Common kitchen renovation mistakes (and how to avoid them)

From adding a personal touch to updating old-fashioned styles, adding functionality or increasing the market value, there are plenty of reasons to renovate a kitchen. But getting the builders in can be pricey, which is why many UK homeowners opt to pick up the tools and get on with the job themselves.

While it’s amazing what you can pick up from watching videos online, there are several common design mistakes that are made over and over again. Without the help of an expert, your exciting revamp can quickly become a DIY nightmare.

Here, we’ll go into five common kitchen design mistakes and offer some tried and tested solutions on how to avoid them.

Five common kitchen DIY mistakes

1. Not measuring worktops correctly

As the old saying goes, ‘Measure twice, cut once’. And it’s still good advice when ordering kitchen worktops, as small mistakes can lead to significant issues.

If you order the wrong size worktop and it’s too short when it arrives, you’ll end up with unsightly gaps or joins in your work surface, or you may need to reorder materials, making your renovation much more expensive than planned.

Check out our Oak worktops

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Check out our Oak worktops

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Ordering worktops that are too long will increase your costs unnecessarily, too. Practically, however, they are less of an issue as they can be cut again, although this takes more time and leaves you with waste materials.

At House of Worktops, we add around 10cm to each worktop length we send out. This ensures that, if the ends become damaged in transit, the final result will still look perfect. This also helps if your measurements are out by a centimetre or two!

2. Choosing a worktop in the wrong colour

What happens if your worktop arrives and it doesn’t look the way you’d hoped? Or what if it doesn’t go with the cabinets you ordered?

You can avoid this disappointing setback by ordering samples before you commit to buying a worktop, or other materials. This will give you a feel for the surface’s texture, colour and pattern before you make a decision. At House of Worktops, we charge a small fee for samples, but we offer a full refund of the sample you choose in any future orders. Want to check out the exact colour of a solid oak worktop before you buy it? Or gauge how our White Sparkle laminate shimmers in the light? Samples are the way to go and will help you choose the right colour for your kitchen worktop.

While samples can help you to envisage the final look and feel of your kitchen renovation project, creating mood boards can be another good way to visualise the outcome, so you don’t get any nasty surprises when everything finally comes together.

If you order a worktop and change your mind once it arrives, we have a 30-day returns guarantee and offer a full refund (minus the delivery fee) for items in their original condition.

3. Making your kitchen feel smaller by pairing the wrong colours

Selecting cohesive colour combinations for a kitchen renovation is key, as well-paired colours will make the finished space feel light, spacious and harmonious.

Whether you’re going for bold colours in the kitchen or soothing neutrals, the way you combine them matters. Splashing out on dark or vibrant colours will show off your personality, but they can make a room feel smaller and quickly become overbearing. Rather than opting for black or charcoal cabinets, why not save dark colours for kitchen accents? Alternatively, you could pair bright, colourful highlights of red or blue with white worktops to make those vivid secondary tones pop.

You can avoid making your kitchen feel smaller by pairing paler colours such as cream and wood tones, sand and stone, or cool greys and white. Try matching our granite-effect Grey Avenue Solid Surface worktop with ivory cabinets, for instance. Or pair a real beech wood worktop with soft-toned walls.

4. Not maximising space in a small kitchen

When renovating a tiny kitchen, your main focus should always be making the most of the space. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to make a small room feel bigger and brighter.

As you start planning your kitchen revamp, consider the ‘kitchen triangle’; think about how you’ll move around in the space, between the sink, fridge and oven. It’s also wise to consider how much useable worktop space you’ll have for chopping and prepping food and making those all-important cups of coffee. All too often, people leave themselves short on work surfaces and regret not taking the time to plan for more.

An easy way to maximise on space in a galley kitchen or similarly small room is to use colour and lighting to your advantage. Pale colours will create the illusion of more space and bright lighting will make it feel roomier.

5. Forgetting to think about storage

One of the most common regrets after renovating a kitchen is not incorporating more storage space. When prepping for a refresh, consider how much cupboard and worktop space you’ll need for existing and new items.

You’ll need to ensure your new cabinets are deep enough for all the crockery, pans and appliances you want on hand, and your work surfaces are generous enough to offer food preparation space, plus house regularly used gadgets such as the toaster or blender.

Cupboard space can be maximised by installing wall cabinets that go right up to the ceiling. You can use the top shelves for those items you only dig out once in a blue moon…pasta maker, anyone?

When thinking about worktops, aim to increase usable space by keeping sideboard clutter to a minimum. Or, if you could benefit from a larger clear space for cooking, a kitchen island could be a good solution, providing more surface area and cupboard space, all rolled into one.