Did a new kitchen improve your life?

[sethstarofbethlehemsmum]

LOL, that sounds like it should be in Media Requests.

seriously, I am thinking about getting a new kitchen - old one is early 90s pine and starting to show its age. The layout also isn't quite right - there's a breakfast bar that juts out and makes it feel cluttered, which we would do away with, and the floor is a kind of tile that never looks clean even when it is.

BUT it would be a huge disruption - I have dcs of 1,4 and 5 - and the white goods (oven and microwave) work fine so it would be a pity to lose them and possibly end up with an oven that isn't as good.

should I bother? are there benefits I haven't thought of to having a new one?

thanks.

We got a new one this time last year and yes I love it, so much nicer to use, we kept our old appliances so they are not integrated.

Yes you can keep your old appliances, no point in getting new ones if the old are perfectly good and saves £££.

Having said that we are probably replacing ours

Anyway, we are me and DH, two DDs ages 3.5 and 1.5. Currently having big extension and upstairs is OK but downstairs we have one room with a temp kitchen rigged up. Has been two months like that so far. And actually it's fine. So I would say that the disruption isn't as bad as you think it will be (expect the worst is probably the way to go) and if you have a kitchen which is lovely it will make you smile when you go into it.

Go for it

Yes, but then it was housed in a room that was less than 5-ft square and there was no room for a fridge and the oven had been condemned...

If the layout isn't right, I would consider reconfiguring the current kitchen, at least in a makeshift way to be absolutely certain that the new one would work. Whether it is worth doing or not also depends how long you spend in your kitchen - while I know women who replace theirs every two years on principle (and don't deign to cook themselves), I know other people who have kitchens that look terrible (in my opinion) but which are treated as semi-industrial spaces where efficiency triumphs over aesthetics.

While you still have got a kitchen that functions, I would try filling your freezer with stuff to tide you over the time when you are without one - and buy a lot of paper plates as well.

Yes, yes, yes. We had a useless kitchen when we moved in and redesigned to exactly our requirements and are very happy with it.

If you can wait until the summer then do - we did ours then, and luckily it was dry for most of the time we were working on it, so we ate outside a lot and it was much easier.

thanks everyone.
There is no way I would NOT do it in the summer - cooking and eating outside would be far easier than doing it anywhere else in the house. There's no water downstairs other than in the kitchen, for a start. We might have to put up a cooking/dining tent in the garden and just use all the camping equipment!

Bringing this a bit back from the depths, but absolutely yes. Our old kitchen was so badly organised (slightly less than 1m2 of worksurface, three doors coming into the space which was approx 2.5x2.5m, only additional worksurface was a flip-up shelf which blocked the back door, etc etc...) and falling apart. We finally bit the bullet and had a new one, induction hob so adding to work surface, moved the back door and replaced with a window, now DH and I can actually both stand in there and chat while cooking rather than ending up elbowing each other in the ribs the whole time. I still get a real kick from how much better it is and it's been in place for nearly 8 months.

we kept our appliances (including a 20 yr old washing machine), which were the bits we liked really, and are glad we got our new kitchen. Our old one was like yours, not totally useless, but just showing its age and not how we would have it.

Also new things that are great that I don't think were really around as much 20 yrs ago are e.g. really big pan drawers, double length drawers to fit all cutlery and utensils.

So it's more practical, easier to use, and just looks and feels nice. I love cooking so spend a lot of time in there, so it was great (although admittedly not entirely necessary) to have a new one.

D

I dont think anyone has ever said 'I wish I hadnt updated my kitchen'

Its a nightmarish time while its done, but sooo worth it

def worth it
we did it 5 yrs ago
can't believe we waited so long and wished we'd done it sooner

Oh how I love my kitchen! It was so crap before, badly planned and really ugly, and now there's tons of storage space, worktop space and I'm so bloody lucky that I don't even care if the rest of you think I'm Mrs Smuggington who can smug off back to Smugland!
Get help with the designing, though - it'll save you a massive headache.

We had the whole house done last year and it was hideous, a nightmare. I would never, ever do it again. Was it worth it? Dunno. Some people cope really well with it, I found out that I don't. We never intend to move and it is exactly as we want it, its a big kitchen/dining/living space now which is brilliant for parties, entertaining etc, never have to wash up when people are round, they always offer as its all on display.

Top tips would be to have as much workspace as you can muster, if poss have a hob that faces out to other people so you can cook and talk at the same time and have good lighting directly above your food prep area.

Good luck.

Has it improved my life? A thousand times yes! Our old kitchen was older than me,was made up of two different types of unit [think fake teak peeling worktop and gold swirly formica] and a 20 year old cooker with rusty rings,only 3 of which worked.It was small badly planned with no heating.I waited 5 years to get my new kitchen and love it.It isn't any bigger,but very well organised and 4 of us can fit in there easily now.It is my favourite room.