Top 9+ Kitchen Designs That Are Making Cooking More Difficult

Massive Islands That Create Traffic Jams

While past trends have seen the island become more reminiscent of a farmhouse table and even become smaller to house a dining space, 2025 kitchen island trends are all about large, multi-functional designs. Kitchen islands are pretty timeless, but don't be tempted to oversize your island, as this can really date your room.

"A huge block of cabinetry in the middle of the kitchen used to feel luxurious and elegant," says Simon Ribchester at Beams. But it can feel heavy, take up too much space, and interrupt flow.

In its place, the experts champion a more proportionate island that has good storage and work surface space, enhances efficiency and encourages social interaction, but doesn't overwhelm the room. Think of your kitchen as a highway—when you plop a massive island right in the middle, you've created a permanent traffic jam.

Kitchen islands often create physical barriers in smaller spaces, disrupting the natural flow and making kitchens feel cramped rather than open. Their immovable design limits flexibility and can make entertaining or family gatherings feel disconnected rather than communal.

That dream island you envisioned for hosting becomes a barrier that makes simple tasks like unloading groceries feel like an obstacle course.

Overcrowded Islands Trying to Do Everything

Trying to cram everything – sink, hob, seating – into the island makes it feel busy and often leaves little usable or valuable multifunctional worktop space. What we'd do instead is decide on the island's main role: prep, cook, or social.

Picture trying to chop vegetables while someone washes dishes at the island sink, kids do homework at the bar seating, and someone else tries to cook pasta on the island cooktop. It's chaos waiting to happen.

A sink or a hob on an island can be a great use of space. But the trend for chucking as much as you can into your island is a definite no-no, according to the designers.

"Trying to cram everything – sink, hob, seating – into the island makes it feel busy and often leaves little usable or valuable multifunctional worktop space," says Simon at Beams. "What we'd do instead is decide on the island's main role: prep, cook, or social.

Then design around that. If you're cooking, include breathing room around the hob; if it's a hangout zone, keep it clear and clutter-free." When you try to make one surface do five different jobs, nobody gets the space they actually need.

Open Shelving That Becomes a Grease Magnet

Open shelving can look stunning in a kitchen, especially if you have impressive crockery to display. But leave everything out in the open and the space can quickly feel chaotic and cluttered, plus your kitchenware will easily gather dust.

Those Instagram-worthy floating shelves look amazing in photos, but they turn into a maintenance nightmare in real life. Every time you sear a steak or fry bacon, that beautiful display of ceramic bowls gets a coating of grease and steam.

You'll spend more time cleaning your "decorative" dishes than actually using them. Consider this: restaurant kitchens don't use open shelving in cooking areas for a reason.

Professional chefs understand that exposed items near heat sources collect grease, dust, and food particles faster than you can say "deep clean."

Work Triangles That Force Marathon Runs

The kitchen work triangle—connecting the fridge, stove, and sink—is key to creating an efficient layout that reduces unnecessary movement and enhances workflow. The concept of the kitchen work triangle optimizes movement between the refrigerator (storage), sink (cleaning), and cooktop (cooking).

This strategic arrangement minimizes wasted steps and streamlines the cooking process, proving that efficiency can indeed coexist with elegance. But when designers get the triangle wrong, you end up running a 5K just to make breakfast.

Poor workflow planning can leave you with an impractical kitchen that turns cooking into chaos. Your cooker, sink and fridge should be located within easy reach of one another – ideally no more than three feet apart.

Imagine placing your refrigerator at one end of a galley kitchen, your sink at the opposite end, and your stove somewhere in between. You'll feel like you're training for a marathon every time you make a simple pasta dish.

Tiered Islands That Kill Conversation

The trend for tiered kitchen islands with a higher breakfast bar might've once been a modern way to zone the kitchen layout and separate kitchen tasks from dining and entertaining. However, split-level islands now look clunky and dated and break up the flow and clean lines of a contemporary kitchen.

