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📹 7 WORST KITCHEN DESIGN MISTAKES (& how to fix them✅)
Hey hello! In today’s video, we’re looking at the worst kitchen design mistakes! Let’s not mess up our kitchens, they’re expensive to …
📹 Modern Farmhouse Kitchen Tour 2021 | Kitchen Design | ZLINE kitchen appliances
In this video, we show off the features our new, “almost” finished farmhouse style kitchen. My wife and I have spent considerable …
The biggest mistake I see layout wise occurs when people don’t allow adequate prep space directly beside their cook-top (which the where you want it to be). People put impractical decorative columns around the stove or worse, cabinets that go all the way to the counter leaving only one foot of space or less. Having the prep space on the island across from the cook top is even worse because after you chop your onions, for example, you have to then transfer them across the gap between the island and stove. And then you repeat the process with whatever else the stove top dish requires. Makes no sense! Islands are great for baking prep or for something that is one and done right into the oven but otherwise, you need decent prep space beside the stove.
I renovated my kitchen summer of 21 when the (pricey) appliances I wanted weren’t available (stuck on a boat somewhere). I had to go with what was available at big box DIY places. The stove I got was the least expensive on the market ($520) and the fridge about the same price. I thought I’d buy new appliances when they became available. Guess what?! Happy as a clam with these inexpensive appliances and don’t have any intention of buying the more expensive ones.
I think the ‘Gap Above the Cabinets’ “design mistake” is a personal choice the same as open shelving (which I personally think is a design mistake) is for some. I like to display my teapot collection where they can be seen but are out of the way. “But, they’re going to collect dust up there!” So what? Don’t climb up onto my counters and you won’t swoon from the shock of it all.
I HATE my counter depth fridge!!! We had a regular depth fridge that died, and my husband suggested the counter depth one as a replacement. It’s beautiful, but I can’t fit stuff in it very easily. I’m always rejiggering stuff to try to fit things in…it’s too much mental fatigue for a stupid fridge. Now we rely on having Another fridge in the garage for the overflow. I say Don’t Do It! Forget the aesthetics
You did such a good job with this subject! I like my kitchen, but I wish I would’ve watched this before we renovated…I think I’d have sprung for more drawers. They were very expensive and I couldn’t really justify the cost in my mind, but now I regret it. Regarding the space above the cabinets, I would add another exception: I purposely wanted a ledge above because I have a colorful collection that I keep up there and it I think it makes the kitchen more attractive, and since my kitchen is mostly white, it adds the right amount of accent. (In my opinion). I don’t think you mentioned under-counter lighting which I enjoy so much when cooking, chopping, baking, etc.
This article doesn’t just point out flaws; it’s a crash course in creating a well-designed and practical kitchen space. The host’s engaging style and real-world examples empower viewers to navigate potential errors with confidence, ensuring their kitchens are both visually appealing and highly functional.
About the triangle, a brand new home we purchased was designed with a long island down the middle of what was a very large galley kitchen. The stove, fridge, and sink were perfectly placed for ease of use, however the island cut into the triangle pattern and we had to walk in a U pattern around the island constantly. I wanted to saw off the last 24 inches to fix that problem all the time. It was frustrating. We eventually moved to a fixer and I had the chance to design my own kitchen. The center island is out of the triangle and I am thrilled. Just a thought about drawers. They are the best and I was fortunate enough to decide on IKEA cabinetry as I was doing the reno work. I planned the layout and installed the shells of the bottom cabinets and purchased drawers or doors depending on cabinet use over time. As we lived in it, we moved the drawers around, bought thinner ones, added some where we didn’t have them, etc. Couldn’t be happier. I have one more door to switch out for two drawers. That will happen soon. I am so glad I didn’t have to plan everything first and just live with it. HIGHLY recommend IKEA kitchens. PLUS, you can switch out the fronts of cabinets to another style if you want. Solves the bold color problem.
My biggest mistake when designing/building our first kitchen was not listening to my wife. 44 years later I have just completed our latest incorporating all the correct design elements you highlighted including 53 drawers. If only I had access to such valuable advice 43 years ago I could have avoided the pain of learning by experience. Thank you for sharing your expert professional knowledge.
I have a mix of lower cabinets and drawers and I am glad I kept some lower cabinets for small appliances and heavy things like my cast iron pots. The everyday stainless and nonstick pans and storage containers are in big drawers next to the range and I love those. I’ll admit getting to the back of the lower cabinets means sitting on the floor. However, I just consider getting up and down off the floor good for maintaining mobility. Just some things to consider.
The biggest mistake I made was with the fridge. Do not put the fridge at either end of the cabinets. You have to allow for it to be completely opened so you can take out the shelves or vegetable bins to clean them, or you will have to pull the fridge out to access them. Very important. Debra from Melbourne Australia xxx
After we rebuilt our kitchen when the house flooded in Hurricane Harvey, I replaced most of the base cabinets with drawers on full extension soft-close glides, and I’m very happy with them. Something I would do differently if I did it again would be to increase the aisle space from 36″ to 42″. That would mean cutting down the center island, but I would trade the extra storage space for enough room for two people to pass each other easily in the aisles.
