Mumsnet Talk

Having a new kitchen fitted. Everything's going and being replaced.

I've never had a kitchen fitted so any advice or words of wisdom or things to consider please?

What's great? What's a waste of money? What's practical? What can you not live without?

What materials have you found good for floors, worktops, walls.

Absolutely anything you'd advise.

It's only 13x7 ft, so long and narrow with the back door at the end wall (small wall.

Tia!

Had ours done in November.

Love it all, but best bits:

- wall cupboards to the ceiling give so much extra storage space, makes it look sleeker and best of all means no cupboard tops to clean

- pan drawers - Best.Things.Ever!

- Deep drawer under oven to store all roasting trays on their sides for easy access

- Swishy tap

- Magic corner and double door corner to make full use of storage space

- Glass splashback behind hob

My best bit of advice? Go on holiday while it is done. We did and avoided all the hassle and mess and came back to a gorgeous kitchen!

Watching with interest as having our kitchen done soon and busy at the planning stage

Totally agree - glass splashback (doesn't have to be naf, if you match it to wall colour).
Pan drawers - for everything you can. - We have two massive ones in the utility. They are ace.
Induction hob.
Marmoleum on the floor, granite worktops.

It depends on what you like. I hate corner cupboards and wanted my cooker freestanding solo, ie not next to units, because I don't like fitted appliances at the same time as not liking the gunk that inevitably gets in between a cooker and cupboard! So that led my design.

I love my larder cupboard and humungous double butler sink. I also fully floored whole room in slate with slate skirtings as I expect the floor to last forever and if the kitchen gets changed in the future it means the floor won't have gaps.

Start with what's most important to you: eg built in hob and eye level oven.
Plan exactly what's going to go where so you know you have the right kind of storage in the right places (write over the plans in pencil)
Induction hob - great heat, easy to clean and serves as extra worktop when you need it eg baking with kids when you never seem to have enough space!

Plan for where your bin/recyling will go. And your tea towels. Make sure you can open the dishwasher and unload it easily straight into the cupboards/drawers the stuff belongs in.

Ooh these are really helpful, thanks.

Some things I haven't even thought of!

we have popup sockets on our island so that mixers and everything like that can be used there, but it vanishes when not in use.
we dispensed with a radiator and put in an enormous heated towel rail - so teatowels, cloths, gloves etc etc can be dried easily

Here is a previous kitchen thread where you will find a lot of tips already collated.

Apologies for blatant hijack but any opinions/advice re. colour scheme for my (first ever!) new kitchen would be appreciated. Keen on gloss cream units, pale grey amtico stone-effect floor tiles and mid-blue quartz worktops. Cannot find any posh designer pics of such a kitchen - does this mean I'm hopelessly behind the times ahead of the curve with the next big trend? Earth colours are everywhere at the mo (and lovely) but I've got a lighter, fresher look in my head. Any thoughts/ideas/hysterical laughter welcome!

Think of how many drawers you might want and double it.

LeChance - sod what's supposedly in now. Firstly, do you like it? Secondly, might you still like it in 10 years.

Thanks ouryve - that's quite a few drawers then...

I love my underfloor heating and wish I'd speced in a boiling water tap thingy. And I agree with the love of pan drawers - much, much easier and look far sleeker, IMO.

Try to keep the units of as similar width as possible to give a sleeker look. Integrate appliances if you want a sleek look too. As your kitchen is quite narrow and relatively long, I'd think twice about wall cupboards as they will just emphasise its narrowness. If you really want wall cupboards, I'd use horizontal ones to mitigate this a little. I tend to use concealed drawers in the kitchens I design to give that sleek finish (I am so keen on0. However, if you want to have normal drawers, try and place them centrally in a run of units rather than at one end.

I definitely wish I'd put UFH in my kitchen - your floorspace is relatively small so you could easily get away with those electric mat things rather than the whole hot water pipe she-bang.