Common Kitchen Design Mistakes to Avoid for a Stylish Space
Brass Cabinet Handles
Brass handles are neither chic nor industrial. They do end up looking house-wifey in a kitchen and their color usually means they are more obvious than you want them to be. Plus, they collect dust and they get so easy to see where people have touched and stained them. Stainless steel is good enough to be the lazy one.
Just as strong, perhaps stronger really, and they won’t be sticking out like a sore thumb. Also, they don’t seem so much like brass handles.
A Microwave Above Your Oven
We don’t know who decided to make microwaves an overhead fixture, but it should definitely not be above your stove. It would be assaulted with endless heat, steam, and grease as you are cooking underneath it. Which means you are stuck cleaning all of this crap up and the heat is not going to be kind to some of the microwave’s components over time.
Instead of an overpriced kitchen appliance that will surely get a good amount of wear and tear, it only makes much more sense for there to be some type of fan above your stove.
Time To Ditch The Chevron
The patterns and colors always evoke emotions — this is science. Chevron motifs, on the other hand, tend to be used in caution situations. See what we’re getting at here? Lose the chevron and invest in something simpler and classic such as solids. They never go out of fashion and you won’t have to fret about having to swap them out one day (unless your kitchen needs a new lick of paint of course).
Kristin Lomauro Interior Design via www.yelp.com
We had our fun with chevron patterns, then they turned into a slightly tacky thing of the past. Guests should always feel at home when they enter a space in your home — but the chevron pattern is like a hostile gunshot warning shot across the bow to get the fuck out.
Proud Benzema brings an end to his international career for France
Faux Fruit
That one is an easy one: imitation fruits and other foods. We don’t know how this became a thing and although faux fruits have an indefinite lifespan, this trend is well past its prime. Skip the artificial fruit, and just stick to some good old real food if you want something on your counter. Though it will go bad sooner, at least its the real deal and it may inspire you to eat your fruits and vegetables.
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Plus, you don’t have hungry kids accidentally biting into your real fruits and sticking them back in the bowl. The only thing worse than fake fruit is fake fruit with teeth marks on it.
Don’t Save Your Empty Bottles
How do you tell your guests to say your drinking problem without saying your drinking problem? Or you save your empty beer and liquor bottles and put them on a shelf, that’s how. Maybe when you were younger this was cool but as adults we don’t need to be collecting empty bottles. And that’s all they ever do anyway, just sit on a shelf – most times, a high one – and collect dust.
A far superior option would be to return those glass bottles you might have been stashing. It allows you to support the planet and still enjoy a drink or two!
Toss The Plastic
While we all know that plastic plates are used to eat when we are children, after all, there must be a reason why mom uses plastic plates for children and good quality plates for adults, right? Unless you have children, you should have bought a simple set of white plate by now. They’re kind of cheap even. And you won’t feel so guilty creating plastic waste polluting our planet.
Dinner on a plate with a superhero on it is not something which meets the needs of a lot of adults. This may seem nostalgically pleasing, but it is also misleading, especially if you ask someone over for a dinner date.
TV Really Isn’t For A Home Kitchen
You cook in your kitchen, your kitchen is a place where you meet with your family and friends, everyone sits down for a chat at your kitchen. It has no business being a tavern, or a lounge room. Just keep the TV out of it, so okay? At worst it can be downright overwhelming and at best a distraction. Who wants to listen to the news in the background while having a conversation, or even worse a reality TV show?
Also, it is not that great in practice, either. Another possible entertainment area, if you will, is a TV outside on a closed-in porch for things like sports games and gatherings.
Old Food Containers
We understand why people love their old tin containers. The branding can be nice and better than anything you will find in the meantime, but they do not belong in their kitchen. They can be a bit kitsch wherever they’re intended and you’d be limited in liquid usage with no lid. Sure never matches the colors or patterns with whatever scheme you have going on in your kitchen.
If you have a penchant for the odd vintage container or swish jar, then perhaps another purpose for it in the garden instead of fabric or out of sight at the back of the cupboard. Provided that you donot put them up on your kitchen kitchen counters.