Do not obsess about anything when first moving into your newly purchased home, pretend you are renting – settle in and determine your work flows in the kitchen, how light impacts on the room; next select potential appliances and research their specifications for example if you decide to go all electric and delete gas appliances, the billing advantage is you pay only one service charge plus usage. Ad now there is induction which I have fallen in love with because the cleanup is so easy and the advantage of timers auto switching the appliance off is so convenient – not so with gas. Finally colour scheme, there are paint sample pots you can buy and experiment on cards, festoon the walls and decide if you can live with that colour or mix of colours. As for lighting sometimes strategically placed table lamps (check IKEA) work quite well without committing to a permanent set of fittings and electrician’s bill. Take your time and don’t be pressured by sales people. Trust me, you will change your mind at least a dozen times before you are happy with your final choices and the final cost.
I have a kitchen with only drawers on the lower side and I HATE it! I have no place to store my pots and pans; even the huge drawers on the bottom don’t have room for more than 2 pots and I would always recommend to have at least one low cabinetry for pots. Of course, if you have room for an extra cupboard or another place to store your pots, you’re fine, but I only have the kitchen cabinetry, no extra space for storage. I have use for ONE set of drawers on the lower side, but I’m completely clueless what to store in the others. In former kitchens, I had low cabinetry instead of drawers and LOVED it! Not a design mistake at all, but pure matter of taste 🙂 Also, I’ve seen several people loving their red kitchen for many years! But it’s a matte darker red nuance, not bright shiny red.
This was a great article, with some really good tips. I have made the mistake with the ‘oversized’ Fridge, (I wonder how many people haven’t?) but fortunately I was able to return the Fridge and exchange it for one not quite so deep. The oversized rangehood (your personal example) made me chuckle. I wonder how many times has someone bonked their head on that range, it’s Huge! the point about buying an appliance package is a very valid point, sales people often try to pressure people into buying a ‘package’ when the buyer isn’t 100% sure. There will always be a deal someplace else – shop around, know your prices and more importantly how good a reputation the company has that you are buying from.
I’m in the process of designing my kitchen. Thank you for this article,! I find all your articles educational. I also really love and appreciate how your design ideas are realistic. You understand we all love to come home to a beautiful, serene, well designed space; however, we may not have the bank account to support it. Your work around solutions are budget friendly and you take the time to explain the pros and cons. LOVE LOVE LOVE your articles!
Lots of houses built before the kitchen triangle was invented have weird configurations jerry-rigged through decades of landlord-ownership. The kitchens are usually small, too. I bought a 100+year old house like that. It’s a narrow space with appliances put wherever, no workable countertops, and architectural obstacles to the layout that would be expensive to change. The solution I’m considering most affordable is handmade counters on wheels. I can literally roll the food from the fridge to the stove, for instance. I can make it look good (instead of another jerry-rig) by choosing a nice wood stain and splurging on matching, quality countertop material.
The fridge thing 😅 I see this in every interiorsomething article on YouTube, and thought that was an american thing because your fridges are just deeper then your cabinets. “Make everything bigger … but not the cabinets”, something like that. Which is wild to me. Edit: ok that’s a standard size … Why? I never see this in Europe.
We designed our current home a little over a year ago. I bit the bullet and told the builder I wanted all underneath drawers instead of cabinets. Let me tell you it was a game changer and worth every single cent. Whenever I open the bottom drawers, I can see EVERYTHING. There is nothing hidden and nothing “falls” into a dark corner. Maybe it is in my head, but I swear I seem to have more space to put things away in the under counter drawer vs cabinet. I probably think that because nothing is hidden in some dark corner in the back. Since I can see everything, I don’t buy a lot of duplicate stuff because I can see where everything is.
I agree with all except the drawers. I much, much prefer cabinets. Many drawers are too deep for the space to be used effectively, especially for food. I don’t want to stack things in drawers, nor do I want to look at tops (dishes are different). I like being able to see everything at a glance. I also feel there is less storage space with drawers than cabinets due to the stacking/depth issue. However, as someone who lives in Japan, I have a tiny kitchen which means cabinets (or drawers) are not as deep as they are in the US/Canada. So there’s no issue in not being able to reach things at the back. But they prefer drawers here too which meant it was really difficult for me to find lower cabinets anywhere!
The much disparaged 1950s housewife: A woman who invested the lion’s share of her waking hours taking care of herself, her family, and her home. That meant home-cooked meals, kids who felt safe in a stable caregiving environment, and floors that were actually clean. Now? The lion’s share of our waking hours are spent investing in a corporate bottom line in order to feed our egos rather than our families, and the lion’s share of our paltry take-home pay is handed over to people to look after our children for money and to clean our houses for us, and to carry-out restaurants to feed our families food that is devoid of nutrients but heavy in sugar, salt, and fat. Progress, huh?
I think it depends on what you want to put in the cabinets. Our lower cabinets are for storage of countertop appliances, for the most part, with all of the smaller items stored much higher up. I really don’t want to be pulling countertop appliances (like a stand mixer or an ice cream maker) out of drawers. It’s too hard to get your hands around them. I put the pans in drawers, and I have 12 other drawers around the kitchen, but I made everything else cabinets. Not sorry. But, if you’re someone without a lot of these heavy countertop appliances, who wants to eliminate your upper cabinets and store everything in lower cabinets– I can definitely see how you’d want drawers.
Suggestion for drawers below was very helpful! That was a light bulb moment for me, as I am getting older and prepping for my one and only kitchen reno soon. I’ve got one chance to get this right. Most other things I had already thought about. Also, I thought I wanted a counter-depth fridge, but after reading some reviews and hearing about how some find them very hard to live with (shallow depth) I’m pretty sure I’m going with standard depth again…..but will make sure the space is designed to fit correctly. Great article! Thank you!
