Help me plan my new kitchen!

[BIWI]

Finally managed to find an architect who's happy to work with me and my ideas, rather than just imposing their 'cookie cutter' previous projects on to us.

It will involve an extension, taking the kitchen out by around 3m, which will make a long, thin space. Some of it will become a downstairs toilet.

The plan is to have a linear kitchen, so all units aligned down one wall. I've seen an example of this and it looks fantastic. Not quite sure how long it will be, but probably about 6m. (We have yet to have the proper measuring/plans drawn up).

The architect asked me to start looking at kitchens to decide what I would like - what's essential, what's nice to have, what kind of style, what appliances, etc. But already I'm overwhelmed. There's so much choice!

So tell me - if you've done your kitchen, what would your advice be? What do you wish you had/hadn't done? What's the piece of kit you wouldn't be without?

And any other tips you have!

My 'essentials' so far (in no particular order):

double oven
induction hob
built-in microwave
boiling water tap
tall fridge next to tall freezer (not American style as I don't think I'll get enough cubic capacity in the freezer with one of those)
washer and drier, stacked
dishwasher

I need lots of storage space. At the moment, my work surface is littered with baking tins and my pressure cooker, which I have no room for in the cupboards I currently have.

I also have loads of herbs and spices which currently sit (and constantly fall off) the bread bin, so need to find a way to store those - I have loads and loads, so a simple little counter top unit isn't going to be big enough!

We cook a lot, so although I (obviously) want it to look lovely, it needs to be properly functional.

Any thoughts, advice, suggestions, help will be more than gratefully received!

The best thing I did was to design in a pantry. It houses the freezer all the kitchen gadgets, bowls, baking stuff, food etc. No upper wall units. Makes the space feel massive

I would have loved a proper, old fashioned pantry, but unfortunately we just don't have the room for that.

How big is it? And is it conventional measurements or did you have it designed/built specifically for your kitchen?

The architect I'm using has a contact who will hand build the units, so that's an option for us - just need to know if I can fit that into our budget.

Agree a pantry or if all along one wall a large pantry cupboard. Mine houses all my dry ingredients on open shelves, it has plugs and a worktop so i keep my toaster, nutribullet etc plugged in and use them in situ but they don't sit out on the counter, veg drawers, granite counter so fruit stays in there too as cool.

Also best thing I did was get two separate single hide and slide neff ovens. I hate double ovens as the grills are on top and shorties (like my mum) can't see. Plus the hidden doors make it much easier to have more people in the kitchen.

I like the look of those. The thinking behind a double oven was that I could have both in one unit to save space (as if they're stacked). Can you do that with the Neff ovens?

Ours Is a walk in room which I designed into the build. But as cantaana says a pantry cupboard/unit if you can squeeze one in.

Yes my ovens are stacked, with a pan drawer under the bottom oven and a single shelf cupboard above the top one.

This is my pantry cupboard (hard to take pics as mine is sort of a galley style kitchen at that point.

I design kitchens for a major retailer...what sort of look do you want? Modern, traditional...

Rather than a double oven I have two ovens. Make sure your sink, fridge, hob and oven are close together. Drawers are better than cupboards for storage, you can't have too many.

I'm currently struggling to design a kitchen as well. So far our essentials are:
Pantry cupboard
American style fridge freezer
Rangemaster duel fuel hob/ovens
Dishwasher
Washing machine (no tumble dryer)
...I'm also really tempted to get drawers in some of the bases of the units for baking trays etc and a hidden vacuum in some too!

My favourite thing about my kitchen (galley style) came about by accident. I have the dishwasher opposite the wide drawers that I use for crockery and saucepans etc. When the dishwasher and the drawers are open, they almost touch. It make unstacking the dishwasher so easy - basically don't have to move my feet at all.

Oh yes - plinth drawers sound amazing! All my baking sheets and trays could go in there.

@Feckitall are there any appliance manufacturers that you'd especially recommend or advise against? A lot of the things I've come across so far are Samsung, but they're bloody expensive, and not sure they're worth it. But similarly, Beko appliances seem very ubiquitous and cheap.