Paper Plates Aren’t For Everyday Use
This is similar to the plastic plates post but somewhat different. Paper plates are okay for picnics and grilling out with friends, but definitely not for dinner every night. We’re not in college anymore. It also makes you seem like a person who hates doing dishes or who does not take cleanliness as seriously as he/she/they should.
Additionally, they are not very eco-friendly either, so even if you plan to use them for smaller gatherings with your family and buddies, it’d be best to just use real tableware and clean them following the party.
Leave Window Valances In The Past
Not every window valance looks ugly and tacky, but finding one that doesn’t look new and modern can be incredibly difficult. In that case, you might just want to steer clear of them altogether. Also not super convenient in our modern era since they have to be washed frequently and can literally catch on fire because they’re fabric. Not something you want in your kitchen while you have things cooking with heat.
If you need shade, it is better to just go with some blinds or get your windows tinted. They were great because you could always open them to let a bit of sun in and the best part is you will have no fabrics to wash all the time.
Tumbled Marble Isn’t A Great Look
Tumbled marble or faux antiqued marble is fine for baths but kitchen, not the best. It just appears dirty and used — well, that’s the point. This one is certainly the case with tiles; you cannot even fully scrub it with harsh chemicals because who wants to ruin the in between grout. In this case, it is way better to go with something more classic like a solid color.
Much like another style element we’ll get to in a second, tumbled marble is looking a little dated at this point, too. You wouldn’t want marks on a kitchen counter, so what exactly is the thinking with distressing marble?
Lace Anything
Lace is about as old as you can get as far as fashion goes, where the first examples appeared in the 16th century so the rest is obvious really. Leave the lace behind, and get lacy things, like lace curtains, out of the kitchen. They’re also hugely flammable and no one wants some shit material hanging above where they cook food or play with fire. Another downside is that lace is hard to clean but the problem gets multiplied because lace catches dust.
Simply put, lace as a design idea is so unfashionable, it’s unbelievable in a contemporary kitchen. That effectively only serves as decoration, which might be better filled with something useful.
Don’t Sand Your Cabinets
What was all the rage five to ten years ago? Distressed cabinets With paint jobs done with an air of moderation they are now just passé. Also, they are somewhat stressy to have. Why patterns affect your mood Realisation Some of you might know this already! Which Lou makes us wring our hands over distressed cabinets just like a warning against resting a chicken there. Done tastefully, one can be fine as a piece of furniture elsewhere in your home, but not for your kitchen cabinets.
Consider your cabinets kind of how you would the paint on your walls in the other rooms of your house. They are sort of the foundation of your kitchen and you don’t want your foundation to be a hot mess.
Kitchen Desks
Multi-purpose kitchens are a catch-all for contractors to scrimp and real estate agents to jack a sale. No one needs a desk in their kitchen, for goodness’ sake. We mean, just think about it. The latter means working in a loud and high-traffic space. Jayden: Do you actually want to be doing work there? We don’t think so. Get rid of that desk in the kitchen and use that space for something better.
The countertop space might be axed or even turned into a liquor cabinet. There are simply too many more practical options for your kitchen than a desk you are never going to use or as an office space.
Doilies
Like the lace post previously, this really falls under a “hell, so awful it deserves its own post,” so lace doilies. First up, they literally have no use
This all does is clutter up a space, and make it feel more “grandad” than “gained”. If you need to protect your furniture or countertops then do so with a coaster or something.
Old Wooden Cabinets
This is probably the least egregious of all of the offenders on this list but nonetheless, it must be mentioned. If you also have an unpainted kitchen and you haven’t updated, debugged or refreshed in the last ten years, then chances are it looks a little more passé than you planned. About every ten years or so, the wood styles in vogue tend to change, and that likely means it is time for a new finish of your cabinets, be it new paint or just a fresh coat of stain over your existing wood.
You can also sand and refinish the entire kitchen again as possible but it is costly and the results depend on the wood species as well. Instead, it is a whole lot cheaper and easier to slap a coat of paint across those cabinets in a neutral color, of course!
