What extras does your kitchen have that you use/don't use?

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

Starting to toy with replacing our kitchen and we've only ever had kitchens that came with the house. Never done a kitchen refurb before.

I have lost myself in Pinterest with all the extra ideas you can add (ironing board that pulls out of a drawer/thin kickboard drawers for Tea Towels etc).

Does your kitchen have any extra features aside from basic cupboards, drawers and typical white goods? Any must haves? And waste of money?

Utiity room which I love. Separate clean washing from cooking smells (and smelly gym kit from food prep!)
Pull out wire rack-drawers that make it easier to reach stuff tucked away at the back of a cupboard. I love those.

And under-cupboard lighting. Also like that though not exactly a must-have.

@RJnomore1 it’s an in-drawer cling film and foil dispenser. It came with the kitchen and matches the lining of the drawers.
www.amazon.co.uk/Kesper-58040-Bamboo-Dispenser-Drawer/dp/B06XTRZ3JL?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

I thought about this some more.

On the wooden side of the fridge cabinet (there is a surround around the fridge to support the cabinet over it), facing into open space in the room, I have a wooden bar that almost fades into the wooden cabinet with 5 hooks hanging off it for a hand towel, tea towel, 2 oven gloves and 1 hook holds 2 aprons. the aprons are at the end, and as the others are short, there is space beneath them for a Brabantia double bin (30l black bin and 12 l food bin) to fit underneath.

Over the double sink, we got a set of metal rod type bars from Ikea, which have a series of S butcher style hooks, a hanging rail to hold the kitchen towel roll and a little pot to hold the washing up brush and sponge (there are holes in it so it drips onto the sink - no build up of stinky water in it).

I keep my knives in an upright wooden block on the worktop - safer and takes up less space.

Our over the counter cupboards are relatively tall, so hold a lot. But because they go up near the ceiling, we got an extra wooden plinth at the top and that hides the space above them too. So I put things for extra storage up there - baking things I rarely use, or extra stocks of tins or packets that I get when there are deals on them (only things we'd use anyway) or the big box of teabags (I have a glass jar for daily use in the cupboard - but I buy the largest box and refill from that). I don't stack up to the ceiling, but I can put things to about 4" high up there without them being visible.

Under the sink I use 2 plastic boxes to hold the cleaning liquids etc - to keep it organised and not push the backing into the pipework behind. And I have 2 plastic baskets (from a Poundsaver type shop) to hold potatoes, and onions/garlic, in a different under counter cupboard (alongside the stored bottles, with the plastic boxes etc on the top shelf).

I also have a metal stand from Ikea to stack my mugs (so I can have a double set of mugs in the space) in another corner under counter cupboard with all the crockery in it.

I would like one of those pull-out larder cupboards but both the kitchen designer and my DH put me off that as it apparently wastes a lot of space.

I am still waiting for DH to put in some under cupboard lighting - it was agreed more than 10 years ago....

Pan drawers. I've got nine wide ones and then a tall one that looks like a cupboard.
Having utensils and spices directly under the hob is just so useful.

Boiling water tap. Love it, it's just so useful.

Eye level ovens, ours are the hide and slide ones. So much better than our previous range.

I also love my quartz worktop. It looks great and is brilliant for pastry and dough.

We didn't bother with a hob in the island which was our initial plan.
Thankfully we stayed in a holiday let with one and found it completely impractical.
My idea of people sitting opposite me and chatting while I cooked just didn't happen because of food splattering everywhere, the floor behind the hob was stained from cooking grease. Then there was the very good but loud extractor that drowned out any chatting.

We have a fake drawer that has our waste bins in so all hidden.
Tall larder cupboards that have draws that pull out individually.
Retractable clothes pole that can be completely hidden.

I also bought one of these so I can put my sharp knives away without having to have them on the work top. Protects the blades rather than just bunging them in the drawer

What's the benefits of induction over gas hob?

I think that the government were thinking about phasing out gas, so it's better for future proofing.

Storage above cupboards

minipie on the dishwasher drawers I'll concede of you're a family of 6 they might not work, but as a family of 4 a single drawer is fine capacity wise wrt coping with a days dishes.