I considered the counter depth refrigerator as I bought non-custom cabinets. However, after weighing the pros and cons of expense and lack of fridge space, I opted for the standard size refrigerator knowing full well it would not be as aesthetically pleasing as a counter depth. The only pro to my decision is that the sides of my refrigerator is gray; almost the same gray as my cabinets which allows the oversized fridge to be less noticeable.
Love your article. I’m a designer from Singapore and have practice and implement many of the things you mentioned for years. Glad to have found someone with many similar design philosophy as me and I look forward to learning more from you . I’ve been designing and building for 14 years and loving all the aspects.
Thankfully, my new kitchen is not crippled with those mistakes! I don’t have wall cabinets, my fridge is in a corner, and I insisted to have drawers units instead of cabinets (been there, done that!!!). And finally the hood is at the right height. BUT I have lived with a kitchen that presented all of the above for around 20 years. You learn from your mistakes!! I wish I’d seen your article 20 years ago… 🤣
I definitely like the idea of closing the gap above the kitchen cabinets. However, my kitchen has 10 foot ceilings. And I was on a strict budget so I could not afford to do the higher cabinets all the way up to the ceiling. Sometimes you just gotta do what you Gotta do. It doesn’t help that I’m only 5 foot one.
No one seems to have commented on the height that upper cabinets are mounted (or to put it another way – the distance between the bench & the uppers 🤔 ). Someone else did comment on possible differences between UK building regulations & USA. I am an Australian & here there are regulations if you have electric cook top / hot plates / cooking elements located under wall mounted cabinets (I am not sure what everyone calls them) . If you have a gas cook top🍳 then it is a greater height requirement. Power points must be a certain minimum distance from water (sinks, dishwashers) Also realising that if you want a double-sink then your base cabinet may need to be wider (doors not drawers) Knowing your country’s regulations can save a lot of hassle & disappointment 😞 when your carefully thought out design can’t succeed & sometimes the solution is really not what you really pictured or wanted.
Lower cabinets are available with heavy duty pullouts so the entire cabinet is fully accessible. Every cabinet company offers them and many companies offer retrofit pullout. A refrigerator sticking out a bit is normal, receding your wall is likely not easy or practical. A counter depth refrigerator will need more than a 36 inch wide space because they are at least 36 inches wide. Refrigerators bulge a bit too. So choose a 37 inch refrigerator cabinet to give your refrigeratoe breathing room. You will need to pull it out once year and vacuum the dust off the back and coils to keep it lasting longer.
Gap at the top is a perfectly fine decorative space. Conversely, my kitchen is tall enough that in order to reach up there I need the 6-steps-ladder: how often do you think I’d be able to use anything from Up There? And forget about putting up anything heavy. So, disagreeing on that one! I forgive you the inches for the drawers tip, though…
I always wanted a lazy Susan until I got 2! I hate them. It doesn’t matter how careful you are, something falls off & it’s a big deal to reach it. I had deep drawers in an island, one I used for all of my baking supplies. I LOVED it! Everything in one spot & electric plug ins were close. As for short top cabinets, they’re the worst. Get tall cabinets & store holiday dishes or something you rarely use on the top ones. Multilevel top cabinets looks like someone couldn’t measure correctly & kept the cabinets…😀
The size of a fridge thing…. thank you – NOT – manufacturers who seem to change the height and depth of fridges about every 5 years. The only fridge that had the features we wanted was way deeper – about 5 inches than the fridge it replaced. So frustrating. Especially since the life of an appliance is now about 5 years.
My biggest error when I had my house built was to put grouted ceramic tile on the kitchen floor. The grout became stained with greasy grime, and even having it professionally cleaned and sealed didn’t last long. When I consulted my flooring company for advice they told me, “We don’t put grouted tile in kitchens anymore.” I have finally decided that my tile goes well with brown grout.
To counter decision fatigue & lack of time, my sis used me as a triage assistant & last decision second opinion. Step 1: I did an easy excel spreadsheet for each category (ex: fridge), with one quality/issue (ex: has a vacation mode) per line & one product per column. Step 2: she could easily pick her 2 or 3 favorite choices (& at the same time learn which qualities are on the market in case she needed to switch because of delays) Step 3: we visited shops to really see & test products before me giving her a final, practical opinion then her deciding & ordering. I did that for most of the important items in the house. Poor woman was so overwhelmed but the sheer amount of daily decisions to make (& following her useless contractors around to point out remodeling mistakes) that, by the middle of the reno, she would have just chosen the first expensive thing in front of her just to get to the next problem. Lesson I learned: start the spreadsheets, the moodboards & the plans the second I feel like moving. This way I’ll know what I like/dislike in detail & look for a place that fits my needs. Then I can adjust without starting from scratch once i actually find the place.
The problem with the kitchen triangle is that it doesn’t consider the rest of the kitchen: it has the fridge but not the pantry, the sink but not the dishwasher or eve the rubbish bins, and the stove but not the oven or space for all the other appliances we use to cook our food. And it doesn’t reference a workbench! So when you take rice from your pantry and place it in your rice cooker, the only part of the kitchen triangle you use is the sink for some water. When you take bread and cheese from the fridge and put it in the sandwich press for a cheese toastie, again, you’re using one point of the kitchen triangle and then other spaces that aren’t mentioned. There are actually very few meals that use the fridge, the sink, and the stovetop, and no other part of the kitchen. If you focus too much on the triangle and neglect all the other workspaces in your kitchen, you’ll end up with a kitchen that sounds great on paper but is a complete headache to work in.
