therapy also you know you get to learn a little bit about design and you get to sort of feature a bunch of different products from wayfair i really like this green velvet couch but then some of the other pics on there are honestly quite questionable but that's okay because wayfair understands that everybody is different and no matter who you are or what you want in your home there's always going to be diversity of opinion and people like different things and that's okay because wayfair offers so many different products that there is always going to be something for everybody so thank you wayfair for sponsoring this video and if you want to check out wafer's youtube channel i'm going to link it all down below now let's get back to the rest of my video okay first mistake that i see in the kitchen is what i'm going to call a color catastrophe this is where you see people using really saturated colors and lots of different colors in the kitchen it tends to make your home look really dated and it tends to look dated really quickly now i'm not talking about not using any color in your kitchen you can use some color in the kitchen but i would be very careful with color especially in the kitchen and the reason for that is because the kitchen has a lot of fixed elements so by that i mean things that are really sort of fixed to the kitchen so you've got mill work you've got kitchen countertops you've got maybe a backsplash you've got all your appliances they could all be built in i don't know there's a lot going on in the kitchen and it's not that easy to swap things out so say in your living room or your bedroom if you make a mistake or you sort of change your style or you know you want to select a different color palette or whatever usually it's not that difficult to swap some things out but in the kitchen it can be very very difficult so if you choose a really loud backsplash with a really crazy countertop and maybe you choose some different colored uppers those things when you're using lots of really bright colors or you're using lots of different colors they can start to look dated and you may get sick of them remember with a kitchen renovation we could be talking about having it for 10 20 or even 30 40 50 years i mean i don't know how often you renovate so you could be holding on to these items for a very long time so be very careful when you're using lots and lots of color in your kitchen neutrals tend to last the test of time a little bit better than a lot of really heavily saturated colors so you may want to stick to some neutrals and add a little bit of color from there it's a safer choice it's an interesting choice while also not something that you're probably going to get really sick of okay next mistake that i see is kitchen backsplashes specifically really weird kitchen backsplashes because they are a lot out there some people i think decide to go really funky and a little bit kooky and crazy and experimental with their backsplash and i think that is a mistake because the backsplash essentially does a really great job of tying together the uppers and the kitchen countertops it's a really important visual element in your kitchen and i think when you go really kooky and crazy you're probably going to get tired of that the backsplash is really difficult to remove really difficult to change out it is something again it's one of these fixed elements that you're going to be stuck with for a while some really good options if you're gonna go for tile especially if you got a different backsplash then i would go for something like a subway tile if you want to go really classic you could go for something in a nice herringbone you could go for a chevron you could go for stack tiles and you can also get really a little bit creative with maybe the texture or the material that's used you could go for a really interesting porcelain tile you can go for some really sort of interesting maybe subtle colors that can really work well for a backsplash the other thing that is honestly my personal favorite thing to do especially if you're doing a natural stone or a quartz countertop is to just carry that countertop material right into the backsplash i think it looks really contemporary it sort of makes it easier to make sure everything is coordinated and cohesive because you're using the same material on the backsplash and the countertop i always think it's a beautiful look it's very elegant i just think it always really works now if you're going for laminate or butcher block on the countertops probably doesn't make sense for it to go up on the backsplash you don't really have that option and that's where some of those really cool herringbone chevron subway tall whatever pattern tiles work really well in a backsplash but don't go too kooky crazy because this is something that you're gonna have to live with for a long time you will get sick of the really funky tile most likely okay third mistake that i see in kitchens is not following the work triangle okay so first let's explain what the work triangle is so the work triangle is a sort of design principle it's been around for many many many decades but basically it is a triangle in your kitchen that connects the sink the refrigerator and the stove top so if you think about it when you are cooking in your kitchen those three areas of the home really make sense to be able to bounce in between now some contemporary designs i am i'm a big lover of contemporary design i'm gonna be honest but i do notice a lot of these contemporary kitchens now are throwing away the work triangle and saying we don't need them anymore i think that's a mistake i think it is still a very sound design principle that makes sense for the function of most people's kitchen because when you are cooking you are going to be going back and forth between these three pieces over and over again and ergonomically it just makes sense for really great flow in your kitchen what i don't love to see and again you see this a lot in these new modern sort of contemporary kitchens often where you've got the double island which you all know i hate the double island because it looks like a science class but anyway you're seeing these double islands or you're seeing where you've got the refrigerator on one side a big chunky island in the middle and then you got the stovetop over here so now every time you're cooking and you got to get out some garlic or you got to get out some ginger or whatever you're going to have to walk around that island in order to be able to get into your kitchen it just doesn't make sense so i think throwing away the work triangle or not adhering to it is a mistake you really want to build your kitchen with function in mind and really consider how you cook and how you are going to use your kitchen and i bet you most likely you're going to want those three elements fairly close to each other and really convenient to access while you are cooking so i would say sticking to the work triangle is a good idea okay my fourth kitchen design mistake is not extending your cabinetry right to the ceiling this might be personal preference but i personally believe that when you have a really cropped cabinet i'm talking about where your kitchen cabinets are not extended right to the ceiling this is by