6 Things Nobody Does When Designing a Kitchen

In this video I'll teach you six things that very few people do when designing their kitchen. If you impliment them into your next renovation, I'm confident you'll have the best outcome.

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[disneyfan]

Over 20 years ago when I was young and nimble, I designed my kitchen for older me. I pulled the dishwasher off the floor about 1 1/2 foot (I put it in a cabinet) and placed the cabinet and drawer for the dishes and flatware on the counter in close proximity. Twenty-two years later, older me is so happy there is no excessive bending and straightening up to put dishes away. The dishwasher was a standard size and a few years ago I had to replace the original—there were no issues.

[laundrygoddess]

I'm redoing my kitchen now and I worked with a kitchen planner who told me three times when I asked for something No you don't want that. Why yes. Yes I do. I know how I use my space. Needless to say I didn't end up going with her

[judycarter]

I am a “square incher” that has been watching your design videos for several weeks. You gave my husband and I an excellent idea for the hard-to-reach space in my corner cabinet! We are fortunate that my sewing nook shares the wall with the kitchen and we plan to create an opening (with drawers) in my sewing area to access that corner. I can store rarely used pots (or sewing supplies) in a location that won’t require either one of us (70+ year olds) to crawl into a cabinet to retrieve something. Thank you!

[WeTopia_]

I’m an outlier because I’m team lazy Susan. I had one in my last kitchen, which I’d renovated to my needs. The LS was PERFECT for storing mixing bowls and less frequently used items. Mine worked because I angled the counter, bypassing the folding cabinet door. My new home has 3(!) corners and I definitely don’t want 3 lazy Susans but I despise magic corner pull outs. This kitchen had 2. I lived with them for a year before getting fed up with the wasted space and removing them. Yes, I now have two cavernous spaces but they’re more useful to ME than the heavy corner systems that were there. Bottom line, the design process you drill into us frees us to make the kitchen functional for our unique needs. Appreciate you, Mark.

[BB-remw]

I hate blind corners and love the efficiency of my wee galley kitchen...there is reason we have them on water vessels/ships/boats❤

[kristinnelson-patel]

My ears perked up when you said to maybe think about moving a window! That’s one of the things I was thinking of asking you about because I realized that if I move the windows over the currently totally wasted desk, I could fill that corner with pantry cabinets, which would absolutely change the whole game in my kitchen. But I wasn’t sure it was a good idea to do that or if it would be possible. We’re going to be completely rebuilding that side of the kitchen anyway because the foundation needs repinning underneath it, and I could possibly reuse those windows on the other side of the room.

[pamcornelius]

I use my corner lazy susan as a small appliance garage and for storage of Costco sized containers of coffee and tea. Makes it really easy to keep small appliances out of sight yet easily accessible.

[darlene]

Very good 👍🏻 I really like the thought (think about what you love about your kitchen). Every person is different as families. I cook a lot, prep a lot, and bake a lot. I am blessed to have a large enough kitchen to accommodate all the things I love, separate very large pantry, and much counter space…I am grateful ❤….but I am a firm believer do what you love as you get informed knowledge from well trained contractors and designers who mean well yet in the end you cook and live in your kitchen. Do what you love and you will love your kitchen and all that goes along with that space…

Thumbs up all day everyday 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[ronditorro]

Very helpful! Regarding appliance garages, a crazy story and a warning: We sold our home a few years after a very expensive custom kitchen remodel with an appliance garage. A year after the sale, the women who purchased our home told us the kitchen and floor above had to be gutted due to extensive fire + smoke damage. This was due to a freak accident caused by the appliance garage door sliding down onto the toaster handle when no one was home. Don't keep appliances in the garage plugged in, or just avoid the garage entirely!

[ybrynecho]

I'm very short (4'10"), so I had my work space counter put at 2" lower than the regular counter height. I also had the upper cabinets made so the bottom shelf was a couple of inches lower than normal and had the one over the stove as low as permitted. I did that in my previous house and in the condo I'm in now. Just because you are extra short (or extra tall) doesn't mean you have to live with an uncomfortable kitchen.

[heatherjay]

My husband’s a chef and prefer the easy “workability” of a galley style kitchen. I also advocated for ALL drawers, back in 1984! They are SO much more useful and accessible than cupboards.

[pecanthecat]

great tips as always! I think I captured all of them in my recently renovated super small kitchen! I reduced my fridge to 24 inches wide (!!) and gained more counterspace... I've been in my new kitchen for the past month and so far so good. the added counterspace, magic corner, cabinets to the ceiling, porcelain countertops that continue up the the backsplash and widening the entrance to the kitchen have all made a huge difference in the space. thanks again for making so many helpful videos... I watched many of them and learned a ton along the way!!!

[nathalie_desrosiers]

The problem of fridges is not how large they are. It's how (too) deep they are. I would rather have a large but not deep fridge. Like the commercial ones.

[nailsofinterest]

We took out our pantry and put in a pantry cabinet with drawers on the inside. Whooah, the amount of things you can. store, reach, and see!!! Not one regret!!! Just a few who want to take our cabinet home! 😅top two cabinets habe large shelves great fir packs of drinks, paoer towels, bags of sugar. Top most ones, we put the least used things. It actually takes up less floor space too! 😊

[cherieechols]

I'm in the middle of a kitchen renovation and something I came up with to maximize space in a corner drawer bank cabinet (positioned against the wall and at the 90 to the peninsula), was to create a secret door on the outside of the peninsula side that uses a push mechanism to open and close. I store bulky things like trash bags, paper towels, etc. Out of everything that I've designed and implemented in this kitchen so far, that has to be my favorite.

[chanaheszter]

Corner...planning to add a cabinet accessed from the dining room on the other side of the wall. Will be ideal for tablecloths and trivets, corkscrew, etc.

[TheMoonSeesMe]

I did my kitchen about 3 years ago and I was watching a lot of your videos back then. I completely cut off the corner with draws and have not regretted my decision once.

[ladylyonteeth]

You should do a show on kitchen renovation regrets. The process can be so unexpected, and it’s hard to plan for the unanticipated. Thanks for another great video. ❤

[turdferguson]

My son put a floor to ceiling closet pantry in his kitchen and it's a tremendous use of space. Bags of dog food (or cat litter) on the floor. Room for a broom or vacuum cleaner. Plenty of shelf space, they even put spice racks on the interior side of the door. All in a 2' x 2' space.

[ryansoo]

Hi Mark. Recently Canadian Designer Sarah Richardson announced that she has collaborated with the Canadian kitchen cabinet company All Style Retrofit to produce a line of cabinet door and drawer fronts that can be added to standard Ikea cabinet boxes. Have you seen them yet? She shows off some of the styles in her latest Youtube video "Sarah's Island Rescue: Episode #10 Furniture Afloat"