Cutting costs on vital functions<\/p>\n
For Victoria, simplicity, function and ease of use are the most important factors when it comes to kitchen design, and so while there are tempting ways to keep costs for what is often the most expensive room to renovate, there are some places where it is worth not cutting corner. \u2018We always advise clients not to cut costs on good joinery and most importantly services, such as plumbing, drainage, extraction<\/a>,\u2019 says Victoria. The second is especially important in Listed Building renovations, where the routes can be very limited.\u2019<\/p>\n Using non-durable materials<\/p>\n \u2018Materiality is equally important,\u2019 says Anthony when it comes to making sure expensive kitchen design and renovations endure. \u2018Worktops should be chosen<\/a> not only for their appearance, but for how they will age, wear and support the rhythm of daily life.\u2019<\/p>\n As the kitchen is one of the most used rooms in the home, not only is the lighting<\/a> important, but it needs to reflect the way you will be using the room. A kitchen-dining space<\/a> may need different lighting compared to galley kitchen<\/a>, for instance. Despite this, Tom feels it is another area people tend to undervalue when it comes to kitchen design. \u2018Good kitchen lighting should be layered \u2013 combining task lighting, ambient lighting, and softer decorative elements \u2013 rather than relying solely on overhead spotlights,\u2019 he says. \u2018It completely changes how a kitchen feels and functions.\u2019<\/p>\n Jess agrees. \u2018Don\u2019t treat kitchen lighting as an afterthought,\u2019 she says. \u2018Task lighting with beautiful, discrete fittings is a must, and needs proper planning to get right. But it\u2019s the layers on top are what give a kitchen its atmosphere and character \u2013 a pendant, a wall light<\/a>, a table lamp<\/a> tucked onto a shelf or worktop. It\u2019s one of the things we spend the most time on with clients, and it always shows.\u2019<\/p>\n Putting the hob in the wrong place\u2026<\/p>\n For Pandora, having a hob on a kitchen island is a no-no. \u2018This is really a personal choice and depends on the space available to you, but as someone who loves to entertain<\/a>, the island unit for me is somewhere I want to have cocktails<\/a> at the ready not all my grubby pots and pans bubbling away,\u2019 she says. \u2018To add to that, if you have children around it feels potentially more dangerous if they are sitting at the unit.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prioritising aesthetics over practicality \u2018We often see too much money spent on cosmetic details and not enough on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,210120,9835,1120,96,106605,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-617929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-building-and-renovating","tag-decorating-advice","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-kitchens","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Wiggy%20Hindmarch%20home124949v1.jpeg\"\/)
Undervaluing lighting<\/p>\n