My Biggest Kitchen Remodel Regret Gives Me Stress Every Single Day

When we moved into our Tennessee home almost two years ago, we were fortunate to be able to remodel the existing kitchen. It wasn’t the first kitchen I had a hand in designing, so I felt pretty adept at knowing what we needed for our family of seven, and how we (read: I) operate in the kitchen. For instance, we opted for a counter-depth fridge because it makes the entire kitchen space flow more smoothly, and a huge workstation sink to maximize space. And on the advice of a chef friend, we got an induction range — and love it!

However, even with all my previous experience, thorough consideration, and painstaking research, there’s one thing I still got wrong: the range hood. Also on the advice of my chef friend, we made sure to get a powerful range hood that would keep the kitchen clear of cooking smells and smoke — but we didn’t make sure to get one that would be as quiet as possible while doing it.

Here’s the thing: There’s a lot going on in our kitchen at any given time. One person might be cleaning up dirty dishes, another might be making a quesadilla for a snack while I’m trying to pull out the onions and cutting board I need to prep dinner. Kids are coming home from school and telling me about their days while they unpack their backpacks, which means papers on the counter and washing lunch boxes. All this while the dogs are milling around and I’m under time pressure because soccer practice pick-up is looming for my boys, and my littlest ones need to get to bed.

That’s a lot of stimulation, and it’s why I picked a calming color palette and classic but minimal design in the kitchen. I’m a highly sensitive person as well, so I’m more affected than the average person by all the sights, smells, sounds, and needs around me — doing what I can to control the environment helps keep me from feeling overwhelmed. This includes keeping “optional” noise, like music, to a minimum, or sometimes drowning out the chaos with my AirPods.

What I overlooked when designing the kitchen and choosing appliances was taking note of the noise level of the range hood we bought — even though it’s listed under the product specification! I know that the drone of the range hood impacts my stress levels in the kitchen because of the relief I feel when I’m able to turn the range hood off! It is loud, and it simply never crossed my mind.

I won’t be replacing my range hood any time soon; it’s practically brand new, after all. But the good news is that changing this easily overlooked but potentially impactful kitchen detail doesn’t require an entire kitchen remodel, for me or anyone else. Switching out a noisy range hood for one with lower noise levels could be the key to cutting down on kitchen noise, and therefore creating a more peaceful kitchen.

Do you regret any part of your kitchen? Let us know in the comments below!