If you're purchasing new appliances, you're probably reading online reviews,
asking your friends for their advice, and learning all the manufacturer specs.
But you've probably seen a lot of buyers
remorse and comments from people wishing they had bought something different.
Wouldn't it be great to learn all
the nightmares to avoid up front so they don't happen to you?
In this new series, that's exactly what we're going to do.
We'll show you the common and uncommon
pitfalls and mistakes in every category, from starting a project to delivering
without the several different types of damage that can happen in your home.
Welcome to episode two in our mistakes to avoid series. In the last episode,
we learned how to choose the right people and how to make the right decisions.
In this episode, we're going to answer
the question, why are so many beautiful kitchens so poorly designed?
And here's what you're going to learn.
First, you'll see where you shouldn't start when designing your kitchen.
Mistake number two is not understanding how you use your appliances.
And number three is over centralizing your appliances.
Your contractor and cabin shop will tell
you to choose appliances first before designing your kitchen.
Why? Because appliances, mostly cooking,
is the key to designing the kitchens and ordering the cabinets.
The most common bad advice you'll hear from client stores is start with your
cooking or, God forbid, your refrigeration.
Good advice is to start by looking at the general layout of the space,
like windows or objects you want to highlight, and then start with your sink.
You're at your sink the most.
And sinks, unlike cooking appliances,
are great next to windows and even better in islands.
You don't have to worry about an island vent.
Next is the decision between wall oven and cooktop or range.
You're at the range or cooktop the second most.
The top is important because broiling
and pan frying demand your attention more than an oven does.
You also don't want to move more than a step or two for your stovetop and sink.
It's the most efficient design.
Yet in many kitchen designs,
you see the sink and cooktop in different parts of the kitchen.
And that's not efficient and probably not safe.
You'll be moving around way too much.
And when you burn something in your stovetop or in your oven,
the first place you're going to look instinctively is your sink.
The dishwasher being the third most used
appliance completes that kitchen triangle. Somewhere
as you watch this,
somebody will be shopping in an appliance store asking for the best possible cooking
product and will be immediately shown a dual fuel professional range.
It's the best, after all. Or is it?
Not if you like to broil or roast,
a gas oven is better with a moisture heat and an infrared broiler.
The same can be said for almost anything.
Most people unconsciously buy double ovens when they use one.
Steam and speed are great ways to cook, but only if you use them.
So if you want to be happy
with the kitchen, take a minute to analyze how you cook,
because not knowing and understanding will lead to your future unhappiness.
The only three appliances that need to be
centralized are sink, stovetop and dishwashers, as we said.
Yet you see plenty of kitchens that stuff everything everywhere.
Let me explain why. It's critical that you
stir your soup and less so to check on your food in your oven,
and even less so than grabbing something from the fridge.
So wall ovens and refrigerators do not have to be centralized.
Same for anything you don't regularly use.
In my kitchen, the microwave is away
from the wall oven because it's not important for the way we cook.
If it was, I would put it on top of the single oven and don't do this.
Stacking wall ovens three high can only lead to the problem of lifting hot food
over your head, which is a bad idea generally,
and worse with small kids around tugging at your pants.
Everyone is different,
so plan for you. Not your neighbors or
the kitchen, you just cut out of that magazine.
So here are the highlights. Not starting with the sink and not
completing the kitchen triangle with your stovetop and dishwasher in close proximity.
Not understanding how you cook and use
appliances will lead you into wrong choices and your future unhappiness.
And don't over centralize.
You can keep many of your appliances on the perimeter of your kitchen.
Now that we have our people from our first
video and our plan from this one, it's time to start selecting appliances.
Our next episode will be about the only
other confusing decision you'll have to make that will affect your kitchen plan.
If you like this video, there'll be a new one in this series every week.
Thanks for watching.