Choosing and installing a kitchen for the first time, one month from now - what do I need to know?

[thereistheball]

I live in France where flats routinely come without installed kitchens. We have just agreed to move, one month from now, into a flat with a 3x2m space which currently only has a sink above a cupboard. Apart from the obvious (fridge/freezer, oven/hob plus extractor, worktop and cupboard underneath, overhead storage, dishwasher, lighting, cabling, splashbacks, microwave) what else am I going to need?

In order to keep costs down we'll be getting the furniture bits from Ikea and the appliances from somewhere else. One cupboard and the worktop on top will be fitted to make use of an otherwise dead corner.

The layout is a rectangle with one of the short sides giving onto the living room. There are no windows. Standing in the space where the 4th wall would be, to the left there is room for a fridge/freezer, oven/hob, then the sink, then a 60cm gap which will be filled with a double cupboard which opens on one side only, facing you, like this. Next to that will be the dishwasher. That entire (back) wall will have a 180cm worktop. Above it will be some kind of storage unit. To the right there will be room for this half-depth unit plus some shelving overhead.

It's going to be a squeeze and I'm not keen on storing things on shelves, but they are cheaper than cabinets and can be more easily made to fit, so we're going to start with that and see how we do.

What do I need to know about buying and fitting a kitchen, including appliances? We are not DIY people - do we need to get someone in to do the installation? Has anyone got any tips? How long does it take - I'm hoping only a couple of days?

Lastly, I am a keen cook and will need that worksurface to be as uncluttered as possible (with microwave and kettle it's already shrinking fast). How do I keep stuff off it? I've looked at this to hang utensils off, because the arrangement I've suggested above will have no drawers, but would prefer something that went from one wall to the other, like a wardrobe rail - can I just get a wardrobe rail and use that?

All help welcome! Thanks.

[MankyPissFlaps]

best thing to do in this situation is to use wall units as base units and trim a standard worktop down to fit ..... much cheaper than slimline units and just as good in any case. You will need to bear in mind location and depths of any appliances

[thereistheball]

Thanks - good idea. But I forgot to mention that we'll need to put the bin there too, which the Ikea cabinet will leave room for, and we want to be able to take as much away as possible with us when we leave.

Also, I'm planning to have a magnetic rack for knives above the worktop by the sink.

[LadyBiscuit]

I've found that pull out drawers from Ikea are much better than cupboards - you can get loads more in them. Have you tried using Ikea's kitchen planner online? I found that really useful in helping to plan my kitchen.

And can you join two of the Ikea hanging systems together to go across the wall space? You might be able to use a wardrobe rail but each of their hanging systems have bits that are designed to fit on that one so you might find that stuff doesn't fit

[MankyPissFlaps]

if you use wall units you could take them all away ..... they usually sit on brackets that tighten up from the inside of the cupboard, so to take them away you just slacken them and lift the units away

[thereistheball]

Ok, thanks.

LadyBiscuit - unfortunately the only cupboard space is tucked into a corner next to the sink, so to put drawers next to it (which I'd love to have) will mean that space becomes inaccessible. If you think of the left hand wall being 5x60cm squares, the first is fridge, the second is hob, the third and fourth are sink, and the only storage space is the fifth one, so to access that you need a double cupboard with only one door.

I am going to use the Ikea kitchen planner though, everyone says it's helpful.