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?

yes pan drawers in fact as much as poss in drawers really - to answer your question the honed granite is not shiny and polished so doesn't take as much upkeep - a quick wipe over with a damp microfibre cloth daily is all i do and a proper clean once a week. if you can stretch to it it is fab as can put hot pans on it, only downside is quite a few glasses smashed getting in and out of the dishwasher. Second comment about worktop space too - i used to have an oven at eye level but had to lose that for more worktop space - worked for me as i do a lot of baking and often use all the surfaces but you may prefer the ease of the eye level oven.

Ragwort - try Astonish, it comes in a tub, Lakeland and John Lewis stock it, also can get in our local 99p store. Its great, wont scratch, I use on the sink and also on stanley cooker which is enamel.

OOOOOhhh, yes. Got to be the island with the recess for the stools to sit under. most meals for kids taken here, an excellent for chatting to them whilst they are drawing/ building lego etc as i am preparing food.
Get as many cupboards as you possibly can. people always comment on how great my khouse looks andit is purely cos I have soo much storage i have a cupboard for everything.
Do Not Have black granite. Nightmare. go for neutral, not so easily outdated.

thank you for your kind comments about the kitchen. i have mumsnetters to thank for many of the good ideas

we got granite from Diapol who were excellent and a LOT cheaper than elsewhere, about £1800 IIRC

units were £5K from Handmade Kitchen Direct

i forgot to mention last night that i got base units and worktops 10cm deeper than standard. This means I can have storage jars, bread bin, toaster etc on worktop and still have room for chopping board

and i can have full depth wall units over the sink

and because we had high ceilings i got wall units extra tall. I need a stool to reach the top shelf so useful for things used only occasionally

sorry forgot about dishwashers - having two means we never have dirty dishes sitting on the worktop waiting for the children staff to empty one. its only about £200 extra, as you are buying one unit less plus a door if its intergrated

there are 5 or 6 of us and we eat most meals at home. maybe less useful if you don't cook a lot or eat at school / work or have a smaller family or are more disciplined

Kristina I remember you from a previous thread, I thought I had seen your kitchen pics before. I think your kitchen is much featured on the Handmade Kitchen website!
I was gutted to find out that they won't venture as far as Norfolk to do a site visit for us... We have a complicated layout which needs a bit of thought so we really need someone to come to us before ordering a new kitchen.

Will look into getting two dishwashers, we do lots of cooking (there are 4 of us) so it might be worth having if we can fit two in.

pull out larder cupboards
fridge with water/ice
pan draw
stay away from 300 wide tall cupboards
i would have a double sink,only single and water on granite drives me crackers.
soft close
3 level lighting,floor,worktops,ceiling,all on seperate controls

oh yes, forgot about soft close

OK

Those cupboard doors that have a fake "frame" around the door. Only any good with full height/wide doors. Otherwise you will have a lot of units where you can't fit a normal sized pan/cereal packet through the door the size of a catflap. If you must have a framed look have it properly hand built.

Choose corner units carefully for accessibility (see also above for ones with a small door) IMO L shaped are the best. Pull out units/deep drawers also good as long as the sides of the drawers are as deep as the front.

Run a mile from Asterite/Granite/Fragranite etc sinks - stain magnets

Plan layout for ergonomics (dynamic space).

I would love to have wooden worktops and would like to believe Osmo Topoil would solve the water problems but few people seem to have used/reviewed it.

Oh another thing, the new Ikea kitchen planner (online now)

here

what works:

solid wood doors, you can scrub them, damp them , and they still come out nice.

B& Q units - very good - and excellent value

tough laminate worktop - £100 from B&Q - still looks new 2 years on. perhaps not as lovely as wood, but more resilient and if it did get damaged i wouldn't cry over the replacement cost.
touch-control hob. yes yes yes.
simple fan oven, no faf with aga.

what didn't

White lino. never again.
white composite sink - you get reddish mould which makes it look dirty all the time.
non standard fridge/freezer (you know, a 110cm wide one) - it's broken and replacing it will mean purchasing two units, buying appliance doors, and replacing the worktop as we will have to do a different size.

oh, and we didn't do a tile splashback - will do now. back behind sink is mouldy.

We planned our new kitchen last year, I adore it. We thought very hard about it for 4 years, so if any of it were wrong, we'd be foooools! Really think about how you will use it, its not for selling on, its for you.

Here's what works for us:
Big island, lots of workspace.
Silestone top - easy clean.
Double oven, can cook two different temperatures at same time.
Massive fridge, smaller freezer.
One and half bowl square sink, brilliant if one full of hot clean washing up water and you want to drain veg in the other.
Large dining table with plenty of chairs near island, so no need for stools on island ( hate stools ).
Island the right height for me. ( shortarse )
Sockets on island.
Spots directly above where you will be doing food prep

i have found my old thread for you, op

here

hifi Water in general drives me crakers. So it looks like no granite for me! I'm planning on a pendulum light over sink and maybe lights under shelf. We are going to have a walk-in larder as it will be space will stolen from another room.

greenlotu love playing with virtual kitchens I'll see if I've got time this week, in the evenings.
EvilAllenPoe Your kitchen seems very pratical. Probably will stick with gloss cupboards as it is very,very easy to clean
[emm] or maybe not. We have looked at shaker style but any bit of frame will catch dirt.[emm] still not sure!
We are deffo going to have a splash back as I splash water everywhere! Why would you suggest tiles? What do have there now?
Yep! Double oven one fan. Don't have the room for an aga or a range. Look silly in a little house. No room for really island.
taffetawitchescat What is Silestone top. I'm going to look it up.
KristinaM We live in a two up two down cottage. So I'll just have to dream about your kitchen. With floor to ceil cupboards I can still reach the top without a step
Right

Ops! Crackers Oh! the teachers amoung you can correct my spelling as I've got to go!

Silestone is crushed up Quartz with the bits taken out ( I don't like bits ), its very hard wearing and easy to clean, also cool so good for pastry etc. I have a pure white thin top and I love it.

OOOOO! That looks good! Have to see if it's within our budget. Must do some house work now! See ya Later

#Forgot to add Sheila Maid dryer - so handy for wet days

Thank you for that. If the planners give us the okay, the Sheila maid will be top of my shopping list

Hi Nuttybear. The composite stone was supplied by John Lewis of Hungerford as well. I can't remember what it was called but they will be able to tell you. I can't remember how much it cost, but I do remember it was cheaper than the granite worktop we had in our old house. Good luck with the kitchen!

Woodrose thank you

Hifi, Why are 300 larder units a bad idea? I'm planning to have 2 of these either side of my fridge freezer . Still have time to change though....

Better to have a 600 wide one with double doors and pull-out shelves/innerdrawers inside IMO. 300mm cupboards are only sold so kitchen companies can get away without custom building units to actually fit the room.

The basket of the pullout unit will only be 250mm wide, that's ten inches, so you are limited to putting small things in it, the 600 unit would have a 550mm wide unobstructed basket. I would find all those diddly shelves a PITA but each to their own.

i have 3 in total and they are about197cm long,they only came with 3 shelves so have huge gaps in between,only good for cereal boxes in my opinion.have tins in one but have to pull the wholelot out to see whats at the back.
woulodnt have had them if id known.