Kitchen Design Mistakes & How To Fix Them

hi everyone it's Nick welcome welcome back to my channel okay in today's video we're going to be going over some kitchen design mistakes now I have done a kitchen design mistakes video before but turns out you guys make more mistakes so I had to make a second video but I'm going to link that video at the end of this one so if you think there's things on here that you're like we what about it might be over there so I'm going to link that at the end here also Shameless plug of course a lot of

the concepts that I'm going to be talking about in this video are going to be featured in my course my interior design course boring to beautiful link is down in the description feel free to check it out there's some previews there if you want to check stuff out to make sure it's for you before you buy go ahead let's get going okay but before we talk about the biggest kitchen design mistakes I need to talk to you about Mr Cool who is the sponsor of today's video so one of the reasons I decided to partner

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and thank you Mr Cool for sponsoring this video now let's get back to some kitchen design mistakes okay first up on my list is going to be to many cabinets and not enough drawers drawers I think are usually far more functional in kitchens than necessarily those giant sort of cabinets are I think a lot of people really emphasize cabinets because they think that it's just like really simple and easy and to get a lot of bang for your buck but the truth is is that most of the things that you're going to be using whether

it's food whether it's Cutlery whether it's dish or whatever the case may be drawers are super super helpful it's just a lot easier to be able to throw things in a drawer and use them on a regular basis in your kitchen than necessarily these giant cavernous sort of cabinets are I think it's just a simple solution just Chuck a bunch of cabinets up there especially those upper cabinets because you think they're going to be really helpful but often times they're really deep and therefore really difficult to get to especially if they're uppers and the drawers

are usually just going to be a lot more functional on the day-to- day so if you have the privilege of being able to renovate or build a new kitchen which is obviously a massive undertak but if you do then just consider opportunities for you to put in more drawers and really take a look at what you're currently using in your current kitchen that you have right now and think of whether it would be more functional to use some of those pieces in drawers as opposed to necessarily these giant cabinets especially those uppers in my personal

experience there's never enough drawers and there's usually too many cabinets and I just end up stuffing them full of a bunch of like stale crackers and stuff which just is honestly not helping anybody so if you go with drawers I think those are a lot more likely to be used and functionally kind of considered on a daily basis so definitely I would say consider more drawers and of course if you do have a lot of upper cabinets there are a lot of really Innovative sort of pullout systems that you can use for those upper cabinets

so if you do have some and they are really difficult to reach and it's really sort of cavernous and difficult to be able to get a hold of there are these sort of reach around sort of pull down systems that can be really effective to sort of make the upper cabinets that you have more functional okay next up on my list is going to be this is something whether you are doing a renovation or not too much crap on your countertops my personal view is this you're not going to like it I'm going to tell

you right now you're not going to like it but I'm just going to tell you this is an ideal something to strive for it might not be your day-to-day but to strive for this consider the things that are on your countertop to either be sort of aesthetically beautiful things you like to look at because that does serve a purpose or functional items that you use every day so if you use a coffee machine every day or if you're a person that uses a kettle every day because you drink tea like four times a day or

something like that go for it then you might want to consider yes putting out those small appliances or those things on your countertop The Croc for cooking for example maybe you got your Wooden Spoons in there or whatever that might make sense your olive oil if you're cooking with olive oil a lot your salt and pepper your cutting board those can make sense being on your countertop cuz you're using them regularly but then there's those items that we all have cuz I you all know that I love a countertop a niche countertop Appliance like I

love it my friends helped me move the other day and they were like Nick you have two waffle makers and the reason because I had a waffle maker I thought I got rid of it it I bought another waffle maker and I didn't realize I had one so I have two waffle makers now I have an egg bite maker okay like I am the king of small Niche kitchen appliances but I also recognize that those do not all go outside on my counter job every day because I do not need them every day because I

guess what I don't even know if I've used the egg bite maker that's bad to admit but I don't even know if I have so I don't need to store it on my countertop every single day and you don't either if you've got those jars full of stale cookies that you've used on display probably not all that functional and helpful because no one's eating those cookies you know those Niche appliances that you think you're going to use the time you probably don't consider that if you've got way too much on your countertops strip away all

the stuff that you're may be using on an occasional basis and instead prioritize the items that you're actually using every day or you think are really beautiful and you want to display because maybe you've got a maybe you're one of those people that has like a really cool table lamp or something you know because you got a large kitchen or whatever and that might make sense right you want to put a little tray there with your little cookbooks or something on there maybe you don't use those cookbooks every day but you think they're beautiful and

