!! a second sink outlet with the half sink is not useless it is just not the oversized jumbo XL that north americans need to satisfy the ego, it can be used for drainage, defrosting, pre-rinsing, getting rid of excess liquid when sink all ready full of hot soapy water for the washing up, washing fruit and vegetables, a concern for most responsible countries is less water use helps cost and a precious resource and is a good habit for everyday everywhere , practical advise for microwave reaching high or low with hot potentially liquids messy and riks of burns.

I LOVE my small sink on the left side. I've trained my family to never put anything in there so it's always available to rinse things off even when the big side is full of dirty dishes and/or has a bigger dish that needs soaking overnight (which only fits when you HAVE a big side, rather than double sink with equal sides). I have my disposal on the small side so I can utilize that anytime I need to even if the big side is full. I never want a single sink because in the scenario above where dirty dishes are being stacked high in the sink (which happens in households with lots of people or a mom with young kids that doesn't get to the dishes as often as she'd like), how are you going to access a "free" area to rinse other things off? Mine is a white Kohler and 23 years old now; it's still shiny white because I use Bar Keepers Friend on it about once a month. I love it.

Totally disagree with the divided sink. My sink is 60/40 and it’s perfect. I would never want a single bowl Sink.

I love my double bowl sink. Love. I wash something on one side and let it dry in the other. Yes I have a dishwasher. But sometimes I don’t feel like using it and letting stuff dry in the other bowl keeps a mess of drying dishes off my countertop. That’s a horrible look.

Oh yes!

Some people have not enough cupboard space to let appliances be put away.

Separation of tasks includes cooking vs baking. Keeping my baking supplies & spices near my stirring area & my cooking spices closer to the stove made the difference in how well my kitchen functions.

Omg vertical lift doors! My kitchen cabinets were already taller than usual. I could barely open the top cabinets, let alone close them. I will say that I do like divided sinks, especially if you hand wash, one sink to soak and scrub and another to rinse in. I think it just depends on how you use them.

Whew! I didn’t make any of those mistakes. Thanks for the list. I do have the sink tilt down drawer, but I loved it in the old kitchen and I use it for the steel wool, cast iron mesh and a couple bottle brushes. I don’t use sponges because they get so stinky and gross.

We are in the process of a new build. My kitchen design was done before I found your channel, but I’m pleased that we avoided a lot of the mistakes you mention. For 23 years I’ve been unable to reach anything in my upper cabinets. So all cabinets are 8 feet tall, and we blocked out the corners. The new kitchen only has one upper, and it’s a hutch style so I will be able to reach items in it. Opposite that one upper is a cabinet for the wall oven, (New 2 in one GE oven) and I can also reach that. We put in an 8’ x 12’ scullery with multiple pull outs, a 13-slot storage cabinet for trays/casserole dishes/bakeware, and the refrigerator and counter microwave will be in there. Cabinets were just installed and I love it. Enjoying your videos.

I don't like single bowl sinks. I like having soapy water on one side and a place to rinse on the other. I do agree that your smaller sink is too small. Mine is a 70/30 sink. Yours looks like 85/15.

Two kitchens is the ideal. One for function and one for style. I have seen a lot of kitchens built into the basement where all the cooking was done.

I’m on sensory overload in just the first 10 minutes!

The worst 'kitchen' design mistake is having an AI generate the image of the kitchen with tap facing the wrong way! Other than that a good video :)

I keep a bin for rarely used utensils like cherry pickers or nut crackers. This bin goes over the microwave with the bin for clips. What is used with the microwygoes into the microwave. Canned goods in one clear bin; oils in another, sauces in another. A bin for bags of flours, one for pasta. I don’t store a lot of food as I’ve seen food go bad too often. Utensil drawer is divided

Contact paper. Why is no one addressing the contact paper.

No background music please. It is stressful

wow it makes me feel better that you as a pro also made mistake

I’m currently planning a remodel of my kitchen and taking the OTR microwave is in the plan. Probably going with a countertop unit as I’m concerned with spilling hot items when taking something out of a OTR unit.

