March 17, 2026

Almost nobody regrets a material. What they regret is a socket in the wrong place, no landing space beside the oven, a bin that is awkward to reach, and cupboards where drawers should have been. The regrets are almost always about how the kitchen works rather than how it looks, and all of them are free to avoid at drawing stage.

These are the ones that come up most often when we go back to a project a year or two later.

Not enough landing space

The single most common regret. You need at least 400mm of clear worktop immediately beside the oven, and the same beside the hob, for the simple reason that you have to put hot things down.

It is easy to lose this to a tall unit or a run that stops slightly short. Check it on the drawing before anything else.

Cupboards instead of drawers

Deep drawers are better than base cupboards for almost everything. You can see the contents, reach the back without kneeling, and they hold more because nothing is lost at the rear.

The exception is genuinely tall items. One cupboard for those is plenty. The rest should be drawers, and people who did this never mention it again, which is the best sign.

The bin

If the bin is not within a step of the sink and the prep area, you will move to a freestanding one within six months and lose the cupboard you put it in. Integrated bins should be under the prep run, not tucked in a corner because that was the leftover space.

Socket positions

Decide where the kettle, the toaster and the coffee machine actually live, then put sockets there. Not evenly spaced along the wall, which is what happens by default.

Two doubles where the appliances sit beats five singles spread across the room. And one socket inside a larder for a toaster you never have to lift out is the cheapest upgrade in any kitchen.

Open shelving

Beautiful in photographs, and a genuine commitment. Everything on it gets greasy near a hob and dusty away from it, and it only looks right if you keep it curated.

Plenty of people love it. The ones who regret it all say the same thing, which is that they did not realise it was a daily job.

Handleless, in a busy house

A handleless kitchen relies on a finger pull or a push-to-open mechanism. Both are lovely and both mean hands on the door front rather than on a handle. On a dark matt finish, in a house with children, that shows.

Lighting decided too late

Under-cabinet lighting wired at the workshop back to a single driver is tidy and invisible. Lighting added after the kitchen is fitted means surface channels, visible drivers and compromise.

It is a small line on the quote and one of the biggest differences in how the room feels at night.

The pattern

Every one of these is a decision made on a drawing, for free, months before anything is built. Spend the time there. It is worth more than any upgrade you can buy later.