you want to style them that does have a functional that does have a purpose and I would still encourage you to display beautiful things in your kitchen but those functional pieces be really careful with the stuff you use regularly and again I say you don't going to like you're not going to like it cuz you're like but I don't want to haul the blender out every time I want to make a smoothie every 4 days well then don't take my tip and just sit there with your Vitamix your ugly Vitamix on your countertop if you

want to go nuts you know what I mean but if you you know want to in my opinion create a beautiful more aesthetically pleasing kitchen that is more functional on a day-to-day basis put that Vitamix away you know but if you have something beautiful like maybe a nice KitchenAid mixer that you wanted a display go for that you know like you just have to make it your own what's beautiful for you what's functional for you and then work from there by the way you know I have to do a kitchen video by talking about Appliance

garages if you don't know what an appliance garage is it is like a little cute little garage that you can like open the door and you can hide a lot of your appliances behind and that's the ideal ideal because I love those because now you can take those pieces you don't use all the time that ugly blender and you can just open the garage but often times they have electrical depending on your code of your area you know please talk to an electrician to see if it's possible for you some places don't allow it depending

on your um laws in your area but you can have plugs inside the appliance garage which means all you have to do is open the garage and then you can use it and then you can tuck it away and close it and you're good to go genius okay next kitchen design mistake and again this is true for a new build or maybe you're you know just getting new appliances and that is getting the wrong Appliance size for the unit that you have measure and then work from there the thing is is that uh some appliances

are generally like they're quite standardized so it should be easy for you to be able to find the right size Appliance for your bill work for your countertops for your thing but it might not be and I think I would just encourage you ideally to have appliances that are the right size this it feels obvious but it's not I think a lot of the times you know the appliance might be too deep for the countertop in which case you're going to have the side of the appliance sort of sticking out maybe it's the oven something

like that I see a lot of fridges that don't quite fill the little hole that they're meant to fill they're just always looking funny it always in my opinion looks like it's not not tailored and welld designed for the space because it isn't because you bought the wrong size fridge what do you want me to say what do you want me to say to you you know what I mean I can try to dress it up and pretend like you was an aesthetic decision that you made but the truth is is you just bought the

wrong stove or you bought the one that was there that was maybe available to you that you could afford maybe it was given to you whatever and in which case don't listen to me I'm just a guy on the internet you know what if you've got that fridge and it's fine go for it but I have to put it in a kitchen mistakes video because sometimes people just legit buy the wrong stuff and they buy the wrong size and it doesn't adequately fill out the space that they valoc for it do your measurements work with

a pro generally speaking the kitchen especially when it comes to fixed elements if you're doing a renovation or whatever some of the stuff like closet systems you can work with Ikea and you can get the bo axle you can get the pack system like you can make it your own a lot of the stuff you can design kitchen is so PR sniky you just want to be really really careful with your measurements definitely hire a pro if you've never done a kitchen renovation before rather than necessarily thinking that you can do it all yourself with

sort of that like cheap disposable Ikea plastic tape measure and just go home and be like I can do this kitchens are tricky and especially if you're dealing with a very expensive appliance package make sure that it adequately fits the mill work and everything that you're building around it that is the ideal way of doing it especially I'm just saying if you're doing something new and you're doing a renovation do it right because the kitchen is so tricky it's the one room in the house that I definitely would say hire a pro to do it

there's literally half an inch or quarter of an inch makes a huge difference when you're dealing with some of this stuff so buy the right appliances for yourself and again if you have appliances that don't fit because they they were there and good enough for now you already know that they're not perfect so you don't have you don't have to listen to me to tell you that okay next up on my list is going to be to buy impractical knobs and latches for your kitchen so this one comes up a lot because again I do

think it's so important that your kitchen be incredibly functional so it's important that you're able to move freely in your kitchen without worrying about snags in your clothing without worrying about things catching without just being able to move and freely use all your drawers and cabinets and appliances and countertops and food and all the things without necessarily having to feel like you're going to hurt yourself and so often the knobs and latches I think that people are buying especially the ones with like a little tea that have the arms that are a little bit longer

those I find are particularly hazardous in the kitchen again if it's on your bathroom vanity it's probably not going to kill you you know what I mean like you're probably that's going to be okay because you're not doing maybe as much movement in there and you're probably dealing with maybe a couple of those it's not going to be the end of the world I still might not necessarily consider it I would prefer something that's a little bit more closed off so you don't run the risk of necessarily kind of hurting yourself by bumping into it

or snagging your clothing or whatever but in the kitchen it becomes extremely important because you probably have more than one person that's working through there right they could have more than one person in the kitchen at a time people are moving people are kind of like going from the fridge they're using the work triangle please see video one where I talked about the work triangle you know they're going from the oven they're going from the the refrigerator they're going from the sink and people are moving back and forth and you just got to make sure