the way assuming that your kitchen has standard ceiling heights by the way if you've got a double height i'm not saying extend right to the ceiling that's different but if you've got a standard ceiling height which most people do i would say it is a mistake to crop your cabinets i know it's usually a little bit more expensive or it's a lot more expensive to extend your kitchen cabinets depending on your quotes uh to get your kitchen cabinets extended right to your ceiling but i just think if you lower them it artificially lowers your ceilings it makes the place look more drawn in it makes it look smaller because it artificially lowers your ceiling you want to maximize the ceiling height that you have and it's really just a beautiful elegant look just really modern to have it extend right to the ceiling i think when you are planning your budget in your kitchen i would advise that that is something i would if i were you personally really consider spending that extra money on because it just makes for a really beautiful elegant look to have your cabinetry go all the way up to the ceiling it just makes everything look taller it makes it look more expansive and it really maximizes the height of the kitchen okay the next mistake i want to talk about is boring lighting or just like not functional lighting in the kitchen so lighting in the kitchen is really important because it's important to have some ambient lighting and also some task lighting in there task lighting because there's a lot of tasks that you're going to be accomplishing right you want to make sure that you have enough lighting to be able to see what you're doing in the kitchen to be able to cook properly if you have something over the stove that you're able to do that but it's also really important to have some nice ambient lighting in the kitchen because i just think sometimes when people have just kind of two pot lights in the kitchen it's usually not enough to create a really interesting space and also to give you the lighting that you need to be able to accomplish the tasks in the kitchen so i'm a big fan as well of like recessed lighting strips i love them when they're at the bottom of the cabinetry i always think that's really beautiful just to provide a really sort of subtle glow near your feet awesome i also love when you've got the lighting strips under the uppers so that you're able to kind of create some sort of soft ambient lighting underneath the kitchen countertops these things are go a long way they're really small they're really subtle but they make a huge difference but also let's talk about when it comes to boring lighting is stop choosing boring lighting fixtures like we've all seen that lantern lighting a million times we've all seen the same boring lighting fixtures over and over and over again especially looking at those pendants that are over top of your peninsula or over top of your island these tend to work in waves of trends over and over again where you just see the same stuff over and over and i just think there's such an opportunity there to mix it up sometimes i think it feels like there's not as much room for creativity in the kitchen so the pendants become a really great way to sort of show a little bit of personality and sort of tie in your kitchen into the rest of the space especially if you have an open concept so that you know that peninsula or that island is really going to be interacting with the dining room or the living room that's next door go to a lighting design store like go to a really interesting lighting design store that's doing some really really cool things and then you know the thing is with lighting it's not that hard to find a lot of dupes so if you do find some interesting lighting on there it's not that hard to be able to find on pinterest or find different retailers that are doing something similar so that's just an idea i think that you can get inspired by some of your lighting especially in the kitchen because um i just see the same stuff over and over so it is such a great opportunity to change it up and try something a little bit more interesting and show a little bit more personality okay next mistake that i see is too much open shelving let's talk about open shelving because it is the trend that will not die so a little bit of open shelving can be great it's an opportunity to you know present some really beautiful ceramics or some things that you've collected you want to show them off and that's really great and oftentimes um you know it works out for a lot of people to add a little bit of open shelving because they can just go and grab some really gorgeous items and it's kind of nice to display some things sure sure fine fine but a mistake is doing too much of it because it is a dust collector and there is a really good reason why most of the cabinetry that we should have in our kitchen should be closed because most of our stuff that we actually use on a daily basis in the kitchen is not things that we necessarily really want to display no one needs to see the boring ikea dishes that you have and i have i mean they're great they're functional they work i love the 365 series but let's be honest they're not exactly some beautiful handcrafted ceramics that we want to show off to all of our best friends that come over right like we don't no just put those back in the cabinetry put your tupperware back in the cabinets we need that space there there's a reason why those doors are there so a little bit of cabinetry a little bit of open shelving is really great but don't do too much of it because once you do too much you are going to regret it honestly i think couple of years from now we're going to look at all these huge walls of open shelving and just shake our heads and go what are we thinking what what were we thinking i mean i'm saying that now so i can imagine other we're all going to be saying that a couple of years right okay next mistake that i see over and over again is not taking into account like cabinets and appliance clearance issues when it comes to sort of opening all these different drawers and whatever this is the worst of the worst of the mistakes that i see over and over i have made well i didn't actually make this mistake so a lot of the kitchen was renovated when i moved into this place but you can't i can't even tell you how much it drives me nuts that when you open that cutlery rack on the top of the dishwasher you cannot open the cutlery door which is where all the calories goes in so what do you think happens so you open that up because you want to put away all your cutlery your clean cutlery from the dishwasher and oh yeah you can't put it in the drawer then it needs to go in you know six inches away it drives me nuts you want to take into account all of these things because i can tell you they will drive you nuts so it might take you hours and hours and hours now in trying to figure out to make sure that you have all the clearances just so so that there's nothing that's going to bump into each other or at least taking into account how you use the cabinet so that you know that when one cabinet is used it's not going to bump into another cabinet it's probably going to be used at the same time so just think of how frustrating it's going to be over