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)

What do you consider to be loads ?

Sophie where did you get an orange sink from, for £21! And do they do other colours!!

We're currently planning our new kitchen and have found it really useful to get several different designers and fitters in. We've had people out from several different mid-range companies (e.g. Howdens, Betta Living etc) and a couple of local fitters, who friends recommended. Each person had made different suggestions, so we've been able to choose what we like from their ideas and ignore what we don't. We opted for the fitter who was prepared to be most flexible and not 'prescribe' a design. It's also worth talking to an independent fitter early on (assuming you're not going for bespoke), as they may be able to negotiate discounts with suppliers.

That's good advice - good fitters are booked up months ahead ... There's a few designers mentioned on www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/2309478-Independent-kitchen-designer
This thread - some mentioned supply too - so not really independent .
I only know the prices charged by one of them on there . That's from £35 per hour - not loads really for a tailored design you will have to live with for some time !

I have two 100cm x 40cm x 2.5cm of marble I would like to use in the new house. How do the joins between the worktop and the marble work in practice especially as flour and water make glue?

Oh I didn't mean it like that, I'm sure it's worth it if you can afford it but I was trying to imagine where you would find someone not affiliated with/from the actual kitchen shop, iyswim.

I imagined it would cost thousands.

Belle - ebay I'm afraid! It was old stock from a local place where they sell odds and ends of kitchen. I nearly didn't use it but I love it now

Everyone told us not to have wooden worktops but we did and they look amazing. they need some looking after and treated properly before installation but nowhere near what I was led to believe . our kitchen is Benchmarx, fitted by a local builder

I too am doing a kitchen at the minute, and have reached the obsessive stage and then some?

? Two full sized, single ovens side by side at eye level
? Massive pan drawers under my 5-ring hob
? Gas over induction because I am HARD on kitchens, use a lot of cast-iron and run my own catering business from home, so want as durable as possible
? Bins in a pull-out drawer under the sink. Not special bins, just a drawer big enough to house two small bins and the compost caddy. I have The Fear over gimmicks that might break
? Magic corners in the corner cupboards. I can see why people don?t like them, but I find keeping cupboards tidy easier
? As many pull-out drawers as possible
? Possibly neff slide and hide ovens, but I would love self-cleaning also?.
? Individual pull out drawers in any cupboards with ?larder? facility, rather than the whole unit pulling out. Less likely to stress the hinges, IMO (but I know there is much debate on this)
? ?Appliance garage? type thing with the juicer and food processor on wooden boards to pull out
? Small under-counter fridge and then my pink smeg. Two fridges just makes getting 5-star food hygiene scoring easier, as it can be used to only store business food (or wine)
? Fired earth tiles of dreams
? Integrated coffee machine. I KNOW it?s a gimmick, and loads of people don?t use theirs, but I am increasingly annoyed at my nespresso pretty much tying me to nestle and nestle only, so the time was right
? Vinyl wood-effect floor for ease of cleaning and durability (I run a pop-up restaurant in my house)
? Breakfast bar with the back tiled to make super pretty
? Double butler sink (again, mostly food hygiene stuff)
? MASSIVE window for food photography
? Big separate larder cupboard for catering stuff (coloured chopping boards etc.) so I can prove is separate from ?home? stuff
? Oven housing wall to ceiling cupboards, then no other wall cupboards
? Some open shelving for display
? Boiling water tap
? Drawer for takeaway menus, keys, birthday cards that has sockets in it so that tech can be charged and hidden
? Some kind of sonos type speaker system (DH in charge of that)
? Massive larder cupboard in dining to house washing machine, boiler, mop bucket etc.
? Archway through to sofa nook with all my cookbooks then dining, to allow separation between kitchen and dining (i.e. not staring at dishes, which I HATE)
? Building my own extractor hood out of MDF, then tiling (probably, but I cannot find an extractor fan I like for love nor money)
? IKEA units. I looked at some of the cheaper handmade options online, local cabinet makers only did melamine wrap for our budget, which I?m just too hard on. IKEA do an ash veneer which I am painting myself, then maybe getting handles elsewhere. I cannot BELIEVE how cheap their cabinets are.
? Solid stone work surface. Had wood before and it was lovely (and not quite the nightmare many would have you believe) but way more upkeep than certain types of stone. Also have found a granite wholesaler south of the border (live in N. Ireland) and the euro is working in our favour on this one

Pic of wall storage (no units as such) in case anyone is interested!

My new kitchen (Schmidt) will arrive next week. So cannot comment on what it is like...yet. However, I did use the thread posted at the beginning of this thread about lessons learnt. It was really useful :)

I do not have wall cabinets (bar the back wall which has taller units for the integrated appliances - fridge, oven and microwave. These have some storage space above/below and between the appliances). I also opted to have a louvered door cupboard (this is great for housing small appliances, coffee/tea things and crockery etc - but keeps everything tidy as you can just close the door when you want.

I opted not to have a drawer unit under the sink in which many people house their bins as I prefer to have a mobile bin I can move around.

As others have said, most of the units under-counter are drawers. So much easier to use than standard cupboards.

We will not have a huge amount of storage in the new kitchen so we have just done out a large pantry - basically it was the back of the garage but was separated by a wall. It's now a proper room - like a second kitchen - with LED spots, tiled floor, Ikea units (Shaker style) and a wooden worktop - standard one - not expensive. I have two lots of double sockets so I can use my slow cooker out there, and the juicer - large items that I would struggle to store in the 'real' kitchen due to their size. Also have a huge larder cupboard with drawers - it is where I will stock all my spare/rarely used food items. And two large cupboards - one for the hoover with shelving above and below, and a thinner cupboard (37cm wide as opposed to 60cm) which is great - takes barely any space and hold a lot of stuff!

So even though I can't comment on the new kitchen yet, the pantry is great and I'm loving the cupboards and drawer units (with invisible drawers - fab!).