Kitchen dithering

[AButterflyLightsBesideUs]

I had some great pointers and suggestions the other week on here, and we are a few steps forward but still feeling very indecisive.

We've nailed the actual design, ie. layout/unit sizes, that's great. We are not doing so well on the look.

I think we have ruled out solid wood (just can't take the stress & maintenaince) & laminate wood effect (not sufficiently convincing) as worktops.

We'll be continuing our warm rustic oak effect floor through the kitchen from other rooms.

After suggestions from MNers we are looking seriously at quartz worktops and have a raft of samples being sent from DIY kitchens where it is surprisingly affordable.

Unit wise, we are going white (I think!). But matt or gloss? Handles or handleless? Slab or shaker? This is where it all gets a bit confused.

I think I really like this look which we could acheive with the Luca range at DIY kitchens - not sure about matt or gloss though? Would gloss get fingerprinty if you have no handles?

Also considering a handled kitchen and got a sample door of this. Think this is DH's preference, he thinks handleless is a bit "unfinished" looking, I think this one could be a bit meh.

This morning I've had a wibble and wondered if it's all a bit minimalist... and looked at this Shaker style painted. This is stupid isn't it? The groove will fill with filth and piss me off won't it?

I want easy clean for definite. The base units will be almost entirely drawers if that makes any difference?

And worktop colours? Definitely not super dark black/graphitey colours, it's not the brightest of rooms (due north). I do love the idea of white/ish quartz but is it a nightmare? Does it get tea/wine/turmeric/coffee stained easily? Thought maybe a grey like this? Speckled/lightly speckled effect obv has it's advantages in the case of stains over time.

Wise MNers help me before DH bludgeons me to death for my endless dithering!

We've just had a new kitchen installed and it took us months of ditering to decide on what to put in. For us our decisions were ruled by a few things:-
budget
cleaning
maintenance

being the main 3.

We are a busy family household and I am a messy cook. The last thing I wanted was to spend hours of my life buffing smudges / water marks / finger prints off stuff.

Dh and I originally wanted something quite sleek and modern looking and had thought we would go for high gloss but in the process of looking we realized that neither of us could be bothered with the upkeep of finger marks on high gloss - especially with handleless doors.

The whole scheme wasn't clicking together naturally like I'd expected and after a while we realized it's because we are just NOT modern, fashionable people. We are comfortable, homely people and once we switched to a more traditional style kitchen we found that the decisions were much easier to make and things started to click into place so I'd say don't fight against your natural style. Go with what feels comfortable for you.

We have brought a pretty cheap kitchen because of budget but added in a few luxury touches to make the kitchen feel more expensive - a hot water tap, another fancy tap, a black sink (which looks amazeballs!!!)

We have gone for laminate as budget currently dictates this - we agreed that as it only cost £700 in total that perhaps in a few years we could upgrade the work surface. Although having said that we went to CentreParcs last week and they had some kind of corrian work surface that drive me mad all weekend with smears and water marks etc!

We have gone for a cream shaker - modern but traditional, comfy and cosy, practical and hopefully won't date. Not at all the uber stylish, high gloss thing we began our search for but it's right for us and our family.

Hope this is helpful!

Landgirl if it was my kitchen I would keep the units/worktop in neutral shades: white/beige/cream/grey/wood/stone and add colour on the walls as it's a hell of a lot easier to change/lighten/make bolder over time. I agree it's hard to judge colours on the screen. From the swatches I got sent I can say "Vanilla" is quite yellow, "cashmere" is probably a bit darker than I expected, "mussel" is a nice stoney cream colour (not sickly IYKWIM). If you select the kitchen in Lamproom grey and then go and look at customer reviews you'll see lots of people's photos of their finished grey kitchens. That can give a better impression of how it will look.

Thank you Lurky I feel suitably chastised. You are right. Tbh I don't particularly like my ILs new house. I also don't like the furniture they or my parents have recently acquired. In reality, why should I though, they are 60, I am 30, we are SUPPOSED to have different tastes!

PlaymobilPirate so are you doing a big extension then, architect?

sweetheart thank you for your thoughts. Yep cleaning/ maintenance and value for money are definitely big priorities here. I think I wish for a square circle for a half way between high gloss and matt, a sort of satin/eggshell sheen so it's a bit light reflective, but not a practically mirrored surface that needs so much care. Thinking about it the cheap gloss we have now is not high gloss, it's much less shiney than the new samples, so probably that is why we've never had the fingerprint issue.

I was putting DD's clothes away this morning and looked at her Ikea Malm white drawers and thought, I really like those. And had a "ding" lightbulb moment.... they are v much like the Luca. Sod it. I think we will have it. Matt is probably wisest.

