Best and worst things about your kitchen?

[41notTrendy]

A shameless attempt to get ideas
We are considering knocking our kitchen and dining room together, so would like to hear what others love about their kitchen, and what drives you mad.
I love that we have a big breakfast bar that doubles up as a worktop. I hate that there are 3 doors in our kitchen, 2 of which back onto each other and are always in the way.

[marshmallowpies]

Best - granite worktop. Looks so smart & great for kneading/rolling out dough.

Having an eye level oven and integrated microwave - less stuff cluttering up the counter.

Pull-out larder cupboard. Almost as good as having a proper walk-in pantry, though not quite.

Dislike: stainless steel sink always has limescale stains on and is impossible to keep clean. Wish I'd gone for moulded plastic or whatever else they had on offer, though it wouldn't have looked as smart. Or perhaps a ceramic sink.

• not enough counter/worktop space. It's a small kitchen so really had to work hard to cram everything in that I wanted.

It's basically my dream kitchen in miniature, I need twice the cupboard space and twice the counter top and then it would be perfect....

[poohbearrules]

at futility room.

[Mrsrobertduvallsaysboo]

I LOVE my kitchen.
It's massive, warm..thanks to underfloor heating...and fits in 2 big sofas, big table. Walnut fittings, black granite worksurface. No island.
I wish I had got a bigger sink.

[marshmallowpies]

Oh yes - what I'll be adding in when I move and when (eventually) we redo the kitchen - a thin narrow cupboard for trays and baking sheets. I've got under-plinth drawers at ground level that were meant to be for things like that, but they aren't big enough for trays.

If I don't have space for a 'futility' room then a full height cupboard for brooms and so on will also be on the list.

[mamij]

Lovey kitchen except we had a lack of storage space when we moved in. Ended up getting an extra storage unit for all my electronic kitchen gadgets So storage space a must!

[41notTrendy]

I do worry that I won't get the perfect kitchen, as there's nothing we can do about the amount of space. Well unless we can magic up more cash. Which is highly unlikely.
So far then, big pan drawers, full height cupboard, eye level oven maybe, hose tap, corian (?) worktops, underfloor heating (had already thought about this as we have it and love it in our bathroom), plenty of worktop, big sink and easy access fridge and freezer!

[EdgarAllansPo]

I love the solid wood (walnut?) doors, Italian stone floor, the pull our spice racks, the extra wide and deep pan drawers, the 5 ring gas hob, the easy to clean black granite counter. Everything is built in, so it all looks neat, so worth the extra effort to keep it clean and tidy. Also love that we have space for a sofa and my huge dresser and there's French doors looking out onto the garden, and the dining table is right around the corner. the washing machine is somewhere else entirely, so clothes don't need to come into the kitchen and I love that the cats just sit and look out of the window, as they're fed somewhere else.

I don't like that we have no room for a freezer, so that is out in the garage. I'd like a big double oven, and a bit more storage space and a walk in larder but as I'm short, I wouldn't want an eye level oven as i'd be afraid of dropping heavy dishes.

[FishfingersAreOK]

And plan you bin....really ,really important. Whether will be free standing or in a cupboard it is sooooooooo important. And so gutting if you don't plan it.

[41notTrendy]

I am of you that have doors out to your garden.

[41notTrendy]

Oh and bin planning on the list

[mum47]

Best thing - the lovely dresser I bought on Gumtree for £50 to house all my lovely retro china
Worst - the hideous 70's beige with flowers tiles. Been meaning to get rid of them for 12 years now..

[oldsilver]

The fact there is not a door out of the kitchen to the rest of the house. Would to be able to lock myself away in peace keep the cooking smells out of the rest of the house. Mind you there are no other internal doors downstairs - landlord has a bit of a thing about open plan.

[aJumpedUpPantryGhoul]

Best things:
Aga type cooker, lovely to cook on and the kitchen is always lovely and warm
Big enough for a large kitchen table that I can use to dump stuff on
Room for my Welsh Dresser

Worst things:
Sink - it's quite small but has a double draining board that takes up loads of room
Horrid coloured tiles that I would love to replace
Worksurface is horrible, again one day it will be replaced

[FlatCapAndAWhippet]

I love my kitchen, its been extended so is 22 ft long. Its the heart of our house. It has all the usual stuff but the one thing I hate is the under counter fridge, this was already here when we moved in. Its rubbish, as someone else has said, your forever on your knees with your head in the fridge.