For those with mobility issues that have cupboards below counter (because you need the depth of storage), please use tall/deep containers or bins to store your goods. You can still access them with a grabber (or if an option, a supported bend from the worksurface) and they work brilliantly for macro storage problems like biscuits, crisps, etc. I would always store jars or tins above waist height. Just a little tip from someone who has very limited mobility x
We bought an 1896 Victorian 2-story (my dream home!) in 1996. Although we did start renovating as soon as we could (house was in BAD shape), we lived here 20 years before touching the kitchen. We knew that would be our most expensive project, and we wanted to do it right. We designed and did it ourselves, and although there are some things I wish we had done differently, overall I am well pleased with the end result! One thing I do wish we had done differently was in choosing which door we would take out. There were two doors that inside the kitchen we’re basically side by side. One opened into the hall, the other into a room that had been a storage room. There was also a large doorway into the dining room, and yet another to the outside! Lots of doors! We planned to take out the wall between the hall and storage room to extend the hall the full length, then the storage area would be closed off to make a laundry room. I told my husband that I thought we should take out the door that led to the hall and keep the other one as the kitchen entrance. Looking back on this, had we waited until led actually we’re living here ( moved in ) weeks after buying) I think the other door would have been the better choice. Then again, maybe not.
Here’s the truth: The only people who worry about details like the fridge sticking out too much are interior designers. The average person values function over form. I bake a lot, and I needed a big fridge to put large trays in, so I bought a large fridge. It does stick out about 6 inches past my cabinets, BUT, I would never trade it for something smaller just because it may look nicer in the eyes of some people. My house, my comfort. I find it preposterous to even suggest that someone remodel their kitchen or return and fridge for a smaller more expensive one. Designers are too preoccupied with making every inch of a house eye candy to people who don’t live there.
You need some lower cabinets for appliances and tall pots. Your instant pot will not fit in a standard 3 drawer. Yes, i know there are some cabinet lines that offer deep drawers but remember budget budget budget! Use pull out shelves to increase access and you have more flexibility for height. And these are available after market for a lot less.
Are you suggesting that all capinets should be placed in such a way to give you minimum back movement? I mean, lower cabinets cannot all be drawers not because of the cost but because drawers don’t store as much as cabinets do. High is too high and low is too low… people are very spoiled these days. That’s your daily workout I guess.
I avoided a few of these issues by not having upper cabinets at all! My husband and I bought live edge wood planks that I finished myself, and now we have gorgeous open shelving. Not for everyone, but they are practical and beautiful–and so inexpensive. I think we spent less than $200 for everything, including heavy duty black steel brackets. It looks like a French farmhouse kitchen.
fridges need airflow to cool though. Many of these “design trends” are not very functional in that regard and they promote stupid things like obstructing the flow of air from your fridge so it fails earlier or hanging pans over the stove where they will be 100% dirty even if you don’t use them. The same happens with microwaves… people just stick them into wooden boxes without thinking about the airflow.
Why do you assume that everybody has $20,000 to replace their kitchen cabinets with “drawers?” Most of us don’t have brand new homes that we have the option of picking out “drawers” rather than bottom cabinets. We have inherited cabinets from prior owners. My home was built in 1956 and has those ugly 1980s “golden oak” cabinets with the arched “carved in” look on the top cabinets and “rectangular” carved in look on the drawers and bottom cabinets. They are in excellent condition and I am not planning to replace them any time soon. I live alone, they will last for the next 40 years should I live that long (I’m 71). As far as your idea of going to the ceiling with cabinets, I would have to pay a contractor to come in and take out the 1956 style soffit and then either buy brand new cabinets to go all the way to the ceiling (assuming I would not have to move plumbing, etc.) or add rows of about 12″ to 15″ tall cabinets. Why bother? And I’d have to have a ladder to access those cabinets. I’d rather get on my knees on the floor and use those lower cabinets that go back 28 inches and have plenty of storage. Pull-out drawers are installed in the cabinets I use all the time (with my everyday pots and pans) and in the cabinets underneath the “breakfast bar” (that I don’t use, but makes accessing the cabinets beneath it awful). The drawers make it easy to access what I need and my handyman was able to install them in a few hours.
great article, we are just finalizing our renovation and this was very helpful. Thank you so much. Curious what your thoughts are on doing away with our kitchen table and going with a large island with 4-5 seats( may do waterfall so 4 seats in that case) and a small seperate two seat counter that looks out on family room. We have a completely separate dinning room too. Thanks .
You forgot the cardinal sin of not enough power outlets. While European and American kitchens are very different, as a minimum you need 5 power outlets, 2 on one side of the stovetop and 3 on the other side. Plus more on other parts of the countertop, eg on the island. YOU WILL REGRET IT IF YOU DONT. Just finished my second DIY kitchen in 2 years.
Having all drawers in kitchen looks very tacky as if you have tool chest for a kitchen. They make heavy duty slide outs that can be either mulit-tiered or just a sliding deck for the lower cabinets which actually make them more usable than drawers as you retain the height of the cabinet which you don’t get with drawers.
