The Ideal Mumsnet Kitchen - what's in it?

[RubyBlueberry]

Mine is in need of an massively urgent update after just moving in. It's circa 1979 (with original appliances and handbooks and is a gorgeous shade of olive green!)

So what would you have in your kitchen?

Off to my crummy (and crumby) old cheapo kitchen now where at least dh is mekkin us tea.

Blimmin' eck, I didn't see the price. My lovely Rangemaster cost a bargainous £899.

Whats the advantage of having a rangemaster / aga type thing opposed to a built in oven and seperate hob?

None except that they look lovely.

Ooh ooh I have everhot too! Mine is red (burgandy). Tis lush.

You must be very rich, merrylegs

God, I am. Absolutely minted, me

Can't you run your central heating off an aga-type range as well as it being a cooker? I thought about a range (we were putting a kitchen into a totally empty room - and I mean totally, walls floor and ceiling all had to be put in first) but when I read up on them you kind of have to learn a different way of cooking because all the ovens in it are at different, less controlable temperatures? Which is why I decided against them, seemed like a lot of hassle.

Most ranges are gas/electricity powered. Agas are a dfferent beast altogether as they burn solid fuel and are on all the time. I think you can get a gas version.

Leeka

The best solution I saw for corner cupboards was in Magnet years ago, we copied it for our scratch built kitchen in previous house.

Start with a 90x90cm corner cupboard (Not drawerline, full height). The door is two doors hinged together with piano hinge and wide opening hinges to the cupboard carcase.

Inside are two straight (not L shaped) shelves set at 1/3 and 2/3 height, but one against each back wall and about 45cm deep.

This gives you two big shelves plus the base accessible and a mix of heights. Also every last inch of the cupboard is used no dead corners.

Sorry do not have a digital photo but it was truly brilliant.

A bit like the one here but with straight shelves set at right angles to each other.

Oooh drawers, not cupboards.
Drawery dishwasher too.

One of those pop-up cookers.

A robocoupe.

Induction hobs.

Wine cellar.

We did our kitchen (not small - 15ft x 15ft) in Ikea cupboards and worktop then splashed the budget on all SMEG appliances including my beloved red retro fridge. Loads of design magazines recommend you do a kitchen on a budget this way, you can also save on the cupboards but spend on the worktops. The cupboards cost about £800 and the solid wood worktops another £800. Another benefit of Ikea is the huge range of sizes of cupboard, we compared to ranges at other places (even John Lewis at 10x the price) and there were far less solutions for filling the space cleverly(eg: tall wall cupboards - essential in a room with high ceilings).

In terms of maintaining wooden worktops, a light sand and oil when you can be bothered every few months takes about an hour and makes the place look brand new.

My favourite features (apart from the fridge) are the island unit facing the TV on the wall for boredom-free food prep and the floor to ceiling cupboards which hide a miriad of cr*p including the Dyson and ironing board.

Oh, one "downside" of Ikea carcasses is they don't have a set back back if you need to have pipes run behind or suchlike. Any half-decent builder can easily deal with this by modifying the cupboard a bit where necessary.

I absolutely adore and worship my Aga. I can't imagine life without it, it really is part of the family and gives the kitchen such a wonderful warm welcoming feel. I wouldn't care if the rest of the kitchen was made from cardboard boxes so long as I had my Aga. And this is from someone who hates cooking. Seriously easy to cook with, no faffing about with cooking temperatures and timings, one oven is very hot, the other is quite hot. Great for quickly drying teddy bears too.

can someone please explain to me what a kosher dishwasher is please? excuse my complete ignorance.

like your thinking more pudding. am currently persuading husband that cardboard kitchen actually wouldnt be soooo bad...

oooohhh... I dream about my perfect kitchen all the time. It would be very big, with all the kitchen stuff at one end (acres of solid wood worktop - I've had one for years and I'm not scared! - lots of shelves and pictures, ceramic sink, massive fridge and double oven, island with drawers - swoon), plus a round wooden dining table, and at the other end, more open shelves with recipe books and one's collection of fancy crockery, and a cosy sofa where people could chill with their drink while you cook.

My fantasy kitchen is a huge room like in the ads on telly with lots of surfaces and storage, an Aga/Raeburn style stove and a huge stash of Le Creuset cookware.......

And someone to tidy up after me when I'm cooking!

Have ikea catalogue at the ready ...... looks good!

We just got our kitchen done and it wasn't anywhere near as expensive as some people have said - in total the units etc cost about £1100 and we installed it all ourselves. We didn't get new appliances. We had someone in to do the tiling and that cost about £300ish including the tiles. So the whole thing came in at under £1500 and it looks fab!

Just to add that was from Ikea.

Yes we had a larger kitchen (about 10ftx12ft) from Ikea and installed by their fitters, and it was only about 6K in all. And it has lasted well too. Solid wood doors and worktops so nothing can peel off or get worn through. I'm really glad we used them, especially as we were going to have much more expensive moben until they started messing us about.

My dream kitchen always includes a wine cooler - until I stayed at a Center Parcs lodge with one and was sorely disappointed. Am off to locate ikea catalogue now.

Emnotpgyet, we spent around £1,800 on the units (lots of them), worktops, sink, taps etc from Ikea, and another £1,200 on fitting and electrics. The rest of the £5k went on the fridge, range, hood, plastering, tiling, flooring, lighting and decorating.
Not bad for a pretty big kitchen.