40 Kitchen Renovation Fails So Bad They’re Almost Impressive

It’s fair to say that we cram a lot of stuff into our kitchens. Most of us will require a range of appliances, cabinets and countertop surfaces. To get the most out of this space, a cooker has been wedged into an awkward angle, rendering the cupboards behind it completely useless.

Nothing says, “dinner’s ready!” like what appears to be a raw sewage pipe cutting through the kitchen. Not only does the black tubing look quite jarring on the eye, but its potential content also doesn’t bear thinking about – especially when you’re about to tuck into your food. We just pray that there’s never a leak…

If your countertop runs the risk of landing on an existing outlet, this is NOT the solution. Hopefully, this socket has been disconnected from the mains, otherwise, it surely poses some sort of fire hazard. We can’t for the life of us understand what possessed them to take this path when the power point could have quite easily been removed or simply shifted upwards a couple of inches.

For some inexplicable reason, the design on these tiles makes them appear moldy, which doesn’t exactly create the most appetizing environment. To make matters worse, the owner of this kitchen decided to use the design elements all over the counters and backsplash, which must make cleaning an interesting task.

It’s easy to see that with the modern breakfast bar, the owners of this kitchen were going for somewhat of an open plan look. But the illusion is somewhat shattered by the stovetop, which juts out above the counter, ensuring its ugly back-side is visible from all over the room.

We’re not sure why a toilet situated directly in the kitchen would ever be necessary, yet here we are. While the W.C. can be handily hidden away with the close of a cabinet and the flip of a counter when not in use, it doesn’t seem to offer much privacy when nature calls. If there’s one positive, at least you can make a coffee to pass the time.

Space may be an issue in this kitchen. So rather than installing under-counter appliances, the washing machine and dryer in this setup can also function as makeshift worktop space. It’s probably a good idea to avoid prepping any food on a spin-cycle though, especially if sharp knives are involved.

Oftentimes, the oven is situated at the center of the kitchen. But in this case, it appears to have been added as somewhat of an afterthought. Not only is it embedded into the wall, with no adjacent counter space, but it’s at a height that would appear to make retrieving searing hot food risky business.

It’s unclear what the thought process behind this higgledy-piggledy kitchen island was, but we think we’ve seen it somewhere before! It looks vaguely like the pedestal contestants stand at when playing Family Feud. In that case, then, the feature looks perfect for games night, but not very useful for much else…

These drawers might look pretty impressive from the outside, but it’s not clear just how functional the L-shaped design is. Perhaps this is a clear case of form following function in kitchen design. But before we judge, we’d really have to have a peek inside the storage space to see how it works.

The placement of this range provokes a whole lot of head scratching. For one, why is there so much wasted space surrounding the oven? And two, perhaps more importantly, with all the unused room around the appliance, why is it situated so that it blocks the cabinets to the right? Unfortunately, for this kitchen to work, symmetry must be sacrificed.

Even if you ignore the unusual corner placement of this oven, it’s hard to get over the setup of the vent. Not only does it appear to be fixed to a kitchen cabinet, but by the look of it, it doesn’t lead anywhere. Presumably then, the seemingly useless device just filters your cooking smells straight back into the room…

This decorative wall sign reads, “Spoonfuls of love added to every recipe.” So the addition of the fork to the plaque seems somewhat of an oversight. After all, there’s surely a better utensil – one that can be found in almost all households – that would better illustrate the sentiment.

It’s hard to work out if this room is supposed to be a kitchen with its own tub or a master bathroom with an adjoining kitchenette. We probably will never understand what’s going on here. But, on the upside, at least it’s easy to make a mid-soak snack if the mood takes you… In fact, it looks like you can even access the microwave without leaving the bath.

Presumably, this one-person breakfast bar was supposed to be a practical place for someone to enjoy their meal. While it might have seemed like a good idea at the time, in reality, it looks like somewhere you’d check in your coat upon arrival. Either that or the owner broadcasts their own news bulletin from home.

In most instances, you’d be forgiven for thinking that two sinks were better than one, but that doesn’t appear to be the case here. For a start, the double-feature straddles an awkward corner angle. Furthermore, both bowls look exceptionally small, meaning you could only wash a few dishes at a time.

It’s a known fact that water and electricity don’t mix. So who on earth thought it would be a good idea to place a socket inside of a sink, especially when there’s already an outlet nearby? We really hope that this image was some kind of April Fool’s Day joke. Otherwise, someone is running the very real risk of electrocution.

It seems to us that the gap in the cabinets in the center of this picture was the perfect place to put a refrigerator. For some reason though, the appliance has been jammed up against a wall, while another cupboard – which bears no resemblance to the others in the room – fits badly into the opening.

Not only is this support beam ugly to look at, but it also poses a major trip hazard, which is not ideal in a kitchen. To make matters worse, the design oversight was found in a $1 million loft in San Francisco. It just goes to show that money can’t buy you style… or good sense for that matter either!