I’m still undecided about the double sink. I grew up with one - two standard bowls, drainage boards both sides, total length about six foot - and that’s what I installed in my current house. It’s great! You fill one side with hot sudsy water for washing, fill the other with plain hot water for rinsing the suds off, there’s plenty of room to stack and organise the dirty dishes on the first side, and sufficient space for a nice big draining rack on the other. I’d actually really like to become the sort of household where we use the dishwasher every day, particularly as our next house will have more people in it and that probably means enough dishes to justify running a machine every day. But what sort of sink arrangement that means we’ll need … I actually don’t know.

5:00 Or you can reduce the ceiling in the entire kitchen. It's costly, but you could have 40" cabinets flush on a dropped ceiling, it looks great.

The sink and a half is only useful for chilling wine. It's the combination of a bar/wine sink with a regular sink. I also heard that the smaller portion of a sink and a half is usually connected to a garbage disposal.

Eww. Shoes on the counter. Beautiful.

I love the old-fashioned look, so my kitchen will be unfitted. It will give me flexibility to change things around if I want to.

Having microwave is a problem. Destroys food

“Less than optimal for your needs” is a brilliant statement! Functional for you is the key! I have a microwave over my wall oven, so they both are “built-in” and a very good vented-hood over my cooktop. Nothing but drawers in my lower cabinets have been a game changer, especially as you get older and don’t want to get down on your knees!

I now question my sanity, both on deciding to watch, and watching, three-quarters of an hour on sinks. Actually glad I did, I am now going to explore the viability of one of the least popular options(!) for my tiny kitchen and my corner (yes, the corner sink). I just found a configuration that tucks into a blind corner without needing a corner base cabinet. This frees up a lot more valuable bench space, utilises some of the dead corner, leaves the other side of the corner for drawers. Have to think outside the box on this one, the space is so small, most butler's pantries would look like giants, compared to what I have to fit into tiny space.

I think I may have had single sinks in one or two apartments. I will always have a divided sink. I’m not sure about those with the half height divider but since I’m looking for a workstation set up that’s probably what I’ll have by this time next year. I’ve always have 50/50 sinks and used both sides. In recent years I’ve been using a roll up metal rack on the side without a disposal. It provides additional space to let larger pans and platters drip dry. I had a triple sink in my previous house. There was a tiny sink in the middle supposedly for cleaning vegetables. I’d get that again if I had more space

You act like you're 5-ft wife could even reach the cabinet above the fridge without a stool. What's the issue? You're already on a stool. It's not a big deal

I have just had a sinle, large sink installed, along with a selection of "accessories", one if which is a smaller sink that pops inside the large bowl when a "half bowl"is needed. I ensured that there was storge under the sink for all the accessories.

2 sinks a must for a serious cook. I have a normal size sink with a half sink. The half sink holds the garbage disposal, the colander, is used for pre rinse and post wash rinse, and for soaking.

I'm surprised you didn't add a farmhouse sink to your list. More sink base cabinets I have found with water damage due to them than I can remember.

In regards to the microwave- there are combos that incorporate an oven, steamer, air fryer (convection oven), and microwave. Saw one from Fotile.

I find my smaller side sink incredibly useful! It's greaat for washing vegetables from the garden, as a rinse bath for handwashing dishes, handwashing just a few dishes to save water, many, many tasks like that.

I absolutely love my sink with one large tub and one small tub. And, I like my over the stove microwave.

I purchased my home after being divorced and moving to a new state. I have been doing some minor upgrades and remodels since. One of the things that made me that happiest was having a restaurant sink and faucet installed in my kitchen. The sink is 6 feet long with two large basins and a sideboard. The faucet also includes a sprayer. I had a glass washer installed as well and a hot water dispenser. I really enjoy my kitchen.😊

What is OTR?

I agree with some of that like it would look better if your microwave wasn’t over the range but I think it’s very convenient. And I would never want one in a base cabinet. I don’t like bending over to my dryer even though it’s on a pedestal so I sure don’t wanna have to bend over to get things in and out of the microwave drawer. My biggest mistake when moving into this new house was after a while. I had the cheap laminate countertops taken away and and I got granite for the counter and granite slab for the backsplash which I love but the problem is I picked a beautifully shaped Kohler cast-iron sink in black. What was I thinking. After a couple years, even though I was pretty careful about putting things in the sink the bottom , it stopped being shiny and it is absolutely hideous, but I know if I try to have it removed. I’m going to have to destroy all the granite so I just use a large rubber mat to hide the ugly dull finish on the bottom of my sink, but I still know it’s there😵‍💫

Over the range microwaves aren't going away any time soon; counter space is too precious to clutter it up with an appliance.

