I Hired 3 Designers To Redesign My Kitchen!

Three different designers with three different concepts!

☞ My name is Ariel and I’m a Canadian writer and YouTuber. I organize my shelves by genre and then colour and my favourite book is Animal Farm. I've been making bookish content online for over a decade and am now sharing the journey of renovating my 1860s home!

☞ Thanks for watching! ☜

[Missicupcake]

In my opinion having cabinets come all the way up to the ceiling is great because then you don't have to clean the top of the cabinets :') which is always the place where grease and dirt end up bulding, and everything ends up sticky and gross haha

[mixed-tape]

I love option #3, BECAUSE you have a dining room. Islands are often utlized for more open concept floor plans, and I think an island with your closed off kitchen is kind of a funky design. I love the idea of having a table in there, and utilizing the U shaped kitchen.

[Chareads]

Omg I have so many thoughts and feelings! Creds - my mum's an interior designer who does a lot of kitchens and we just finished designing my new bespoke kitchen (it's going to be cornflower blue!!) so I have spent a lot of time thinking about kitchens recently. Here are my thoughts:
- There definitely isn't enough room for an island. Bare minimum you need 1m of clearance between counters and both those renders had about 80cm behind the stove. If two people can't pass or you can't e.g. walk around an open dishwasher, it's terrible. Nice to have for sure but I think it's best to prioritise functionality.
- I would do high cabinets on the dining room wall only. Putting them on the far side or wrapped around will trap the light and make the room feel so much smaller. I'd be much nicer to have open shelving around the sink/window to show off all your nice things, while the functional storage is less visually dominant, especially upon entering the room.
- You can totally have a durable wooden countertop as long as it's sealed properly!
- okay I'm drawing out a floorplan idea to have all the good bits as well as a coffee bar and spot to sit. I will DM it to you 😆

[Uneclipsed]

I love the yellow tones of the second kitchen, but I feel like the last design is the most functional. You can always change the aesthetics, but the layout is solid. While islands are appealing, it's cutting your actual kitchen in half. Remember that you're going to have to maneuver around the island. They're great for a larger kitchen, but it's going to make your space feel cramped and uncomfy to cook and eat in. I recommend letting your kitchen be a functional work space and have your beautiful dinning room be the main room for meals. If you're dead set on having an island, your idea of having an unfixed one is your best bet. You don't want to be stuck with something for years that you've shelled out a bunch of money for and won't be able to easily change.

[Tamaradraws]

Do NOT put your fridge next to the wall like in the first two designs! I have that now and it’s the worst because the wall stops the door from fully opening making it really hard to get larger things in or out of the side of the fridge next to the wall. You want the fridge door to be able to open fully 180 degrees. Best of luck with the reno. Excited to see the final design 😊

[theonlyenekoeneko]

If you go for an art wall, you could feature your mug collection in it, dispersed on various hooks or tiny shelf moments throughout the other art? So enjoying watching your lovely home renovation! It’s delightfully colourful and refreshingly different ❤

[MikoSubaru]

My biggest worry about the 2 designs with the islands is that there wouldn't be enough space to stand in front of tbe oven with the oven door open. It feels like it would really hinder the functionality

[ti]

And why not a new door to the garden?? Leading to a cute area with a wooden table outside and lots if plants where you would want to have breakfast or lunch in summer in the sun ❤️

[cucug]

Ariel maybe you could do a peninsula instead of an island? Like in the third layout, add a peninsula to the end of the counter along where the door to the dining room is. And you can add stools to one side. One thing that I learned from when my family redid the kitchen is that you shouldn’t underestimate how much counter and cabinet space is really needed, especially if you enjoy cooking and want to have all kinds of gadgets.

[SmallTownSpells]

I think the fixed island layouts make the kitchen feel really small and like it would be hard to have multiple people in there at the same time. The open layout felt a lot better and having a moveable island seems like the way to go to me ✨

[jessmercedes]

I also highly recommend incorporating as many (deep) drawers as humanly possible over cabinets, especially on the bottom half of the kitchen, they're so much more

[ritaferreira]

I know this is random 🤔 but even though I’m not a designer, I am a 3D student. I’ve been watching you for so long and i feel like we have similar styles. I kinda want to design your kitchen in 3D, knowing a bit more about what you might like, gives an advantage. 😆 And if you’re actually interested, I would do it for free since it would help my portfolio! Thank you girl for doing these videos, I love where the house design is going, since you manage to mix your personality with the quirks of an old house! I don’t know if you’re even going to see this message, but I love you anyways! 🥰

[ClaireFaith]

Make sure to take into account opening your fridge door. Very annoying if they hit a wall or cabinet and you're unable to take out the shelves or drawers if you need to. :)

[chemistryflavored]

Having just finished a renovation here are my two cents: map out island and cabinet dimensions in your current space (painters tape is great for this) to get a feel for clearances and size esp when opening oven and fridge doors, save your old cabinet doors if you can and use them to test your paint colors since you can move them around in different light and mimic cabinets better than just painting walls, pick your countertops first and then choose complementing materials or it becomes impossible to complement everything else, think about where you want things to be stored when choosing cabinets (drawers vs shelves etc). Anyways I’m sure there’s more but have fun with it! And yes go for color! I went with a deep teal for my lower cabinets and white for uppers and I get constant complements and even better the darker color on bottom is forgiving when it comes to dirt, spills, etc.

[justindesantiago]

“A table as an unfixed kitchen object” : YES YES That would be so cozy and classic and beautiful!!!

[dawnbassett]

You can treat and seal wood countertops so that you put wet things on them and not worry about damage. If you are really rough on them, they’re pretty easy to refinish and they look like new again!

[sarahmcdonough]

you being bored by the white subway tiles is exactly why i love watching this series lol. love how much personality, colour, and intrigue you add to the house.

[fantasyk]

I like the last design/layout but with different colors and definetely not that many textures. Honestly islands are great but they can make the room smaller so I don't know if it's worth it.
I gotta add that the coffee/tea space in the first design was delicious!

[valarya]

My number 1 tip with upper cabinets is to ALWAYS go up to the ceiling!! I cannot for this series omg. Also as other people have stated, watch XO, MaCenna - she just built her entire kitchen herself (cabinets, doors, island, etc). 💪

[ChelSierra_Remly]

They have "Kitchen Island Carts" / "Rolling Kitchen Islands" that you can move around, or in and out of, the kitchen. If you have space in the dining room, that could be where you store it out of the way.