If your kitchen still technically works but doesn't feel right anymore, some part of you already knows it's time for an update or change. Today you'll discover the signs that it's time to remodel your kitchen and the real reason you keep telling yourself, not yet. Let's get started. Welcome to Design Your Home, the podcast that helps you design and decorate your home with confidence. I'm Sally Sorcelli, award-winning interior designer. Let's get started. Welcome back to the Design Your Home podcast. It has been a minute, but I am so happy to be back with you. And today we're talking all about kitchens and specifically the quiet signs that it's actually time to remodel. Even if you've been telling yourself not yet for quite a while now. This isn't about design mistakes or Pinterest inspiration today. We're going under the surface to the real roots. This is about something more honest, more raw, why you already likely know that it's time to remodel, and why knowing hasn't been enough to move you forward to make progress. So let's get started.
Here's the first sign, and it's kind of sneaky because it doesn't feel like a sign at all. And that's that you stopped noticing the dated or broken stuff because you've gotten so used to tuning it out. I'm talking about those broken cabinet doors that you have to jiggle a certain way to make them open, or the drawer that sticks so much that you just don't use it anymore. That chipped paint or ugly cabinet finish that's worn out on all your cabinets, or that 1990s Tuscan kitchen that wall is still functional, just doesn't match the rest of your updated home, so you try to ignore it. You know, when I was a kid growing up, our kitchen was pretty dated. We lived in a small ranch style home built in the 1950s in Connecticut for a family of five. Now my mother desperately wanted to update the original kitchen. But my dad, yeah, not so much. And at the time, he was in charge of the finances. So my mom actually got so frustrated she started chipping away at the old linoleum floors in hopes that it'd look so bad that it'd bother my dad and he'd finally cave in and remodel. But not so much. In his mind, he tuned out how dated it looked and how kind of jacked up the kitchen got. He didn't mind and he just stopped noticing the things that were broken. My mom did not feel that way at all. It actually wasn't until I was away at college that they did anything about it, and they finally did remodel their kitchen. And the funny thing is they were so happy when they did it, especially my mom, as you would imagine. But my dad had wished he didn't wait so long to do it. No surprise there. But the point is that, you know, ignoring that dated or broken stuff, it doesn't mean your kitchen's fine. It just means your brain has given up flagging it a long time ago. Let's
move on to sign number two. And that's that the layout frustrates you daily, but you've built workarounds instead of fixing the root cause. So that non-functional kitchen that you've jerry-rigged or MacGyvered into a somewhat but not really functional space, and it just drives you crazy, but you haven't done anything about. Think about that counter space that's just too small. So you've got a rolling cart parked in the corner permanently to hold extra stuff, or the storage racks you've put out or above your fridge to hold extra pots and pans or things. That awkward appliance location that makes it impossible for more than one person to be in the kitchen at once, or a door that when you open it, hits another cabinet or the fridge, so you can't open the doors at the same time. These workarounds feel like solutions. And they might buy you some time until you have to remodel, but they're just proof that you've adapted to a problem instead of solving it. Let's
move on to sign number three, which, in all honesty, is a little more uncomfortable to admit. And I just want to say you're not a bad person if you feel this way. You're just human. And it's that you feel envy, not just admiration when you see someone else's finished kitchen. As you scroll past a friend's finished kitchen online, or you're standing in someone else's brand new space, and it's not quite admiration you feel, it's a little bit closer to envy. You want what they have. And of course, you can be happy for them having this new beautiful kitchen, and you are. But it also digs into you that you don't have that yet. I'll be honest that I fully felt this way before my own kitchen remodel. And I'm not going to pretend that I didn't. And as an interior designer, this stung even more because I get judged on my home. So I kind of hold myself and have held myself to some different standards. But it's real to see what someone else has and say, oh, I really wish my kitchen looked like that. And you can be so excited for them, and you are, but there's a little sting in there, like it just reminds you that you want that too. And that envy is a sign. You know, admiration says, that's beautiful. Envy says, Well, why isn't that mine yet? Or why don't I have that? So if you have ever felt that sting and noticed it, remember you're not a bad person. You're just having a genuine human moment. But that feeling is worth paying attention to because it is a sign. Let's move on to sign number four. And
sign number four is that you've started moving forward, but just privately. You've quietly started looking at kitchens, maybe priced a few things out, saved photos, but you maybe haven't told anyone. You might have created a Pinterest board with photos of kitchens you're loving, or gone and seen some countertops at your local home improvement store or a slab yard and gotten a price just to see. And maybe you haven't said a word to your spouse or your friends yet because you don't want to get into some big financial discussion, or you don't want to say something to your friends and have them keep reminding you that you haven't started your kitchen remodel yet. All of these are just signs that your desire to remodel your kitchen is there. It's not idle curiosity, it's the beginning of a decision that you haven't given yourself permission to say out loud. Moving