I don’t know where this idea came from that it takes two people to cook the main part of a meal. The work triangle saves footsteps. It is easier. In a larger room, the reasonable triangle can save miles of walking. The key is to have work surface outside the triangle for other tasks to be completed. Most kitchens do not have multiple refrigerators and ranges/hobs. If I’m in the middle of making a multi course meal, the last thing I want is someone else under my feet. Most of the kitchens you used as examples are not meant for serious cooking. They are for warming up and instant cooking. Try doing a full on roast beef dinner with all the trimmings. It would take forever to clean back up and you would be exhausted by the time the trifle hit the table.
I’m in an apartment and at least 1/3 or more of the cabinet space is totally unusable. Poor design for sure. Lazy Susan’s would be ideal and as you say drawers instead of lower cabinets would be ideal. The landlady how ever does not and will not make the necessary changes so I’m having to invest in a stand alone cabinet to provide space that I need.
I have a very small 1950s galley kitchen with the old metal cabinets and unused corner, dining room doorway at one end & exterior door at the other end. We’re getting new wall & base cabinets. The base cabinets are: A slim 18″ pantry with pullout shelves, a 12″ pullout tray drawer, a 15″ drawer cabinet, a sink cabinet, a corner lazy susan and a regular 27″ cabinet with top drawer and pullout shelves. Glad the door cabinets now offer pullout shelves.
It’s always funny learning some of the differences in America compared to Europe, initially I was like why would your fridge ever stick out? Then when you said standard depth fridge, I was like oh you mean if you haven’t got the space for full size/depth cupboards and worktops, then you said counter depth fridge. All home fridges in the UK are counter depth, that would be a standard fridge for us, I don’t think that you can even get deep fridges or they would be very hard to find due to basically no one wanting them. Also our fridges are designed so that the front of the door is flush to the units, no poorly designed hinge so you have to have the door protruding from the rest of the kitchen units.
Counter depth fridge was a game changer for us because we weren’t in a place free to renovate. The corn butter depth looked better AND gave us back about 8 inches of space between the fridge and the island. Made walking through that area so much better and the fridge door didn’t hit the back of the stool when we were sitting at the island. Warning: you’re losing space in the fridge but we have a second spare fridge downstairs so this didn’t matter to us.
I have been doing short-term rentals for years and for me design = time it takes to clean and how easy and functional it is to clean Emoji and this is becoming more and more important the older I get. The pull-out drawers are a game-changer, on all fronts!!! The filler between cabinets and ceiling is a must and the built-in fridge is a cleaning time saver. I remember my mom putting newspaper on top of those low cabinets that she would change every few weeks, if she forgot it would get stuck from the humidity, grease and dust 🤣🤣 A few things I would never do in a kitchen again; microwave above the range, stainless steel fridge, cabinets with trim, standalone stainless steel hood, any sort of mirror or glass, any sort of fancy tap with swivels, fancy hanging lights/chandeliers, just to name a few:face-blue-smiling: I think that if designers consulted cleaning people and people that use their kitchens to do a lot of cooking and cleaning a lot would change in the way of design. I’m dreaming of the day when I can renovate my kitchen and get rid of the open concept …. I say bring back those closed kitchens to the side!!:face-blue-smiling:
Thankyou for article. The drawers are excellent solution to low storage. My kitchen has lower cabinets and l’ve lost count how many time my husband and l have had disagreements over the corner cabinet. Which houses containers. . simply because all the containers l used are stored in that cupboard and husband complains because they spill out, basicall l get weary of searching for containers at rear of cupboard and scrambling on the floor, when he decides to use the microwave. A flaw in a tiny kitchen. Much love to you for loading this article. Yes we changed the two overhead lights to resolve the problem of poor lighting. I love my husband but he tends to hog the kitchen or decides to use it when lm cooking whatever. He cant understand why l wish to move to a house with a larger kitchen, suspect like many other viewers l’ve simply out grown compact kitchen living, which denies my creative abilities when one is continually working around the other person. Yes our hood sticks out and came with the property design.🙏🙏🙏😘👋👌🌈😘
The biggest advantage of a counter depth refrigerator is that food doesn’t get lost at the back… but there is a solution. Our new downsized home has a counter depth fridge, but for the one in the house we recently sold I bought plastic bins with movable dividers and two little wheels in the rear (which also fit in the shallower fridge. You can’t cram as much stuff in, but what is there is easily accessible and far less likely to be forgotten. During harvest season (whether you buy or grow your food for preserving) even a large fridge is often not big enough to hold all the produce, so having one in the basement or garage that you can plug in when you need it is a good idea. You don’t want one with a freezer, though, because it will only be running at certain times as needed.
My kitchen in a decaying relic, much like the rest of my house. The problem is I’m not the homeowner, I’m just a tenant, so I’m reluctant to spend my money improving the value of someone else’s property. Most of the kitchen cabinets are chipboard, and with years of damp they’ve gone soft and started to sag, so in-situ renovation is out of the question. And sadly I just can’t afford new cabinets, not even self-assembly, much less a fitted kitchen contractor. So I’m thinking about buying second hand furniture – any kind of furniture, and turning it into kitchen cabinets and drawers. It’s a big job, and I have no clue what I’m doing, but it’s pretty much my only option.
I have drawers instead of low cabinets. They have heavy duty rollers so my heaviest pots and pans all glide out and I use every inch of my space. No more getting on my knees to fish-out a container, appliance, or pan! I also have the slide out cabinet trash + recycle bins and I love them. My kitchen is usable and beautiful.