"The multi-level surfaces hinder sightlines and limit the amount of usable prep space you actually have," says Nathan Kingsbury, creative director of Nathan Kingsbury Design. These stepped islands create visual barriers that make your kitchen feel chopped up and disconnected.

The solution is to keep your kitchen island all one level. "It looks cleaner, feels more sociable, and gives you a flexible surface for everything from cooking to working from home," adds Simon Ribchester, head of design at Beams.

When you're cooking and someone's sitting at the elevated bar, you're literally talking over a wall. It's like trying to have a conversation with someone sitting on a balcony while you're standing on the ground floor.

Pot Racks That Become Head Magnets

That gorgeous hanging pot rack seemed like such a smart storage solution until you realized it's positioned exactly at head-bonking height. A beautiful brass design either behind a range cooker or along a backsplash is the most stylish, displaying not only pots and pans, but an array of decor and dried herbs or flowers, too.

Making it feel on trend requires a balance of function and decor – it should be useful while also showcasing a touch of personality. But when pot racks hang too low or in high-traffic areas, they become dangerous obstacles.

Every time you turn around quickly or stretch to reach something, you're met with a face full of cast iron. Smart placement means keeping them out of main walkways and at heights that don't require ducking.

Think of them like low-hanging branches on a hiking trail—beautiful to look at, but painful when you walk into them.

Deep Farmhouse Sinks That Wreck Your Back

Those deep, apron-front sinks look stunning and make a statement, but they're ergonomic nightmares for anyone under six feet tall. When you have to lean over a deep basin to wash dishes, your back starts screaming after about ten minutes.

The ideal work triangle should have: Sink: Centrally located for easy access to water and clean-up tasks. Stove/Cooktop: Positioned for convenient access while preparing and cooking meals.

The problem isn't just depth—it's the combination of depth and height that forces you into awkward positions. Regular counter height paired with an extra-deep sink means you're constantly bending and stretching in ways that would make a yoga instructor wince.

It's like trying to wash dishes in a bucket placed on a table that's slightly too high for you.

All White Everything That Shows Every Smudge

The kitchen is first and foremost a practical space, but that doesn't mean you have to forget about style. While white units and walls are easy to live with, they can feel a bit flat and clinical, especially when combined with stainless steel appliances.

Jazz them up with a statement splashback, eye-catching handles or a patterned tile floor. White kitchens photograph beautifully, but they're the high-maintenance divas of kitchen design.

Every fingerprint, water spot, and food splatter shows up like a neon sign. In 2025, the days of monotonous white in Singapore's kitchen decor are over.

In my experience, people are now leaning towards bolder colors to express their personality and add depth to the kitchen. You'll spend more time wiping down surfaces than actually cooking.

It's like wearing a white shirt to eat spaghetti with marinara sauce—technically possible, but definitely not practical.

Trendy Flush Mount Lighting That Casts Shadows

If you browse through the Instagram pages of top designers today, you'll notice there's one thing noticeably missing in most kitchens—recessed lights. In fact, take a look through the photos in this post and you'll find that most of them have flush mounts, or only pendants over the island.

While flush mount lighting looks sleek and modern, it often creates shadows exactly where you need the most light. If you don't put the right light fixtures over your countertops, you will end up prepping, cooking and cleaning up in the shadows, says designer Naomi Findlay.

"Another common lighting mistake is prioritizing aesthetics over functionality. When you're chopping onions or reading a recipe, you need bright, even light—not moody ambiance.

Task lighting isn't glamorous, but it prevents accidents and makes cooking actually enjoyable. Think of trying to thread a needle in candlelight versus under a bright reading lamp.

The kitchen should be your home's command center, not an obstacle course that makes simple tasks feel like Olympic events. When design trends prioritize looks over livability, you end up with a space that fights you every step of the way.

The most beautiful kitchen in the world becomes useless if it makes cooking feel like punishment rather than pleasure. What's the point of impressing guests if you can't comfortably prepare a meal for them?