Wine-Themed Decorations
This wine-themed decor is also referred to as vino-themed decor, which actually means relating to wine, especially cheap wine. And this is simply what this appears like in your kitchen. There’s something about it that feels kind of like the empty bottles you’ve been storing on your shelf. It only makes you look like someone with a drinking problem who has a glass or two every night while the hours that are burning on the couch. It’s alright, but it’s not something you’ll be telling the whole world.
To be clear, there is also absolutely no reason to have large letters of any kind on your wall and no this doesn’t refer to a sticker or something in a frame with wording, but we’ll get into that in just a bit.
All White Appliances
Sure, all white appliances sound great in theory but they are so hard to keep clean and frankly look straight out of the 1990s. They also tend to feel incredibly inexpensive. The only real negative about them is that they’re so damn difficult to maintain. Even minor spills or any traces of dirt are going to appear plainly, and with passing time stains will become just more complicated and challenging to wash away.
When looking to buy a new fridge or stove, add an update by going with stainless steel. Will look more up to date, and it will be a lot more cleaner.
Office Lights
Inflatable bouncy house — perfect for some Christmas parties, but not so much fluorescent lights, which is where we’ve refer to them as and we’d say the only place they belong is in an office, but they’re really not even welcome there. Nobody wants a space as brutally bright as your kitchen — or anything in it — to look unflattering. Do yourself and your kitchen a favor and replace the lighting way ahead of that next dinner party.
Re-lamping the lights in your kitchen is so inexpensive, and if you are changing out a fluorescent light, you will find that the improvement is worth it and quite beneficial.
Get Rid Of The Linoleum
Linoleum is a matter that resists warmth and used to be used to countertops and a bit tiles. But, you could argue that it’s one of the ugliest materials available and it just comes off as tacky today. This is particularly true for linoleum tiles. Basically, its like walking on a thin rubber mat someone put on your concrete slab. They also do not last long once you get them wet, because they tend to fall apart.
With patterns that you may like in your linoleum then the chances are high that you can have found it in genuine ceramic tile or even better, just choose hardwood flooring. They are durable and long-lasting surfaces that can be easily refinished.
More Than One Pattern
If you are choosing a design style to redecorate your kitchen you something want to avoid the use of a design. These trends tend to wear out fast, or even worse, look tacky. However, when it comes to using more than one pattern in your kitchen that is something you definitely want to avoid at all costs. It may make your kitchen resemble a junk drawer and just makes your clutter worse.
Most often, you are far better off with a couple of solid options that compliment one another, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel and create your own combination of patterns that match.
Don’t Overdo The Chandeliers
Unless you live in a castle, chances are you only need a single chandelier at most to illuminate your kitchen. Even if you live in a mansion, you only need one big chandelier. By the way that just about any kitchen space is going to add a measure of your glam to kitchen space space out the driveway simply so you want to be using all those steer clear of be appropriate these dudes in small doses. The smaller your kitchen is, the truer this is.
They’re also just really difficult to clean. They can be a little more of a pain than other options, unless you take them down to clean a lot or dust every five minutes.
Hanging Pots
Outside of being an actual chef with an actual restaurant-grade kitchen, you should have no reason to hang your pans. They can add clutter to a space simply by being there, and if your food is not up to the standard of a professional cook, a decadent design choice can end up looking a little pretentious. You should put those pots and pans into the cabinet where they belong.
Not to mention all that grease or tarnish that can cling on to your pots, which can make those pretty unsavory when put out breast up for anyone coming into your cooking area to check out.
Lose The Weird Chairs
Combining your eating room chairs can seem like a clever idea, and there may be actually no harm if the whole lot is of a similar fashion that matches comfortably. But if the chairs are a little too eccentric or hard to sit one, they effectively just become ornaments. No guest wants to eat dinner sitting in party chairs. It gets even worse when all the chairs vary wildly and everyone is at completely different eye levels.