the next couple of decades when you can't use all these pieces together in the way that you want to okay next kitchen design mistake that i see is not considering your electrical and plumbing requirements for the kitchen really talk to your plumber or your electrician or your general contractor and just really understand your electrical and plumbing needs for your kitchen and make sure you have everything that you need really plan things like if you have an open concept kitchen and maybe you've got some seating on the other side of the kitchen island and you sort of envision that so your kids are going to be doing their homework or whatever maybe consider putting some an electrical outlet there right do you consider that your island is going to be really functional and you're going to want to put a blender you're going to want to put you know different appliances and that's where you plan on using them make sure that you have the proper electrical requirements because again it's these small things that if you're wondering where you're going to be able to put some of your appliances and you realize you don't have the electrical requirements to do them it's going to be frustrating in the years and decades to come okay so next design mistake that i see in the kitchen is being too boring and now i know i said earlier in this video things like color catastrophes are common where people choose really outlandish crazy super funky backsplashes and stuff and that is all true so what do i consider to be a really boring kitchen i would say uh white millwork with white quartz countertops a subway tile backsplash and a chrome lantern fixture over top of the island or the peninsula to me that's a bit boring i'm not gonna lie is there some ways that you can mix that up yes you can still play it relatively safe choose some you know really neutral colors you can still choose some classic pieces but maybe something it's a little more interesting i mentioned earlier swap out that subway maybe try something like a herringbone maybe go for some quartz that's got a little bit of movement to it right something that's got a little bit more interesting or go for a natural stone so if you're considering granite or you're considering quartzite or something uh that you think you can take care of in on your countertops i would consider those as just a really beautiful way of sort of mixing up your kitchen or if you do love a white kitchen and you're looking at white cabinetry maybe where you do a different two-tone cabinetry where your lower cabinets are maybe a little bit of a different color and you can choose that that's maybe going to work cohesively with the rest of your space but it's not that typical white on white on white on white on white kitchen that we've seen a thousand times so there's some like subtle ways i think that you can take those different elements that i just described and just kind of do a little bit of a different twist on them i don't think it's something that you're going to be sick of i don't think it's something that's you know going to look dated before you started it's just something that's going to look really clean and elegant a little bit more interesting with a little bit more personality than your typical kitchen that we've seen a thousand times but i think it's something that you would be happy with for years or decades to come okay next kitchen design mistake that i see over and over again is not taking care of your natural stone as i just previously mentioned natural stone is beautiful there's always going to be a really beautiful kind of gorgeous quality to having a natural stone there is just a certain nature does it best right there is just some usually some really interesting movements of colors that are happening that are just really hard to replicate in a manufactured product but it is a mistake not to take care of that natural product they're really great sealers that you can do you can have them professionally sealed you can also have household sealers that you can also use as kind of like regular maintenance on your natural stone there's lots of different products that are out there that are coming out that do a really great job of protecting natural stone you can honestly say that you're not going to take care of natural stone that you just don't think that you're going to put up with the maintenance of it just always know that you're potentially you know especially if you go for a really soft material uh you're always a glass of red wine spill away from ruining uh what could be thousands or tens of thousands of dollars worth of beautiful countertops so really really take care of it and if you can't take care of it consider something like a quartz product because quartz is still beautiful um it's not gonna always have the same character as you're gonna get in a natural stone but the maintenance is essentially zero and that is a lot easier i think for people to handle but if you are gonna get a natural stone and you really wanna invest in that beauty just make sure that you really take care of it okay next up on my kitchen design mistakes is not considering paneled or sort of integrated options in your kitchen so i'll be honest with you oftentimes when you're talking about paneled appliances they are going to be more expensive okay so what i mean by that is you know say your fridge or your refrigerator you can get those paneled so you can actually have the cabinetry that you select for all your kitchen cabinets and you can actually just integrate them inside this is a beautiful look i think it is something that if you can do it if you can afford it i think it's worth considering i think sometimes people when they do a kitchen renovation they sometimes aren't happy with the end result because it kind of looks like there's lots of different appliances all over the place and they're not getting that beautiful sort of elegant architectural digest look and i think one of the pieces that may have been missing in their plan is spending a little bit more money or at least not even considering the idea of integrating or paneling their appliances the other thing to consider which is not actually all that expensive is really also integrating solutions in your kitchen that you know you're going to need you're going to need a compost bin a recycling bin garbage bin right these sorts of things spaces to hold your pots and pans these are things now that you can integrate inside your kitchen cabinetry and it creates a lot better flow in your kitchen and it kind of eliminates a lot of the clutter that you so often see in kitchens and that i find is a much better solution than having all these garbage bins and compost bins and stuff sort of hanging around loosely in your kitchen it just makes it look a lot more uncluttered and it's just much more of an elegant solution okay that's it for me for today you guys i want to link to the playlist for my design mistake series the first one is the living room but there are going to be more videos to come and i will see you all in the next video thanks bye

Channel: Nick Lewis

Views: 867,952

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Id: WVcUVlY615c

Length: 18min 22sec (1102 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 23 2021