The range hood is also our one mistake we made in our kitchen when we built our home twenty years ago. Many a head has bumped into it. Fortunately it’s a high quality brand and the edges are rounded. I cook nearly every day and we’ve become used to it, and we will be sure not to make the same mistake when we design the kitchen in our future home.
Pullouts, in at least one way, beat drawers for functionality, hands down and they cost less! Instead of regular base cabinets (lower cabinets are called base cabinets), opt for base cabinets that have soft close pullouts. They cost more than regular base cabinets but quite a bit less than base drawer cabinets. They function the same as drawers with one added advantage: you can easily alter what you have. If you need store something large, remove one. If you find that you have unused space, like I am with my pantry, you can add more (esp. for small things like spices and flatware.) In this case, pullouts beat drawers hands down. They’re as functional as drawers but you can alter them easily without breaking the bank. You can actually BUY custom pull outs online to fit the inside of your cabinets (as long as they’re frameless cabinets). The guy who made my cabinets didn’t put enough pull outs in my pantry cabinets. After living with it for several years I broke down recently and purchased custom made pull outs online. They’re solid wood and they even use dove tailed joints! The site guides you through the entire measuring process online. I found it quite easy but if you have trouble they’re really good about getting back with you within 24 hours. The cost of the cabinets includes the soft close hinges, too! And they add what you need to install them to your cart when you add one (which you can remove). I found that very helpful. Local quotes I got for add’l pull outs ranged from $200 EACH to over $300 each.
Talk about a nightmare, we just moved into a home with an absolutely stunning Kitchen (think dark wood) it is filled with bells and whistles except, it’s a high end kitchen from the 1950’s era and the whole kitchen was designed around a fantastic Jenn Air raised cooktop/castiron grill/warming bin/chopping block with a double oven set into a one piece (shrunk like) cabinet/pantry and china hutch. The cooktop still works barely, the oven works if you need to cook anything at 350 plan for 400. Jenn Air doesn’t make replacement Parts for these old beauties. The refrigerator hole doesn’t fit modern refrigerators at all. Its such a shame to know that Jenn Aire designed this and it’s going to take the Franklin mint to gut it. I love this cabinetry. 😢
Great ideas, however I have to argue the cooker hood. In the UK these abominations have NEVER been in fashion bar a very few short years early 1980’s. No one has them they are the grossest most hideous thing you could ever install in a kitchen – period. Discrete ventilation or an extractor in the wall maybe? Another thing (in my eye) you need less of too are your massive ‘stoves’ (cookers we call them, you’ll click on eventually) and more induction hobs; Oh what a Godsend and a holy blessing induction hobs are in every single way imaginable! Loved the article BTW x
Mistake #1: Buying more fridge than you really need. I currently have a 17 cu. ft., 32 inch wide model that’s about a third full of non-consumables that keep better in the fridge (some paints, wood putty, glue, etc.), and still have plenty of room left. Think about eating less – that helps, too. And of course, always opt for a counter-depth fridge. …Not missing my 24 cu. ft. (icemaker) model AT ALL. Mistake #2: Buying a fridge with an ice maker. BIG mistake. Those things eat up a huge amount of real estate, plus are notoriously trouble-prone. Buy a smaller fridge without an icemaker and get the same amount of net cubic feet. Quit chomping on ice as well – that will help and save you trips to the dentist. (Ask me how I know this.) Exception: Iced tea – which you shouldn’t be drinking anyway, except when company comes. Mistake #3: Buying into the modern notion that that huge blob of stainless steel doesn’t look imposing and overwhelming in your smallish kitchen. Granted, they beat the almond and light green numbers from the 70’s, but they still look like you’re in a commercial refrigeration business. You want your kitchen to look warm and inviting instead – you eat and form an appetite with your eyes first. So, keep your food cool by submersing it in a watertight container in a nearby creek. If that’s impractical, do as the British do and hide that blob behind panels. There are articles on YT that explain how. I got my sliding fixtures (a necessity for retrofit panel-attaching) for about 17 bucks USD from the British version of Amazon.
This article was helpful to me when planning our kitchen redo. I appreciate your debunking of the triangle thought. I wanted to move my fridge out of that configuration and my sister couldn’t believe I’d do that…. She made me feel like I knew nothing about design and I caved to the peer pressure. Now, I may go back to that idea. Our kitchen is completely open to our large den area. Thanks! And drawers on the bottom are in our future:))
Great things to look for. I didn’t know that there are counter depth fridges. VERY good to know especially in older kitchens where a deep fridge takes over the space and sticks out a LOT. A wider issue in kitchens to us is: how far is the kitchen from the garage? Hopefully quite near. When a garage is at the far front of the house and the kitchen at the far back, when you bring home groceries you have to shlep them SO FAR. If doing a home design from scratch, see how close you can make the garage and kitchen so shlepping in purchases is not such an exhausting process.
A couple of observations, I disagree with the closed in wall cabinet concept,.unless you have a large kitchen, the reason being that the perception of the room size is allied to the ceiling/wall join. What that means is that your brain perceives the room to be the size presented by the wall ceiling join. I feel the ‘work triangle’ is much more important than you make out. If we take your maximum distances, to make a hot drink you could be walking a total of some nine metres (27 feet in US lingo!) multiply this many times if you’re cooking then that’s quite a workout. As for the cooker hood, may I also add check the noise level? Some of them can be very noisey! I do feel that kitchens are getting too big though and being designed more to show off than focusing on practicalities, but that’s just my opinion. I don’t know ehat the standard countertop depth is in the US but over here in Blighty it’s 600mm (2ft) an innovation I have included in my kitchen design is to make the work surface 700mm deep, this is in recognition of the prevalence of greater numbers of countertop gizmos in modern kitchens and it has worked out very well!
