Kitchen splashbacks and plugs - please talk to me!

[shovetheholly]

My first kitchen, so please assume I am a total numpty about it all!

Two questions about splashbacks (if that is the right word for the bit that goes on the wall between the countertop and the wall units?). Firstly, I have 2 x 4 metre runs of worktop in my planned kitchen, facing each other. I would like there to be totally smooth, continuous splashbacks not tiles if possible, and I'd like the splashbacks to be unbroken so there are no joins. But is this possible with a 4 metre length? Most places seem to stop at about 3 metres? How have others solved this issue?

Also, it has only just occurred to me that I will need plug sockets. I don't really want to break the splashbacks to put these in. So I have been wondering about putting them in the side walls instead at either end of the kitchen. But will it drive me mad not having plugs more centrally down the run of units? Or will it just look odd having them at the ends?

I want everything to be very minimal!

Oh, it really shows lily. I am so in awe of your skill and knowledge! I feel like part of my problem is that there are a huge range of solutions that I just don't know about, so I don't feel any confidence that the choices I am making are good ones! Being as ignorant as I am is quite stressful!

Hahahahahaha pigletjohn. I LOVE the idea of socket wallpaper!

Everyone keeps telling me I will need more of them than I think as well... maybe this is the answer!

Hahaha, holly - I said I was a designer. Never said I was a good one! :D You know what you want, that's half the battle. I specialise in kitchens so feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

Actually OP my kitchen was done on a budget even though the house is high value. We hadn't actually planned on doing the kitchen at that time but we had a leak and then one thing led to another..

So we ended up with an IKEA kitchen which we pimped to high heaven. I added feet and trim and used lots of designed tricks like taking the wall units all the way to the ceiling and stacking base units to create enormous larder style units. I spent a long time on Houzz.com looking at what I liked and working out cheap ways to achieve the look.

It wasn't one of those "do your whole kitchen for £2,000" jobs but I spent less than £15k including new flooring, enormous range cooker, designer wallpaper, marble tiles, posh lighting and walnut work surfaces.

sharp - you know so much you MUST be good! That's a very, very kind offer, thank you so much! I may pester you about minutiae when I have done more thinking if that is OK?

Oh wow - that's pretty much exactly what I am doing atticus. Looking a lot at the pictures of what I like and then trying to work out how to get it for a lot less! Mine will be Ikea as well... I love all the German ones, but they are way beyond my budget! Units that go right to the ceiling are on my plan as well - I hate cleaning on top of my currrent ones!!

I have two long splashbacks as well and while I wasn't militant about long sleek lines, my mum is desperate to put a pot plant or something. I have 5 double sockets, one with USB power on one side. Rather than having them evenly spaced, I've got two together hidden by the toaster. Then two at the end and one down the side of the cabinet. Pic attached.

Oh wow, thanks jaffa - it's good to see what a mixed approach to sockets (side, countertop, wall) looks like! I think you are right that I will want more sockets than I realise!

Yes, you will wish for more sockets. I wish I had one more, stupid I did not sit and think about that a bit longer. Although I am still ahead one socket more than my old kitchen.

I'm reverting to pigletjohn's plan of not having a splashback, and just having a wall of sockets!

We've done IKEA kitchen and then bought stainless steel sockets for about £10-15 each - I think they make the whole place look posher. IKEA kitchens are fine as long as you don't let spills run off the worktop as the lower doors will swell and split.

Just ordered our countertop so will have granite counter and upstand, and a stainless steel splashback behind the cooker. If money was no object I'd have a glass splashback all along that wall - the hob is next to the draining board - so might possibly upgrade that in a decade or so...

Ps I was supposed to not have the one in the foreground. The builders ignored the diagram clearly showing the "power drawer" and just did that instead. It was one of those annoying things that I got over.

Just finishing our own new build and my kitchen is the one I've dreamed about for 14 years! The whole thing was about £5k (no appliances except oven)

DIY Kitchens handleless cupboards in cream in a U shape and an island. And a run of 3 base units in the dining area that looks like a bespoke sideboard,for all crockery, cutlery, napkins etc.
Slate grey laminate worktop on the U, oak solid wood worktops on the island and 'sideboard'.
Slate grey Karndean flooring around the U, engineered oak floor everywhere else.
Slate grey upstand around the U.
Cream painted walls.
No tiles.
No wall cupboards (but one full height oven housing and a slim full height pull-out larder) so it feels more open.
No extractor needed because we have a built-in ventilation system.
Clear glass splashback (about £60) behind the Smeg 5-burner Gas hob
Chrome double sockets and switches every 60cm, inc one on the side of the island.
No fixtures or fittings on the island, it has an overhang on 2 sides so the four of us can eat breakfast together there (or my friends can drink gin and help me chop veggies on it!)
90cm double stainless steel sink and tap with spray/swirl attachment
Quooker boiling water tap on the edge of the sink means no kettle required.

It looks really simple but expensive! The carpenters have been amazing and made it look classy and well made. One or two expensive quality pieces really pimp the whole look (I have done similar stuff with the bathrooms)

I've been helping out as a setbuilder on Corrie

I bought glass splash backs from a local glass place, they cut the socket holes in advance, and I had them placed behind things, like the TV and the kettle. My kitchen is approx 13ft long and its one long piece of glass, no joins.

@atticusclaw2 not sure if you are still on here 8 years later, but would love to know how you did this. Want to do the same. Thank you

You can buy strips that sit under the wall units. You need to put a trim on the underside of the wall unit to make it look good so that the plugs are hidden

Some would say that hiding your sockets will make them inconvenient to use.

An electrical switch or socket is not an indecent object that must be concealed from sight, like the legs of a piano.

@atticusclaw2 I will look up those strips, sound ideal. Thank you very much for coming back on this as everyone else tells me not to do it.
We will have a carpenter bespoke fitting the cabinets so wonder if I can get him to fit the strip within the base of the cabinets? Sort of a false floor.
@PigletJohn (bit star struck after years of following your advice on here). I think I am channeling my inner Victorian. It will mostly be messy teens trying to cook /splash food everywhere so a bit of dissuasion no bad thing I feel. But aiming for a kitchen which can be wiped down super quick as nothing on surfaces or walls. Going slightly clutter mad here.

It’s not even vaguely inconvenient, they’re just on the underside of the wall units rather than on the walls

@atticusclaw2 yes I have chatted with several friends in the trade and the main objection seems to be that they are unsightly unless you cornice around base of wall unit. Which seems easy enough to hide. Am pleased at prospect of smooth splash back
So thank you from me and my electrically modest kitchen.