3 ways you’re making your kitchen look cheap, according to interior designers

If you’ve ever watched a home improvement show, you know kitchens can make or break the luxury feel of a house.

It can be easy to miss the mark when trying to create a luxury kitchen, so Business Insider spoke to a couple of interior designers about common ways people make their kitchens look cheap.

Here’s what they had to say.

Dull colors and lighting

The neutral colors many people gravitate toward for modern kitchens can look cheap, according to experts.

Charlotte Eustace, an interior designer based in the UK and the founder of Eustace Studio, told BI she especially dislikes millennial gray kitchens.

“It just looks so cheap,” she said, as gray can look “cold” in a kitchen. Harsh lighting can create the same impact.

“If your lighting is very cold or if you’re doing all neutral but everything feels very cold and has a cold undertone, I think that can really cheapen it,” she said. “Generally, the spaces that feel the most luxurious and welcoming are warmer spaces.”

Juliana Ghani, an interior designer from Minneapolis, tries to avoid too much gray, black, white, or “anything that looks sterile” in kitchens. She said LED light bulbs are a huge no-no for her in particular.

“It looks like an operating room when you have those blue LED lights on your island,” she said, adding that warm lighting is “the easiest way to make your kitchen look richer and homey.”

If you want to bring more color into your kitchen, Ghani said darker tones, like aubergine, olive green, and burgundy, are trending for 2025.

The design is in the details

As Ghani told BI, luxury kitchens are designed to be aesthetically pleasing, whereas a more basic kitchen makes the appliances the focal point of the room.

“I think a mistake people make when designing a kitchen, especially an open-concept kitchen, is that they let the appliances dominate the space,” Ghani said. “In a luxury kitchen, we would have paneled appliances, integrated hardware, or even different finishes on the actual appliances that kind of hide them in a way.”

“A row of stainless steel appliances, pretty much, is not giving luxury,” she said.

Eustace agreed, saying that the details of a kitchen can make a big difference to how your eye perceives the overall space. For instance, the handles you choose for your cabinets, the stone you select for your countertops, or even the outlet panels you use can make the space feel less luxurious.

“A kitchen can be really nice, and then if I see cup handles or something, immediately I’m just like, ‘Oh gosh, that really just cheapens the whole feel of it,'” Eustace said, referring to curved handles that don’t look high-end.

Upgrading your hardware is an easy way to give your kitchen a luxurious feel, though. Ghani recommends brushed chrome, brushed nickel, or lacquered brass.

Too much on the counters

Ghani said that too many items on your counters can look “messy” or “cluttered.”

On the flip side, cookbooks or appliances you use daily on your countertops can help a space look lived in. Eustace agreed, saying you don’t want your kitchen to look uninviting.

“I think there’s an obsession these days with having everything hidden, as if it’s like a showroom the whole time and no one lives there,” Eustace said. “I don’t think people should be afraid to have things out or, you know, have a little bit of mess or clutter.”

“Things that you’re actually using every day, and just signs of life, don’t make it look cheap,” she added, though she said microwaves sitting on a counter aren’t aesthetically pleasing in her opinion.

“It has to make sense for you,” Ghani agreed about what sits on your countertops. “It would be obnoxious if you eat toast every day and you have to take out your toaster.”

“If you’re doing a custom kitchen or you’re remodeling, a lot of times we try to fit in a butler’s pantry or a walk-in pantry where you can put in a lot of those countertop appliances, your sugar, and your salt and pepper,” Ghani added.

Most importantly, both designers advised people not to be afraid to bring their own personality to their spaces, as a homey kitchen is the best kitchen.

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