Tell me your new kitchen must haves!

[MiddleClassProblem]

We are having a new kitchen designed and I would love to know what are your kitchen must haves!

Whether it’s appliances, storage ideas, practical or innovative designs, inspire me!

No concrete effect laminate square edge I'm otherwise happy with my Howdens kitchen and my fitter was great and I don't feel he particularly overcharged me but knows he got a substantial discount.

Ha! I still can’t see the extractor. Blind as a bat! Can I ask how efficient it is? I like to get a good char on some things!

That roll cupboard looks genius!

Thank you!

Agree with all of this. I would add, have the microwave inbuilt so it doesn’t have to sit on the worktop. I’ve managed to get rid of the microwave, toaster, kettle and it creates more space on the worktop. The toaster sits in a pantry with mains electric and the kettle is replaced by the hot water tap.

Some brilliant ideas here

Those of you with walk in pantries / larders - any chance of sharing some pictures please? What sort of size are they?

The things I like are:
A very large sink for soaking roasting trays
Bin drawer
Drawers in general
We like the neff hide and slide which has now mov d house twice with us .It is a back up for us as we usually cook on an Aga .
The shelves in the cupboards are of varying heights.
Large area for food preparation ( also used as a dumping ground ).
If o was doing it again ( we rejigged an existing kitchen) I would use every space so cupboards to ceiling .
I would also have excellent extraction .
I would consider function as number one and not be distracted by appearance so much.
I like to look outside when washing up if you can manage that.
We have a granite worktop that looks brand new new after 20 years with minimal care so although it was expensive and there may be more modern materials available it has paid us back .

We've got a smallish kitchen that was redone 3 yrs ago.
Decide beforehand what is going to live where and then declutter pots/pans
Frost-free fridge freezer
Self-cleaning oven
Corner floor units have circular slide-out metal inserts
'Larder' floor unit has pull out metal shelves
Laminate worktops - good quality, easy to clean.
Think practicality not style over substance - do you really want to be oiling wood worktops?

@dumpydumpydumpdump Could you link to your Neff microwave/oven please?Interested to see it!

Thought of another thing - LED under cupboard lights. They can be dimmed and changed from cool white to warm white. They really brighten things up, especially in winter and illuminate the bench top well.

Handle less doors, induction hob, and high level ovens.
we also went from a 1.5 sink to a 1, and ditched the crud magnet pop wastes for an old school plug arrangement.
Most importantly, whilst the units were out I stuffed wire wool into every crevice in the floor and walls, and now we don't have mice, which is worth it's weight in gold.

A mundane one but one I find important. Extra shelves for your shelved kitchen units. If they don't make extras for the size of unit just get some contiboard cut.

If you take a look at your cupboards, look at how much dead space you have above the contents of each shelf. If you change the height of the shelves you can often put an extra one in the cupboard. (Obviously you need space to put your hand in as well as room for the contents). It works particularly well for crockery and glasses. Work out where you have dead space after you've decided where everything is going in the cupboards.

If the cupboard doesn't have extra holes so you can move shelves, or they are in the wrong place, just drill holes that fit the little shelf support things you can buy. I've also just used screws as once the shelves are in you can't see them.

Fitting half a dozen extra cupboard shelves in your kitchen can make a bit difference. Although I've just had to rejig some of my shelves as I've replaced my wine glasses and the new ones are a bit taller!

In a similar vein, try to get at least one set of shallow drawers for things like cutlery, tin foil, putting spice jars flat, etc. Again, avoiding dead space above the contents.

Definitely a walk-in larder with the same worktops as the main kitchen. We have a bespoke glass slider so we can open this fully and the room looks like an extension of the kitchen.

