What are the Apartment Kitchen Decor Mistakes That Make Your Kitchen Look Smaller

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10+ Common Mistakes You Might Be Making With Your Apartment Kitchen Decor

If you’re living in an apartment, you may think that there’s not much you can do to improve the style of your kitchen. 

But even in small spaces, these 9 common mistakes with apartment kitchen decor can make your space seem cluttered and bland – which isn’t the vibe you want from the heart of your home!

Apartment kitchen decor mistakes to avoid

1) It Doesn’t Have A Focal Point

Nothing is worse than walking into a room and having no idea where to look. 

The same goes for your kitchen: If it doesn’t have a focal point, you’ll feel lost in an endless sea of cabinets, drawers, and appliances. 

To prevent an endless-searching confusion in your kitchen, select one element (like a colorful cabinet or countertop) to really make pop. 

It could be as simple as adding fresh flowers or greenery to give that splash of color. Just because you don’t have much space doesn’t mean you can’t add some design elements – so get creative! 

It’s important for an apartment kitchen to have a focal point because it helps to ground the space and creates a visual centrepiece that draws the eye. A well-designed focal point can also give the space personality and style, making it feel more welcoming and useful.

Here are some reasons why it’s important for an apartment kitchen to have a Focal Point

It gives the room personality and style. A focal point can help you show off your own style and give the kitchen a unique touch. A focal point can make a space feel more personal and inviting, whether it’s a bold wallpaper pattern or a collection of old kitchen tools on display.

It makes a visual centrepiece: A focal point, like a colourful backsplash, a statement light fixture, or a unique piece of art, can make a visual centrepiece that draws the eye and makes the space feel more alive and interesting.

It can make the room more useful. For example, a magnetic knife holder or a built-in wine rack are both useful focal points. By putting useful things in the centre of attention, you can make the space more useful and easy to use.

It gives the room a sense of balance and proportion. A well-designed focal point can give the room a sense of balance and proportion. By drawing attention to a central point in the room, the focal point can help create a design that flows well and looks good.

Overall, it’s important for an apartment kitchen to have a focal point because it can add visual interest, show your personal style, and make the space work better. By putting a well-designed focal point in your kitchen, you can make the space feel more welcoming, stylish, and useful.

2) Too Many Colors

Bright colors can be fun, but in a small space like an apartment kitchen, it’s easy to become visually overwhelmed by them. 

If you’re decorating on a budget, stick to one or two bold colors and keep everything else neutral. 

Painting your kitchen cabinets is a great way to add color without having to fill every available surface with knickknacks. 

A different color for your island (if you have one) can be an especially effective way of adding interest; 

if your island does double duty as seating, make sure that both surfaces are comfortable for people as well as for food preparation tasks.

3.Not keeping your kitchen consistent with the rest of the house

While there’s absolutely flexibility to develop a personal design in your kitchen, it will stick out — and not in a good way – if it’s drastically different from other places in the house.

Following the lead of your home’s architecture and design, employ important items to tie in your kitchen with the theme of the house. 

Using comparable door hardware, mimicking a colour scheme or replacing your cabinets are little modifications you can do to quickly make your house more coherent.

Kitchen is Not Quite Functional

Whether you’re a bachelor or bachelorette or with kids, an empty apartment is one way to make sure you don’t need much kitchen equipment. 

But if your apartment is going to be occupied for years (rather than just for a few months), then it will quickly become apparent that your kitchen isn’t functional, and that there aren’t enough cupboards, drawers and storage areas.

Those open shelves may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but if you don’t have enough storage elsewhere, your under bench cabinets are likely to be working overtime to accommodate everything else on the shelves.

Another important consideration is appliance placement, which frequently leads to a kitchen layout that does not represent the way the user really uses the space. 

The golden triangle is a little-known design gem that works exceptionally well in practical applications.

Make certain that your common kitchen gadgets are positioned in an accessible location for you!

Prepare space for your most pressing concerns about your current environment — then make the necessary adjustments to address those concerns. 

Identify additional storage locations, replace shelves with cabinetry, or explore a redesign if your current space is no longer functional for you.

4) Not Planning For The Future

While your current apartment kitchen may be small and basic, that doesn’t mean you can’t plan for future changes. 

A good way to start is by creating a checklist of items that would make your kitchen better for life post-apartment living. 

Whether it’s things like a larger refrigerator or extra counter space, write down all these points – even if they seem distant at present. 

By keeping track of these things now, you might feel less frustrated when they become more important in later years! If you aren’t sure where to start, use these suggestions as a starting point.

5) No Storage Space

In most apartments, there isn’t a ton of kitchen storage space – but that doesn’t mean you can’t put anything away. 

It might seem counterintuitive, but don’t stock your cabinets with everything you own – spread out your dishes and appliances and store things in baskets on top of your countertops or underneath it. 

