High maintenance kitchens - let me learn from your mistakes

[KristinaM]

I'm a terrible housewife, I live in the country and I have three small, messy children. What do I NOT want in my new kitchen??? (apart from the kids of course )

I've already worked out that the beautiful cream glossy floor tiles are probably not for me.....

me too

Re: wood worktops - IKEA do a very attractive sealed blockwood. Easy to maintain, light in colour.

Re: easy to clean cupboards - we opted for silver painted finish, no hadles (push click). Easy to clean, very smart!

I disagree about wood. I loved my wood Butchers Block worktops - beech. If you look after them and they're properly sealed they should not stain. And the treatment I used from Ikea was dry in 3hrs. Any marks or dents were easily gently sanded away. I miss that work surface and detest the tiled one with grout (yuck) that I have now. Agree about brushed stainless steel double sink with drainer and if you can afford it spacewise a 2 1/2 sink with the little one in the middle. Plus a tap that you can pull out with an extendable hose and spray head (plumbworld.co.uk)- invaluable. Our kitchen from Ikea cost 2500 new. Far cheaper and better quality than most so the carpenter we got to fit it said. Opaque glass doors and under cabinet lighting really made it look fabulous.

We don't have any wall tiles just an upstand which is a thin piece of worktop coloured plinth that goes around the walls. As the last few kitchens we had, the tiles dated after 4-5 years. Behind the oven we have a stainless steel backpslash. Now, I'm mrs lazy but it is sooo easy to keep clean, probably wipe it once a fortnight just for the hell of it. Buy an E Cloth makes cleaning very easy. Can also recommend a black Astrocast sink. (there are other styles) That too is very easy to keep clean and everyone comments on how fab it is when they see it.

thnak you annie - I have ordered a couple of samples. still a bit concrend about all teh advice NOT to get wooden worktops as they go mouldy etc. we are very fond of red wine

furball - what do you have behind (or is it above) your upstand on your wall?

the black sink does look good - is it easy to clean? I bet it woudl look lovely with a black granite worktop ( shiny of course). once the kids have left home

our kitchen is really dark ( north facing) so we will have to go for light units ( painted) and light walls. We have very high ceilings ( 3m) though so although its a good idea to put units up to the ceiling it wont work for us.

I had thought that glass door on soem of the wall units woudl be a good idea, to make it look lighter, but lots of posters have advised aginst that

problem is...I coudl go for cream/white units, light floors and worktops but they woudl be never be clean. which woudl depress me even more than it being a bit darker

we have cream floor tiles at the moment ( inherited) and they are a NIGHTMARE. I sweep the floor at least once a day and wash it most days and it always looks terribel ( except for the 5 mins after I wash it). I am defo going for wood - either the floorboards ( if they are OK after the tiles have been chipped up and the builders have finished) or new.

we have a dark cream aga which will be staying of course

nothing behind the upstand on the wall, just paint! it is kitchen/bathroom paint though so wipeable if need be, but I've had it 8 months and haven't had to yet.

Astracast sink = doddle to keep clean, we do have a dishwasher so it doesn't get full use of washing up in.

I woudl prefer the wood floor as i have 2 children under 3 and as another poster says, they fall a lot and the tiles are SO HARD. Also when soemthing is dropped it shatters into a thousand pieces and the little shards of glass/ceramic get everywhere. But if my kids were older I would go for terrcotta effect tiles or the mottled brown/ grey that you and several other people suggested, in stone £££££££ or tiles £££!!

Also think wood floor is better for a) kids and b) breakages or hopefully lack of.
Just make sure it is tightly fitted floorboards or even better, engineered wood which has no gaps at all, is soft underfoot and easy to clean.

Dont get those worktops that aren't totally smooth, i.e. the ones that look like they have pores as you will NEVER get these 100% clean as all the dirt will collect in the little pores and they always look grubby.

