Kitchen Clarity Adventures in Kitchen and Bath Design

Here is my top ten list of mistakes to avoid when designing your new kitchen. Actually these are just my Top Ten Kitchen Design Crimes for today – ask me tomorrow and I might have ten completely different ones for you. And now I’ve written the list, I realize that each item could easily be an article on its own. Maybe one day they will be.

1. Too little light – a kitchen needs layers of lighting. General lighting is often provided by can lights, and provides an even light level, especially in the walkways. Task lighting lights the work areas, and ensures that the cook does not have to work in their own shadow.  Then think about ambient lighting that creates the atmosphere you want, especially if it is an eat-in kitchen. Pendant lights over a counter, or a chandelier over an island will create a mood, and unlike cans, will cast light onto the ceiling as well.

2. Too much light – so you’ve followed all the best advice, and now you have multiple layers of light in your space.  Don’t forget to add dimmers! Especially here in California, where 50 percent of the kitchen lighting watts in have to come from fluorescent sources, you often end up with a lot of cans in the ceiling just so you can get those halogen pendants you want over the peninsula. Even though they are more expensive, I always recommend dimmable fluorescent cans.

3.  Forgetting to focus – a kitchen with no particular focal point can be boring, one with too many competing focal points can be too busy. Think about where you want the visual emphasis in your kitchen to be, and make sure it really does stand out.. Is it the cooking center, with an interesting hood or backsplash? Is it a window, with a great view? (Consider also how it will look after dark) Or is it a wall or open shelves where you display art or something you collect?

4. Failing to trust yourself or your designer – otherwise known as design by committee. Do you ask everyone you know, and even people you don’t know, how you should design your kitchen?  Are you constantly confused with all the conflicting advice you get? Always changing your mind about layout and materials? No doubt your friends and your neighbors and your Aunt Gwen and your husband’s cousin Dora all have plenty of opinions and advice to share – but this is not their kitchen. Are they professional, qualified, designers? You have to trust yourself, or find a professional you trust and work with them. Deep down inside you know what you like – and a skilled professional can help you pin down your style and express it.

5. Trusting the wrong professional – this is something I have come across time and time again. A young couple buys an old outdated home at what seems like a bargain price. Their realtor tells them that they will be able to make the desired changes and updates for $xxxxx. They are all excited and can’t wait to get started. Then the bids start coming in, and they are at least 1.5 to 2.5  times the original $xxxxx.  Heartache and disappointment ensue as they are forced to compromise their dreams.  A realtor is not a qualified designer, or contractor. Their expertise is selling houses, and they have nothing to gain by scaring clients off with a high (or even realistic) estimate. Always make sure you consult the right professional.

6.  Playing it too safe – so many people are concerned about resale, even if they have no plans to resell anytime soon.  They end up designing their kitchen for the next owner. But they don’t even know the next owner! This is a good way to end up with a dull, safe kitchen that you don’t particularly enjoy, and when the next owner does eventually come along, they tear it all out because it is not to their taste anyway.

7. Making it too quirky – no, I’m not contradicting myself. Make the kitchen your own – a good looking, well designed kitchen will add value to your life and to your home. But you should not make it a kitchen that most people couldn’t live with. If you are 6’9” tall, by all means plan some taller counters, but include some regular height counters too, so that smaller guests or assistants will also have an area they can comfortably work in.

8. Losing track of the budget – it’s easy to get carried away with decisions about appliances, finishes, materials, as you visit showrooms and discover all the options that are available to you.  Remember to keep your overall budget in mind, and to keep a list of everything that you will need. Appliances usually get chosen first, as your designer cannot design the cabinet layout until they have been picked – and as a result there is a tendency to spend too large a proportion of the budget on them. Don’t get to the end of the process and discover you can’t afford the backsplash material you really want, or those dimmers for the can lighting. And remember to allow at least 20% for contingencies.

9. Sticking too closely to the budget – sometimes, people make decisions because their project budget has reached certain number and they’re just not comfortable exceeding it. Now I’m certainly not advocating spending money you just don’t have, but I know that people don’t stand in their finished kitchen three years later and say “Oh, if only I had saved that $500 there, or that $750 here”.  But they might well say “I wish I had bought the granite slab/ glass tile / built-in-refrigerator that I really wanted, because it’s too late to tear this one out now”.

Finally, and most importantly,

10. Failing to enjoy the process. Yes, that’s right, I said enjoy it.  If you are planning wisely and designing for the long term, you probably won’t get to do this too many times in your life. So take your time, do your research, and enjoy the chance to make all these important, but definitely not life threatening, decisions.

Top Ten Kitchen Design Crimes by Kitchen Clarity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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