that you're buying the knobs and latches that are going to make practical sense for you and uh or for for any human being to be honest with you it's not just you it's some of these are just inappropriate in my opinion for kitchen use they look great but they're just not functional long term also you know if you don't want any hardware you know that's fine I would consider things like push to clo soft closes things like that can make a lot of sense on your kitchen cabinets you don't necessarily even need Hardware just remember

that you know obviously you're going to have to you know use the right mechanisms when you're buying for your uh your kitchen cabinetry but overall I would say biggest mistake would be buying latches and knobs that are inappropriate for kitchen use okay it's a high traffic area okay so we need to make sure that these things are going to work for you over the long term okay next up on my list is going to be not having enough electrical outlets so there is also again please see my small appliance addiction there's also a lot of

electrical needs that are happening in the kitchen maybe even more than any other room to be H maybe the living room or office or something like that but honestly the kitchen has a lot of small appliances where you're going to need to have access to electrical outlets so often I think people kind of skimp out on some of these electrical outlets without considering that actually having access to electrical outlets maybe even USBC Outlets or whatever might make sense for you are going to be really really important you know so often the kitchen is now especially

if you have an open concept home for a lot of people it's kind of the hub for the the the right around the living room right like it's it's the hub for this for the the the whole home you know how every party always gravitates towards the food everybody's on that kitchen island because that's where the food is right like the party happens around food and food is in the kitchen so you know I just think it's really important when people are doing kids are doing their homework at the kitchen island people are sitting at

the dining table doing work now people are using all those different kitchen appliances in the kitchen there's just a lot of needs lots of things that are happening in the kitchen and so often people don't consider the amount of electrical outlets that they're actually going to need for their kitchen they might think they've got you know obviously one for the fridge maybe one for different kind of the you know the bigger appliances but they don't think that they actually maybe need uh several other outlets in spaces like off the side of a kitchen island under

sort of a kitchen island that are going to make a lot of sense to be able to access there's nothing worse than you know you sit there you got your new kitchen and you put your blender on the middle of the uh kitchen island and you realize that those little cords that they give you just aren't long enough to get to the other side where you put an outlet so make sure to think of what your electrical needs are going to be when you go design your kitchen okay next kitchen design mistake is going to

be not considering a color other than white you're probably thinking of getting a away kitchen that's the reality and good for you I am personally on record to say that I think the white kitchen is timeless I think white is a Timeless color I think white in the kitchen is very clean it is very beautiful white cabinets have always been in I will say this about Timeless designs though that often times things are Timeless but then they increase in popularity and they sort of EB and flow in popularity but that doesn't mean they're not Timeless

you know subway tile is timeless it's always a fine option sometimes it's really popular sometimes it's not but overall it's a fine option it's not super trendy where it just looks like incredibly dated and stuck in a very specific period of time White kitchens are kind of similar right you don't it's it's one of those things where a white kitchen is always a very safe fine nice way of building a kitchen right and they were so popular I would say several years ago everything was white you saw the Instagram influencers the Instagram girlies down in

Salt Lake City they all had their incredibly beautiful children and these giant mansions I assume and they had these huge kitchen islands and they all kind of looked like sheay from Studio McGee and they just had these white white white white white white kitchens and everything was white and everything was face tuned and everything was Lightroom to the point where it was on Instagram and it just looked gorgeous they all had those big wide brain Brown hats you know what I'm talking about I'm painting a mood for you okay just so you know that that

was very very very popular and a lot of people still love that and if you want that go for it don't listen to me go do it if you want your white kitchen go have fun it is a Timeless option I don't think it's going to be a bad choice in several years I think it's going to be a fine Choice why is this a mistake I'm just saying have a little bit of fun you don't necessarily have to just get the white courts and the white cabinets you can explore different options you can have

your uppers a different color than the bottom ones you can have wood cabinets right you can have really fun Stone you don't just have to get the white quartz you can get marble you can get different types of granite you can get soap stone you can get Quartz site you can get lots of you can get Quartz that replicates marble or replicates granate or replicates whatever you want it to be cuz quartz is a man-made Stone it's not actually coming from nature it's not really a stone at all but it's stone countertops just it's um

well it's Stone and then it's a bunch of res and a bunch of pigment you know then pressed into a slab but anyway you can you can use quarts you can use lots of different types of things all playing with pattern all playing with color all playing with different interesting finishes different things than just the plain old white kitchen with the sort of waterfall countertop that we've seen a thousand times so consider other options you can then choose white I'm just saying consider other options as well okay next up on my list is going to

be small scale pendants so I see this I see this thing often times in like these bigger kitchens where people buy these really sort of dinky little a bit of a little pendants I think that larger pendants make a lot more sense especially when it fits the scale of the room so if you have five or even three of those little small pendants I think often times instead of those three small dinky pendants over top of this really large 10ft island consider having two or having just two larger ones or three larger ones or whatever