The idea is to maximize every inch of space you have and make sure all of your kitchen items are visible so you can find what you need when cooking. 

If you have small appliances, it might also be worth investing in a wall-mounted utensil rack or installing hooks for towels and potholders to save space underneath the sink.

6) Not Keeping It Up-To-Date

Outdated decor makes your apartment look dull and uninviting. 

Even if you don’t have a lot of space, that doesn’t mean you can’t spruce up your kitchen. 

Just take a few minutes each week to wipe down surfaces, dust off shelves and arrange plants or flowers on your windowsill. You might find that little touches go a long way to making your kitchen feel more like home.

Here are some of the dated  Decorations that Looks Cheesy/Tacky

1. Avoid the dated Industrial Look

2. Color Overload: Decorative Things should be more neutral in colour, like the rest of your house, with touches here and there. 

It’s natural to avoid boring hues, but it’s all too easy to overcompensate and splash colour everywhere.But, avoid it .

3.The Room labelling-The Obvious one

4.Old beer /wine Bottles Collection : Empty beer/wine bottles masquerading as “decor” are practically as cheesy as they come, unless there is some extraordinary importance or justification for doing so. 

Just as with the obnoxious wine slogans, exhibiting your excessive alcohol usage in front of your visitors is perhaps not the greatest message to convey them.

5. Bar House decor: The rustic aesthetic is OK, but if you’ve got sliding barn doors and porcelain farm animals and steel lights dangling from the ceiling and milk pitchers as flower pots, you’ve gone too far. 

All that’s lacking are a few roosters to chase about. Ceramic roosters are unnecessary unless you want to match the rest of your house’s design, in which case they should be left in the 19th century.

7) Don’t Attempt DIY Projects That You Can’t Finish

When you’re decorating an apartment, there’s a lot of pressure to get creative with your design and use your space as efficiently as possible. 

But before trying out a new DIY project, ask yourself if you can see it through to completion. If not, that unfinished project could end up being more of a hassle than anything else. 

For example, painting is one of those projects that looks better when done correctly and by someone who’s good at it. 

Painting an entire apartment can be daunting enough; don’t also give yourself an unfinished job in progress! 

You might end up spending hours staring at your walls because you’re not happy with how it turned out – or worse, you might spend money on costly paint supplies for something you won’t even finish.

8) Furniture Placement

When decorating your apartment kitchen, it’s tempting to throw all of your furniture in a pile and figure it out later. 

It might work, but more often than not you will end up with cluttered space. If you can avoid it, don’t let that happen! 

Try setting up a basic framework for your kitchen by placing large pieces of furniture like cabinets and dining sets in specific locations before adding smaller items. 

Of course, if you are having issues deciding on placements after setting things up, take it one step further and measure everything out. That way there is no guessing involved – just follow those numbers! Furniture colors: 

Although accessories play an important role in apartment decorating, don’t forget about painting or staining bigger pieces.

9.Plate and cutlery drawers

Either the plate and cutlery drawers were not properly installed or they were incorrectly installed.

Among the most often used kitchen drawers are the plate and cutlery drawers. 

Never stack them on top of one another; instead, lay them next to one another or side by side. It would be impossible to access them if two persons attempted to do so at the same moment.

Plate and cutlery drawers should be located adjacent to your dishwasher so that you can easily reach them.

10.OPEN SHELVING

Imagine entering your kitchen and being greeted with exclamations such, “HAVE A LOOK AT MY STUFF! It’s time to look at it now! 

Even if we were in your shoes, we’d be a little unsure of what to think or how to react. Not to add, I was a touch self-conscious about their mismatched china collection.

An open-shelving system is quite irritating. Aside from that, who is responsible for dusting every cup and dish on a weekly basis? 

(Yes, dusting weekly rather than yearly is the proper procedure.) Having open shelving in your KITCHEN doesn’t do anything other than demonstrating to your relatives and friends that you are either an extreme case of neat freak or a complete slob. 

That cookware should be kept covered at all times.

Then What?

What are you referring to? What are you waiting for?

Begin by picking a strategy that you like the best, making a plan, and doing some further study.

You can accomplish anything if you’re bold enough to do it!

Plants and nature may be the answer for some, while brilliant patterns and vibrant colors may be the way to go for others.

There are two things that make me feel at home: Soft Rugs and Flowers.

Maybe it’s because my mum used to buy flowers for the home every week while I was growing up.

Put yourself in a place where you can be surrounded by the things that make you feel at home.

Giving a room a deeper significance and paying attention to the things we place in it can help create an inviting and comfortable environment on more than just aesthetic grounds.

Home decor Articles

About the Author: Sonja K

Reviewed by: Sonja K – interior designer and home decor expert based in Sydney, Australia. Interior Designer DIA Award GOTYA Graduate of the Year 2013 NSW/ACT Interior Decoration & Design

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