Drawers that pull out, so you can get to the back easily.

We have a Beko dishwasher, replacing the shit Zanussi one that came with the house. It’s so quiet that a red light shines on the floor so you know when it’s working. It has loads of programmes and a cutlery tray at the top. There’s a cutlery basket too, but we use the tray.

Could you put the washing machine and tumble drier in the cloakroom? Ours has what I call a utility cupboard in the downstairs cloakroom, behind double doors. It houses the washing machine and you could stack a drier on top. I don’t have a drier, so we have drying racks above. The hot water tank is in there, so it’s warm.

That's a good idea. We might be able to do that, although the cloakroom also does have to be an actual cloakroom! It all depends on the drawings/measurements. But I'll bear that in mind.

We have recently done an extension to our house - knocked out a wall between kitchen and dining room and extended 3m approx out. Kitchen now takes up at least half of this new space with applicances/cupboards along about 6m wall with island in middle. It also goes around the new outside wall.

My top tip would be don’t put the dishwasher in the corner - can’t open cupboard to put stuff in directly from dishwasher.

If you want a fancy wine fridge don’t bother - just get a standard under counter fridge built in as you can fit loads more into it.

Get a specific spice rack cupboard- 2 if need be, they are smaller/thinner cupboards. We use a lot of spices and this is great.

Draws are much better for storage than cupboards. Plus if you visit Ikea you can get some good draw dividers (this was an after thought of ours).

We have floor to ceiling cupboards around our American style fridge freezer and use for utility sort of stuff (steam mop, hoover etc at bottom, shelves above for first aid supplies & bulky storage stuff like kitchen roll). We use another big cupboard for all our pantry stuff. We have an under work top corner cupboard with a pull out thing which all our canned goods go on. A draw under our double oven stores chopping boards and baking trays.

We put our dryer and washing machine in a utility room/corridor which has a door so can’t hear them when on.

If anyone fancies putting some photos of their kitchen design up that would be great. We are just about to start building our kitchen extension and I struggle with a vision for our kitchen I need to steal ideas

This is mine

Behind the two doors are a utility with loo, washing machine, dryer.... and the other is the pantry I mentioned up thread.

Incidentally, you can put the oven and fridge right next to each other. The insulation on both means the fridge won't be affected in the slightest. Fourteen years, and no worries.

Your kitchen is lovely SUPA I really love the tiles!
I wish we had the space for a pantry and utility room, it would make designing the kitchen much easier.

Somewhere to hand tea and hand towels
At least a one and half sink and waste disposal unit
Spice racks on back of doors
Drawers rather than cupboards or shelves that pull out in corner units
Under floor heating
Built in recycling and ordinary bins
Plenty of sockets
Under unit lights
Warming oven drawer
Wine fridges for white and red if you would use them
Chalkboard for notes, shopping list
Somewhere to house hoover, mop, ironing board

Can I suggest one of those built in bins in the cupboard that pulls out, it's one of the best bits of our kitchen.

Hi OP ...
Opinions vary on appliances..but customers like Bosch...The Beko top end seem to be doing well and compare for features...

Careful layout using most of space in a way that uses it sensibly...think about thinks like height of main users...a cooker hood that you bash your head on is not a good idea...same for reaching high up if you are short! Left or right handed?

All really good points, thanks! I don't know the exact measurements of the kitchen, once we've had the extension built, but I have a rough idea so started playing around with designs yesterday - very quickly realised there are a lot of different things to take into consideration.

I've also been to Homebase, Magnet and B&Q to get brochures but also to have a look at their different units and layouts.

What's interesting is how few of those kitchens make any allowance for a washing machine and drier - don't know where they expect people to put those!

I think we're going to have to put ours in the downstairs loo, so I've also had a go at a design/layout for that, and realise that it will take careful planning and getting hold of the right sized units to make it all work.

All 3 of those retailers have a planning service...they will incorporate the white goods in the design..

I recommend taking measurements to all 3...get plans...a visual representation of differing layouts will help..