Why do kitchen designers still go on about the "work triangle" of sink, cooker and fridge?

[BasilBabyEater]

Given that everyone's got a dishwasher now and lots of veg is pre-washed?

Do we still need it? Did we ever need it? Does anyone live without it and feel every day a rage at not having it?

What should a well-designed kitchen have nowadays?

we put all our really large but rarely used pans and dishes, plus cake making equipment and tins, in our utility room as we don't use them every day.

Best thing I bought for our kitchen apart from the induction hob, the eye level ovens and the granite worktop is a £7 "baking sheet stand" from Lakeland which allows us to stand the stuff we do use every day upright in the cupboard above the oven and the drawer beneath it. Brilliant invention. A friend of mine with much more money had her kitchen hand built and got the joiner to put vertical dividers in her above-oven cupboard, for the same reason.

I want a utensilo red one please.

Cutlery near dishwasher - I agree it doesn't have to be.

Having a dishwasher - I agree it needs to be had. I wonder if people who disagree are somehow genetically different to me - I don't understand it.

On the subject of dishes, I don't have a drainer I have two large sinks, meaning drying pots stay out of sight.

HOW do you do paperwork? I bought a tabletop paper sorter, it's now on the 'plonky' table with piles of other papers, never used.

Now I want wall cupboards with sliding doors, and a set of drawers for paperwork. And an in-cupboard bread bin. Germans have that, a drawer for bread with a breadslicer to saw through the roggenbrot.

Hey MrsGrowbag, I'm even more frugal. Mine go in the gap between the microwave and the wall.

Though I am hoping that in my new kitchen I can hide them in a drawer somewhere...

God, I have been eying up that Lakeland baking tin holder.
Rock 'n roll, me.
In our old kitchen there was a space between the cupboards that was very handy for breadboards, trays and place mats. I got the builders to do two the same again for kitchen and utility.
Tell us more about that German bread drawer. I've never been to Germany.

So glad it's not only me drooling over the thought of a dedicated bread drawer!

Thank you for bifold reassurance, I was worried they might be faddy too, but as you say, how faddy can more space and more light be?!

I really want a tambor (sp?) door set up with my kettle and mugs etc hidden away, but dh thinks they look awful. He doesn't even want a kettle ! We are seriously going to fall out about this.

Does anyone have plinth drawers? I thought they would be great for random tat.

Re paperwork, I have been googling things like "kitchen office" and kitchen office "nook" - lots of god awful American kitchens but I really love their idea of having a little area like that. It was the kitchen set in Homeland that set me off, if anyone watched that?

We've decided that you only empty the dishwasher once a day whereas we eat three times a day so our cutlery & crockery is going to be closer to the kitchen table than the dishwasher. We're also having a Qooker so we don't need a kettle anymore, warming drawer under the oven, big drawers under the hob for saucepans & casserole dishes.

omg I need a Qooker!

What's a qooker? I like those roll down shutter things but suspect they will date. Have a kettle on your job. Then it isn't cluttering up your worktop.
We were staying with some American friends in Atlanta last year and they had a great and very tasteful office alcove in their kitchen.
Mind you, they get a mansion for the price of a big standard British semi.

We had our kitchen done a few months ago and I love it as it works so well. I also feel slightly smug as it works so well because I spent ages planning it. Having said that, I can only take limited credit as I spoke to about 6 or 7 different kitchen companies and used the best ideas from each.

So, we have:

• the triangle which I'm really glad about as it reduces the chances of tripping over a child whilst carrying stuff
• a larder fridge with a small internal freezer which has the herbs, peas & ice cubes in it. All of the rest of the frozen stuff is in the freezer in the utility room
• the utensils and saucepans are all in drawers under the hob
• in base units next to the saucepan drawers is a cupboard with internal drawers which has herbs & spices in one drawer and then rice, pasta & other ingredients you grab whilst cooking
• the bin (inc the small compost bin) are in a base unit directly beneath the main prep area so when I've peeled a load of veg, I can just pull the bin out & push the peelings directly into it
• the dishwasher is next to the sink and on the other side of it are the cutlery & crockery drawers
• we have a tea making zone
• we have a "kids drawer" which contains all of their crockery as well as the tupperware etc
• the base unit with 5 drawers in it is in the most hidden bit of the kitchen as they contain things which I only need to get out once a day like tea towels and dishclothes
• I have a tall unit with the hoover, broom etc in it and swear the kitchen is tidier since this as I don't have an excuse of having to go to the utility room to get it.

the bin (inc the small compost bin) are in a base unit directly beneath the main prep area so when I've peeled a load of veg, I can just pull the bin out & push the peelings directly into it

Pure genius! but I'm sure I saw that on the Ikea site...