So, of course, you want your chairs to be the same, and if they’re not then at least in the same color and style family. And that would be like matching pants to top and so on and so forth.
Match Your Paint
We discussed about various patterns, now lets discuss about paints of various colors. Essentially, it’s the same deal. Avoid nine different paint colors in the kitchen It designates tacky and filled and the odds are that whoever is living in your house after you are going to need to rearrange stuff. We have talked about how colors and patterns can influence feelings and the same here. We do not want hosting to give guests anxiety.
You normally want to stick with a few colors and make sure those colors are neutral. Doing this, your look will be timeless and you will perhaps never need to remodel again.
Descriptive Signs
They have probably been in that home decoration magazine where they look cute as hell, but there is no rationale in having one. Room signs only occupy space and make it hard to understand the lodger concept why are you telling the lodge (who doesn’t running out of mind and vision) that you are here in a kitchen where in my view i can visualize sink and burning stove. We understand, they give you the impression of being in a boilerplate restaurant down an abandoned road or an old farmhouse, but you’re most likely not.
So get rid of the room signs and either replace with something more functional or leave a blank wall. This will lead the peoples to look at the more attractive portions of the kitchen.
Tuscan Style Kitchens
Yes, this is the one that’s been crammed in nearly every McMansion since 2010. Tuscan-style kitchens — as the name implies — are kitchens inspired by those found in Tuscany. However, unless you are sitting in your villa in the hills of Tuscany the chance is you are not. So just stick to something a bit less local and ditch the faux Tuscan thing entirely. They’re every bit as banal as the McMansions they so often get muddled together in.
They’re also way overpriced. For the price, you could probably get something a lot better and longer lasting than a Tuscan rick.
Half-Done Backsplashes
Unless it’s purely to pinch pennies, we just don’t get what short backsplashes are all about. As if that area just above the short backsplash is not going to get dusty or require cleaning, ever. If they are getting a backsplash they might as well get a real backsplash and forget about a half-finished looking space altogether. It will enhance its appearance and also add value to your home.
Perhaps the worst thing you could have in your house is a short backsplash, which makes it seem like either you or whoever built or remodeled your home was trying to cut costs.
Industrial Kitchens
It may look a little bit bigger in your kitchen — industrial kitchens are kind of modern-looking but they are not so in love with it. But also somewhat elitist. Unless you are entertaining 20 people for dinner every night or feeding the entire neighborhood, there is zero reason for gigantic appliances and enough stainless steel to build a small vessel. And, as if all that wasn’t enough, industrial-style chairs tend to be very uncomfortable and in your kitchen you definetly don’t want something go after form above function.
Leave behind the hanging pots, steel barstools, and island straight from the land of industrial factories and just opt for something that is a little bit cozier.
Too Many Ferns
Now, we’re not saying that you shouldn’t incorporate a plant or two into the kitchen. It can make a space feel more alive and contribute to the warmth, but bundle too many on top of each other and you are literally just a crazy cat lady but with plants. Lay off the ferns and keep most of them outside in the garden or on the porch where they belong. There are many other alternatives like it that do the same.
Plus they can just sit and gather dust and all of the fallen leaves will make it feel even more like you are outside than a kitchen and no one wants that.
Sliding Doors
Sliding doors, easily referred to as barn doors, are based on closed concept styles from a farm. Unlike a pocket door, which slides into the wall, they actually slide outside of the wall. But I mean, not every house is on a farm, so these doors tend to look really obnoxious and out of place in most homes. The same concept as the Tuscan-style kitchens we viewed earlier. When in Rome, only do as the Romans do.
Barn doors in your kitchen just make your kitchen look like you wanted to be out on a farm somewhere raising livestock or planting crops. So for all of your pantry-ing, just roll with a plain old door.
Travertine Tiles
This is a travertine, so this one is similar as the tumbled marble. But again, the principle complaint is not changed here. They simply appear grimy and assist your kitchen area really feel like it truly is from the 2000s. So while we love that era, your kitchen doesn’t have to mimic the design cues. Also, they absorb water well, breeding bacteria that can hide in the tile.
