Kitchen Ideas - help please

[CarGirl]

I'm looking for unusual / different / not often seen ideas to overcome our kitchen issues!

We don't have a huge budget so clever solutions would be great or links to websites with lots of pictures etc etc

We have a smallish kitchen with 2 doorways which effectively makes is even smaller.

We will need to have space for:
Double oven
hob (going to go for only 2 burners to save on worktop space)
frige
freezer
dishwasher
radiator/heating (have heard about under cupboard radiators/heather which sound a great solution)

We are currently suffering with complete lack of worktop and cupboard space.

Can't have anything "open" as the dust/pollution levels are really high unfortunately so shelving needs to have doors on it etc

The huge gas meter and water stopcock are in the only internal corner to make things worse and I've looked at moving them and it isn't really an option

We can have a run 5 units long with one and a bit at right angles to create L shape

Then we can have some stuff on the other wall but only 2 units wide

Any takers?

Live in hard water area - despise it, am from a soft water background

I'm getting water softener when we do the kitchen!

Hardwater here too, tastes rank. Boyfriends Mums got some sort of water purifier thing and it tastes so much better.

I really want a waste disposal unit in my next kitchen, won't have to have that rancid brown box of food waste lurking then.

Urgggggggggggggh

We use a brita filter - def tastes better after that.

Don't suppose you live around the M25 do you? You can come plan my kitchen in RL I'm fed up of it!

No, i'm in Bristol but otherwise would love to :-)

Beautiful Kitchens is quite a good magazine. It features examples of different layouts and designs of kitchens.

The local kitchen place is all smeg, bosch and german kitchens but they do free plans and quotes - will see if they can send me a computer generated thingy to show you.

Excellent, i'd love to see what they suggest.

cargirl where are you?Your kitchen looks like the kind I usually do!BTW your cat is lovely I have 2 of those they are so cute

Oooh, seen your photos. I think if you could get rid of some of the clutter by perhaps using taller cupboards to store it in (and throwing some out ), your worktop would be freed up. Is there a wall you can put a flip-down table on for when you need extra worktop space? Encourage family to use front rather than back door for coming and going or possibly, move the back door along the wall more so that you can get a couple more units on that wall?

It would drive me mad to have no prep space next to the cooker.

could you abandon your dream of a waist level oven and go for a slimline cooker like this on the same wall, but with a narrow 40cm cupboard to the left of it and a corner cupboard to the right, built to give access to the meters.

Then swap the sink and dishwasher, so dishwasher is under the window, and sink is where the DW is now, with the drainer into the corner. So plates can be piled up above the DW (or maybe have kettle here) and you have a stretch of worktop between sink and cooker to actually work on.

On the other side, build in floor to ceiling cupboards (around boiler) with clever storage, pull-outs etc so you can put absolutely everything in them , plates, cups, food packets, etc. These should have narrow or double doors so they don't block the gangway when open. The fridge and freezer can still be in the lower half of them if you want integrated and leave space for the cat's tray etc. And get a step stool (another shorty here)

On the long wall your choice of wall cupboards, shelves, hang-up storage etc. The cooker extract will need to run round the top boxed in.

Couple of interesting websites?

www.dynamicspace.com/dynamicspace/en/

www.advancedkd.co.uk/gallery

The kitchen was a state when it was photographed it is usually less cluttered than that - no slow cooker, laptop, handbag etc etc!

The back door leads to school, "town", the bike shed, the back door etc etc - we're mid terrace on a busy road so actually using the front door is not actively encouraged especially as we don't let the cats out the front.

It's a 60's timber framed house so the that wall is entire glass above sink level - no wall at all to have a proper extractor fan. Just a tiny column of brick where the combi boiler vents through and the other side of the wall is all patio doors - it's a very small house and the kitchen is actually large as a proportion - it would have been better smaller IYSWIM.

We are planning to put a "conservatory" on the back to use as a utility room so washing machine, water softener and probably less used items can go out there plus somewhere to put coats and shoes as we come in And the litter tray is going out there with a permanent cat bed!

I am very short so whilst I will be having to ceiling height cupboards I can only reach the lowest shelf Ceiling height is 2m25 max and needs replastering

The new internal double doors will go next to the combi boiler which will go in some sort of cupboard. The cat's can open the bi-fold door even when bolted shut with 10kg of magazines and a hoover propped against them

Not sure about a small oven as a family of size it's quite easy to fill our current large oven - use smaller oven as often as possible. Not sure about moving the sink - it's much nicer looking out the window despite the awful view rather than staring at the wall and I think the wall cupboards would be in dh's way (he's tall)

As you can see at the moment I have 2 bits of worktop on one side and 3 on the other - it just isn't enough even when tidy mainly because it's not together.

I'm thinking oven to the left of where it currently is and then I would be able to use the whole extra corner of worktop and we could get a corner cupboard built with those bi-fold doors which means we could actually use it. Where the radiator is at the moment I could have the fridge & freezer with an extra deep worktop so the the fruit bowl, tissue box and toaster could be at the back of that and still have front depth.......

I have 2 somali cats, rehomed them a year ago. Most adorable loving things ever - absolutely bombproof and would recommend them as a breed to anyone who wants an affectionate cat. They will cuddle up with the dc quite happily even though they weren't used to children. Will let me comb them and all the protest loudly when they've had to have a shower no attempt to scratch or bite.

Have had a very quick play on ikea planner

kitchenplanner.ikea.com/GB/UI/Pages/VPUI.htm?undefined&LoadDesign=f93f20c4e19245a9b63f307a63bfeb45&UIContext=Kitchen&IsSharedDesign=1

This means I could put the fridge where the washing machine currently is and the hob top where it is currently. More worktop together and a smaller work triangle.

We will be replacing the back door hopefully with a narrower internal one and a smaller sink - current one is huge! which will give us a little more worktop to put things that need to be washed by hand.