Kitchen Remodel: 5 Mistakes I Made When Designing It

A few years ago, we underwent a complete kitchen remodel. It was a huge transformation!

Don't make these MISTAKES on your kitchen remodel. Here's what I wish I'd done differently! #kitchenremodel #kitchenrenovation #kitchenmakeover

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It’s actually really fun looking back at these photos because we’ve since made several additional updates, including:

Swapping out our island lighting fixture for three pendant lights
Upgrading our faucet
Purchasing counter stools
Repainting the walls
Changing out some of the decor
Adding a breakfast nook area with chairs and a table that we originally (and mistakenly) did away with, which I’ll discuss more about later in this post.

I absolutely love my kitchen, I really do. But, there are things I’d do differently if I was redoing it right now.

Since starting a blog in 2017, I’ve learned so much in the way of home design. As you might imagine, I spend lots of time on Pinterest, so I see many, many beautiful images all the time.

Now, after living with our kitchen renovation for several years and coming across tons of inspiration from other bloggers on Pinterest regarding kitchen design, I’ve realized that the kitchen remodel we did isn’t 100% to my liking anymore. I made a few mistakes and I realized I would do a few things differently now.

This list of mistakes I made and things I’d do differently if I was redoing a kitchen today includes both design and function-related changes.

I hope this list of kitchen remodel ‘oops’ will help you make the right decisions for your family on your own kitchen remodel.

Mistake #1: I put the stove on the island.

When I designed this kitchen years ago, I thought to myself that I would like to have the stove on the island so I can see the rest of the living spaces as well as the TV while cooking.

I actually got the idea while watching a show on HGTV and they were remodeling a kitchen for a chef. He remarked how he liked to look out throughout the house while he cooked, and for some reason it stuck with me. So, when my time came to design our kitchen, I had that thought in mind.

It’s a good thought in theory, and I actually do like it facing outward so I can see everything going on, but not at the expense of having it on the island.

Why? It’s a safety concern now.

We now have a toddler, and when we designed this kitchen several years ago it was just Jason and me. We didn’t have any little fingers to worry about when cooking.

These days, Hannah likes to sit at the island on a counter stool while I cook, which always makes me nervous because I have to keep a close eye on her so she doesn’t touch the stove.

I keep a very close eye when she’s sitting at the counter, and there haven’t been any accidents, but I’m still weary of having the hot stove so close to her.

The other downside of having the stove on the island is that it takes up prime countertop space when I’m entertaining.

The island is the perfect place to display food when I’m hosting, but the stove always gets in the way when I have lots of appetizers and dinner dishes for large gatherings.

Additionally, I would have really liked to have a range hood, and while I could put one above the stove as it currently sits on the island, I prefer to have pretty pendant lights there.

We don’t cook a lot of greasy food, or a lot of food in general on the stove (I only prepare simple, quick dishes; we can’t all be chefs!!), but I still wish I would have moved the stove off the island so I could have a pretty range hood too.

If I could go back and redo my kitchen remodel, I would absolutely change the location of the stove, for more reasons than one!

Mistake #2: I put the oven too close to the kitchen table.

When we did our kitchen remodel, we didn’t have a little one to worry about. We only had ourselves to think about, and so I didn’t even consider having the double oven where it is, as a potential safety issue.

For years, we had no breakfast table, and instead we only had a bar that separated the kitchen and living room. We used the bar to eat on as well as the island, so we didn’t really have a need for a table.

After our daughter came along, we needed a table and chair set – fast. She was too little to sit at the bar; it was just too high for her and too unsafe. We wanted a standard table with standard height chairs. Eventually we got a table and four chairs and stuck them them between the kitchen and the bar.

Now that we have the kitchen table, a problem arises when we use our oven, and we use it pretty often. This mama likes to makes some easy oven dinners! 😉

Hannah sits at the table a lot when we’re cooking, and I hate having to open and close the hot oven when she’s so close. I’m always extra careful now when using our oven if she’s nearby.

We could have easily avoided this issue if we would have put the oven on the other wall, where the refrigerator currently is, and vice versa.

