Interior Design Don’ts – Kitchen

While a kitchen is one of the best places to invest in your home, a lack of it is also the most noticeable.  This is not to say every kitchen must drip in expense.  Kitchens need to look current and stay current. Trends are for small items, not kitchens.  Changing or updating appliances is expected.

This segment of Interior Design Don’ts is meant to point out items or design elements which make a kitchen look dated, scream “fix me” or highlight un-intended frugality.  (How was that for a nice way of saying, “makes it look cheap?”)

FYI: if you are selling your home and have any of these, they could negatively impact your sale so get rid of them ahead of time.  The pictures shown are from homes currently on the market and while all are not our pictures we prefer to keep their domains private.  Protect the innocent and all that.

The good: white cabinets are timeless and work in all home types traditional to modern.  Hanging cabinets from a ceiling like this never works.  Don’t create something you couldn’t explain to a fifth grader.   Architecturally, without some type of side support they are physically unsettling.  This will be a fabulous open kitchen once the cabinet pimple is removed from the ceiling and pendant lighting is installed.

Tip: if the kitchen is light and white don’t put dark items on the countertops.

One of the reasons this house sat unsold was this kitchen.  No undercabinet lighting is a dated giveaway.  The cabinets scream 1978.  A sink in a corner with a dishwasher on the other side of the room… bad design.   While the section of the upper cabinets on the left are supported by a wall, they are still goofy.  This upper cabinets throw off the entire concept of being open to the dining room on the other side.  (This is my kitchen before the gut and remodel, so I can call it just plain stupid.)

Overall this is a pleasant kitchen.  However, oak or any type of wood edge used on anything but a like wood countertop is just not done anymore.  Tile countertops are only good in certain areas of the country, but this wood edge keeps this kitchen from feeling like the high-end kitchen it is.   Brass hardware in many instantly say’s “replace me.”

19-what?

Fix me.  Floor tile on the wall, not so great.  Floor tile, though different, on countertops and other walls says “cheaped out.”

Horses are tied up out back.

Nothing says “old fashioned” quicker than soffits and color.  Most soffits have nothing in them which makes them simple to remove.  If a kitchen has 8′, 9′, or 10′ ceilings the cabinets go to the ceiling – the real one.   What also dates this kitchen is the cabinet color and vinyl flooring.  The sad part is they spent the $$ on granite.  Granite is nice, if it is appropriate and goes with the rest of the space.  Using the most expensive countertop and cheapest flooring seems a bit silly. An Epoxy Flooring is a great choice to use for a beautiful looking kitchen.

Hunter green is dead.

Again with the soffits…  A fast and quick fix for this kitchen is to nix the dated hunter green stripe and wallpaper.  Just painting the wall a sharp color will be an instant makeover.

Almost but not quite.

While not awful to everyone the solid color old laminate has to go.  Don’t use solid colors laminates in a working kitchen.  They show wear the quickest.

The half-depth floor cabinet is a mistake (possible safety issue) next to a stove.

Plus a recent upgrade of the flooring and cabinets in the room with the refrigerator are in a completely different family.  Paint the old cabinets to match the newer ones or change them.  This will make the entire space larger and make the two rooms feel like one.  Unless this is a cool, hip warehouse loft the exposed brick is definitely a don’t.  It doesn’t have any meaning, nor do the black toe kicks.  When in doubt, paint it out.

Madonna, George Michael, The 80’s and this is the kitchen?

This kitchen has a couple significant issues, the work flow is not great and there are two cook-tops!  Don’t create a kitchen which is so unique it renders it almost unsaleable without a complete gut.

Hmmm, could be cool.

While this kitchen was spiffed up and the cabinetry looks contemporary, the oddball design on the back wall is just wrong.

#1 dishwashers belong next to the sink.

#2 the peninsula cabinet serves no purpose.

Again don’t go through the expense of an expensive countertop material (solid surface) when you have unusual elements which require change.

I tried but could not find a post-able picture of another kitchen faux pas: the drop ceiling.

Kitchen mistakes end up being costly.  Potential buyers often find it insulting when a seller expects them to pay for the seller’s mistake or a downright gross kitchen.

So when creating a kitchen do the research and get some help from a kitchen designer or interior designer who has an affinity for real working kitchens.  When remodeling a kitchen in an older home remember kitchens have changed from purely cooking functions to cooking and entertainment areas.  Make changes which make sense or are easy to change.

• Don’t add hang cabinetry as an appendage from the ceiling or in unusual ways.
• Don’t locate a dishwasher far from a sink.
• Don’t forget to add undercabinet lighting.
• Don’t upgrade to expensive countertops without making other necessary changes.
• Don’t design a kitchen which makes people question why.
• Don’t use floor tile as countertop material.
• Don’t use wood edge banding for non-wood countertops.
• Don’t over use any material.