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.

Flooring- our wooden floor was already in the room before we made it into a kitchen so we kept it, had it professionally sanded and sealed, and it's stood up surprisingly well. Most dropped plates etc don't actually break. We have a separate utility with mashing machine etc in, and that has ceramic floor tiles, which are perfect in there.

Get a big /double oven and extra hobs. We thought we didn't need one, but it'd be really handy to have 2 ovens.

Big upright / US style fridge freezer- we love ours.

Cupboard layout- plan exactly what you want to put in each cupboard/ drawers so that the layout works for you. For instance, cupboards either side of the oven for baking trays, pans , oven dishes; crockery cupboard close to the dishwasher as this is what you'll be unloading most often; glasses near fridge; cups/ teabags close to kettle.

Agree with cupboards to the ceiling.

Loads of sockets, not too far into corners as you won't be able to reach them.

I find those Qooker hot water taps a bit scary and splattery. Always freaks me out a bit when I use them at friends.
Am I doing something wrong with them?

sharp knives should not go in a drawer, the sharp edges will knock and be damaged. A magnetic wall rack is ideal.

PigletJohn has spoken and he is, of course, right about knives and drawers.

Make a list of EVERYTHING you need to store in your kitchen from cereal boxes to food processor to tinfoil and use it to plan in advance how many cupboards or drawers you need and what you'll store in each one.

Not having wall cupboards makes for a more airy and streamlined look, but it's a pain to reach down for cups and glasses.

We had extra deep cupboards in our last kitchen, but it was very hard to access things right at the back. Pan drawers are great though.

Oooh yes, magnetic knife drawers are brilliant.

I love, love love the carousel. I'm a food hoarder (I buy all the novelty stuff like saffron and weird oils and strange tins from holidays) and if I stuff them in a normal cupboard I don't see them again for years. Carousel means they actually get used.

I hate to sound the voice of doom, but make sure you have cupboards for foodstuffs without holes or gaps. Mice love cutouts for plugs or pipes. Love them. If you can keep mice-attracting food in plastic tubs in a cupboard without any holes, with any luck you won't be infested.

Sorry - magnetic knife wall strips! I have loved those in every house we've had them.

I've always wanted one of those huge ceramic sinks - butler's sinks I think they call them! One day, maybe.

we're getting divorced doing an extension.

I want easy clean. Don't much care about anything else...

So, granite. Is it REALLY worth the extra money as compared with a really, really good laminate?

Really?

They both clean the same, right?

Until both DC start school and we can afford to change it. I am stuck with the pine kitchen that the previous owners put in. The pine I can live with.
But...
There is only one kitchen drawer .

I ask you what sane person only puts one drawer in the kitchen of a 3 bed house. .
I have been suffering one drawer syndrome for nearly 5 years now and get severe cupboard envy when I visit other people's homes.

You don't need granite. It's only worth it if the pleasure outweighs the cost. We're renting, so it's a bonus of the kitchen, but it's a visual appeal thing in all honesty. Sure, it's easy to clean, and sure, it makes good pastry, but it's not that different from any other surface (except wood, which is horrible in a kitchen unless it's genuine butchers block quality, and nowhere near the sink). If you don't hate mind laminate, then I'd spend the £ on something else. And it's also undeniable that you get more breakages on a material like granite or tile than you would laminate or vinyl, too.

You can always get the cabinetry strong enough that you can upgrade to granite a few years down the track when the savings haven't been so depleted by the extension, too. But do make sure they know that's the end plan so it is strong enough - granite's heavy and many cabinets just aren't built to be strong enough to carry all that weight, so I'm told.

Marking place cause we are planning kitchen at the moment.

for those with the hot tap thingy - is there a way of ensuring that the kids don't burn themselves by mistake, or visiting relatives? It sounds great but I would be worried about accidental scaldings.

Gsy
the house we were in last only had one drawer in the kitchen. I used the warming drawer of the oven to put cutlery in (better use of that drawer than the previous renter - she put candles into it).

I am going to have lots and lots of drawers.

I'm short and I had two ovens put in at a good height for me. Also had telescopic shelves in the ovens so dishes don't fall out.

Remember ovens and hob don't have to be in the same place in your kitchen.

