What is your absolute must-have for a great kitchen?

[BrandoraPaithwaite]

Getting the ancient, grubby, falling to bits kitchen finally ripped out and redone in the Autumn (Covid permitting).

Please help me plan an ideal kitchen!

It's roughly 4.5m square. Door to porch and back of house which we use as main entry/ exit to house. No scope to extend or have bifold doors. Family is 2 adults, 1 dc, dog and cat.

What is your absolute must in a kitchen? Or what have you got in yours that you couldn't live without?

All we have already decided is to have a range cooker in the chimney breast, a big cupboard near the door for coats and shoes. And no island unit or breakfast bar.

Thank you!

[Pascha]

A full double sink. 1½ sinks is not big enough at all. No space to dump pots and pans and drain veg and scrub comfortably.

[TSSDNCOP]

I would've said some kind of seating, even if just to perch whilst cooking or to eat breakfast.

Two dishwasher
Gas hob
No tiddly little shelves as they just collect dust
Sink with a rinse section
Bin space with
Different lighting options from super bright to moody

[TSSDNCOP]

Ha! The bin space doesn't need fancy lighting. The bin space needs to be able to accommodate regular bin/recycling/glass box and caddy

[BrandoraPaithwaite]

Oh good shout about the sink. There's a Belfast sink in there at the moment which is the only thing I actually like.

[lancslass17]

Decent lighting (if open to another room) so you can have soft lights if you need to pop in.
Plenty of storage I am amazed how we managed before.
Make use of corner cupboards
Drawers within drawers for cuttelry etc
Plenty of plugs, toaster, kettle, baby milk maker, phone chargers all get put in kitchen!
A washer with a timer! I get up washing done put on line

[BrandoraPaithwaite]

Definitely gas hob is a must. Also bin space that can be shut away so bins not on view. Good ideas.

Two dishwashers??

[attackedbycritters]

Waist height oven, no stopping to get things out

[BrandoraPaithwaite]

Many plugs, yes! Shitloads of storage and not annoying dust- gathering fiddly shelves, yes!

Luckily washer, dryer and freezer are in the cellar. (Which is a whole renovation job of its own- out of sight out of mind for now)

[justanotherneighinparadise]

Definitely storage

[cherryblossommorningstoday]

No not a gas hob.

Definitely induction. Had one in my old house almost by accident when we did the kitchen. It was amazing.

I still miss it and am getting one installed in the new house.

[weepingwillow22]

A larder and lots of drawers

[Ginfilledcats]

We recently moved to a house with induction hob. Best thing ever! Do not miss gas at all. Boils water in seconds. Safe as when you move the pan the heat stops instantly, when you put the pan back on now back to full heat. We love it.

I also love our Joseph Joseph bin with recycling compartments, but wish we had a bigger one.

A full size fridge freezer (we have under counter and I HATE them but no space for a normal fridge freezer)

Waist heigh over and grill is amazing.

Excellent lighting and storage

Somewhere to sit/perch

[BrandoraPaithwaite]

The oven will be a stooping one- it will be a gas oven as part of the range cooker. If I was rich I would have an aga in the chimney breast but that's too expensive.

[WobblingMyWigglyBits]

A slide out herb/spice cupboard next to the oven /hob so you can see at a glance what you need

[BrandoraPaithwaite]

Seating wise we already have a big extendable dining table and chairs that we will keep.

[Impatientwino]

Storage
Storage
Storage
Biggest fridge possible for your space
Storage

Get cupboards that go all the way up to the ceiling. No dusting and more storage

DH loves his coffee and we got a built in coffee machine and I have to say it's been absolutely brilliant. Not necessarily coffee if that's not your thing but if you have something you really really enjoy then definitely budget for it as it's so nice to have something you really love and to be able to make it/use it all of the time.

I chose a wine fridge

[Duckchick]

I have a pull out spice rack (3 shelves) and a pull out oil rack (2 in shelves), both of which I find really useful. I also love my big American fridge freezer for its huge amount of fridge space and also the ice dispenser in the summer. We have a 4 compartment pull out bin which I'm really pleased with too.

[Impatientwino]

We have a pull out bin cupboard and it's great. Ours has a small shelf on the top to store bin bags and crap which is handy

[BrandoraPaithwaite]

Definitely a big fridge.
Definitely storage, as much as possible. We have really high ceiling so I want cupboards all the way up and stuff can go in the top cupboards that hardly gets used.
Pull out spices and oil racks- brilliant. Currently oil bottles always cluttering up hob area.
Larder with drawers.. shudders with joy

[Crabbo]

We have a boiling water tap, I love it. Love not having to have a kettle out cluttering the side - I think it only works for convenience if you also have an induction hob though so you don’t need to boil the kettle for full pans of water.
Also have an induction hob with one large gas ring which is great.

[isseywith4vampirecats]

weve just ordered our new kitchen and my two must haves were free standing cooker got that and a proper full sized stainless steel sink at the moment got the 1.5 in that horrible plasticky stuff that seemed popular about 20 years ago I cant wait for it to go it never looks clean no matter what I use

[habibihabibi]

A bank of floor to ceiling 100cm cupboards. I have used glossy ikea pax wardrobes in my kitchen in three different homes. In the largest I put 4 sets in the kitchen and 4 in the utility. I put the pull out baskets in which are magic for all the bits and bobs and small food items.

[BrandoraPaithwaite]

I can't stop fantasising about all the crap and clutter being... away. And surfaces that are easy to clean and look clean.

[PrimeroseHillAnnie]

Fully comprehensive set of high quality , professional grade , knives and utensils.

[Ginfordinner]

The things I dislike about my kitchen:

It's too small
Not enough storage - half of my kitchen stuff is in the loft or the garage
Small cupboards
Drawers are too shallow - apparently this is what you get with budget kitchens
Nowhere to sit and eat

Things I would love:

Mostly pull out drawer storage
A spice cupboard
A pull out larder cupboard
More storage
Some where to sit and eat
Somewhere to put bins
A utility room