The MN lessons learnt kitchen thread.

[jollydiane]

I have read loads of kitchen threads so here is my conclusions.

1. Plan for where you bin is going to go.
2. Handless kitchens look lovely but can wind you up.
3. Floor Tiles look stunning but can be a bugger to keep clean.
4. Splash-backs are very practical for cleaning and can look stunning although some of you think they look naff.

What else should I add to the list before I make my purchase?

The one area I'm really stuck on is flooring. I want something that I can use my lakeland steam mop on (another MN suggestion) which I love.

Marking place ... Ooh this looks a useful thread

Is anyone who posted here early on in 2012 still around and able to say whether anything has failed to withstand the test of time?

Yay !! Such a good thread to copy and paste good ideas from as you read !!!

Also place marking for extension next year.

Don't use bloody Smallbone - my sole piece of advice thus far!

Finished my kitchen in the past 2 months - on the whole, Happy with what I've achieved but if I was to do it all again:

• love love love my walk in pantry, wouldn't change that for anything
• hi gloss worktop, nope, that would change
• upstand instead of tiles - yep, keep that
• combined plug/USB socket, love this
• could have saved money not getting boiling water tap, barely use it
• tile effect laminate instead of floor tiles, yes, much warmer underfoot

Kitchen will be finished in a couple of weeks (temptations for work tops is being done tomorrow). Will post on the lessons learnt when we are up and running!

I found this thread invaluable when we did our kitchen last year.
Insinkerator - amazing. I'd never even thought about it, but it's wonderful.
Loads of drawers - yes yes yes. I love my drawers.
Tonnes of plug sockets - yes! Our kitchen has so many I'm embarrassed to count. We got the USB ones so we can charge stuff everywhere, too.

Is there anything I'd change? Well, if I was doing it again I might move the insinkerator button a little bit further from the sink so it doesn't get splashed. But I honestly think that's it.

• the advice to write everything that is in your kitchen on a post it and plan where it will go is invaluable. Honestly. So useful. We now have secret drawers for cling film and napkins and all sorts.

• I ADORE our boiling water tap, but I run a catering business from home, might be a bit much if it was just DH and I. Same with side by side double ovens. I give thanks for them daily, but maybe a touch unnecessary otherwise.

• pull out drawers are amazing. But if you only have big wide ones, it's quite hard to differentiate between tins, for example.

• farrow and ball eggshell is fine. The hand wringing that goes on about this paint is insane. Yes, it's is expensive, yes, you can get it colour matched, but our cupboards get scrubbed every day and there isn't a single chip or mark. I'm catering for about 50 covers daily on average, so it's getting tested well!

• we got a quartz worktop with sparkly bits in and it takes virtually zero buffing or shining or special treatment. My mum gave me some worktop wonder when we got it because she loves the effect it has on her granite, and I have used it about twice.

• teaching myself to tile so I could have super expensive fired earth tiles was worth it. Actually doing all the work ourselves was well worth it, meant we could afford some very snazzy touches.

Plenty of space to store your food (pull out shelves are nice but only if they are independent of each other. The full pull out cupboard pantries are SHIT)

Big fridge/freezer space

Use large drawers for pots, plates etc

Yes to extending cupboards to your ceiling and kick board drawers under your main cabinets are good for trays, tea towels, anything that can be kept flattish.

Yes to using tiles on the floor and have a splash back. Tiles are good for that too. Anything that's shiny will show up every little mark or splatter.

Make your cutlery and utensil drawers wide but not too wide. 45cm is good.

Double how many power plugs you think you'll need.

Under cupboard lighting is usually a waste and just makes your bench top hot. Decent ceiling lights pointed in the right directions will be fine.

A few lessons we've learned from our current kitchen (which was in the house when we bought it)

• Make sure you have decent handles, particularly on the dishwasher. We have very nice little knobs but opening the dishwasher after it's been on is a real struggle! The square edges on the knob make it quite painful too.

• Don't put the handles halfway up the doors. I'm forever cleaning grubby marks off the top/bottom corners of the doors because the handles are either too high or too low so we are too lazy to don't use them.

• Avoid corner cupboards if you can. We have 1 corner cupboard atm which is a total PITA. The design for the new kitchen has two straight runs of units with no corner cupboards.

• Wall units can be used at floor level if you want shallower units. Just stick some legs on the bottom.

• Don't get terracotta floor tiles! They look exactly the same after scrubbing them as they did before - grubby!!

• Laminate worktops are good value for the price of them, but gloss finishes will scratch and end up looking matt. Matt finishes seem to last much better.

• Wood everywhere (including the ceiling) will make the room feel smaller and much darker. We painted all of the cabinet fronts cream and duck egg blue and the ceiling white when we moved in. The kitchen looks 1000 times nicer now, even though we still have horrible terracotta floor tiles, orange-y worktop and dated stone-effect (but thankfully pale) wall tiles.

What does everybody think of curved kitchen units? Are they a bit of a fad? Trying to decide whether to use them on our new open plan kitchen island - they look lovely but don't seem that space efficient? A friend has them and said she actually can't fit much in hers (plus I could fit in a wine fridge if I opt for straight edges ;)

I've had oak workshops for 8 years with no marks but you do have to be vigilant; but I do love them. My best choices have been floor to ceiling cupboards with two double ovens, sockets everywhere especially by the gob (8 burners on island never gets grease on floor)
and two dishwasher is as good as it sounds

Or hob. I don't have sockets by my gob.

I'm desperate for underfloor heating.

I want underfloor heating too. DH us cold on the idea for some reason.

When re-designing your kitchen I would take notes of activities that I am doing in the kitchen. eg. cooking dinner, taking boiling pan to the sink. Are you walking half a mile to the sink?, do you have somewhere to immediately put down a casserole dish burning your fingers from the oven etc. Look at the things that work and plan for how to fix the things that don't work.

I've enjoyed reading this thread - thanks for resurrecting it! :)

All I want is some reasonably priced white gloss doors to replace my other white gloss reasonably priced b and q doors.they must be nearly 20 years old and if they hadn't gone a bit off white I'd happily keep them.
I'm having a house rewire next month and then a redecorate, so instead of my house being white it will be dazzlingly, gleaming white and they aren't going to look too good.

I didn't want white slab but that's all I can see. Mine have a slight contour pattern on them.
They have been brilliant .
Really easy to keep clean. You notice a spill straight away , quick wipe and it's gone.

Anyone have any ideas please.
It's been the best kitchen I've ever had.
Light bright and airy.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but, if you're having a bin cupboard, do NOT put it next to the rumble-drier/ dishwasher etc. Our bin cupboard gets quite warm due to being next to the drier and it can stink really quickly!

Wow!! Thanks all for great ideas

Now thinking about adding

Insinkerator hot tap and waste disposal into kitchen
After thinking hot water tap would be waste - on offer at wickes for350 so wirth a go!

Place marking. Just starting to plan our kitchen, so this is really useful.

Ours is so tiny though, the idea of a walk in pantry / two dishwashers etc will have to wait! We can just squeeze in a slimline single dishwasher

01forLondon have you thought about having an extra row of cupboards above your normal wall cupboards so they go right up to the ceiling? We're having them because we use that space for storage anyway so at least it will look a bit tidier!

Please don't get a waste disposal - you will be putting food waste into the drains. Much better to compost it or put it in your green recycling bin.