5 Kitchen Remodel Mistakes We Made (So You Do not Have To!), gathered in one list

There are tons of decisions, measurements, plans (and change of plans!) that go into a kitchen remodel. So it is typically unrealistic to assume that you will be able to navigate the whole thing without hitting a few speed bumps or having to course correct along the way (ten points for two driving related metaphors in one sentence!). And our journey was no exception – perhaps you already heard about our GIANT tile miscalculation on our podcast – so today we are recapping five other mistakes that we made, noticed, and then fixed (some riiiight in the nick of time). You know, before they ate away at us for years on end as we stood in there giving them the stink eye. So if you are contemplating a kitchen reno, you might wanna keep an eye out for these potential road blocks. I am truly nailing it with those driving metaphors today.

Mistake #1: An Nearly Off-Center Doorway

Perhaps you remember this picture below from our demo post showing the new opening that was all framed up between our kitchen and our living room. You likely did not think twice about the cluster of close studs on the left side (see black arrow), but that was in fact to correct the fact that it was originally built a few inches off center. Oops!

The same contractor who helped us widen the dining room doorway (which was load bearing) helped us frame this up, and that night Sherry and I both thought it looked a little off. We sorta did one of those “Is it? No, it is not. Wait, perhaps simply a little bit? Eh, I am likely being paranoid. Oh well, back to eating cookies!” But Sherry resisted the Oreos long sufficient to double-check everything with a tape measure, and sure sufficient – it was nearly three inches closer to the wall on one side.

It was straightforward sufficient to correct the next day, but we are SOOOOOO glad we caught it because leaving it even simply a few inches off would’ve made our built-in bookcases look especially wonky and asymmetrical on the other side (one cabinet would have had noticeably more filler pieces around it than the other, which would have been a dead giveaway).

Mistake #2: Bad Fridge Placement

The original layout of our kitchen had our fridge in a slightly distinct spot. As you can see in the photo below that we snapped during installation, it was originally meant to go in RIGHT NEXT to the door (the fridge, lights, and door color below are photoshopped, FYI).

This exercise in Photoshop was because Sherry was trying desperately to convince herself that she was not crazy for thinking the fridge placement looked weird. We had planned for it to go there, so it was not an installation error. Our original logic was to put one big rectangle (fridge) next to the other big rectangle (door) and leave that back wall of “pantry” cabinets as uninterrupted as possible.

But when the cabinets got installed we realized the differing heights of those two big rectangles looked unbalanced right next to each other (like your eye desperately wished they lined up). So Sherry mocked up this alternate version in Photoshop, where the fridge and the door get some breathing room by moving the pantry cabinet between them.

I will admit I did not think it was worth the eye-rolls from the cabinet installers, but Sherry is gutsier than me, so she did not hesitate to at least ask if the switch was possible when the crew showed up the next morning. They were glad – or at least acted glad – to make the change (it took them under 15 minutes!) and we are both much happier with this placement in the end. So it is certainly a lesson in intervening if you think you see a design regret materializing in front of your quite eyes.

shelf brackets / cabinet hardware / faucet / lights / stools / rug / fridge / stove / dishwasher / gold vase / blinds / island counter (more kitchen info & sources)

Mistake #3: Barely There Lights

You saw them mocked up in some of the photos above, but here is a real photo of the original lights we installed over the island. They are barely there, right?

We chose these glass globe pendants originally because they were plain, classic, and affordable ($97 each from Home Depot). We thought the way they blended in would be pleasant (they would not obscure any sight lines) but the more we stared at the room as time went on (especially from the sofa in the living room at night) the more Sherry pointed out that they looked kinda pinheaded and unsubstantial compared to the chunky island below them. They were not bad per se, but they could be better…

It took us a while to decide on a replacement, since we hoped something with a little more presence – both in size and visual weight – but did not want to give up one of our go-to features of these original lights: the polished nickel stem. As you know, we eventually ended up designing these pendants with Shades of Light after not finding anything else that checked all of our boxes (size, shape, color, finish, price), and now they are some of our go-to items in the room.

brackets / hardware / faucet / lights / stools / rug / fridge / stove / dishwasher / blinds / island counter

Mistake #4: Ill-Fitting Stools

When Sherry was making her mood boards for this room, one of the items we fell in love with early on were these stools from Restoration Hardware. They were a bit of a splurge item (what is not a splurge item from RH?) but we kept coming back to them as “the ideal stools.”