Generally I abhorr the “7design mistakes ” vids because they are almost exclusively aesthetic and go soak your head, if I like it, that’s the end of it. But this article had sone real practical advice and I’m grateful. If I coyld hire a designer, you would be the obe. My house has a particularly endearing charm, but I need to upgrade the kitchen. It would make a seriously excellent project for one of the makeover shows, but since that’s unlikely, this was very helpful. Basically, I love my kitchen, but it’s time for the laminate countertops to go. But that’sexpensiveand if there are going to be changes, this is the time to do it. And I have a few innovative ideas!!!! Next level kitchen design!
You’re wrong with very first point. Most of the customers preferring counter depth fridges nowadays. Some keeping their existing one. Eventually when they buy new one, for sure they’ll go for counter depth. If we make stick out panels with crown finished, obviously will look very bad when you buy your counter depth. Design according to the future availability. Gani
French door refrigerators are the WORST when they have to be placed against a wall because there is no way to open them fully to take out crispers or trays for cleaning, unless you allow 11-18″ space between the wall and the fridge which looks ridiculous. It’s industry standard now for fridges to stick as much as 10″ from the counter edge. Making sure that you have a 24″ deep (and at least 37″ wide) wall cabinet above a standard 36″ wide fridge flanked by fridge side panels that are at least 30″ deep will mitigate it some.
Had to stop perusal at the Fridge Depth comment. If you live alone or just two and have no need of a real size, full size refrigerator that’s one thing. I LOVE LOVE LOVE having a fridge, sticking out or not, that I can house my food in. I am a hostess who loves hospitality and if I were to rely on a little cabinet depth fridge I’d be in trouble. The expert way to decide which fridge to get is how much food you use and do you entertain, do you have a family….etc. The wise decision is by using your own head in your own house, in your own kitchen.
@10:53, Kitchen is always a segregated room with four walls. Today’s houses do not have kitchens. This is a major design flaw in modern open architecture. It does a good job of looking airy and also makes the entire house smell like spices. This design is utterly dysfunctional. Open architecture should be avoided like a plague.
This whole article is ridiculous! I have a counter depth fridge and it sucks! I cook every day and need the space. Drawers down low suck for organization and I’m fine with crouching down to get things. I’m not 80. I lost interest soon after the first couple bits of advice! Who is this “Expert”? Nothing I see here is practical.
I keep seeing the fridge depth issue as a “mistake” but it’s really just necessity. When our kitchen was built 20 years ago, the cabinetry was built for a standard fridge. Fast forward 18 or so years, standard refrigerators sizes have changed and are much deeper and wider. Yes, they sell “counter depth” but they cost at least 1k more. So, stop calling it a mistake, we all know it’s wrong and none of us love it but that is the way it is.
Frugal five-foot tall home owner here. I splurged on hand-crafted 29″ countertop–bull nosed and homey like something from the Greek islands I love with wood stools underneath for sitting. This is my only built in. Cabinets (1/4 price of built ins) are beautiful, steel, highest-quality industrial, tall garage models, 14″ deep on amazing casters. I can reach everything. Looks great, works great, saves a ton of money.
Oh no! A fridge that is not aesthetically pleasing! Maybe Christmas afternoon wasn’t the best time for me to look at kitchen DIY renovation ideas. This is the second YT article I’ve found that put me off within the first 2 minutes. The assumption that most people have exposable incomes…the vast majority of the world’s population are struggling to feed our kids. Looking forward to the day when upcycling/re-cycling are the norm. Already flashy, opulent living is becoming tasteless and just uncool. Nothing personal against you. You are probably my a lovely person.
YEP, was looking online at homes for sale,saw a few red kitchens and said NOPE, not interested. Of course, I am also NOT a fan of the open floor plan that is popular. So, something to consider IF you are considering selling your home. The thing about red kitchens. You might love it, but if you try to sell, it might make it harder to sell.
Counter-depth fridge is a rip-off. Pay the same and get less. I think all of us don’t have enough fridge space, so don’t get the counter-depth. If your fridge sticks out more than 6 inches, check if you pulled the entire fridge out when opening the doors. In this case, you just need to secure the front feet.
Chapters and metric system should both be mandatory number one the dreaded sticking out fridge number two low Cabinetry number three trendy and bold colored Cabinetry number four Gap above the cabinets a gap between the upper kitchen cabinets and a standard height ceiling number five inadequate lighting number six blindly following the kitchen work triangle number seven my kitchen design mistake it’s important to realize that we all make mistakes so I want..
Thank you – In particular, your vent hood bit… validated a design I just did for my son and his partner. The 6’4″ person in the relationship will be able to use the range, and see the back of the counters in this kitchen, as opposed to what the architect and the kitchen designer specified. We did all lower drawers (except for the cookie sheet cabinet), and we made a plenty big fridge width for a counter depth fridge, unlike the architect. I’ll add an 8th kitchen design problem – wall ovens for TINY kitchens. Nothing like choking the entrance to a tiny kitchen with a fridge that sticks out, and a couple of wall ovens. Oy.