Don’t make the same mistake I did! If you have little ones or are planning to in the future, consider their safety when designing your dream kitchen.

Mistake #3: I made the microwave an eyesore.

Currently, our microwave takes up part of an upper cabinet and it sits right next to our double oven. Not only is it an eyesore but it also takes away from storage space.

Eventually I’ll swap out the outdated microwave with a stainless steel one so at least it will match our oven. I’d just hate to throw this one out just because it’s not stainless steel. It works great, but I really do find it to be an eyesore since it doesn’t match our oven and it’s in an awkward spot. I know down the road swapping it out with a stainless one will at least help the issue.

If I were doing a kitchen remodel today, I’d put the microwave on the inner part of the island. I’d do an exact cut-out for the microwave as well, instead of just having a shelf. It would sit on the inner side of the island so it wouldn’t be easily seen and would be less of an eyesore.

I think it would look great but also functionally work well too! It would also free put space for more cabinetry and more storage.

Mistake #4. I didn’t pick the right oven or stove.

Don’t get me wrong, I like our double oven and stovetop, but if I could redo our kitchen remodel, I’d get one really nice combo double over and stove and place it in the middle of the refrigerator wall.

I’d have a really nice range hood centered above it that would be a feature piece.

That would leave the current location of the double oven to be where the refrigerator would go. And, that would leave the island to be completely free of anything and perfect for lots of food prep. Oyyy!

I say again…don’t make the same mistakes I did! Consider function, looks and safety, and take your time doing so!

Mistake #4. I didn’t put enough thought into the color scheme.

While I still really like our kitchen colors, to create my current dream kitchen, I would get a much lighter colored countertop.

Our countertop is a medium beige granite, and while it’s nice, I wish we had a white on white kitchen.

There’s just something so fresh about white kitchens. They’re also timeless, which makes a white kitchen a great investment. If you want a pop of color, you can easily add bright kitchen decor or go wild with paint color, if that’s your thing.

Excluding the countertop, color is a relatively easy and budget-friendly thing to change. We probably won’t change our kitchen cabinetry colors for awhile since it was professionally painted, but I could see repainting it years down the road.

I think we’d be more likely to swap our granite out first before new cabinetry colors, but again, that will be awhile away, as we have higher priority to-do’s on our home renovation list right now.

Mistake #5: I didn’t pay enough attention to details, like the hardware.

I went with all bronze hardware when we got the kitchen. I bought the hardware packs at Home Depot that come in bulk. I didn’t put too much thought in the hardware. I thought that the bulk packs were good enough. Sadly, I paid for all that hardware and really didn’t invest much thought into it.

I wish I’d done more research on hardware because I would have chosen a silver color, though to be fair, I more recently became obsessed with the lighter-toned hardware.

A great example of this is our new pendant lights. We swapped out our old island lighting fixture, which was the first step in changing the bronze for the silver. Eventually, I will get new pulls. I’m considering these pulls,which I love and used on our bookcase makeover and hutch makeover.

In addition to changing the color of the hardware, I’d also change the style of the hardware. I probably would do all handles and no pulls. I just like the way they look. This is something I may end up doing when I eventually swap out the hardware.

Additionally, for our long drawers, we used two handles on each drawer instead of a really long, centered, handle. The two handles are FINE but I think really long handles on those drawers would make a serious statement – in a good way.

If you’re thinking about doing a kitchen remodel or are currently in the process of one, my best advice is to look at tons of pictures on Pinterest and to also take your time in making decisions, especially in the details like your hardware.

I was so desperate to rip out our old kitchen and get a new one that I made decisions too quickly, without enough research.

All that being said, I still love our kitchen and over the next few years, I’m sure we’ll make a few more changes to scratch some of these redo’s off my new kitchen remodel list. 😉

The more expensive, appliance-location-switches won’t happen, but I can see colors changing, hardware changing, updated appliances (refrigerator and microwave), and possibly a new countertop in our future.

Until then, I’ll enjoy this view.

BTW I had a little bit of a copper obsession over Christmas time (you may remember my copper decor accents in my dining room). During that time, I added lots of copper decor to my stash, including these copper stemless wind glasses,which you see in the photos.