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Behind every great home is a contracting team that puts in the hard work to bring it to life. But the dissonance between a homeowner’s design dreams and what the home can actually handle can be costly. Contracting experts know that designing with infrastructure first is smart, but it’s easy to get caught up in Instagram inspiration without knowing whether it actually fits in our homes.
“If I could give homeowners one piece of advice, it would be to focus just as much on durability, maintenance, and functionality as you do aesthetics,” certified general contractor Jeri Goodkin Dausey says. “The best renovations are the ones that still work well and look good five to ten years later, not just the ones that photograph well on day one.”
To avoid costly mistakes and repairs, we consulted contractors, plumbing experts, and builders on the design mistakes they most commonly encounter. They break down viral trends that aren’t worth it, plus what you need to consider before renovating that old house.
Oversized Kitchen Islands
Kitchen islands take up a considerable amount of real estate, and unfortunately, they’re easy to get wrong. Before you commit to that dreamy, sprawling island you saw on Instagram, you’ll need to make sure there’s proper clearance for it in your own home. Space planning is crucial because you have to be able to navigate around it while cooking or hosting. “The best kitchen island is not necessarily the biggest one,” San Diego-based general contractor Whitney Hall says. “It’s the one you can actually cook around, walk around, sit at, and unload groceries onto without everyone getting trapped.”
It gets even more complicated when you try to add fixtures like a sink in the island. It’s a project pet peeve of Scott Eyman of Eyman Plumbing, Heating, & Air, who notes it can be a costly mistake if it’s not properly aligned. “Everyone loves the look of the island sink in the middle of an open-concept kitchen,” Eyman says. “However, venting that drain line properly can cost an extra $800 to $1,200 because of code-required vent configuration.”
New Fixtures on an Old Foundation
A generation inspired by Love It or List It and Flip or Flop loves the challenge of an older home with “good bones.” But proceed with caution if you plan to add shiny new features on top. Keith Ostendorf of Next Stage Design + Build works on Santa Clara County homes from the 1960s and ‘70s. He often encounters a new kitchen on top of electrical service that’s at capacity, or plumbing that’s overdue for replacement.
“I worked on this beautiful 1920s home in San Jose, where we had to strike a balance between preserving the past and planning for the future,” Ostendorf says. “This meant having to change around where exactly the new bathroom would be built, based on the system in place. Homeowners who don't have that conversation about the foundation early are the ones reopening walls they just finished because of hidden issues. My advice before any design development begins is to assess the bones before you design the skin.”
When you’re not building your space from the ground up, you inherit the previous tenant’s design decisions, however poorly installed. Ostendorf notes custom cabinetry is one feature that looks impressive at first but may not have been built to last.
“The way a cabinet is secured to the wall, how it handles seasonal wood movement, and whether the hardware can sustain the actual use of it; these things don't show up as problems immediately,” Ostendorf says. “They show up two years later when doors won't close, drawers bind, or a run of uppers starts to pull away from the wall. Coming in to fix someone else's shortcut is never a quick job, because you're not just correcting the cabinet, you're usually correcting what's behind it, too.”
Large-Format Shower Tile
Large-format tiles in the shower have taken over TikTok, much to the chagrin of contractors and tile setters. John Salvatore Gelfusa of HomeWorks CGO sees the appeal of cutting large-format tiles into geometric shapes, but the maintenance often isn’t worth it.
“What those videos don’t show is what happens long-term when most of the water repeatedly follows the same few drainage paths,” Gelfusa says. “Over time, this creates a ‘gutter effect,’ where the water is directed off the surface of the tile and into the grout joints. The result is grout lines that stay dirty and feel impossible to maintain.”
The minimal grout lines are sleek and sophisticated, but to keep it from becoming a maintenance nightmare, you need exact precision from every member of your reno crew. Inconsistent framing will be your downfall. “My recommendation is to use a tile that’s three inches or smaller on the shower floor, but the trick is to pair that with a high-quality polymer grout,” Eric Thomason, owner of Blue Nail Roofing & Construction, says. “This gives you a non-porous, stain-resistant grout that’s easily cleanable.”
Open-Concept Wall Removal
Transforming a home into an open-concept floor plan is about way more than taking just a hammer to some drywall. Dausey often deals with homeowners who start removing walls or opening up spaces before understanding the structural consequences involved. “What starts as a ‘simple cosmetic renovation’ can quickly turn into a much larger and more expensive project,” Dausey says.
The walls themselves aren’t just empty dividers. They could hold load-bearing supports, wiring, plumbing, and ductwork that you don’t want to mess with. Andre Taouil, president of AZ Commercial Builders, comes across this often when creating open kitchens. “The project becomes more than demolition,” Taouil says. “Now you may be dealing with engineering, beams, posts, rerouting utilities, drywall repairs, flooring repairs, architectural drawings and permits.” And with each new detail, the cost goes up.