So we paid for ’em. We also paid for the totally not-optional “white glove delivery & set-up” service that meant they simply PUT THEM DOWN. They did not even put them down in the right spot because they arrived during floor refinishing, so they simply white-gloved ’em into our garage. And it was not until the day before our counter install that we brought them in and discovered our ideal stools were not so ideal after all. Notice the height of that arm rest? The counter was not in yet, but it was as clear as day that once it was installed, these stools would not be able to tuck underneath it.

It still boggles my mind that counter-height stools would have an arm too tall to fit under a standard-height counter. Perhaps Restoration Hardware assumes that no one wants their stools to slide in quite far? Not being able to push them in all the way would’ve driven us crazy, so – as discouraging as it was – we returned them and thankfully got a full refund.

But lo and behold, letting go of “the ideal stools” ended up being a blessing in disguise because it forced us to shop dig more and uncover these World Market stools we had somehow missed in our initial search. They are still wood, still have a back, and are more affordable to boot. Victory!

cabinet hardware / lights / stools / stove / blinds / woven tray / island counter

Mistake #5: Repainting. Twice.

We originally painted the walls of the room white. Partially because we were going for bright and low-contrast, but also because we were not sure if or what color we might want until more of the room came together. So before the new floors were laid, we gave everything a coat of Simply White by Benjamin Moore, simply to unify everything and see if we liked it as a final color.

But as the room began to come together, the white was simply looking too stark for us – like we hadn’t gotten around to painting quite yet. Here is a shot as things were going in (still no island counter, wood stools, tile around the door, rug, or wood floating shelves though).

It was in fact in installing the backsplash along the sink wall – and then deciding that it should continue around the garage door too – that at last pointed us in a paint color direction. Irish Mist by Behr, the same color in our bonus room, was the ideal light gray that not only created a hint of contrast between the walls and the trim/cabinets – but also picked up the colors in the tile, making all of the walls look more cohesive and balanced. It is a hard distinction in photos, but in person it is clearly grayer than the bright white trim.

shelf brackets / cabinet hardware / mint bowls / gold frame / pink & green glasses

The OTHER repainting occurrence in fact involved the garage door. It came in a stock white color, but we consistently knew we hoped some color on it. We originally thought about painting it Galt Blue by Benjamin Moore to match our living room ceiling, but after painting a test spot it simply looked too bright and shout-y in that corner, so we painted some more test swatches and at last chose Blue Horizon by Sherwin-Williams:

Once the whole door was painted, the color took on a more powdery baby blue tone than we hoped. We were aiming for something grayer and more muted, so we tried our runner-up swatch: Lime Light by Behr. The difference is not as obvious in these photos, but in real life this color works a lot better within that nook. Rather than trying to compete with the tile, it nearly looks derived from it – although it is a bit bluer.

door knob / cabinet hardware

Bonus!

So now that we have aired some dirty laundry about the design decisions we flubbed on the first try, I thought we’d wrap things up with three potential mistakes that we managed to avoid out of the gate. These are things that could’ve been big regrets (well, perhaps small regrets) had we not anticipated them during the planning process, so they are also things you might want to look out for if you are headed towards a kitchen renovation.