Granite - i HATE it.

Sorry but i find it hard to clean - wipe down with cloth and spray, then dry with micrifibre cloth to avoid watermarks, then dry with tea towel to avoid streaks. Laboursome for me.

My Kitchen Aid mixer and blender have little rubber feet which have marked the surface so they now have to sit on a little table cloth to avoid further damage (beautiful Kitchen Aid on a table cloth on a granite work top is not a good look).

Watermarks are a nightmare. Whilst in hospital Mother cooked me a big chilli for the freezer, washed up and washed and stacked the tins for recycling by the sink. 24 hours later there are 5 big ring marks on my granite countertop. They will not go, they are permanant.

DH put some trainers on the countertop, sprayed with Fabreze and didn't realise there were tiny droplet left behind. We now have bubble marks left over from the droplets.

I am so paranoid now that no one is allowed to wash up in my house but me. Our property is rental, i don't think we will get much of our deposit back.

I disagree about the knife storage.

Mine are in a drawer especially for the purpose of foiling burglars, who might want to kill me.

We only have two drawers, one has the knives, one has all the other crap - birthday cake things and pastry cutters and stuff I never use really.

I would have more but our kitchen here is tiny, there's one work surface 3.3 metres long, which has the sink in it, and the other side of the room has the free standing fridge and stove. I have a Victorian sort of butcher's blocky-tabley thing with the other drawer in it, at one end.

Very short of wall cupboards, I'm trying to find some wood for building shelves at the moment. It is a gradually appearing kitchen.

Yy to magnetic knife racks: they are the business!

Flooring: I don't like the idea of Karnden cos I don't like things that look like other things that they aren't, if you see what I mean - stone effect, tile effect etc. I like Lino, which comes in a range of colours and just looks like itself - it's also a natural material with better ecocredentials. Marmoleum?

What is the alternative to granite worktops? I don't want wood cause of the upkeep.

Is ceramic any good?

I don't want any wall cupboards. I don't like the look of them and am short so can't reach into the top cupboards anyway.

GreyElephant, you can get rid of marks on granite by going over them really well with cream cleaner, like cif. Need to do it really hard - that's what the granite people who installed mine told me.

I love granite!

Try to eat all your food before installation, then plan to cook using a microwave without refrigeration or running water for 2 weeks to 2 months depending on the scale of your renovation.

We were assured we would be without an oven/access to the fridge for 1 day, and then kept being told that it would be ready tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow etc. We ended up spending so much money on emergency food and takeaways that we could have rented a house for a couple of weeks and broken even. (We had previously done kitchen renovations without children, when it is easier to survive on pot noodles and our budget included things like eating out anyway).

Integrated fridges and freezers are the devil's work.

MmeLindor When I do my next kitchen and win the lottery I want to have these. Anyone have any experience of them?

what colour is your granite, GreyElephant? We have black granite (with very few speckles - the one and only time DH and I liked the cheaper option - apparently more speckles = more expensive) and ours takes all sorts of abuse and comes up clean. Stubborn marks can be removed with this magic stuff

Due to lack of wall space and deep and otherwise useless windowsills, we have our knifes on magnetic blocks like these (except we bought ours without knives) - they get damaged in drawers.

Those glass worktops look lovely, but I would worry about scratching them, and could you put how things down without them shattering, I wonder? (I am sure the manufacturers have answers)

MmeL - we looked at Corian, and cast concrete, but they both worked out just as expensive as granite, TBH. We have had tiled worktops in previous (inherited) kitchens - not too bad as long as you are prepared to periodically bleach the grout, and a laminate worktop in a new build kitchen which actually lasted fine and looked fine for the 10 years we were there.

Laminated worktops are extremely practical, easy to clean, hygenic, available in numerous colours and textures, easy to replace with a new one, easy to cut to size and shape, inexpensive etc.

Their main drawback is that they are not expensive enough to impress the neighbours. A bit like stainless steel sinks which are also the most practical sink going.

You can get an extract fan that fits flush into the ceiling. Our hob is in the island unit and we were worried about the extractor as DH is tall and the nice man in John Lewis told us about the flush in the ceiling one. It's great.

Don't get granite with sparkly bits in. Looks like crumbs.