to ask what KITCHEN mistakes you made?

[Albadross]

I needed this after the bathroom one - we're about to get a new kitchen (replacing the 90s disaster of worn chipboard and a cupboard you have to open the fridge to access).

can't easily be replaced, because I think the ventilation slots built in above and below it also ventilate the ovens below.

To clarify, the microwave I have can be used freestanding or builtin. If built-in it has brackets that attach to it to create space between cupboards above and below, and plastic facia that frames the microwave and extends up and down to create air-vents that cover the gaps. I think it would be difficult to replace as no-one makes a similar microwave now. Perhaps I could get a generic built-in one and build custom brackets and covers to simulate what I have now.

On a similar theme to wooden work tops don't have wooden flooring. The developers put it in here and one leak from the washing machine ruined it. We now have tiles which are practically bomb proof - though they kill anything you drop on it.

I agree with not getting pale coloured floors. We had beautiful large pale grey tiles, they were a nightmare for showing dirt. I also found wooden work tops a pain in the arse to maintain.

When we redid our kitchen we made sure we got as much cupboard space as we could by getting extra tall wall units (ikea)- we've got 2 more shelves and can no longer store unsightly shit in top of the units. Double win.

I would also definitely get and induction job for cleaning reasons alone.

I agree with no worktop seams near sinks or dishwasher.

I love love love our pull out bin and recycling tub.

If I could I'd have had tall wall cupboards that went to the ceiling- yes the top shelf needs a step to access it but use it for the once or twice a year things (nut cracker, Christmas dish, Turkey foil ete).

We had a problem with being unable to put the kettle or the toaster under the worksurfaces. They are a normal distance to the cupboards above but they must've been cheap cupboards because they seemed to warp very quickly and so we had to move things away. I wish that we had factored that in because we have hardly any space to put them.

Also I regret getting a corner cupboard where you open one door first and then the second door after. It always seems to be that you need things on the second door side, and when you switch the cupboards round to reverse it you suddenly need the opposite items! I prefer to do it you can open one-handed, its much much more user friendly.

Things I wish i'd thought about...

1. Checking how the doors opened on the plans. I only thought about it after they started installing it. I caught it quite early but i now have one door that opens in a really awkward manner. Ie 4 units (2 wall and 2 floor). The RHS cupboards hinges are on the RHS but the LHS wall cupboard hinge is also on the RHS and you get in a right pickle trying to make tea.
2. Undercounter fridge. It's a real pain to see on the bottom shelves. I will eventually replace with a fridge with drawers which will solve this for me.
3. Not getting out a tape measure when working out where to put the hole for the extractor vent.

Best things I did

1. Buying 2 single ovens instead of a double. My mum is 5ft 5" and she always complains she can't see what she is grilling in hers. Plus it makes cooking big dinners easy. Plus if like us your ovens are in a narrow part of the kitchen Neff hide and slide is a must!
2. White sparkle quartz - really easy to keep clean, and upstand so no grimy seal against the wall
3. One long run of counter top with space either side of the hob
4. Plain front gloss cupboards with no handles. Really easy to keep clean, and i just run my cloth along the handle grooves to clean. I always found the doors got horribly grimy around the handles in my old kitchen. Plus not having handles helps the kitchen feel wider.
5. My larder cupboard. Yes the shelves are quite high but i keep a little folded stool for when i need the rarely used items on the top shelf, it's really easy to see at a glance what ingredients I have, the Quartz counter in the middle helps keep it cool for fruit and veg along with pull out veg drawers so i don't get mouldy veg (and this frees up fridge space). Also i have sockets in the cupboard so i don't have my appliances taking up valuable counter space and gathering crumbs.
6. little 15cm pull out spice drawer next to the oven
7. pan drawers. In fact drawers in all under counter cupboards.

I spent bloody ages planning my kitchen (3 years in fact) and i'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. MY TOP TIP get a plan and write where you will put different things- pans, plates, glasses, appliances. Then imagine yourself in the kitchen using the space. This will ensure you don't have the kettle one end and the milk the other for example and that you have enough cupboard space.

AND MAKE SURE YOU APPLY THE KITCHEN TRIANGLE FORMULA!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_work_triangle

I loved designing my kitchen. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process and came away wanting to change careers tk be a kitchen designer.

My only regret is that the oven I chose is too small. I designed my kitchen and left space for a standard sized oven which I chose last. I should have done it the other way around and chose the appliances first.