Bonus Pointer #1: Leave Space For Tile

We knew from the get-go that we hoped our backsplash tile to go to the ceiling. We did it in our last kitchen behind our open shelves and enjoyed the impact of it, but since this wall was interrupted by windows and upper cabinets it took a bit more planning. It meant we had to leave sufficient space around the windows for the tile to continue all the way from counter to crown, fully wrapping around the windows. Otherwise it might’ve looked like two separate stripes of tile – one along the backsplash, and another small rectangle of it above the windows.

  cabinet hardware / fridge / blinds / cutting board / popcorn & cereal jars

We chose a 7″ gap on each side of the windows since it allowed for a substantial amount of visible tile while working with our upper cabinet size options so nothing had to be custom. It did mean that we chose slightly narrower cabinets than we could have, but it was well worth it to us for the final look.

cabinet hardware / faucet / dishwasher / gold vase / blinds / gold clock / cutting board

Bonus Pointer #2: Try Horizontal Outlets

Even though we got covers to match our backsplash tile, we still much prefer gazing at our tile as opposed to staring into the shocked eyes of our outlets (do they not look like little surprised faces or what?). Sherry saw the suggestion somewhere to turn your outlets on their side AND lower them closer to your counters to make them easily accessible, but a lot less obvious. So we carefully measured and marked the placement of all of our new outlets (and some old ones that simply needed slight relocation) before our electrician came.

We enjoy that we can move small objects aside to expose them when we want to use them (I nudged the planter aside for this shot), but they are soooo much easier to conceal this way than if they floated right in the middle of the backsplash.

gold utensils / wood utensils / utensil holder / spoon rest / gold vase

It is another small detail that we easily could have overlooked, but they certainly would have broken up that big wall of tile a lot more if we had skipped the effort (they were originally around 8″ higher since our last kitchen had a little mini backsplash thing and they were vertically placed a few inches above that).

Bonus Pointer #3: Do not Settle For The Default

We worked with a local cabinet company to select a brand called Quality Cabinets for our kitchen, which we liked for their…um… quality, as well as style, color, and price. One thing we did not like? The stock option for the exhaust hood. Here is what it looked like in the original rendering:

We worried the pinched-at-the-top style might end up making the two cabinets on either side of it feel skinnier, instead of bridging them all together a bit more so they read as one big unit… but it appeared to be the only option from this cabinet maker. Sad emoji. But with our cabinet guy’s assist, we realized we could simply order whatever 30″ wood vent cover we preferred from any company and paint it to match. Burrito emoji! (Burritos are code for glad in my book).

lights / stools / stove / blinds / woven tray / island counter

Most cabinet companies provide a can of perfectly-matching paint for touch ups, trim, etc – so that is a good thing to use for tying in anything from another source. We ended up getting this “valance style” cover from Koch Cabinets, which slopes out towards the kitchen island, but does not pinch in at the top when you face it from the front, which is something we discovered we are both partial to (who knew two married people could have so much in common?!).

cabinet hardware / lights / rug / fridge / stove / dishwasher / gold vase / blinds / island counter

So consider this a reminder that even if you are going with a certain cabinet maker, you do not have to settle for the first (and seemingly only) option when it comes to something like a wood vent cover. Spread your wings and fly.

Of course there are PLENTY of other details that could’ve become #regrets had we not thought them through. Like we nearly put the dishwasher on the right side of the sink, meaning it would’ve stuck out beyond the island and been visible from the front door. Now it is nicely hidden behind the island to the left of the sink, which is even more convenient for unloading.

cabinet hardware / stools / lights / gold vase / blinds / island counter / cutting board

It is fairly much like that with most major home renovations: the devil is frequently in the details, and no matter how hard you try to anticipate everything, there are bound to be at least a few things you overlook and a handful of adjustments you have to make along the way. My wish for you is this: may none of them involve tearing down a wall to recenter an opening by 3 inches (can you imagine?!).

If you’ve missed the rest of our kitchen remodel story, you can check it out here:

• Choosing A New Layout
• Gutting & Rebuilding
• The Big Reveal <– You can find all of the sources for the room right here!
• A Video Tour Of How We Organized Our Cabinets & Drawers
• How We Brought in Those Living Room Built-Ins

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