AIBU to ask you what will drive me crackers about new kitchen design in six months?

[Waffles80]

Crystal balls / hindsight / voice of experience / wild speculation.

We are having the kitchen done in the house we’ve just moved in to. We’re knocking the existing dining room and kitchen into one space, and putting the dining room where the kitchen is and vice versa.

We’ve mulled over the plans approx eleventy bazillion times. I think the plans work now. But....what am I missing that will do my head in at a later date? What’s in a stupid position?

Can’t really add more units without encroaching on dining space, but could change what’s going IN each unit.

Any thoughts? Images attached!

@Hotterthanahotthing they do - we’ve tried all sorts of plans with the downstairs loo but there’s just not space at all to create a utility room. There’s a bin cupboard under the draining board. It has two decent spaces and the bins themselves have handles on to lift them out.

Induction,
Induction
Induction!
How exciting!!

@LadyGAgain this is the part I am most excited about. Never again will I scrub off encrusted spilled bolognese from ridiculously heavy, cumbersome and weirdly angled cast iron hob toppers (what are they even called? They’re the work of the devil).

I actually squealed when the kitchen company told me that Neff give you a set of free induction pans when you buy an induction hob.

Induction is AWFUL to cook on. AWFUL.

@DingDongDenny I agree - we had originally used that back wall but it created a very weird thing with the corner of the room where the worktop went up to the cupboard - it looked terrible. And because we can’t move the entrance to the kitchen (see attached), having a tall cupboard on that wall didn’t really bring much more space AND created a corridor feel to the entrance of the room.

Excuse the terrible hallway carpet we inherited with the house, and the unpainted plaster. Decorator in after the kitchen is fitted and then flooring is going down!

We were limited with rejigging the hallway and downstairs loo because the walls are curved.

The current dining room - pictured right now in the middle of packing it all up - is here so you can see the space.

I quite like the l shaped plan. You could have that and then floor to ceiling narrow cupboards on the opposite wall for all storage.

@Tallgreenbottle I really disagree! I’ve cooked on quite a few and you can really easily manage the temp now to get things the way you want them - simmering, fast boil, in between. Takes a bit of getting used to!

We have a similar kitchen and only have drawers- no cupboards. So much easier to get to everything. Some are shallow for cups etc, others deep for pots and plates. Our pantry looks like a cupboard, but once you,open the door, there are pull out shelves/ wire baskets behind it for easy access to everything. We also have plinth drawers- shallow drawers that are in all the plinth cavities. Together they add up to
Another whole bank of drawers. We keep drink bottles, lunch boxes, utensils not often used etc in them.

I find my induction hob a bastard to clean if anything spills or boils over. It also looks rubbish now it’s scratched from pans.

Not sure if you have one but I hate my pull out under sink bin and would much rather have a normal kitchen bin. The pull out mechanism is impossible to clean. I’d have two recycling bins under the sink and have a lovely bin for the kitchen.

I have limited technological ability - I don’t know how to do pictures! Ah, we don’t have a tumble drier, so that’s one piece of equipment less, and we have a slimline dishwasher. We do have a freestanding very tall narrow unit that is three cupboards wide that acts as a pantry and contains all food, with sections for cookery books, the microwave, bread maker, etc, so nothing is on show. This is our lifesaver. It takes up little space but contains so much- basically all the contents of the kitchen go in here. It’s probably holds about at least ten standard cupboards’ worth. We deliberately didn’t want the kitchen to spread out across the whole room. The bottom section has a sofa, unit with computer and acts like a mini living room. Kitchen table is on the empty wall - sometimes we have it across the room and sometimes in line with the wall- lots of space to get around it.

This was a plan where we used the back wall by the door - the work surface disappeared behind the tall units.

(This was the first kitchen company we approached and it was a horrible design - we aren’t using them).

About storage space: we worked out how many square meters we needed for our china, saucepans etc and took that into account when we redesigned our kitchen. Sit done now and think about where you will keep spices and oils so they’re convenient when you’re cooking, ditto dishwasher emptying/laying the table.

Don’t think that pic posted.

Have your cutlery drawer and fridge near where you are going to boil your kettle. I'm now fed up of walking to get a spoon and milk when I want a cuppa.

Crockery cupboard next to dishwasher and sink so again no unnecessary walking.

My kitchen isn't massive, I'm just lazy.

Gosh some wonderful ideas. I was watching a programme where people had installed pull out cupboards to use as larders, absolutely brilliant to be able to store and access things in a kitchen

Tea towel drawer next to sink.

Re: the sink - the side that you would logically out dirty plates on is the side that should be closest to your dishwasher (ideally right above the it).

Waffles80, yep Quooker is a true boiling tap, we have a Hotspot titanium which is also one.

@bonkersblond I thought so. The cost of it, it ought to strain my tea bag and rinse my cup afterwards too.

Check reviews of your combined oven/microwave carefully. We put one into our last house then bought a new house with one already installed. Neither work properly as an oven so end up being v v expensive microwaves, and when anything goes wrong (like DC putting metal in and selecting microwave function) it's v v v expensive and awkward to fix or replace.

I would never have another.

Love the units though!

I love my induction hob, it does take a bit of getting used to but I wouldn’t have any other now, we also got a set of pans with our Siemens. My kitchen requirements is that it had to be easy to keep clean, so we had Matt units, white quartz countertops, floor to ceiling cupboards and a wipe over induction, oh and the other thing we had was a waste disposal, we don’t garden so compost just ended up in a smelly mound of food, if you don’t compost then waste disposal is next best thing.

Check which way you want your fridge and freezer door to open before it’s fitted. It’s trivial but it can be so annoying if it’s fitted wrongly!

I agree with the pp who said not to bother with a bin in a cupboard. My SIL has one and it barely holds any rubbish, is awkward to clean and it takes up precious unit space. Get a decent sized brabantia bin instead.

Meant to add, our kitchen table has drawers in it right the way across. This is where we keep cutlery, table mats, etc. So, more hidden storage.

How will you extract smells from hob cooking? Kitchen designers often forget you need a) an extractor fan and b)the ducts to the outside.

Where is you fridge? Right at the far side away from the dining table in the corner? Might be a problem opening it and a faff to get the wine/ketchup etc.

Yes, yes, yes to really tall cupboards. Put rarely used appliances)BOGOF stuff at the top. Also get the kitchen fitters to fill in/box in the gap between the cupboards and the ceiling if you can...saves a dust/grease fest