[MrsGhastlyCrumb]

The best thing about ours is, without a doubt, the wee serving hatch that goes through to the living room. I would never have thought it (in fact I thought it was a bit 70s sitcom at first), but it means I can set our toddler up at the table in our living room and we can still see each other while I get on with cooking or whatever needs doing.

The worst thing is that it's pretty damned small- the fridge has to live in the hall cupboard... the contortionist act involved in retrieving anything from the back of the fridge is getting a little old- and we've only been here three weeks!

Still, this is the first place either of us has ever bought, and the area is perfect, so... we'll adapt.

[leddeeburdee]

Best things: Long work surfaces and good lighting.
Worst things: The dishwasher is on the other side of the kitchen from all plate/ glass/cup storage. Would definitely make sure my dishwasher was next to the relevant storage next time. Also, I wish we'd gone for a free standing large fridge as we're growing out of a built in under counter one.

[41notTrendy]

Now you see, you need a magic fridge. I hear what you say about grovelling on your knees, hence I put it on my list. But I have a dream fridge which will be part of new (if it happens) kitchen. The shelves pull out. Tis fab. Bosch.

[sommewhereelse]

mum47 you could paint the tiles. We couldn't afford to replace the previous owners beige with haycarts tiles in our old house so I painted them. I had to put on a sealer base for tiles and then gloss paint but it looked way better afterwards and 9 years later when we sold the house still looked as good. I was patient enough to paint each towel and not paint the grout so no one knew unless I told them.

[sommewhereelse]

Er, that would be each tile

[jacksgrannie]

Best - fab American style fridge which has so much room that I have never ever managed to fill it completely. Also granite worktops. Do not listen to anyone who tries to put you off them. Granite worktops are fantastic. They do not mark,scratch and are wonderful for pastry (should you feel the need). Anyone who tells you not to get granite is simply jealous!

Worst - cream grout in floor tiles. Tiles are lovely Italian cream ceramic. Grout is pale matching cream. Everyone warned me but I was headstrong. The cream grout looked wonderful for two days. Grout is now grotty dirty mud coloured.

[Pannacotta]

We have an awful kitchen waiting ot be ripped out so cant really add much helpful to this thread, other than have as much worktop as you can, esp around the hob and sink (we dont and it makes it hard to make tea/prep food/dish up etc).

BackforGood what size roughly is your sink? Am pondering a large single sink when we re-do out kitchen, so would be interested to hear more.

[sausagesandwich34]

jacksgrannie
I will agree with you on the grout I did exactly the same -have you tried a steam mop? makes a big difference

I can't stand my American fridge freezer -I wouldn't have another

I can't see anything towards the bottom of the fridge and I find the freezer stores less than the old drawers in my upright fridge freezer

[Mandy21]

Also agree with the grout point - see earlier post about hating cream floor - hate cream grout even more. My H has scraped out the grout for half of the floor and re-grouted it in grey. Marginally improves it (well, it will do once the other half is done) but I still think a pale floor is a bad idea. I think in our case its particularly bad as we only use the back door for access to and from the house (come straight from drive into kitchen through back door) so it gets a huge amount of traffic with dirty feet etc.

[iknowwho]

We had an extension built so our kitchen is a large L shape with the kitchen being in the longest part of the L and a dining area in the botttom part of the L . I like it like that because you can serve the food straight to the dining area and see all the kitchen but it feels slightly separated when you are eating.

I had the kitchen units fitted right up to the ceiling to maximise space and saves cleaning the tops which can get greasy.

I had a large French doors put in to maximise light.

I spent a lot of money on a really nice tap and that stands out when you walk into the kitchen and makes it nice and modern.

[ppeatfruit]

We've got a very old stone house in Fr. and our kitchen is high and big which sold us the house actually with a dining area and strange beamed room divider that i've painted white .It has stained dark ceiling beams they're on my list of 'shall I paint them white or not?' (which is a long list ) I've already painted the cupboard doors which I re paint every year or so. The floor and work surface has matching weird tiles in greyey black and white granite effect brick shape It's good for a floor (it NEVER shows the dirt I literally have to HUNT for the sweepings up!) I want to change the work surface but not sure what I want

There is a lovely chimney with beam above an ugly but useful gas hob and a very good electric eye level oven (which I wouldn't have chosen but have to say it's very efficient and easy to use) If I could have a range or an aga type I would like a flash.