The No. 1 Mistake People Make When Renovating Their Kitchens, According to a Designer

You’ve been shopping for a new brass faucet for weeks now, determined to hunt one down that matches your drawer pulls and knobs perfectly. It’s proven to be pretty much impossible. But it turns out mismatched kitchen hardware isn’t the faux pas you may think it is. In fact, many professionals would say the real mistake is trying to make them match in the first place. Don’t believe us? Maybe Stephanie Pierce, director of design and trends at MasterBrand Cabinets, can convince you.

“The average homeowner picks out a faucet and hardware and tries to build a matching palette, and they’re never going to match perfectly, because different companies make those products,” says Pierce. “It’s better to pick a range of shades and go with that. Let them build on each other. That can be difficult to master if you’re not a designer, because there are a lot of finishes to layer.” 

Here are a few tips for non-designers trying to wrap up their kitchen renovation:

1. Don’t stress about mismatched hardware. “People struggle because they choose a pop of brass and say, ‘I can’t find all those things that match.’ What I remind them is, they don’t have to. They’re not all sitting adjacent like throw pillows,” says Pierce. Instead of fixating on the fact that they don’t match exactly…

2. Look at the underlying base tone of the hardware you’re choosing to make sure they complement each other. Examine the pieces closely and you’ll notice undertones of another shade that make the hardware either cool or warm (like gray-toned brass versus golden-toned). Mixing them is when things can start to feel mismatched: “Keep all your underlying tones in gray, cream or mid-tone brown (those are the most flexible and diverse colors to work with) and build on top of that,” says Pierce.

3. Don’t try incorporating too many things you love in one space. “The most important consideration in the kitchen is that everything complements each other and blends together, with one or two pops off of that,” says Pierce. “Maybe roll it back a bit. You love red and yellow, but maybe not those two colors together in the same room.”