# Phil Spencer on how to dodge kitchen regret > The Location, Location, Location host on the kitchen choices people wish they could take back. - Title: Phil Spencer on how to dodge kitchen regret · Dailymail - Summary: The Location, Location, Location host on the kitchen choices people wish they could take back. A kitchen has to last 10 to 15 years, so pick for how you… - Keywords: kitchens, home renovation, interiors, property, design trends, news, entertainment, Phil, Spencer, dodge, kitchen, regret - Source: Dailymail — https://dailymail.com/lifestyle/article-16129369/Phil-Spencer-reveals-avoid-kitchen-regret-renovating-home-features-you-think-twice-about.html?ito=1490&ns_campaign=1490&ns_mchannel=rss - Published: 2026-09-14T16:03:44+00:00 - Read time: 3 min - Topics: kitchens, home renovation, interiors, property, design trends, news, entertainment ## Meet the man who's seen it all Phil Spencer has spent over two decades walking through other people's houses for Channel 4, alongside Kirstie Allsopp. He's now a Wickes ambassador, and he has opinions. ## Kitchen regret is real He sat down with the Daily Mail to talk renovations, and kept coming back to the fancy features people install and quietly resent later. > the features that may leave you with 'kitchen regret' ## Build for 15 years, not 15 months Kitchen renovations are meant to last a long time. Spencer says that single fact should sit behind every decision you make about the space. ## Colour is the big one Of all the choices, colour is the one he flags hardest. Tastes shift, and you are locking yours in for a decade or more. > Colour is a really big decision because if you're redoing your kitchen, you want it to last for 10 or 15 years, and tastes change. ## Like the length of skirts He compares kitchen fashion to hemlines, trousers and hair. Things simply move on, whether or not your cabinets do. > It's the same as the length of skirts, trousers or hair, where things move on. ## Current, but future proof The balance he asks for: get it as up to date as you can, while picturing how you'll feel about that shade in years to come. > you also need to think about how you're going to feel about that colour in years to come ## Too many grey kitchens Spencer says he is seeing an awful lot of grey right now. His verdict is blunt. There are too many of them. > I see an awful lot of grey kitchens now, too many. ## Grey and beige are fading He reads both as on the way out. If you are choosing today, you'd be picking up a trend on its way down. ## Warmth is coming through What's replacing it: greens, olives and natural tones. Warmer palettes are what he's seeing gain ground. > I'm seeing much more warmth coming through now, with greens, olives and natural tones becoming popular. ## Everybody wants an island After hundreds of home visits, he knows the script. Buyers ask for bifold doors and a kitchen island almost every time. > When we meet people on Location, Location, Location, everybody wants bifold doors, and everybody wants an island. ## Most islands are too big The problem isn't wanting one, it's sizing it. He keeps seeing islands that swallow the room they sit in. > An island should work with the room, not dominate it. ## Ask what the island earns His test: how do you actually use the kitchen, how much room do you need to move, and is the island giving you real storage and worktop? > rather than just having the biggest island you can fit in ## Hide the extractor Extractor fans have changed shape, often built into the hob or tucked away. Spencer is firmly in favour. > What's uglier than an extractor fan? I think sleek and clever is good. ## He tried it himself In his own recent kitchen he used a hob with the extraction built in. He expected it to fail and it didn't. > I thought it would never work, but it worked brilliantly. ## Nothing should shout The principle behind it is simple. The first thing you notice walking into a kitchen shouldn't be the ventilation. > I'm a big fan of keeping things sleek and streamlined where you can. ## Toilets off the kitchen Beyond kitchens, his Love It Or List It years turned up layouts that just don't work. One flaw sticks with him above the rest. > Particular things that are noticeable, that stick in my mind, are when toilets are off kitchens. How does that happen so often? ## Corridors and bad doors He also points to long corridors that waste space, doors placed wrongly, doors hung the wrong way, and doors that open onto themselves. > doors in the wrong place or doors that hang the wrong way ## Open plan is retreating The old instinct to knock through Victorian houses for modern life has cooled. He's watching the trend reverse. > Open plan was such a popular thing pre-Covid. But it's gone slightly the other way now. ## Working from home broke it Open the kitchen into the living room, then work from home while the kids get back from school. Spencer's word for that is disaster. > that's a disaster! So we are seeing some people closing space back up ## Choose for your life, not the catalogue Every point lands in the same place. Colour, island, extractor, layout: pick what suits how you live in the room, because you're living with it for a decade. ## Key takeaway A kitchen has to last 10 to 15 years, so pick for how you actually live in the room, not for what looks good in a showroom this year.