Watch Out For These 15 Kitchen Design Mistakes

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The kitchen is often the heart of the home, where friends and family gather to share meals, company, and conversation. Since kitchens tend to double as entertainment spaces, it’s understandable to have a strong desire for them to be stylish. However, don’t sacrifice function for form, and be vigilant when it comes to the things in your kitchen. Even if you focus on being intentional with your choices, you might be surprised to learn that you’re making a few of these kitchen design mistakes.

1. Using Countertops As Catchalls

People tend to spend a lot of time in their kitchen since they use them for more than cooking and eating meals. Therefore, it’s easy for countertops to become catchalls for everything from homework to mail to your latest Sephora haul. If you can’t break or tweak your habit of dumping everything on your counters, get a decorative basket to hide it out of sight until you have a chance to put it away.

2. Keeping Every Small Appliance On Display

Do you collect kitchen gadgets like a kid collects Pokémon cards? If you’re the proud owner of an air fryer, crock pot, espresso machine, sandwich press, Keurig, and toaster oven, reconsider keeping everything on display. Unless you use an item daily, it should not live on your counters. Store it away or acknowledge that it may be time to declutter. Think about donating or selling it if you don’t use it.

3. Poor Lighting

No matter what room you’re in, you need proper lighting to support the function of the space. In a kitchen, this means lights to see what you’re doing when working, task lighting for cutting and dicing food, and ambient lighting to set a cozy mood when enjoying tea with a friend. Evaluate how you use your kitchen and verify you have a mix of lighting options that fit the bill.

Learn more about kitchen lighting and how it can add style to your kitchen.

4. Not Considering Your Style

There’s nothing wrong with striving for an HGTV-worthy kitchen, but don’t make a staged television show or Instagram reel the goal of your kitchen design plans. It’s estimated that the average person in America spends approximately 1,000 hours in their kitchen each year. Make sure your space reflects your personality and style so you enjoy being in it.

5. A Stove In The Island

Depending on your kitchen layout and size, you may have no choice but to put a cooktop on your island. However, avoid doing so whenever possible. The kitchen island is often a gathering hub for guests as you cook. When the cooktop is there, it limits conversation space, increases the chances of people getting splattered or burned, and puts a dirty or outdated stove in the center of your kitchen.

6. The Wrong Size Sink

If your sink is too small, even a few plates make it look like you never wash the dishes. Unfortunately, the illusion of an overflowing sink draws more attention to the mess and leads to more splashback on you, the walls, and the counters. Plus, it inevitably results in dirty dishes piling up on the countertops when people can’t place their cups and plates in the sink. If you’re limited on counter space, consider getting an over-the-sink cutting board for more room for meal prep instead of choosing a smaller sink.

7. Removing Upper Cabinets

For a long time, removing all of the upper cabinets and replacing them with floating shelves was super trendy. It might look stylish in magazines, and it potentially helps a small kitchen look bigger. The problem is that the average person doesn’t style their shelves like the ones on Pinterest. Do you really want everyone to see your mismatched dishware, chipped glasses, and kid’s Paw Patrol plates? A couple of shelves are fine, but don’t sacrifice all the storage your upper cabinets provide.

8. Putting The Sink In The Island

Avoid putting your main kitchen sink in the island. Unless you plan to wash dishes or load them in the dishwasher immediately, you’re making a sink full of dirty dishes the focal point of your kitchen. If you love the idea of facing your company as you wash produce and make meals, consider a smaller prep sink for the island.

9. Ignoring Transitions

Take a moment to look around your kitchen. How many transitions can you see between different materials? For example, where the tile backsplash meets the drywall, the ceramic tiles meet the living room’s hardwood floors, and the yellow kitchen paint meets the dining room’s floral wallpaper. Pay attention to these areas and create seamless transitions or use the same material throughout connected spaces.

10. Choosing Style Over Storage

You want your kitchen to look good and reflect your style, but that doesn’t mean doing so at the expense of function. After all, it is your kitchen, which means it’s likely the hardest working room in your home. Storage is essential to keeping your kitchen tidy and functional, so don’t give up too much of it for the sake of a fleeting trend or something purely aesthetic.

11. Insufficient Seating

If you never have anyone in the kitchen, then maybe you can get away with a couple of stools. But more than likely, you often have several people in your kitchen at once. Make sure there’s enough seating to accommodate everyone eating in the kitchen at one time. For example, if eight people are eating in your kitchen, you might have a kitchen table with four chairs and four stools at the island.

12. Island Issues

It’s common to see islands in most kitchens, but make sure yours makes sense. If you have a tiny kitchen, forcing an island can make the space feel cramped. Large, luxurious kitchens have started adding multiple islands, which if done poorly can look more like a kitchen showroom than your home. Multiple small islands can also look awkward and create a sense of separation instead of bringing people together.

13. Overlooking Important Details

Uh-oh. Did you install the dishwasher and then realize you can’t open it and access the cabinet at the same time? Did you put the stove too close to the fridge? Or maybe the refrigerator door opens the wrong way, so you can’t get the milk if your partner loads the dishwasher. Pay attention to small details, including things that could make your life easier, like a touchless faucet, voice-activated lighting, or a mixer lift.

14. Tile Countertops

Tile countertops seem to be making a comeback, but reconsider installing them unless you love cleaning your countertops constantly. Food, spills, and grease splatter across the grout, leaving unforgiving stains and mess that equate to continual scrubbing and upkeep if you don’t want your counters to look dirty.

15. Not Considering Your Kitchen Layout

When designing your kitchen, always look at the big picture when choosing features, placement, and accessories. The layout is extremely important in a kitchen. Ignore it, and you’ll end up with a nonfunctional, frustrating space. Don’t force items that compromise the overall flow, like adding an extra stool that nobody can walk behind or getting a table that’s too big.