5 Kitchen design mistakes to avoid
Designing a new kitchen is a worthwhile investment for any home. A beautiful, well-considered kitchen can improve your life to no end by providing the perfect space for everyday living and entertaining. It can also add a considerable amount to the value of your property.
Equally, a poorly designed kitchen can be frustrating on a daily basis and can reduce the value of your home. In fact, research shows that the kitchen is the one room in the house that can really influence a potential buyer’s decision when it comes to choosing a new home.
As well as taking the architecture of your property into early consideration, we strongly believe that a kitchen should be designed based on your personal preferences, lifestyle and budget. However, it is always worth considering how others might see it too, especially if you’re considering selling your home in the next few years.
So, before you start choosing worktops and cabinetry, here are 5 key mistakes to avoid when redesigning your kitchen.
1. Choosing cabinetry for the wrong reasons
Cabinetry is one of the biggest choices you’ll make for your kitchen. It needs to be both functional, aesthetically pleasing and, of course, within budget. However, we would advise choosing cabinetry for its functionality first and foremost. Whilst there are plenty of very affordable cabinetry options available that look great, they won’t necessarily stand the test of time and may need replacing sooner than you’d hoped. We would always recommend spending a little more on high-quality cabinetry that can also be repainted or repurposed in the future if you choose to give your kitchen a refresh.
2. Not taking your entire space into consideration
One of the biggest mistakes people make when designing a new kitchen is not taking the full architecture of the home into consideration. If your new kitchen is part of a bigger home renovation, where the layout of your entire space may be changing, this is even more important.
Considering the entire space means making sure there’s a natural flow from one room or zone to another, making moving through your home an effortless pleasure. It also takes things like the position of doors, windows and fireplaces into account, making sure each aspect of your space can work effortlessly together.
3. Not giving lighting the limelight
It’s critical to consider appropriate lighting when designing your new kitchen. Kitchen lighting needs to look great and work hard. There are obvious practicalities such as lighting that focuses on counter tops for preparing food and lighting inside dark cupboards so you can easily find the things you’re looking for. Then there are the aesthetics, this might mean beautiful feature pendant lighting over a kitchen island or dining table; standing lamps that can be moved for convenience or plinth lighting to show off your kitchen cabinetry.
There are then the more technical aspects of lighting to consider such as dimming options and lighting circuits that allow you to create various zones in an open plan space that can be controlled separately.
4. Putting form over function
Choosing cabinet colours, worktops and beautiful hardware is what we all get drawn to when we first start thinking about our new kitchen but there are far more important decisions to make before you get there.
We use our kitchens on a daily basis, and so the way we use them has to be considered very early on in the process. This is where kitchen zoning comes in, for example, making sure the cooking prep area is near the hob and the dishwasher and sink sit together to form the ‘wet’ zone. Designing your kitchen from a layout perspective is key to designing a kitchen you’ll enjoy using day to day, as well as decisions on the practicality of materials, storage solutions and lighting feasibility.
All of the above is critical if you want to enjoy using your kitchen regularly and these decisions should always come before colours and finishing touches.
5. Forgetting about storage
Well-thought out storage is a fundamental of good kitchen design. Everything should have a home and flow is key to an effortless kitchen space. Get it wrong and you’ll be kicking yourself when you keep running out of space to store things. So whether you need to find clever fitted storage solutions for a small kitchen space, such as floor to ceiling cabinetry or drawers instead of cupboards, or you want to make the most of a large kitchen island, look for opportunities to plan in as much storage as you can ensuring the majority meets your individual needs.
A good place to start is working out what you need to store where and identifying your pet hates with your current kitchen storage.
Here are some of our kitchen storage and organisation ideas to maximise your space.
When it comes to designing your new kitchen, make sure you consider each of the points above before you get stuck into the finer details. It’s important to remember that if you’re going to spend thousands on a new kitchen, you want to make the most of your budget and not have to be redoing things in just a few years.
We would always recommend working with a kitchen designer who can help you make the most of your space and avoid expensive mistakes. This is why we offer a design-only service as well as our full bespoke kitchen service. Speak with one of our kitchen designers and we’ll help you find the best solution for you and your space.