Your Kitchen! What works what doesn't?

[Nuttybear]

I'm planning a new kitchen. It will be the only kitchen I will plan as I'm hoping it will last me a life time. What works in your kitchen? What makes morden life simpler?[hgrin] What really was a fab idea in the show room but a big mistake now?[hsad]
I will start the ball rolling My Liebherr Stainless steel very tall fridge/freezer is great. Not so great the Ikea round bowl sink can't get baking trays into it to wash. Which means I splash water all over the counter. Taps out side the sink area menas that water drips onto the wooden work surface which is rotten now. Wooden worktop. Who has the time to oil it? That's rotten by the sink area now. it does work very well by the cooker and I suspect marks can be sanded out if not rotten.
Please help me plan?

We are currently renting, this house has a large kitchen, on positives

• island with gas hob, when we move back home will be installing one as kids enjoy cooking more
• has great corner unit with pull out shelves.
• laminate worktops are ok and easy to keep clean, black granite on island lovely to look at but a bugger to keep smear free.

Negatives

• hate the stainless steel sink, much prefer ceramic/enamel
• integrated fridge/freezer just not big enough, we have free standing one too.
• dont particularly like using gas hob currently but guess that is a very personal thing, as not used too.

In our permanent home we have John Lewis of Hungerford units, can highly recommend, now 10 yrs old and still look good.

Get a range cooker

I inherited mine with the house but I adore it

Also loathe wooden worktop

Butler is is lovely but too easy to smash things in it

OOh i can do this! My best tips are a dishwasher sited so that you open and unload straight into the drawers, and an island with a recessed top so that stools can sit under 2 sides of it - i think this is more common now but was a revelation to me when our designer came up with it. Also if you go for granite i like the honed as easier to keep clean (well, looking clean)

really wanted your fridge but compromised and went for DH's favourite US style fridge - the freezer is narrow and so not as useful, but we live minutes from shops so freezer not essential for us.

I like those pull out larder cupboards but there wasn't an obvious place for those here.

I like my little oven that is also a grill and a microwave - apart from Sunday roast most meals can be cooked in it and very cheap to run.

Finally we ran out of money and ended up with cheaper appliances - wish we had budgeted for better quality - in 6 years have replaced both the dishwasher and the little combi oven (AEG)

Good luck!

That should read butler sink

We decided on a granite sink - very practical and they come in different colours (ours is black) - as I don't like the smell of stainless steel ones (weird, I know!) and hate them if they're not shiny all the time.

Laminate (formica?) worktops, also easy to clean.

We've got 3 full height cupboards which are great at hiding clutter.

We chose an induction hob which cooks very quickly and is wonderful to clean as it's just a sheet of glass.

It's easy to tell I didn't want to spend a lot of time cleaning my kitchen!

Didn't have enough sockets put in though, I just thought about the appliances we have and didn't foresee that I might want a breadmaker or slow cooker in the future. [hsad]

Cheers! lots of things to think about.
fitflopqueen Would love granite or Coran but I don't think our budget would cope.
Well look at John Lewis of Hungerford i thought they would be expensive.

Sink - That is a dilemma. Would like a coran all in one but out of our budget. DH would like a butler but would have the same problem as now taps outside the sink space &
ruby I'm very accident prone [hblush] I think a ceramic one would be good. Do they stain?
sinclair Would LOVE the pull out larder. Hope we can fit in a narrow one for oil, spices & cooking bits. What is honed granite? [hsmile] Is the mircooven grill easy to clean?
horMOANS I think formica would be fine but DH is dead set against it. I don't know what to get within out budget. maybe if they change the name he would be none the wiser.
It will be gas for me but DH had an induction hob before and it was easy to clean. maybe should go back to it! I know what you mean that smell when you clean it. I don't really clean mine to a shine becuase I hate it.
Don't worry about the breadmaker you can have ours if you want. I have made only 6 loaves in it in 6 years! I think I do want a Magimixer so I will take your advice.

Love the response so far.
What have you done with the washer and dryer? We might get a utility room not sure yet waiting for planners to say yes.

lurking as also about to do kitchen...

I second John Lewis of Hungerford. They weren't as pricey as others we looked at and they are holding up well.

Our kitchen had wooden work tops when we bought it. Nightmare - black and rotting around sink and seemed to need constant sanding down and oiling. We had dark granite in our previous house which was difficult to keep looking nice because we live in a hard water area, so smeary AND lime deposits! We opted for a composite stone from John Lewis of Hungerford and it has been much better than either the granite or wood.

If I could change anything about our kitchen (apart from the size!), I would have drawers rather than base cupboards - much easier to access things.

Can't believe no one mentioned pan drawers, you will never be on hands and knees rummaging in the back of a cupboard ever again. I would do drawers in all the lower units.
Also another vote for pull out larder. They are fab.

Sputnik Yes we are planning on pull-out drawers as my DH and Mum don't bend! So if they can pull it out they might put things away in the right place!
WoodRose What was the brand name of the composite stone? Was it very pricey?