on to sign number five, the one that is underneath all the others, is the real fear isn't designing a kitchen that looks wrong on Pinterest. It's spending hard-earned money that you can't get back and potentially messing up the end result or making a big design mistake. It's not really about the cabinet color or the tile. It's the fear of spending real money, money you've worked hard for, on something you can't undo if it turns out wrong. Kitchens are big decisions. They're bigger investments than updating any other space in your home. So it's a real and legitimate fear to spend all this money and not be happy with the results. That is real, especially if you've never remodeled a kitchen before. You know, we all have these ideas for our kitchen, and that's great and all. But what if it doesn't look good in the end? And you've just spent tens of thousands of dollars for what? Something that didn't turn out like you envisioned or looks bad in the end. Now, if you have an unlimited budget, well, then maybe you think, hey, no big deal, I'm just gonna redo this again. But for the most of us, that isn't the case. So that fear and frustration around making mistakes is real. And you are not alone if you feel that way. With my own kitchen remodel, I remember how I spent a couple of months debating one section of my kitchen whether or not to remove some upper cabinets and lose some critical storage space and swap it out for a hutch and a small section of open shelves. I call it my Pinterest moment in my kitchen. I mean, looking back now and knowing how amazing it looks, and it is one of the most commented parts of my kitchen, it's a huge focal point. And it seems so silly looking back to have worried about it so much. But at the time I didn't know, and I was afraid of spending all this money and it looking bad. Especially as an interior designer, like I touched on before, my home might get judged differently than yours or other people's. So the thought of designing a quote, ugly kitchen was kind of petrifying. That fear is real and it's rational. Kitchens are not cheap investments in your home, and they're not the easiest process to go through. So you definitely don't want to have to redo anything that you don't need to. So your fear is real that you don't want to spend all this money on a mistake that's not easy to undo. If you end up installing cabinets that you don't like the finish of, or countertops that you turned out to not like because they were staining easily. Those aren't easy fixes to change. So the legitimate fear of making mistakes is real. Which
leads me to sign number six is that quote, someday is doing a lot of protective work, but it's maybe not about timing. That fear I just mentioned from a second ago, it doesn't usually show up as fear that makes your cortisol rise like you're being chased by a tiger. That fear of spending money that you can't get back and investing all this in your home. It shows up as quote, someday, someday when the kids get older, we'll update the kitchen. Someday when work slows down, we'll have time to update the kitchen. Someday when I have more time. Someday, someday, someday. Most of all my clients and students have said or felt this. I've said or felt it before my remodel. Someday feels like patience, but a lot of the time it's actually that same money fears wearing a scheduling costume. If we all had these unlimited budgets, at the snap of a finger, we would update our kitchens and pay someone to do it. But for regular people, the fear of spending money and making bad choices is real.
Now that we've talked about the six signs, I want to say something that nobody says out loud. And that staying stuck, even though it feels like it's free, it's not. It's not that you're just not spending money. You're paying a different but quieter cost every single day that your kitchen isn't remodeled. You've got frustration, workarounds, maybe even embarrassment in there, low-grade annoyance every time you step in that kitchen. It might stop you from hosting that family dinner, or stop you from having friends over because you can't stand being in your kitchen. You know, my mother clearly felt that way. She was frustrated for years with my childhood kitchen. And the joy and pride my parents felt when it was remodeled was priceless for them. So just know that same fear that's protecting your bank account is also quietly taxing you every day you stay in it. And I can say, as someone who's remodeled her own kitchen and remodeled the kitchens of many other clients and help students remodel their kitchens, I see the fear and hesitation and worries that happens before the remodel. But then I also get to see the joy and the pride and the excitement and the different energetic feeling that people have when they've remodeled their space. And not once has somebody ever regretted their investment. It didn't mean that it didn't have stress and that there weren't highs and lows to some of that, or that they didn't have to make big decisions. But the joy that I see and the transformation, it's worth it every single time. So a quick summary tying all six signs back to one idea that you already know. The six signs are you've stopped noticing, you've built workarounds, envies crept in, you've started looking privately, there's a real fear underneath it about money that you can't get back, and someday has been protecting you from that fear. Different signs, same route, and they all have their own daily cost. And I get it, kitchens are a big investment of time and money. And
if any of this landed today, the first real step isn't calling a contractor. It's getting clear on what you actually need and want in your kitchen. So, what I want you to do is download my free kitchen planning guide, which walks you through the first three decisions you need to make with your kitchen remodel. Because without these decisions, you can't really make real progress forward to get you ready to call a contractor. Or even if you're looking to hire a designer, you need to have some of these answers first to help guide you with the process. That link is in the show notes, or you can simply go to nestorations.com forward slash kitchen to get it. Again, it's free. It's a simple guide that you can answer some questions. There's a few checklists of what you might need to do, and it'll get you taking that first real and actionable step towards your dream kitchen. All right, that's it for this episode. And until next time, have a great day.