We had ours done at HUGE expense 4 years ago. My 'must haves' were:
All lower storage to be drawers wherever possible
All upper storage to go up to the ceiling
At least 1 1/2 bowl sink with a draining board
Floor to ceiling cupboards all along one wall, with pull out storage wherever possible
2 ovens (but don't really need 2 now we have an air fryer)
A large area of uninterrupted work surface. (Our longest bit is 2 metres - we have a long kitchen)
At least 5 ring hob
Microwave built in.
Lots of electric sockets
No handles
Dishwasher
I really REALLY wanted a Silestone worktop - which I got and love, but it was hugely expensive

To get all these things I had to compromise on the style - it's still lovely but not quite what I would have had it money were no object. We have other lovely bits too. I re-used a long wooden worktop we had in the study as a coffee station down one end, separating the eating area from the kitchen itself. There was some left over we used as the kitchen table - I bought legs for it online, and there was a little bit left we used for 3 small shelves for coffee, tea, sugar, mugs above the kettle. We decided against a boiling water tap but thought about putting one there as well.
We have 2 fridges, a big one at the working end of the kitchen and an under counter fridge under the coffee station. I also have a small pull out bin in the cupboard there for teabags etc., the big bin is in the working end of the kitchen.

Think carefully about how you are going to use the room, what lighting you need and the colour. The colour will affect the light. There are some wonderful dark co!ours available but they suck out light and make a room look smaller. For that reason I chose a darker colour I really liked for the bottom and full height cabinets only. All the top cabinets above the worktop are a pale colour, we chose to use exactly the same colour for the top cabinets and the walls. We have a long narrow kitchen and having a dark colour on the top cabinets would have closed in the space and made it feel claustrophobic, plus the only natural light is a small window above the sink at one end, and a door and window right at the other end, so a dark colour would have made the middle of the room very gloomy.

@CarterBeatsTheDevil I have been known to get a small knife and scrape off any limescale deposits if really bad or limescale spray if not. Then I have to chuck fairy liquid around it and scrub it all clean with a sponge, rinse off multiple times, let it dry completely before rubbing a mineral (baby oil) oil all over it. Let oil soak in for a bit and then wipe off with kitchen towel. Looks great for 24 hrs if you're lucky but it's all downhill from there. Repeat weekly for evermore or sooner if you have visitors 😁

Thank you all so much. It’s really great hearing what worked and didn’t work as well as new ideas!

Pull out bins are a must imo

@IdrisElbow Thanks, I'll check her out.

Pull out larder
deep, wide drawers
deep, narrow drawers
shallow wide drawers with inserts to separate
utensils
spice drawer
cupboards in all the horizontal space
carousel corner cupboard
kitchen table with corner bench with hidden storage
double sink as drainer and a separate mini section with plughole for veg prep/ quick drainage
worktop space (as well as table)
very tall freezer in basement

Ours is 7 years old now. What I still really like about it:
Small veg prep sink on island - it’s also the with the Quooker tap which I also still really like.
Wall of units from floor to ceiling. Includes full height pull out larder and drawers for plates. 2 Neff hide & slide ovens with microwave between on this wall. Ovens at chest height and warming drawer below microwave. Like the warming drawer so much we instantly replaced it when it broke last year.
Island also has the induction hob. It has long pan drawers / utensil drawer below with a small pull out cupboard either side. One has chopping boards, oil, spices etc and the other ones has condiments, stock cubes etc. These 2 slide out cupboards are really useful.
We also have a cupboard that opens over the worktop at one end - it has shelves that automatically come forward and houses all tea, coffee, mugs etc. Really like this too.
To be honest, the only thing I don’t really like is that we chose to have a very large island which is opposite the wall with ovens and fridge. It means the space between is quite narrow (think about 1 metre). It’s perfect when I’m cooking as I barely need to move my feet but it’s a pain at dishing up time when everyone is milling about to get drinks etc.

Thank you all so much!

Can I ask what the benefit of having a draining sink is? Does it not mean stuff stacked you might need something under?

Following with interest as I'm about to order a kitchen.

Be realistic and incorporate a "corner of crap" and a "drawer of doom".
You know you'll end up with them so you may as well incorporate them into the design!

Agreed but careful on stone. Most of her sprays are for porcelain/glass etc.

Gas hob - absolutely essential imo.
Very powerful extractor.
Glass or similar continuous splasback - no tiles or grouting.
A non-wood v. long worktop - I had beautiful oak before, but it's too high maintenance. My sister has some kind of ceramic composite which is amazing.