Microwaves - the big no-no is to have it too high, above the stove or above the refrigerator. Handling hot plates/dishes from this height is extremely dangerous. Placement depends on how much you use it. If only a little, maybe tucking it under a bench is okay, or even in the pantry. If you use it often, you could incorporate it within in oven bank, where the oven is slightly higher, and the microwave above that. About 30cm/1 foot off bench height is a reasonable height without going too high. Having a pull out shelf below it to rest a hot dish can be something to consider (a friend of mine did that).

The sink and a half, or double sink is good for those who do dishes by hand (no dishwasher), to rinse glasses or cutlery. So it can have a purpose. When choosing a kitchen sink, definitely go with a big one if you regularly use large items like baking dishes or soup pots.

My experience with tilt outs (at least the after market variety) is that they are too small to store anything! My sponges don’t even fit! Also, if you have them you have to be careful that the handle you put on them isn’t a pocket catcher. But what I have done with them to make them useful is when I buy scrubbing pads (green or blue thin ones) I cut them into quarters. I get more use out of them this way because when I used them while I wore them out in the middle first, so now I’m only throwing 1/4 pad away when it’s worn. And the unused 1/4 sheets DO fit the tilt down tray. Mine also have a ring peg to store your rings while you wash dishes, but I usually wear gloves to wash so don’t need to take my ring off. The only thing I store in the other one is spare change, separated into nickels, dimes and quarters in leftover pill bottles from prescriptions! 😂 My pennies I typically throw on the mechanical horse at my local grocery store because it still just costs a penny! Kids never have to bug their parents for a penny to ride it because everyone who shops there dumps there pennies there!

I love my double sink. One side has a garbage disposer and the other a regular drain. I can't imagine rinsing the dishes with food floating around in one single sink. I need it divided.

Always enjoy your videos. Everyone is different though… Single bowl sinks mean you have to have a rack to dry the dishes sitting on the countertop. Ugh. I’m all about a large - on both sides - double bowl sink. I would never put an OTR micro in a high-end home, but they are functional for small and builder grade kitchens. I have one and it is the best spot for my kitchen. (I would never NOT have one.) in high-end homes I often suggest a double oven with the top one a combo convection/micro, and the bottom a standard oven. As an aside, if you panel your appliances it will very likely create problems as soon as one needs to be replaced. Can’t get panels for the new appliance, or you can get them but they are noticeably shiny-new and don’t quite match, etc.

I'm getting my kitchen remodeled next month. I got the standard double sink, because I like having one side to wash, one side to drip dry. With just the two of us, I rarely use the dishwasher. Also, the left side of the sink sometimes doubles as a tub of clean water to soak things food and non food, and you're not taking up the whole sink for one task. I'm also getting a corner cabinet without a lazy susan. I'm fine with that. I decided against the OTR microwave too. I'm short and would have trouble reaching there.

I had a great corner cabinet

I think most of the sink & a half sinks I’ve seen had a bowl the size of a single bowl sink (which is LARGER than any of the sinks bowls in all the double bowl sinks I’ve had over the years) so that bowl would be more functional than what I’m used to. And the half sink was shallower, so a garbage disposal doesn’t take as much of the space under the sink. And it still gives a place to rinse dishes if you’re washing by hand and the larger bowl is full of dishes soaking in dishwater. I think the functionality of it depends on how you use your kitchen. For those of us who don’t have the space for a dishwasher and wash dishes by hand it’s probably a more functional sink than either the standard double bowl or a larger single bowl that would take the same amount of space.

If those mistakes stand out to you it's because like you said, you have to live with them. I think a lot of time people in this industry make mistakes that they don't really even learn about because nobody tells them afterwards. I'm not a designer, I'm a carpenter and I've heard Carpenters say " I've been doing it this way for 20 years and nobody has complained" all the time. But guess what? They don't call you back, they call someone else, and I definitely have heard people complain about the things that they say nobody has complained about. But when it's on your own house you have a unique chance to really learn something..

2:20 f original idea for the smal sink was, to prewash there, and to have hot water in the main sink. (prior we got dishwashers...)

Hi Mr Mark . I m new in this field and so needs your personal assistance. I wanna study kitchen design. I watched your kitchen tutorial, I must say I learned so much.