Moondog the Germans all have their bread in a drawer, they all use an adjustable electric bread slicer, kept in the drawer and brought out ceremoniously twice a day. They are slightly obsessive about it being sliced just the right thickness for the right type of bread, in the same way they have different beer glasses for different types of beer. They laugh at our plastic sliced bread and beer out of cans despite their alleged lack of a sense of humour.

I like to look to the Americans, they do what they like, each to their own, unlike us, slaves to our class obsessed Aga fetishes and the Germans with their brot und bier control freakery.

Great website combining US individualization and Scandi utilitarian - Ikeafans.com

I don't want to have anything to do with a Qooker until it gets its U back.

Whoops!

I took the 'u' out of Quooker, not them. wonderingagain you can come back into the hypothetical kitchen.

I like the idea of different glasses for each beer.
Love the idea of proper bread, properly sliced too.

Very civilised.
What I loathe is those big flashy kitchens where people do nothing more than watch tv and eat microwaved food at marble islands on barstools.

In this hypothetical kitchen...
We obviously have a compost bin, possibly built in. Wouldn't it get smelly & dirty?
What are the best taps? I'm rather taken with those with a spay nozzle for washing soft fruits, is this a bit faddy?

Yes.
I once lusted after one of those big industrial type ones.
I'm glad I didn't.
They look pretentious

I got an industrial tap. Rarely use the sprayer, want rid. When i win the pools (do they exist still) Im getting a quooker. Health and safety nightmare, but an excellent idea.

"I regard anyone who chooses not to have a dishwasher with enormous suspicion"

Arf.

I must admit I don't really see the big deal about having to walk all the way from the fridge to the kettle/ oven if it's not in the right place. Most people do not have kitchens big enough for this to be an issue. I've always understood that the reason fitted kitches were invented in the first place, was to maximise the use of small spaces (is that wrong? - someone told me that years ago and I've always believed it since, but she may have made it up). I don't know anyone with such an enormous kitchen that preparing a meal counts towards their daily exercise regime. I can see the benefit of the sink being near the hob because of safety, but otherwise, unless you have a disability, carrying the milk an an extra 2 steps to the kettle being defined as a problem, slightly mystifies me.

I love that dynamicspace thing and have spent hours pissing about on the B&Q one, the IKEA one and now I fear I can waste hours on the dynamicspace one as well.

Ok, understand what a Qooker is now.
I don't see why you can't wait a few minutes for water. Good things come to those who wait and all that.
I want a pressure cooker. My sister uses one all the time-it seems more prevalent in France.
Fantastic but I am terrified of cocking it up.

Those drawers inside bigger drawers are not my cup of tea.

Both my sister and my parents have recently had new kitchens and have both opted for that. You have to open a drawer twice (shock horror) to get your knives and forks!

What's the rationale for that AmazingBouncingFerret?

It sounds very impractical and peculiar.

It's odd isn't it. Huge double wide pan drawers and then a smaller drawer to keep your utensals in. Suppose it does make things very streamlined. Both the kitchens are gorgeous though.

I have cutlery divided between two drawers one beside the cooker one beside the fridge. People laugh but it's very sensible. It is, ok!

When I am cooking a dinner, the big forks and knives and soup spoons and utensils are beside the cooker and prep area and the big plate cupboard and ingredients cupboards. When I am making cereal or toast or getting a dessert out of the fridge or making a cup of coffee the dessert forks, pudding spoons teaspoons are beside the fridge the cereal/bread cupboard, the kettle and toaster and bowls and dessert plate cupboard, on the other side of the room. Ok so this is only a step and a twirl away from the cooker and other stuff but it still works well.

My pressure cooker is on the hob all winter, just put it away in hope of a summer.

Basil, if you are concerned about stealth boasting, we had a budget cowboy extension, but wisely fitted the kitchen oursrlves. It cost 2k all in except fridge. I think most of this thread is about wishful thinking. By the time I get that quooker and that quooker utensilio i will be downsized and mimimalist.

I was in a kitchen shop the other day looking at those pull out things they now put in underneath cupboards. It occurred to me that although they're lovely and practical and comfortable to use, there's an awful lot of space being wasted in the cavities of the cupboard in order to accomodate such loveliness.

I just can't account for all the food in the cupboards, why is it necessary. If I were a breathearian I wouldn't need it. I'd starve to death though, so that's not a solution.

/_\

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