Creating your dream kitchen and bathroom.....

[HeadFairy]

I've not really had the opportunity to create a kitchen and bathroom from scratch before, with a new extension our kitchen is going to be 2m wider and our bathroom is doubling in size.

I'm not really in to crazy gadgets (though I'm tempted by a boiling water tap) but I'm looking for the best time saving things to stick in a bathroom and kitchen. I hate mouldy crappy bath sealant that always needs replacing so we're going for a free standing bath. We're also going to have a walk in shower that's designed in a way so we don't need a shower door (no glass to clean )

Any other easy clean/easy maintenance ideas for a bathroom and kitchen?

Can I advise not to put metro tiles anywhere near water.

We have them in en-suite and beautiful as they are (and expensive to fit) within the shower area they are a nightmare to clean as there is so much grout.

Like you we are planning new kitchen and main bathroom. MN has been so valuable and there are lots of old threads that can help you. Key points for us:

No wood or ceramic flooring to kitchen as I am clumsy with crockery and already suffered leaking w.machine over oak flooring. Therefore Amtico/Karndean for us now.

No tiling at all to walls in kitchen and only large tiles or marble to bathroom shower area - I hate cleaning grout

Open shelving looks good with some of the kitchens today and we are planning on having some within the 'drinks area' of the kitchen above the wine fridge (for spirit bottles etc) but insisting on the glasses shelving area to be within glass front doors as they get really dusty and cooking fumes all over them.

Induction hob makes heating things much quicker

Yes to boiling water tap!

Aesop.... I'm actually very tempted by dark grout for that very reason. A bit like this houzz.com/photos/8736584

I'm also thinking a solid glass splash back in the kitchen for the same reason, no grout to get dirty. Also I do like a nice clean line in a kitchen

In our (newer) shower, we have screens rather than tiles... bit more expensive to buy, but obviously much quicker to fit, and then no grout to clean. Am very pleased with them.

I'm soon going to need to choose, have very similar thoughts about grout (have samples for wall cladding beside me at the moment). Dark grout is still a dirt magnet to me, want something seamless.

No idea what to do in the kitchen, but liking the sound of glass splashback. I'm going to add karndean & amitco to my list of samples. I wonder if anyone ends up with enough samples to kit out a whole house....

Kitchen - floor to ceiling cupboards (nothing to gather dust at the top). Kickboards to floor (rather than any free standing elements) so nothing can get underneath. Induction or electric hob so no cleaning of gas hob and all the parts that go with it. Slab front / handleless cupboard doors so not little intricate trims / handles to gather dust / catch spills.

I know others don't agree but I have solid bamboo flooring in kitchen diner, quick sweep and it looks great. Having said that, the washing machine is in the utility so I don't need to worry about leaks. After creamy/beige tiles in a previous life I will never, ever have tiles again. Similarly lino (although I know Amtico & Karndean are a step above normal lino) - had a kind of rubber effect in the bathroom and it never looked clean. Dust and fluff and everything else used to just stick to it.

Yes, yes to limiting grout. We had white metro tiles with dark grey grout as a splashback in the kitchen in a previous house, and the grout didn't really need cleaning (nowhere near water). We had an area of mosaics in bathroom though (with lots of white grout) and it looked grubby fairly quickly.

Yes to free standing bath, but be careful with its position - that you can still get around the sides and back of it to clean up water spillages etc.

And probably a controversial point on MN - limit the number of children you have if you want anything to stay clean or is it just my children that are messy?

Mandy Yep, I'm stopping at 2, they're destructive enough!

We will have a utility room when we're done so we won't need to worry about flooding in the kitchen too. When we moved in to this house the kitchen had very lovely, very arty, very impractical pale blue rubber flooring which pretty much stained if you looked at it funnily. 2 children later and every splash of ribena and squished raisin had made it look hideous. We had to have it ripped out for a leak anyway, and replaced with dark grey Karndean. It looks great, but it has scratched where the kids scrape their chairs up to the table, so I'm tempted by a dark grey slate. It will be a big south west facing room with sky lights and a bifold door at the end, so I'm not too troubled by keeping things bright.

I'd highly recommend a pyrolitic oven, we had one in our now-sold house and I'm definitely going to get another one as soon as I can in the new place. They have a cleaning cycle which heats the oven to 500 degrees, incinerates any dirt and leaves a little pile of ash in the bottom to be wiped out. They are utterly brilliant.

Wow, this is just the thread I need! We're renovating, doing a new kitchen and two bathrooms. I'm going to look into the pyrolitic oven, and I think we'll go for glass splashbacks in the kitchen and big tiles in the bathrooms (we were thinking about metro tiles but can totally see how much of a faff it would be cleaning all that grouting). I'm going to try and convince DH to go with Amtico/Karndean for the bathrooms, specially as the kids are still little and they end up sitting/lying on the bathroom floor a lot so better if it's not cold. I still want a gas hob though. Go on, convince me about induction. Is it really as fast as gas? We're in a rented place now with an electric hob which I hate cooking on but my god it's easy to clean...

One of my top tips is if you get stone or ceramic tiles, get ones that are fairly flat, not with a grain on them - our old bathroom came with fake stone ceramic tiles and to get it properly clean you had to get down on hands and knees and scrub with a scrubbing brush. (In theory... I think I did it maybe once. Before the kids came along )

We have just ordered a new kitchen.
Trying to keep everything low maintenance.
So far have ordered
Pale blue shaker units, was going to get white gloss but thought of finger marks put me off.
Tall wall units and larders to ceiling.
Duropal wood laminate and upstands - reviews say easy to clean.
Bottled out of induction. Ordered smeg gas glass ultra low profile hob.
Ordered Bosch washing machine and dishwasher as seem hardwearing.
Amtico flooring for kitchen / diner.
Black Franke fragranite sink as seems easy to look after.
Going to order glass splashback for behind hob.

I do enjoy these threads!

We finalised plans today with kitchen designer and just awaiting the final quote...nervously tapping.

I keep having a wobble about the worktop and need to find the perfect shade Silestone. We are having one wall of full height units housing FF/Oven/larder etc which is in a greyish limed oak wood. The rest of the kitchen is plain matt mushroom/grey. One wall with base units and sink with fully integrated appliances. Island in the middle with induction hob and large seating area at the end. All these units are made by Eggersmann and look like a work of art in the brochures. The total effect will be 'warm and calm German minimalist'...so they say! Let's hope the price makes me feel like this

Have not even started to look at Amtico/Karndean samples as I want the kitchen part fitted before I choose so I can put all samples in situ to test lighting etc.

We are also having the ubiquitous bi-folds and roof lantern at the end onto the garden.

Getting excited now as the builders are starting first week in May

Forgot to add that the calm and warm kitchen is going to then be treated to Acid Yellow/Sour Green soft furnishings!