Ultimately I want the kitchen to kind of be the backdrop to the room - it's just one long run of units on one side, and then french doors at the end into the garden and we'll have a nice table and chairs against the other wall. The Luca matt with light worktops I'm hoping will just be understated neutral sleek, just there without screaming "LOOK AT ME I AM A KITCHEN HOW SNAZZY AM I!"

I find white very calming.

God this thread is cathartic, thank you all, it's very helpful to waffle aloud and is improving DH's life

Thanks for the Ikea pointer holly. I had a look - it's the Voxtorp isn't it. That's foil covered MDF and the DIY Luca is lacquered MDF which is supposed to be much better quality in terms of not delaminating/lifting off. Thank you though.

For ease of keeping clean, I recommend:

Matt rather than gloss.

Slab rather than Shaker/grooved.

Handles OR the sort of handleless that works by pushing the door rather than handleless with crumb-catching grooves.

Skirting boards in a dark colour or to match your floor if you choose pale units.

Also:

Paint the walls in washable paint.
Have somewhere to store your recycling.
If you have a freestanding bin, have a wipe-clean wall behind it (eg tiles), and consider putting the bin on wheels so you can move it around easily.

Yes, yes, it's the Voxtorp one. I didn't know the difference between foil-covered and lacquered before this thread!

What I love about these threads is how one will look back on them in years to come and think, "Jesus, we were all so BORING."

I do worry about crumbs in the grooves.

ok - if you fancy more dithering get over to DIY kitchens boards on Pinterest - that's me sorted for a few more days!

Oooh, thank you langlandgirl!

Yes - extension hopefully going ahead soon after 5 years with a manky old kitchen that's not been touched since the 70s!

Boo - I have my heart set on a step in corner larder cupboard thingy but can't see one on the DIY kitchen page 😡

The corner larder was my non-negotiable in the new kitchen.
We've ordered ours from Wickes - so just fairly standard, not very high tech, but will suit our home perfectly, & most importantly, we love it.
It's from the Tiiverton range, oak painted cream.

has anyone seen a pull out corner larder. A pull out larder is the only thing dh is insisting on but the way the designs are looking, a tall unit in the corner is going to be a strong contender - but it would need to be a pull out!

error wickes is where I got the idea from. I've not looked through the catalogue but the only one I saw in store was oak coloured which wouldn't fit with what we want.. do they do it in other ranges too?

Yes!!
All colours & all ranges 😀
We didn't know until we asked

Thank you! It'll give us more storage than we currently have in the whole kitchen!

Me too!

Can't find it on the website! Think we have a catalogue somewhere. Can you remember how much they are??

List price for Tiverton corner larder £1056, we've got ours on 50% off deal, so £528

Not sure if this will work, but I've taken a photo of the CGI mock up

langlandgirl we were in Homebase this morning and I saw this Schreiber Eaton kitchen and wondered if it might suit you? Shaker doors and big drawers but slab smaller drawers. Looked like nice quality.

Lurky your post made me snort! Yes, v boring indeed It seems I'm not the only boring one on here though...

errorof judgement we spent ages in Wickes trying to look at kitchens/worktops etc etc whilst intermittently shutting DD in that larder, she loved it!

God Miaow, sounds hideous, what a nightmare having a sick builder I was wondering about those pull out bins. We'd need 3 caddies in it - rubbish, then two for different types of recycling. Does it have to fit the full cupboard width do you know? Ours ideally would go under the kitchen sink which is a 600mm unit. It'd be good if it was only taking up half the width though, say three in a narrow line so we can put dishwasher tablets/cleaning bits in the other half of the cupboard. Do you know if you can do that?

AButterfly not sure if you've seen these but

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.tfk.uk.com/downloads/Franke_q02_SorterBrochure.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjmgKT146nLAhVH1RQKHYorDUAQFgghMAA&usg=AFQjCNFIACbE7Ih1OwC-CU6gPbDQnMCcaQ&sig2=LEbO_johuyrcrGzmCQJlNg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.tfk.uk.com/downloads/Franke_q02_SorterBrochure.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjmgKT146nLAhVH1RQKHYorDUAQFgghMAA&usg=AFQjCNFIACbE7Ih1OwC-CU6gPbDQnMCcaQ&sig2=LEbO_johuyrcrGzmCQJlNg

Has a kick pedal so you can open you bin with hands full of potato peelings, you can sort your rubbish and there's a shelf for your dishwasher stuff.

Had one in our last house. Want one in our current one !