but just making sure that the scale is sort of really feels off those little pendants can be cute and they might make sense next to a bedside table they might over top of a bedside table in the bedroom it might make sense in a bathroom right maybe that might make sense over there but these I think people just insist on putting in these tiny little small pendants and I don't know why are they afraid that if they go too big it's going to make too much of a statement is it cost I don't think so

if you're going to do a huge renovation don't skimp out on these tiny little pendants they just always look a little bit funny to me because they just don't fit the scale of the rest of the room so I would personally pick larger pendants that are going to make a little bit more sense and write sized for that space as opposed to these small little Rinky Dink ones that just never look good so don't be afraid to go a little bit bigger on your lighting okay and then next up we've got skipping the details there's

lots of different details like I mentioned before in the kitchen which is why often times it's really a good idea to hire somebody you know even if there just to lay out all your functional needs and your contractor or whatever rather than you know it might not necessarily be helping with a lot with the Aesthetics but just making sure that all those little pieces work together the details matter in the kitchen the smallest detail that is missed in the kitchen will bug you over the long term and since most people don't renovate their kitchen what

every 10 20 years for some people maybe longer these little details like drawers that don't line out properly dishwashers that open and then Bang into you know the the drawer system or the poles from the pre the cabinet GH all that stuff is just incredibly annoying and I would also consider that there's lots of other really cool things details that you can do in the kitchen that will make a huge difference so things like your light switches things like putting things on dimmers things like countertop edge profiles right I mentioned the waterfall countertop before which

is a fine I think it's fine I think it's a fine count if you love waterfall go for it but there's lots of really interesting edge profiles that you can do assuming that you're probably going to be you know hiring your good a good fabricator obviously check with your fabricator to make sure they can do some of these wonderful things that might be a little bit more expensive than you want to do something really fancy but just consider that that's like a small detail that's going to make a massive impact overall in your kitchen things

like again like I mentioned the electrical outlets things like the light switch covers things like the light switches themselves right are you buying just kind of the plain white ones or are you maybe thinking of experimenting and having a bit a little bit more fun with some of those interesting details things like tow kick lighting or undercounter lighting make a massive difference for a kitchen if you're up in the middle of the night for a midnight snack I don't judge then you know having a space where you can just a little press a button or

maybe it's motion censored and it will light up without overwhelming yourself and blinding yourself at 2:00 in the morning while you're there to get that leftover pizza you know instead of just like blinding yourself with those pot lights instead you just flick it on you got a nice little subtle glow happening in the cabinets and maybe in the toe kick and then you're good enough and you can enjoy your pizza while the rest of your family is sleeping when during the next day where all the pizza went you know what I mean like you can

still do that and have a little bit of lighting that's just there and going to give a nice subtle glow and just really takes a kitchen from good to great in my opinion and again those little details around those organization things really matter so having a predetermined spot for your garbage and your recycling and your Organics right so you know you're going to need those things so plan for them so instead of just kind of building your kitchen and you got everything all in order and it's done and it's beautiful and then you go oh

right where am I going to put my garbage what's my plan for my recycling where am I going to put my little compost bin do I need one do I have one where am I going to put it what am I going to do well that stuff usually is an afterthought and people end up just s of like having them in the center of the room and it just always kind of just feels a little bit like if a little bit more foresight was put into some of those details as you were going into design

the kitchen you could have a pre like set drawer cabinet where you've got your garbage in there and your smells are in there and no one has to look at it and it's all good and then you just open your cabinet and now you're good to go and you can like pull out those things are really simple to do and those things are just an Ikea and not that difficult to find of course if you're designing yourself a beautiful custom kitchen then you can get somebody to build whatever you want but just really think through

the details looking at how you normally use your kitchen right now cuz I'm assuming you have a kitchen right now how do you normally use it what are the things that bug you about your current kitchen that you're going to be able to correct in the new one and even if you're not doing a full kitchen renovation consider repurposing some of those drawers that you may be have that are doing that that honestly are underutilized maybe you've got a drawer that just has one single pot in it and you're like I could probably fix this

and do something better with it which case you can maybe put in something like an organic system in that drawer unit because it's not really being functionally utilized for right now right so take a look at those items that are maybe being underutilized and thinking how am I functionally using this space and am I able to repurpose some of these drawers or cabinet units into something a little bit more functional for how I actually use my kitchen okay so that's it for me for today guys I hope you really enjoyed this video I'm going to

link here to my kitchen design mistakes video part one so if there's stuff in here that you're like wait this sounds like it was a mistake yeah it probably is and I probably talked about it in the last video so I'll see you on that one thanks bye