who has just had / is having a new kitchen, please come and discuss with me.

[sweetheart]

Dh and i are about to have an extension on our house which incorporates a new kitchen. Because we are moving the position of the kitchen I literally need to redesign it from scratch.

Can anyone recommend who they used? Would be great to hear feedback good or bad. Also if you can tell me things you hadn't considered or wish you'd done differently or just things you think I should consider.

Much obliged (as my dear dad would say)

My favourite kitchen has two in built tall fridge freezers plus a wine fridge. And a 5 ring hob. Deep drawers are also good

I did last year. I spent hours weeks thinking of kitchens; inframe or not, worktops, Aga or range, type of sink etc.
Pinterest is a great resource and so are the home magazines. There's a fab thread on here too, I'll try & find it.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/1554664-The-MN-lessons-learnt-kitchen-thread

Yes yes yes to the lessons learnt kitchen thread!
So helpful. I treated (most of) it like gospel. And am having mainly drawers below waist height, quartz work surface, halogen hob, 'appliance garage', insinkerator and much more, all off the back of the advice in it!
Kitchen due to be fitted in the summer I hope. Squeeeee!

Also, can we have some general kitchen chitchat? I am a woman obsessed! Done so much research I am having difficulty talking to normal people about anything at all...
My fantasy kitchen is an unfitted industrial style one, all slate and concrete and bare brick. Sadly this does not fit my house, lifestyle or budget at all.

Gus I choose quartz and its beautiful, one of my best decisions.
I also loved my island, which I know is unpopular on MN.

After much deliberation we have had a bespoke framed kitchen fitted by a local company.
I have got the design and colour and (importantly uniqueness) of just what we wanted.
Big larder cupboards, drawers the depth I needed, worktops how I pictured them.
It cost much more but we were willing to wait and save.
Look out and ask around for local joiners/ cabinet makers

Can I ask those of you with an Island how far away from the main work surface is it? As we will have 1 big room that will be an open plan kitchen / lounge / diner I'm struggling to decide how much room to leave without taking too much space from the lounge area. I need enough to open dishwasher to load etc and move around without being trapped - also enough for more than 1 person to move around in the kitchen.

We did our kitchen 2 years ago, the island (1.2 x1.8m) is 1m from the range cooker and 1.2 m from the dishwasher, hope that helps.

My island (2.3 x 1.2) is 1.4 away from the oven and 1.2 from the run with the dishwasher. There's plenty of room to open the doors and for two people to pass.

Sorry, island is 3.2 x 1.4

I've done a tally of what we have in our current kitchen (having done a big sort through and organise) and what space that stuff needs. Then located the hob, sink and fridge and worked it out from that.
Took many iterations as would have liked an L-shaped kitchen really. Used to have a galley kitchen which was really practical, but lacked cupboard space. Played with the idea of having an island but couldn't get the layout to work for me. So we will be having a U.
Then when I had a design I could happily live with I tweaked it slightly to fit in a couple of extra cupboards (one wall; one base) somewhere not too annoying. No idea what I'll put in them, but figured a future contingency wasn't a bad idea.
(My PIL have an amazing looking kitchen but the layout drives me mad.)
Waiting for prices.

Islands are great if you have a large kitchen and do not need the space it takes up for a table. Don't have wooden worktops. They stain and take too much care to keep them attractive. Granite or quartz are best. Induction hobs are way better than halogen. One large fridge freezer, American style, or two fridges and a freezer if you have a big family. Two ovens, built in microwave/grill, dishwasher and wine fridge - all great. Built in coffee machine - fantastic. Stainless steel sinks scratch. White modern Belfast style ones do not. Good lighting and lots of sockets vital. I strongly suggest that Cotteswood Kitchens are a great place to start if you like a more traditional kitchen - mine is featured!!!

I did all the planning - and then bought an ex-showroom kitchen
Because we have a big extension, I was able to reconfigure it and make the layout as I wanted - layout is far more important to me than look.
So we got a higher spec kitchen in a style I wouldn't have chosen for a fraction of the price.
Bottom line - if you can be flexible and have good builders, you'll face a fortune.

Save! Not face a fortune!

We have a lovely Leicht kitchen- was actually cheaper than Howdens! We have huge drawers for plates and pans right next to the dishwasher- unloading is so easy. I love my warming drawer so much- DS calls it the pancake drawer but it's also great for DH arriving home late, defrosting stuff and warming plates too of course .

marking for later!

How could figure out how much kitchen cupboard space you 'need'? I mean, don't you just fill however much you have... Ie expand to fit the space?

I can understand a kitchen being too small, that's challenging. But how Dyou decide, when space doesn't dictate, how many cupboards is 'enough'?

I'm very tempted to just do deep pan drawers under the job and cooker, a plate rack, cutlery drawer, and a big shallow built in larder for provisions.

Then my work surface will be on top of the white goods, and the walls free.

Does that sound feasible?

consider tall wall cabinets. I have 900mm, with 300mm wide doors, which to my eye look good and the door does not swing out far enough to hit you.

Wall cabs are 300mm deep, less the back void, which is sometimes enough for dinner plates. IMO it is better than a 600mm deep larder unit because you can see and reach to the back. Some modern boilers are about 300mm deep and can be concealed in a run of wall cabinets (allow space for maintenance round it).

You can put top-boxes or something to run right up to the ceiling, which is neat, but you will need steps to get stuff out of the top.

Get designs and quotes early on. We moved the kitchen knocked down walls put in a new backdoor and window and it was great to have the kitchen design and be able to shift Windows and doors. I've posted about it before but look at Mirostone for worktop it's cheaperthan Caesarstone. Factor in moving gas electrician (v v expensive) plumbing as well I ended up project managing and wish I had just done it from the start.

We've just had a new one built by a local chap who is a carpenter. It's lovely. Everything is solid wood, no MDF, no chipboard. just a very simple wooden framework with hand built wooden doors and a single deep, proper wooden drawer for utensils and so on.

It was very good value and cost less than any of the B&Q designs I saw - and B&Q were completely unable to make their units fit the room. Their design service was useless. I mean really, really useless - they were just trying to cram extra units into places where they would look utterly stupid, so I would spend more.

We only have a very small, awkwardly shaped kitchen with an alcove, but I really thought they would want to be clever and make their units fit. Nope. It was all 'well you'll have to have a standard one there with a load of filler pieces and just lose all the space behind it, best we can do'.

I am ranting but getting this guy in was the best decision ever. It was just over £700 and done within 3 days.

We have a 'budget' worktop that looks very posh - sparkly white gloss with a square edge, painted cupboards, no wall units, a 'vintage' (but new) astracast sink which is orange and cost me £21. Posh Franke tap though

I put up the shelves myself.

If you have the choice then go with solid wood every time.

NB I would have granite or maybe a composite if we had a bigger room in a downstairs setting, but as we are first floor it seemed too heavy. And we couldn't afford it

I'm just pleased to have a surface I can put wet things on and wipe them off again...unlike the bastard solid oak I fitted at our previous flat.

If you like to bake then have an area with marble or stone top is a great thing for pasty making etc !

Sometimes it's worth spending time looking at what you really want from a kitchen before you even get to the showroom - Pinterest is fab for making a board of the things you want to include - then sharing that with your kitchen designer, to enable them to include as much as is possible into your plan ! A good designer listens - advises if they feel something won't work - and explains why they think their design might work well for you !
A sales person plans to suit the room, and sometimes, how much they can cram in ... That's not the same as a designer !

Where on earth do you look for a kitchen designer though? I mean B&Q aren't really about the design, clearly - but can you even get an independent designer without forking out loads and loads?