Warning: this one will hurt your eyes if you look at it for too long. That’s because the cabinet maker has gone overkill on the hinges, puzzlingly adding them to both sides of the door. As a result, it seems that this cabinet would be unusable, as you wouldn’t be able to open it…

This home must pretty small if someone thought it was necessary to install the W.C. directly off the kitchen like this. After all, the place that we cook and where we go potty should be as far away from each other as possible. And that’s not all. If you look closely at the bottom of the picture, there’s also a small shower unit…

Some kitchens just aren’t big enough to accommodate an island, and that's alright. But that didn’t stop this person from installing a tiny worktop podium in the center of their cooking space. And I’m sure we can all agree that such an addition is neither use nor ornament – unless they use it as a pedestal for arm wrestling, perhaps?

It seems as though the person who fitted this oven right in the middle of the kitchen soon regretted their choice and had to build these walls around it to hide their mistake. The effect is a kind of cooking cubicle, which floats separately from any countertops. Or as someone on Instagram pointed out, it looks like the appliance decided to play hide and seek.

Lifting this dishwasher off the floor meant the person behind this kitchen fail could fit an extra drawer below it. But it seems that they didn’t consider what such a move would do to their countertop. Because after being hoisted a foot in the air, the once perfectly good workspace is now unusable.

When user chefmacari posted these pictures on Reddit in 2020, they wanted to point out the “‘Form over Function’ kitchen in [their] apartment…” The multitude of issues includes a refrigerator door and some shutters that are jostling for space. Meanwhile, there’s also a cabinet that can’t be fully accessed because of a sprinkler and an oven that scrapes the front of the fridge when opened.

This faucet, which juts randomly out of a countertop, may have been someone’s failed attempt at a pot filler. These nifty water supplies allow you to fill a pan directly where it’s cooking, with no heavy lifting required. But given that this one isn’t extendable in any way, and would only fit a small pot beneath, it seems to be a bit of a waste of time.

The gap in between these cabinets was probably intended to house an oven, but it seems that the budget didn’t stretch. Instead, this ingenious kitchen owner has bridged the gap using a table and placed a microwave on top. They may have nowhere to sit to enjoy their meals, but at least they can actually cook them now.

It’s always nice to inject a bit of personality into your home decor, but this martini-glass-shaped sink could be a step too far. For starters, washing your dishes looks like it would be an impossibility in such a tub. And that’s without even getting started on the olive-adorned soap dispenser…

The angles of these crooked cabinets were surely a pain to plan. And more importantly, the efforts were probably a waste of time, seen as though the awkward storage spaces they’ve created are highly impractical. Maybe the skewed aesthetic was a design choice, but it could equally be down to D.I.Y. gone wrong.

The placement of this refrigerator is pretty perplexing. Its purpose-built cubicle is too far from the kitchen to really be considered part of that room, yet it’s separate from the living area as well. We suppose the best thing you could say about this design is that at least it gives you three extra blank walls to hang pictures on…

It’s hard to see how this power outlet could be in a worse position. Blocked up by the cooker, it’s impossible to use, making it a complete waste of time. If the range didn’t have the control panel at the back, the electrics would at least be reachable. But even so, it doesn’t seem safe to have them so close to a stove top.

This tiny kitchen barely looks big enough for all the appliances and space one would expect from the room. So it seems the creator may have had their priorities wrong when they decided to use a whole corner to install a shower. Not only does the cubicle take up valuable space, but who really wants to wash in the same place that they cook?

There’s nothing wrong with having a little pride in your state, but it appears that this kitchen’s owner is taken their love of Kentucky to a whole new level. This jagged breakfast bar takes the exact same shape as the Bluegrass State. But to the untrained eye, it just looks like someone forgot to finish carving the marble.

It’s not clear why someone chose to put this sink on an angle. Perhaps it was to buy them a few inches of extra countertop. Whatever the reason, the effect is controversial. After all, who wants to be met with an ugly cabinet side when it could have quite easily slotted in against the wall?

This bathtub-in-the-kitchen set-up looks a little bit too exposing. We mean to say, imagine trying to have a soak while your roommate tries to cook dinner… Luckily, someone came up with this ingenious way to fix the privacy problem by simply adding a shower curtain. Now the room functions perfectly fine… not!

At first glance, it might seem that this faucet is perfectly fine. But on closer inspection it becomes clear that it’s positioned far too close to the wall. Posting this picture on reddit in 2020 user -s-b-e-v-e- pointed out, “The sink at my friend’s house. You can’t even use the sink plug.”

This angled wall seemingly posed a bit of a problem to the people who designed this kitchen. The solution, it seems, was to simply cut the end cabinet diagonally, so that it seamlessly meets the structural feature. The only problem is that, by doing so, said cupboard becomes unusable, as its hinges have been sacrificed.

While this kitchen boasts two sinks, it’s distinctively lacking several other key components you might expect from such a room – namely, space. As a result, the fridge is wedged right up against the laundry unit, which in turn is barely accessible as it’s being blocked by the cooker. The oven, in turn, overlaps into the doorway. There’s also basically no worktop space, which makes the two sinks particularly puzzling.

This corner stove might have seemed like a good idea at the time of planning, but in reality, it just doesn’t appear to work. The angle of the appliance looks awkward against the adjacent counters and, frustratingly, doesn’t align with the vent above. In short, it’s a bit of a headache to look at.

They say that everything’s bigger in Texas – but that’s not the case when it comes to this state-shaped sink. The angles of the kitchen feature make it fairly impractical and its size means that you wouldn’t be able to wash many dishes in it. Nevertheless, if it takes your fancy, it could be yours for just $999.