Perhaps your parents have a different design? Mines by Fisher Paykel and it has pull down additional shelves to create 2 layers within the drawer.

I just alternate which one I use daily - but when we have visitors (especially for dinner) it's brilliant to be able to set one going with all my best China and fill the other with pots/pans knowing that the former won't get chipped by the latter.

I love the idea of a kitchen having 'extras'!

Only extra in mine that doesn't get used is the back door (we go out through the patio doors). Half the doors are hanging off, most of the drawers are missing and there's a hole in the floor that the dog keeps falling into.

I cannot wait to move.

Sorry - though of another regret/benefit.

At the time I owned an expensive sage microwave (still do) so felt I couldn't justify buying a built in one.

With hindsight I wish I had. It's too big to fit in the cooks cupboard and is the only thing that breaks up the otherwise uncluttered worktop.

Thankfully I chose a handmade kitchen and the firm has told me that when my Sage finally dies an electrical death (though it's still going strong) that they can modify one of my current units to house a built in model in the future.

Another pro is they built my chopping boards into a space between 2 pan drawers. It's a bit like the picture (but mine don't have knobs on - they are smooth and work on a press/release mechanism). Means they are easy to access but store beautifully.

I've had my new kitchen about 6 months now, and I have very, very few regrets. The things I love are:

Quooker Flex tap - properly boiling water, and a pull out hose too. It was mega bucks, but I love love love it!

Huge single sink - there's a lot of love on this thread for double sinks, but we're limited on space and don't wash up much (dishwater addict). The single sink we do have is absolutely huge, and it's fantastic.

Waste disposal - we have an Insinkerator, and it's fantastic. I hate dealing with food waste, so I love that I can just chuck it down the sink.

Two single ovens at eye level - I've never been able to cook two things at the same time at different temperatures before. Even something as simple as pie and chips is now possible and easy.

Pan drawers - as good as everyone else says. Love them. BUT! One note of caution: don't do away with cupboards entirely! Remember you still need places to store tall things like cereal boxes.

Tall pull out larder. Ours is only 300mm wide, but it's still great. I would have loved a wider one, but it wouldn't fit.

Induction hob. I would never go back to gas now. I find Induction so much better.

Chopping board and oven tray rack. This is a bit of a cheat, as I didn't plan it as such, but in the lift up cupboard over the ovens, I have two tray racks so I can store my chopping boards and over trays standing up. No faffing about, making sure they don't fall over just leaning up against something, or stacking/unstacking them in drawers. It's a joy! Mine are from Lakeland, and standing on some none slip mat.

We're due to have a kitchen fitted soon so I'm finding this really interesting. Although it's too late to change most of our choices but anyway! I've found it so difficult to decide what to have, especially as we've never done it before. Such a lot of money to get it wrong!

I had no idea that having two dishwashers is a thing?!

A built in wine rack, then I gave up alcohol

And a TV ariel point which we’ve never used.

Does your kitchen have any extra features aside from basic cupboards, drawers and typical white goods? Any must haves? And waste of money? No, nothing. All we have is a cooker, a microwave, a washer, a spin dryer, a kettle and a fridge freezer as well as basic cupboards and drawers. We use it all and don't need or wish we had anything else apart from more worktop space.

We put in our kitchen 7 years ago!
What I liked:
Massive island with a hob and sink for cleaning veg etc, also have a 1.5 sink for dishes
Pull out tap that doesn't look like a pull out tap.
Quiet extractor fan
Microwave in cupboard - cheap and does the job
Deep drawers
Eye level ovens (2 have been very useful) but would not buy a Miele oven again as imo they are a bit crap - I like the look of them, serve me right for being shallow.
Vertical shelves for storing baking trays and chopping boards
Pop up socket on island as well as socket at the end of island - all appliances can be used in any part of it.

In two minds about the induction hob - it looks very scruffy now - the glass is scratched and chipped - did the job it was expected to do and that was allow the kids to cook safely on it but it wasn't very robust and the restriction on pans is a pain - not every pan that professes to be induction friendly work or works poorly - ie take ages to heat.
Even though I don't like the look of American style fridges - I wish we had a cold water and ice cube dispenser.