DH designed kitchen for me so all good. However wish I had a little bit more storage. As it is if he helps in the kitchen at all he starts questioning me about how often I use things such as coffee makers and ice crushers. Wished I had some hidey holes. Just because I don't use an ice crusher every bleedin day doesn't mean it's not useful.

we've just moved into a house with a beautiful kitchen. however, the black gloss granite worktops are bastards and require buffing daily. and never have black tiles on the floor - they show EVERYTHING and if you drop anything they are very unforgiving...

I hated designing my kitchen. The pressure to get it right was just too much.

It's great and I got it right in the end but it took three appointments with the Ikea kitchen planning service after a failed one with Howdens where I left after 90 minutes of getting nowhere because the kitchen designer just ignored what I wanted (big wall of full height units and a huge island) and incorporated all his own useless design touches he had obviously never used a kitchen to make more than tea and toast in his entire life.

Last house we bought a returned kitchen so some choices were made for us but really worked:
-walnut-look plasticky surfaces - smooth to wipe down but hid the odd spill/dirty patch
-dark grey plastic textured splashback
-big dark sink could fit in trays and never looked dirty (oh puts teabags in sink..)
-it took me months to discover the sink tap had a hose but inside but when I did it was brilliant!

Hate current kitchen so determined to get it right when we redo using extra suggestions here. Biggest bugbears are the nasty granite-look worktop which has seams and always feels bumpy/sticky and there range-style cooker that I never use all the (electric, ugh) hobs on yet the cookers are too small for some baking trays and can barely fit two pieces of toast under grill.

Can someone tell me what the tall thin plate warming oven is actually for?? I only ever put Yorkshire puddings in it..

We have had a new kitchen fitted as part of house extension in the summer.
It's currently being refitted due to the poor job the first carpenters did.
So my best advice is get a recommended fitter, whose work you have seen. I wish we had waited for the right person.
Things I love in our kitchen:

• separate oven and built in microwave - up high so toddler safe
• wooden work tops (had them in previous house too, plenty of oil , re done each year, no problems)
• everything built in, including bin and recycling bins: worth sacrificing a cupboard for
• induction hob (safe and quick )
• wine fridge
• having a separate utility room with space for laundry and an extra freezer for batch cooking
• upstands and clear glass splash backs , instead of tiles

The best advice we got was, be reaslistic about how you live and plan around that

This is my fourth kitchenndesidned for me. By far best thing is corian for a worktop. Nothing NOTHING comes even close.

I am another one who found the wine fridge a waste of money. It only cools to 12 degrees C, often beeps complaining that it is too hot (stop beeping and do your bloody job then), you can't get bottles in very easily and there is always a puddle of water in the bottom.

Love the double normal/recycling bin in a cupboard we have.

Keep an eye on your builder installing things like fridges. Ours built the cupboard next to the fridge sort of around the fridge, so that the lead passed through a tiny hole to get to the plug. When that fridge packed up we had to cut the plug off to get it out. We couldn't plug the new fridge in to that socket because the plug couldn't go through the hole. Luckily there was another socket nearby. What a strange thing to do! But I understand it's actually normal practice . . .

Download the full manuals for any proposed appliances and read them carefully. We almost ended up with an all singing, all dancing oven that did a hundred fancy things, one of which would have been a right pain for us. As it was, the entry level model was a far better choice and much cheaper.

i had no input into the design of our current kitchen, but I can spot many, many mistakes.

I hate the laminate worktop. It is NOT easy to keep clean. No matter how much you wipe it down it always looks and feels greasy unless you actually polish it (for ages). And then as soon as anyone do much as puts anything on it at all it looks horrible and greasy again. It's the highest maintenance worktop I've ever had. And it's not very nice to look at. The join in the worktop for the peninsula is unsightly and bubbling.

It has horrible laminate upstands that match the worktop and then painted walls. The walls get absolutely filthy and are impossible to clean (unless you fancy reprinting every night). There is a stainless steel splashback behind the hob but it's not wide enough to prevent splashes getting on the walls (and never coming off). It also looks filthy all the time. No amount of polishing eliminates all smears.

The built-in fridge freezer is too small. The freezer only has one proper drawer.

I hate the peninsula (which is the only usable bit if workspace) particularly because it means that we have two corners that are a complete waste of space. The bottom bit of the U it creates contains the sink and dishwasher and there's no more room so the corner cupboards are barely functional. The one next to the dishwasher is a complete waste of space. The breakfast bar bit of the peninsula is also a waste of space and just a dumping ground for crap.

