I have stools under my kitchen island because my disabled daughter, who loves to cook, can’t stand for long periods of time. She does meal prep sitting on one of those stools. Sometimes there are practical reasons for having seating around a kitchen island. You might consider doing a video on design kitchen design for people with disabilities.😊
Ok I've got a confession myself, while we're at it... My unpopular opinion is that I dislike this latest trend of adding a sink or stove to an island. I dislike the look of that. It really bothers me 😂. I don't mind plugging in an induction if i want , but to permanently fix a stove, no thank you. And a sink is just messy. My dream kitchen is an L shaped kitchen with a sink under a window and a stove on the other side and a clean oversized island. Just my opinion 🤷♀️.
My unpopular opinion is: I prefer the u shaped kitchen with a peninsula over having a separate island. I also love having upper cabinets over no cabinets or open shelves. I feel like the function of a kitchen like that that has everything within reach makes it feel luxurious. The fact that everything has a place and countertops are free for use is luxury to me.
I really dislike large pull-out larder cupboards. My sister has one, and a previous place I rented had one and my experience is: if they are "under-filled" you just hear lots of clanging every time it is pulled out; if completely filled, they tend to get really heavy to move; the metal mechanisms can get tarnished and "sticky" - the rented place was like this, and every time I pulled it out, I either expected it to jam, or completely fall off its rails (despite my attempts to clean it). For me, it's one of those situations where if a small part of it breaks, the whole cupboard is potentially unusable until fixed. American style massive fridge-freezers. If the household has more than 6 people, then I guess they make sense, but so many people have these and it's just way too much for most households. Most people I know who have these end up wasting a lot of food, because the available space encourages them to over purchase fresh foods that then expire before they are found in the cavernous depths of these monstrosities.
I'm taking these all very seriously!! Spot on. Though I was thinking about putting a standard non-panelled dishwasher in the side of my island... just for you. lol
My unpopular opinion about kitchens is that it is a workshop inside a house that should be more practical than pretty and we should separate it back into its own room 😅
@@zeveroarerules I cook a lot and maybe it is a cultural thing but I cook everything before the guests arrive. So when they come, we all can relax and enjoy a meal together. I can’t really imagine cooking and then cleaning the kitchen while my guests are watching me or worse helping me clean the smudges of tomato sauce from countertops. The only dishes I can think of where a group is better involved are dishes like dumplings which are better prepared by several people at once. It is more comfortable to make them over a dining table rather over a kitchen counter or island anyway.
Not all of us have scullery and kitchen maids. I wish my house layout could accommodate an open kitchen. I have a galley of modest size, barely enough space for a walking aisle down the middle, with a small breakfast room accessed through a 27-inch-wide door at one end and the modest dining room through a 32-inch-wide door at the other. My idea is to widen the doors as much as possible (32 to the breakfast room and 48 to the dining room), and to put divided glass barn doors over the case openings, leave the doors open as much as possible but close them to contain the smoke and odors as needed.
@@kitchinsider I’m more against kitchens turning into showpieces rather than the open plan concept per se. (Well, the open plan concept does its share of damage in this regard.) I have been working on designing my kitchen in my new home recently (thank you for the video on that topic, btw) and I’m really tired of salespeople suggesting features/detail that are clearly not suitable for the kitchen where a person actually cooks but provide that sleek showpiece look that is in vogue today.
Agree totally with all of this! And, in addition, my own unpopular kitchen peeve is island seating, when the dining table is right there, just a few feet away. Why oh why(!) would you want people, elbows, knees, wine glasses &c. taking up valuable working and storage space, when the dining table itself is within comfortable conversation distance? You pay extra for those beautiful bar stools, they take up valuable floor space and you’re losing all those potential extra drawers for storage.
Ok, I’m ready to hear more episodes- like design/life things that annoy you, Michael! (What makes me think you might have more? LOL) Opinionated is good; bland is boring. :-)
Not necessarily an unpopular opinion, but just a question about something that i see quite often. i've seen so many pictures of beautiful copper pots hanging behind the stove, against the backsplash, and i can't figure out how they don't get splattered to death from grease and food. Or the shelf behind the stove look that is so popular (and that i absolutely love.)
Asper spot on , I agree with all your points. I also suggest 1. s\s dishwasher fronts! 2. Contemporary kitchens with lighting pelmet and crown ! 3.too many sockets. I could go on 😊 keep up the good work👍
Yes! Also, if you have wood, why make it look like plastic? Why would you make any material look like another material? My mother, (this was in the late 70’s), used to have an high gloss dark red kitchen, with a three inch thick unfinished sycamore work surface, like an enormous butchers block, that she used directly as a chopping board; scrubbed it clean the old fashioned way with salt, and the sycamore seemed to absorb the stains, even beetroot and red wine disappeared in a few days, it looked fantastic.
My pet peeve is a recircularing cooker hood - especially in a small kitchen. Extraction only - I have now replaced or converted three. Second is sinks which stain, along with coloured taps. The finish is just not durable enough. Third would be a design without any thought about where to put the bin (preferably in a cupboard for me) - but in front of a cabinet door, or anywhere it is in the way - really!
The first one might not be a choice though. Low energy houses can not have an extraction hood here for example. So you'd have to pay dearly for that. That's either through a fine or the losing of your low energy status and the increasing of your taxes on the home.
@zeveroarerules Cooker hoods don't just extract smells and heat, but moisture too, and as we know, excess moisture in a home is unhealthy and can in extremis be deadly thanks to the inevitable mould. Moisture in passive homes is much more of an issue than in other homes, and as such, controlled ventilation is essential. Excess heat can also be an issue, which is why, even on a cold night, a well insulated home can with the addition of a few extra bodies become uncomfortably warm and require an open window even with all heating turned off (I speak from experience of a home where 3 adults were enough to maintain a comfortable temperature, but the fourth would require a window to be ajar.) So as not to overly compromise the efficiency of the home, there are systems that can pass the moist kitchen (and bathroom) extracted air through an efficient heat exchanger before it is expelled to the outside, and then warm the incoming air with that extracted heat before it is directed to the rooms. The excess moisture and smells will still be expelled to the outside, but most of the heat will be retained.
Forgetting about the bins almost happened to me: we're renovating our kitchen and, whilst I've been happily plotting out cupboards and exactly what would go in each for months - I realised a couple of weeks ago that I'd totally neglected the bins 🤦♂️
A round sing works when you live in a van. And even then... No, just no. Glossy cabinets, yuk. That feels or looks so 60ies. My hob will be in the island, it's just the social way of cooking. I don't want to be facing the wall. I would understand why people want the range cooker in the island for that same reason though. Looks awkward, but that one I'd actually get. Not sure if I'd do it myself.