Washer, dryer and another small freezer are in a little corridor utility room off kitchen.

I love our kitchen. It's only little niggly things that annoy me.

Negatives
Our plates don't fit in enough of our cupboards because of their diameter.compared to the depth of the cupboard.
The small halogen spotlights are very pretty, but we have lived in a new house 13 months and they have all blown.
The electric hob. Gas is so much better to cook with, but our village has no mains gas.
The cupboards are quite high. It's nice for storage space but I can't reach the top shelf without something to stand on.

Positives
The defrost space above the built in fridge freezer.
The quickstep laminate flooring.
The bit in the sink between the main sink and the draining board where you can drain things and keep cloths.
The space with table and fish tank.
Lots of electrical sockets.

Units that reach down to the ground & up to the ceiling - otherwise you get crumbs & yuck under them & a layer of sticky grease (if you do any frying at all even with an extracter fan) on the top & looks messy.

Under cabinet lighting. No to wooden worktop - looks lovely but needs oiling all the time & isn't heat proof which is annoying whilst dishing up - often end up doing this on our fab range cooker & making a mess of the top.

Pan rack - easy to find stuff & leaves cupboard space free.

big drawers, big cupboards. fit as few and as big as you can rather than many and small, if that makes sense.

Good things:
Pan drawers - so easy to get to everything. Ours have lots of dividers so we use one drawer for all those fiddly little bowls/graters/jugs that otherwise get lost in cupboards.
Granite worktops - look on the internet; lots of places supply and fit very cheaply. We got an amazing bargain. They are bombproof and gorgeous - also have matching splashbacks and upstand.
Induction hob - Just a sheet of glass, never have to clean off burnt-on food, super-speedy cooking.
Double oven - One for grilling or warming while the other is cooking.
1.5 bowl sink - really handy.
Loads of sockets!

i asked simlar questions on mumsnet befroe i gt our new kitchen ( photos on my page). i now have

fewer but larger cupboards

large larder cupboard for food

pan drawers near cooker

granite worktops ( mottled, not shiny black)

quooker boiling water top ( ££££ but my only gadget)

small prep sink on island where i chop fruit and veg

overhanging worktop on island and stools underneath

wooden floor - looks wonderful, easy to clean and on the feet

two dishwashers and cupboards and plate racks above

lighting under and above wall cupboards - low energy, cool ( temperature) and cheap as chips from ikea

i also have a wooden worktop on the island and have no problems so far, although its only been in 3 years

We have a tiled floor which has been a pain - everything breaks if dropped and bits get caught in the grouting.

Wish that we had got units that had more of a glossy surface and easier to wipe clean.

At least one floor to ceiling cupboard is very useful, especially for bigger, awkward things.

A double oven, electric, with gas hob. Under cupboard lighting, no "up" cupboards near window and door because of light.

What I'm changing in new kitchen:

a worktop that is too high, am getting the legs shortened, and cupboards that are too high

carousels that take up so much room in the corner cupboard I can't get half the pans in

integrated extractor which is hell to clean, for a cheap stainless steel chimney instead

not having cornices because they are a pain to clean over the top of

silly narrow drawer cupboard

silly decorative end of cupboard shelves

putting in wine racks

What I wish I was changing:

Single undersink cupboard: should be a double but too late now

one and a half sink: should be a double but too late now

oh and what I'm keeping the same

cheapest but decent quality white formica worktop, looks utterly neutral and is cheap and easy to replace

polished black granite is a mare
you have to buff it all the time

Some great tip and ideas. I'm going to print them out later.
jennifersofia Agree with the tiled floor. I bit of me hopes that we run out of money so I can put lino down[hblush] Don't tell DH he loves tiles. But to be fair. I have been less clumsy with a tiled floor.*
KristinaM Going to look at your page now.
ALL Thank you I will read this later in detail.

KristinaM Wow Love your kitchen. I won't have that much space. No island for me. I see you've done the sensable thing and do not have wood around the sink. A good tip for everyone. Wood does look good in other parts of the Kitchen. Love the plate rack
Must fly now otherwise I will suffer a divorce and no new kitchen [hsmile]

How do you all keep butler sinks clean? I just cannot find any decent product that works - it just looks grubby all the time apart from immediately after bleaching it.

kristinaM - what a lovely kitchen, I am .

I agree with Pan draws the best thing we bought and also a plug socket in the Island has been great for laptops and breast pumps !

Kristina your kitchen is really lovely...

We have a horrible naff kitchen which we will replace soon I hope. The thing which works the least well is the lack of worktop around the hob, sometimes I have to put baking trays down on the floor as there is nowhere else to set them down. Do try and leave a decent amount of worktop either side of the hob, especially if you like cooking big meals/roasts etc.

And yes put the dishwasher near the plate/cup storage.
Not sure I understand having 2 dishwashers, can anyone enlighten me how that works?