To ask what one thing you’ve done to a new kitchen that you can’t live without

[LaPampa]

Finally planning our first kitchen and looking for ideas from people who’ve done it before - What’s the best thing you put in or chose in your kitchen? (Or indeed, the worst)

pull out larder, had old fahsioned "larder" cupboard in my last house lovelly to have but couldnt reach the back stuff went years out of date.

I once lived in a rental house with two large shallow drawers about 3 inches deep. They were fantastic fir spices, could lay all 50 jars on their backs in them and find what I wanted really quickly.

That kitchen also had a Belfast sink, an induction hob, a spray tap and a tall larder cupboard. All of which also went on mental list for future own kitchen

Huge cupboards rather than little units! I have one huge cupboard for cleaning products, one for pans and cooking dishes, one for dry goods, one for china/glass, one for silver... it’s a revelation to have everything in one place and easy to see!

Oh, and no hanging wall cupboards, which I think look awful and also make worksurfaces impractical.

I have hanging wall cupboards on one wall with lighting underneath and either my worksurface is wide or the cupboards are not huge, but I use all my workspace underneath all the time... they seem 'set back' if that makes sense. Also they are frosted glass and lit inside, so aren't obtrusive.

I'm obsessed with glasses (wine glasses, gin and tonic glasses, beer glasses, any glasses, and have got to put them somewhere... )

After much deliberation I have to say it’s my two separate ovens I couldn’t live without.

I also couldn’t live without my dishwasher.

Mine are a plumbed in massive fridge with ice and water and a pull out tap (I bought the Franke wave)

Fridge drawers best thing ever! Life changing !

Those who are planning on getting rid of their dishwasher DON"T! I would never buy a house without a dishwasher, or space for me to put mine in. I used to have a tiny kitchen but still fitted in a slimline dishwasher and a washing machine.

I moved 7 times in 14 years and have now concluded that my kitchen NEEDS a comfy chair and a cat. No substitute or make-do alternative for those two things.

@Ginmakesitallok

Reading replies a bit worriedly. We've just finished designing our new kitchen. Decided against larder cupboard, and getting rid of fridge freezer and replacing with under counter fridge and freezer. Getting rid of dishwasher. Decided against boiling water tap and a spray tap... Only things we needed were more counter space, a double oven and a beautiful under counter sink.

18/10/2018 19:39 Ginmakesitallok

Oh, and no bin cupboard either, waste of a cupboard.....

Is it too late to make changes? No dishwasher; no hidden bin; no boiling tap after all the wonderful reviews on this thread... I’d be reconsidering my design!

Not too late to make changes, but I think we'll be be ok with what we're getting. We have a big cupboard we can put bins in, boiling tap not a great idea with our kids, and dp said he'll do the washing up...

Getting rid of a dishwasher might be the most bat shit thing I've ever read on here

@Ginmakesitallok

Is the kitchen very small?

Not particularly. But we don't mind doing dishes by hand. We're designing a kitchen for us, not for someone who might or might not buy our house in the future. If someone wanted one down the line it would be easy to fit one.

That was from me.

@neopilitanicecream what is a fridge drawer? Is it like a freezer pull out drawer?

We’ve just finished ours. Lots of things that others have mentioned- spray tap, insinkerator, pan drawers. Dishwasher of course but I would never in a million years have considered not having one of those. However one of my favourite things is a cupboard with vertical dividers that makes it much easier to store and retrieve chopping boards, trays, baking trays etc. I designed it myself and our carpenter built it.

We also have beautiful patterned envmcaustic tiles on the floor.

We're designing a kitchen for us, not for someone who might or might not buy our house in the future.
That's my line of thinking to with getting rid of the dishwasher, basically never use the current one and would much rather have it as a cupboard space instead!

@cococachara that’s what I am planning to do is rip out dishwasher and replace with a cupboard which will be more useful.

There will still be space for dishwasher if someone wanted to put one in the future.

Not feeling so alone now! We're getting rid of some wall units, so will appreciate the cupboard space more.

@Ginmakesitallok what made you choose under counter fridge and freezer? We have these in our Kitchen and they are TINY (Especially the fridge)

Just because it'll look better. We have a separate fridge freezer in the garage too

Lots and lots of Kilner jars for absolutely everything. And induction hobs as the Aga takes a while to heat up. And a TV!

The boiling water tap is the best thing we have in our kitchen.

Pleased with the quartz worktop - much tougher than the Corian we had last time.

Induction hob is great and I didn’t realise it at the time we put it in but a really useful place to put hot dishes too. Straight out of the oven and onto there. It’s an extra bit of work surface.

I would NEVER be without a dishwasher. Insanity.

Pull out bins are good too.