The high gloss walnut effect laminate doors are hard to keep looking clean. The white high gloss in my old house was never a problem like this is.

We hate the amtico tiles on the floor too. Mostly because they're ugly (the previous owners of this house had dreadful taste - the tiles even clash with the unit doors) but also because they feel horribly either weirdly slippy or slightly sticky underfoot at all times (even after they've just been washed).

The oven shelves have stupid sunken areas in the middle that make it hard to get food in and out.

The stainless steel sink is impossible to get looking clean no matter what you do (and I've tried everything).

There are three different sets of light switches and 4 months in it's still trial and error which bloody lights they operate. The placement of the switches appears to bear no relation to any of the lights.

Don't do this !

Any kind of open shelf is a nightmare, everything gets dusty and greasy. I also hate glass fronted cupboards as they always have to be kept tidy.

Next time I buy a range cooker it will have two ovens rather than one huge one.

Agree about up stands, wish we'd installed some as it gets really mucky where the work surface meets the wall.

I cannot stand under counter fridges, they are a major pain in the ass.

I also want to know what the perfect work surface is, as there seem to be people here quoting every option as being both the best and the worst!

I am currently re-planning my dream kitchen and wishing on the current one to fall apart. This may take some years ... (On which point, a recommendation for Wickes kitchens - great quality, proper depth cupboards.)

My dream kitchen will have:

Easily wipeable cupboards with no crevices (currently have these) - tending towards cream high gloss with built in handles, my cupboard handles always seem to look mucky despite attempts to clean, think they are actually a bit rusted maybe.

Induction hob, two ovens built in. Currently have a range cooker, and use both ovens regularly, but Lord I'd hate to imagine how filthy it is behind it as it's not built in, and cleaning 8 gas hobs is a pain in the bum. Hate it. Also use quite a lot of hob rings, but don't actually need 8, 5 or 6 would be perfect. Can't wait to have a wipeable flat hob, that actually works properly unlike the electric ones of old.

1.5 or double sink with essential extended hose tap - love this, so useful. Liking the recommendations for white sinks rather than stainless steel.

Pull out cupboard space and tall cupboard space - probably a whole wall of floor to ceiling in utility room, with built in microwave (although I'd cheerfully live without one, husband wouldn't).

As much cupboard space as is humanly possible - I cook a lot, bake a lot and have a LOT of stuff. Currently have a worksurface in utility that seems to be a breeding ground for dumped stuff, and American style fridge/freezer that breeds cake tins on top, would love not to have either of those. Think I would always have the stand-alone fridge freezer though.

That paying more for an oven does not make it better. Stupid DP.

Found a lovely oven that matched what we were going for in terms of cupboards and tiling and was a well known make with parts easily available (my mum has the same oven).

Then DP found a similar one by the same company but for £400 extra. Why? It was new on the market and self-cleaning. "Think of the time it'll save!" said DP.

The thing has never fucking worked right. First it wouldn't grill things properly - it would get up to a certain temperature and then trip the RCD. Called the repair people, they came and put in a new element and all was fine for a few weeks. Then the self-cleaning function wouldn't work. It would just get really warm and not do anything. Then that was fixed and the bloody knob came off.

I'd have got rid of it, but the oven I wanted originally is out of stock everywhere now and I can't find another that I like. Sigh.

Oh and always have more cupboards than you think you'll need. Trust me, you'll fill them.

Out granite worktop is brilliant - it's matte light multicoloured one.

Make sure not to have any sort of ridges on cupboard/drawer doors-every spec of dirt gathers there enjoy planning new kitchen-am quite envious!!

I'll tell you what I did that I would do again....

More lights than anyone thought I needed. I have 5 high powered leds in the kitchen ceiling, 2 in the utility. Under cupboard lights x 6 and plinth lights x 9. Our kitchen is not large and it is exactly the amount right of light.

I have 14 power sockets in the same kitchen. It is just the right amount.

Glass splash back all around. Cost £2k but totally worth it.

Underfloor heating. Just lush.

Boiling kettle tap. Won't pay back in terms of 'return on investment', but just brilliant.

Apollo corian worktop. Looks like granite, half the price and so far proving very durable.

Biggest plus? Moved fridge into a different area of the kitchen so that the 'triangle' was out of the high traffic area. Triangle. Previous design meant everyone was tripping over themselves.

Oh... and pyrolytic oven/induction hob. Total god send and worth every penny. The oven will pay back as I used to get in oven cleaners twice a year at £50 a pop. No need now.