The fridge one is weird. The last apartment i had before we bought our house had counter depth fridge. It had a beautiful kitchen but that damn fridge couldn’t fit anything. Couldnt even fit a large pizza box. Its the perfect example of form over function. Counter depth fridges is something that’s on my list of items no never ever buy. Weird to see it recommended.
I would say any lazy susan is also a big kitchen design mistake. It looks great on article and photo’s, but in reality it’s just a waiting game until “something” falls / slides / gets stuck behind the apparatus and then you have to dive in to find the missing lid, figure out what got stuck etc. It’s just a pain and you end up stuffing things in there to never really get them out again. It’s a hideous thing. Who was this Susan anyway .. and what made her lazy?
The worse thing for me in the house we just bought – 3 lower corner cabinets, without lazy susans inside. It’s an absolute nightmare for me at 60. Our daughter is 30 and when she comes over the bake with me, she complains how bad the cabinets are. And the smallest one is right beside the too large fridge that sticks out and makes the cabinet fairly unusable. I’m getting lazy susans but it’s such a waste of space. When I designed my old house I made sure I had all drawers and no corner cabinets. It’s was such a dream to work in. This new house is our retirement house but I feel like selling it after only 6 months because of the kitchen.
Counter depth fridge maybe looks better but a as a family of 4 we can’t function with the space it provides for storing our food. We love to cook at home, eat outside the house rearly so our fridge has to be big. To top that off we are regular Americans and we do not own 5000sq ft home and we can’t knock the wall out to shove the fridge into the bedroom. It is what it is and it doesn’t bother us that fridge sticks out 3 inches more, it always had and it’s a fact of life.
LOL. perusal the article reminded me of everything I already don’t like about my kitchen. I have a tiny open kitchen in a small 1970’s condo. My refrigerator is an old-fashioned freezer-on-top single-wide white Frigidare. The entire side of the refrigerator does double duty as a wall. I have one narrow little kitchen drawer and two lower cabinets (one of which is under the sink). My lazy susan either sticks or won’t stay put, depending on humidity and the balance of items in it. I had always said that the next place I buy would have a full-size “real” kitchen, but then I ended up forced to find something in one day and what I chose was perfect for me – except for the kitchen. Moral of the story: If you don’t have a lot of money for renos, get rid of your crap and you’ll have enough room to make anything work.
I’m laughing at the sticking out fridge. That had to be one of my biggest complaints. I drove everyone crazy had my friend build out the cabnets 3vinches off the wall. I can’t tell you how many people wanted to take the cabinets down and put them where they should be which would have been 25 inches in order to accommodate a counter I thought are you that stupid well I got what I wanted 28 inch cabnets with custom butcher block counters the refrigerator is a smaller side by side which I wasn’t about to replace. I even planned for when I did get a larger refrigerator I was going to put in a hidden front panel so I could extend the refrigerator and make it larger when it was necessary to replace it. Yeah that didn’t happen couldn’t get it the way I wanted in the design so don’t have any room to expand my refrigerator it still sticks out so not the way it would have the whole thing is Ludacris I just suck it up and deal with it it’s not perfect you got to let things go
Make sure to have a little counter space to either side of the stove. You need somewhere to put raw ingredients and finished cooked food onto plates! Rather than running across the kitchen dropping things, carrying a hot frying pan, running raw ingredients over cooked ones, or juggling all of this in weird placements on the stove top (fire hazard, melting and fumes hazard, etc. etc.). Never mind someone else wandering into the kitchen trying to help only makes all of the above worse and even more dangerous.
I’m actually having a contractor give me a quote on taking out the bulkhead above my cabinets. I think it dates the kitchen. I’m not running my cabinets to the ceiling because I’m 5 feet tall and I’m never going to be able to reach. In the future if I change my mind, I can add small cabinets up there if I want to. I have a huge fridge unfortunately, but I’m probably going to be replacing it sometime in the next couple years with a smaller one.
I bought a less deep counter depth refrigerator and it is not worth it for a family that loves to cook. I’d rather have it sticking out or build counters around it that are deeper. It’s just not functional for a family. A single person or maybe a married couple that doesn’t eat at home 3 meals a day, fine. I literally bought a regular cheap refrigerator for the basement and I find myself needing to store the other half of a weeks worth of food in that refrigerator and running up and down the stairs every day. At least I’m getting great exercise.
We are getting new cabinets and countertops, the fridge extends about 3 inches from the current cabinets, I showed my wife this article and she got very defensive, coming up with reasons to not do it. I am sure expense is an issue but I say let’s do it right. Now she said that we can bring the topic up with the designer. Hopefully he agrees with us.
The rear of fridge/freezer also requires ventilation, they get hot, effects efficiency. Also need to pull them out occasionally to clear dust etc from condenser fan/radiator. If possible, having access to the rear of corner cabinet, i.e. the dinning area, with draws or door, is much better use of space vs a lazy susan. Don’t cheap out on an efficient “extraction” rangehood, with dishwasher size/friendly filters.
Hello, I have an L shape kitchen ( with an island) and my stove is closer to the corner where there is no cabinet on the side wall. I have the recommended minimum counter working space between the stove and the side wall. I am concerned there could be cooking splashes on that side wall. Should I continue the tiles onto the side wall only for the space between the countertop and upper cabinet for the depth of the counter top or should I tile the entire height of the side wall ? Thanks for your tip, really appreciate it.