new kitchen choices...more work top or a long cupboard?

[gobblygook]

We're designing our new kitchen - everything will run along one wall - about 5m. Cupboards top (long ones) and bottom and currently, the fridge/freezer combo is the only floor to ceiling cupboard.

I'm tempted to have another floor to ceiling cupboard - if only a narrow pull out larder - but the compromise is less work surface.

What would you go for?

5m of long straight worktop os more than enough. I'd go for a few tall cupboards. Where will you put the ironong board?

Whatever work surface you have, it will never be enough and will be filled by toasters, kettles, breadboard and associated crumbs. We went for a small, but tall larder unit, that houses most things-pasta, rice, tins, and even vegetables. It is the best bit of the kitchen and we have it next to the fridge-freezer- also full length.

Piglet - the 5m takes into consideration one long fridge/freezer, regular hob and draining board - still enough?

Oh and we don't iron - I dont even know where our ironing board is!

like grey says, if you have more, you will just fill it up. I reckon one metre of clear worktop with nothing on it, is all you will actually use for food preparation. However much else you have will just fill with clutter essential appliances and objets d'art.

The new kitchen I recently got, has some of those big pan drawers. By taking out some crap, we have found that one of them will hold all the pans, and one will hold the fancy coffee maker, toaster, chef, blender thing, ice-cream maker, steamer, slow cooker, George Formby grill - whatever is not in constant use. I wish now I'd got more of them. Stuff does not disappear to the back like it does in cupboards.

The microwave is better on an eye-level shelf or bracket, than on the worktop. If you like cookery books, allow a shelf for them, and put the instruction manuals and guarantees for kitchen appliances there as well.

another tall cupboard would look better than just having one tall unit by itself

what sort of oven are you having as these work well at eye level and you can stack a microwave on the top

Good feedback, thanks

These currently are my options (we've got an architect mate who's been doing the drawings)

• One tall cupboard housing fridge freezer, otherwise a combo of drawers, and cupboards above and below
• Two tall cupboards, one alongside fridge/freezer - but narrow and just a pull out larder thing
• Two tall cupboards, one alongside fridge/freezer but regular width - it could house the oven at eye level, deep pan drawers below - and poss microwave above?

I don't have many gadgets at all - none of the ones Piglet lists - so not that worried about space for stuff. Just space for food prep and just to have a nice clean line.

I do use a microwave but didn't want to build the kitchen around it, or lose work top space because of it, so I thought I'd bin it when we move (I've only had it for 2 months, never had one before). But maybe that's silly

Oh the dilemmas! Thing is, need to decide by Tue

you can (probably) fit the microwave in a tall unit

Remember that wall cabinets can go right up to the ceiling. They might as well, otherwise the top wil just be filthy wasted space, and doors will look neater. You can put the stuff you rarely use up top. Some brands of kitchen cabs do a 900mm tall wall unit, some are about 700, some are only 600, and you can get a "top box" at about 300, such as you might fit over an extractor hood. It will depend what your ceiling height is, whether you fit in one tall wall cab, or two small ones on top of each other.

BTW don't forget to get an extractor hood, it will take the steam and cooking smells away. A recycling hood, that does not extract, is almost entirely useless, except as an ornament. If necessary you can run the ducting on top of your wall cabs, or inside them, but extracting straight through the wall is simpler and more efficient. A 110mm core drill can be hired and will easily cut a neat round hole in the wall.

why not go to one of the chains that do a free planning service (homebase/b&q) pretend that you are interested in buying from them and they can do you a computer design with pics so you can get a sense of what each option will look like :)

what about a combi microwave/oven thing? I just had a new kitchen (yesterday!) and we have two tall oven housings with an oven in each so they sit side by side. One is a regular oven and the other is a combi microwave with a warming drawer underneath. We also have a pull out larder (a tandem one, which was £450 extra but is amazing).

Wickes do good kitchen design services with good drawings. We didn't use them though!

We ended up getting under counter "cupboards" that have pull out drawers - so similar to a larder unit - love them. Fri ends have all said that their pull out full height larders have been very heavy and bowed etc.

We have microwave in tall unit about oven - oven is lower than usual but I am a very short arse so had to for safety reasons!

Agree that pull out larders tend to bow - look at tandem ones instead - they have one inside the door and one on the back of the cupboard that slides forward as you open the door so the weight is distributed differently.

Amazing bloody things they are.