Also, dont get a fitted carpet in the kitchen either. Silly to even think about getting one, i know, but i rent my mum's house (she lives in Spain) and she has had this filthy fitted carpet for years. I even gave it a good going over with an industrial cleaner once but it really traps the dirt. It's disgusting!

Also, our oak wood units with ridges/rims or whatever you want to call them absolutely attract grease, dirt etc. They are always tacky to touch, no matter what you clean them with.

RGP - we have oak units just like that ( inherited) . I thought they were all tacky because I am such a terrible housewife

i knwo thsi thread is very old...but i just popped in to let you knwo what we ended up with

oak units , some stained and laquered and some painted. plain doors.

dark brown granite and wood worktops. wood has special finish on it to make it childproof

700 deep worktops as MNers suggested

white ceramic sinks

wood floor

nothing shiny or stainless steel

matt tiles not shiny behind Aga

pan drawers

tall larder cupboard

no small fiddly drawers or cupboards

nothing Smeg

So i have taken on board most of your suggestions. As always, MN is the fount of all knowledge

KristinaM - a late addition but I agree with the other comments re Smeg - all our appliances in our last place were Smeg (not our choice) and all of them had problems, within months of installation. A case of style over substance.

I'm glad this thread has been revived. We're just about to do our kitchen and are stuck on the worktops. Everyone I know says get Corian but it's because it's what they would get - nobody I know actually has a Corian worktop. Anyone here with experience? Any bad points, apart from the price?

MY SIL is just installing a new kitchen next week and she is getting corian, so i will report back to you when its done! Aparently she is getting a integrated sink thingy ( sorry dont know what its called)

i heard its lovely and easy to clean but it was WAY out our budget

don't get white or cream units - wood is best

don't get units with any grooves in them - smooth is easier to keep clean

sinks - white stains, ceramic chips, stainless steel and granite are a pita with water marks. only thing is this doesn't leave much!!black would probably be best?

tiled or glass splashback.

black or grey groute is better than white or cream

worktops - wood rots, slate needs sealing, granite and marble smudges, limestone stains i've heard corian is meant to be good? don't get a glossy finish though. also dark colours show every bit of dust and every crumb.

no spotlights under cupboards - they show up every mark

have cupboards right up to ceiling so you don't have to clean the top

We got a white belfast sink which admittedly can be a little difficult to keep looking sparkly, but makes up for it in its sheer usefulness. It's really big and deep, so DD has been bathed in it. You know those emergency-style, covered in whatever substance baths, it was great for that. Plus, all the stuff from the oven actually fits into it, so can be soaked and cleaned thoroughly.

Apart from the sink, like the other gals, I'd go for non-shiny doors and we made the mistake of getting chrome-coloured range, dishwasher and bin, which constantly need wiped. Our wood worktops have been ok, but do need treating, every 6-12 months.

Another piece of advice a colleague gave to me, which I'm glad I took was not to spend too much on it because with kids things are likely to get wrecked and it'll probably want replacing after 5-7 years, or so. We got a relatively inexpensive kitchen, which we'll replace when she's old enough not to scrape/crayon/paint/yank, etc.

hello
anyone got any comments on stainless steel splashbacks?

We have pale cream units.
Wooden floors
European oak work surface.
Stainless steel range and splashback.

So far it seems to be holding up well. The floor doesn't show dirt in the way the old lino did.
The units don't get too grubby, though they are wiped down about once a fortnight.
The work surface is polished with a kind of beeswax spray every now and then. But I am religious about not using it for chopping or for draining. Have lots of those chopping boards in a cup[board that I use instead.
I use stainless steel wipes on the splashback and cooker.

I like the look of it, it suits the house and us.

If I could change anything, I would have a larger sink. We have a 1 and a half sink with no draining board. I very rarely wash anything up, use the dishwasher instead so isn't a massive problem. But if you do want to drain stuff, never drain it above the wooden work surface because it will get knackered.