And they also remind us far too much of those tiles you would find at a beach resort and unless you actually live in a beach house, you do not want your kitchen to be reminding you of that.
Too Many Appliances
No, we’re not saying you can never own too many appliances. We are just saying they are not your kitchen counter 24 7 level company. It makes everything feel more crowded and if you’re anything like us, you likely aren’t using all those appliances enough to warrant them being out. You can stow them quickly after washing dishes or fin
If you want to leave one or two of them out, that’s fine, but don’t pack and store as much as possible. Especially if the appliances don’t exactly coordinate.
Kitchen Figurines
This probably goes without saying but no figurines in the kitchen. They really have no place and especially in the kitchen. They’re basically like garden gnomes. They just sit there not really performing but making your place look trashy. You can stick it in the cabinet if you got one and when they come over, take it out and just be like.
No hope — then just cast them aside now. Just picture how much nicer that area would look unattended with some little chef, cat or bird figurine on it–all aesthetically zen.
Using Mason Jars As Decorations
Aw, this one is definitely gonna make some enemies, but mason jars do not belong in your kitchen to decorate. That being said, there is certainly nothing wrong with using them for their actual intended purpose, which is canning food. They even make good cups. Still, that does not mean you should go using them for everything — like, idk, storing flour? Or hanging lights? I feel like it just makes it look like a low-rent kitchen with mason jars repurposed for every use you can imagine.
And, if you only ever used them for canned goods, just go ahead and ditch the jars that are now just wrappers for sprigs of wilting flowers and please, for the love (and good design sense) of God, do not use them in your chandelier.
Speckled Granite
Okay, we know. So with all of the countertop surfaces were telling you to avoid you might be wondering what type of countertop you should be shopping for. We promise they’re out there. Except for speckled granite, though. Its dated and more importantly it gets dirty and hides stains. This means that you will occasionally miss some place when you’re cleaning and nobody wants that.
If you have faux speckled granite then it is worse. It’s also a little outdated and less durable and it looks pretty fake if you stare at it for longer than two seconds.
Tiled Counters
In fact, if we’re going there, avoid tiled countertops like the plague as well. They give your kitchen a very bathroom-like appearance — and that is the last memory you want people to have of this part of your home. There are many much better looking – and kitchen-sweeping – options out there. Grout is a pain to clean between the tiles.
If you don’t scrub really hard, it can get worn off and is a safe haven for bacteria, which destroys the grout. Which is why you should stick to granite or hardwood.
Open Shelves
Let’s be honest. Everyone kinda hates open shelves They get dusty pretty fast and then there’s the issue of cleaning, you have to take the whole thing down and clean by hand after dusting to get them nicely clean. They also, typically, don’t contain anything of significant value. You don’t really need to put all that stuff you own out on a shelf for everyone to see. Well, it is the same concept as putting all of your appliances away.
But for the most part, if you do have open shelves occupying space then just add more cabinets. At your cabinet combinatory every catch, and you don’t have to wash during your every preparing;
Produce Or Farm Signs
Where the descriptive sign and the posts for barn doors join Farm-type signs are some of both so they carry the same downsides. Unless you’re running a farmer’s market or milking cows outside then why would you place a farm style sign in your kitchen. Sounds like a great option right now, but it’s probably just trendy and in all likelihood you’re going to be ripping it out again when you remodel your kitchen.
This time round, make sure to leave that blank space there. A clean space is a tidied space. Or, if you choose seasonal decor, it can replace where that farm sign once hung.
Brightly Colored Fridges
Do you recall when we mentioned earlier that you should maybe avoid white kitchen appliances? In that case, you also shouldn’t get fridges in bright colors. Your kitchen will always look off if the color palette is not just right. Even if its right, then its really just going to focus way too much attention on one specific area in your kitchen and, realistically, you dont want your fridge to be a center of attention.
But please, just stick with the stainless steel and let those retro-inspired fridges be for people who like to be “edgy”. And, of course, other large appliances such as the oven and microwave.
