Kitchen colours

[glorious]

We're having a big open plan kitchen/dining/living space built. South facing with glass doors onto garden and lots of velux windows in roof.

We'll be selling in a couple of years so I want to do something buyers will find inoffensive. Floor needs to be tiled and units will most likely be handleless off white matt finish.

What would you want on the walls, what worktops and what floor tiles?

Hopefully you'll get lots of different answers and can take a sample!

First I would like a good layout of workspace and storage.

Floor tiles that don't show every crumb or absorb dirt in grout/textured finish and are non-slip. Not too dark if there is a whole room of them.

Splash back probably better neutral as one person's "pop of colour" is another's "lurid". Green glass or white tiles?

Worktop - what is your budget? I think I'd go for a square edge wood effect, if everything else is stone/painted.

If the whole room works together as a whole, and in proportion to style/value of house, then you should be fine. Brighten up with some art or soft furnishings in your lovely new space.

Are you tiling right through the living/dining space, mediterranean style?

We're about to do the exact same thing so this is so useful! Out of interest, what is the size of your room?

Here's mine. white units (except for grey island). Quartz work top (called Brazilian Canadian white but basically white with grey flecks). Wood effect floor tiles ( my favourite floor tiles I have ever had - I have a smaller plank version in my bathroom).

Walls in kitchen end are a soft grey (colour matched to Neptune Shingle). Dining end in Dulux Timeless

That looks gorgeous!

I would do a very light grey. Or a white with a hint of grey !

Good luck wit it all !

Will it have underfloor heating?

Would prefer natural stone or porcelain floor tiles in kitchen with grey grout. Wood in living/dining areas. Worktops quartz preferably or granite second choice. Would rather have a good laminate than wood worktops, then I can always replace them later. Stick to whites/ivory/creams...grey for floors only as I feel that's going to look very dated in about 10 years time. Coloured kitchen units probably too controversial if you're going to be selling.

Also, no glass splashbacks, I don't think it can just be me who doesn't like those. Upstands made out of worktop materials are fine, tiles if you must.

notme yes, tiled right through. We have another double reception room (knocked through from two) at the front of the house, so that can be a bit cosier. But for this new space backing onto the garden I want something I can mop!

Between the front of the house and this new bit will be a corridor with built in storage (or possibly tall units matching the kitchen), off which is a downstairs loo and utility. I'm planning to use the same floor tiles in both of those as well so that it all just flows through.

We don't have a layout yet but we will probably have floor to ceiling units down one side, an island and floor units only down the other. We might have floor units on the short wall nearest the rest of the house as well or just put our enormous fridge freezer there. Not sure, we need to speak to some designers to get some ideas

We don't have any particular budget constraint on the worktops as long as the build doesn't go over massively. Well, we can't afford glass, but quartz or granite or corian or whatever would be fine. I love the look of wood worktops with light units but I'm paranoid about the maintenance so I've probably ruled that out.

blackcountry It's about 8m by just under 5m in total, of which we're currently planning half will be kitchen and the other half dining/living, but that's flexible.

I think what I'm struggling with is how to make it neutral (at least in the permanent bits like tiles) but not totally bland or clinical.

allthebest that's lovely. Where are your units from?

I've attached a picture of the relevant part of the plans in case it helps. Any thoughts on the utility room also welcome - would you have it exactly the same in terms of units and tiles? I'm thinking so but I might have a different wall colour, perhaps something a bit bolder as it's a small and easy space for someone to redecorate if they want.

tremolo cross posted with you. I can see why you're saying wood in the living area (which I'd personally like too) but with small child I think it's too risky to have wood at the end of the new space with big doors onto the garden. I'd also like to keep the flooring the same in the whole room as it's just a big box with no obvious points to make the transition.

Quartz we can do. Undecided on heating. We had underfloor in the kitchen in our last house and it was so expensive to run we hardly ever had it on. But it would be nice! I think we'll see how much it'd cost to install.

We're also having white units and a neutral tiled/stone floor. I'm also worried that it will end up looking like a lab. I like the idea of having tiles that look like wood to warm things up a bit...best of both worlds? I also think you can warm it up with some colour on one wall and rugs in the living/dining area. Underfloor heating - I think you're talking about electric UFH which is ££ to run. We're having wet UFH which is much more effecient.

We have engineered oak through our our kitchen/diner/snug and it works really well and can be mopped (well we mop with a 123 spray and go mop with wood floor cleaner). We don't have underfloor heating but I would want it with a tiled floor. This is ours:
www.houzz.co.uk/projects/787449/open-plan-extension-with-office-corner

Just done ours.

For the walls, I would just keep them white or have a very pale grey. I wouldn't have a splashback at all, personally I think they're dated, so I'd just have a worktop with an upstand. Its much easier to add a splashback if a buyer wants one than to try to remove one. Quartz for the work tops - have had it in my last 2 kitchens and I love it. So practical. I have a marble effect and it really lightens the room.

I also have engineered oak flooring throughout - tiles are too cold without underfloor heating - which is either expensive to run for such a big space or is only secondary heating anyway. They're also very hard (thinking young children and injuries). I'd have tall column radiators as the heat source and engineered oak flooring (with a rug in the living space if you want to soften the look).

Allthebest is flooring real wood/laminate or are they ceramic?

marmite yours is beautiful, and going by your architect's area code you are in or near my home town . We have had engineered oak before and it did start to mark by the door despite our best efforts. We are probably less diligent than you! We will most likely do the whole front of this house in it though, and use the side door when it's raining!

Blackcountry sounds like you're having very similar worries! I'll look into wet underfloor heating. Yes wood effect tiles might be a compromise. What's your actual room going to be like?

name I like the look of upstands only, and that would save some money too. We would need something behind the cooker though - what would you do there?

We don't have anything behind it. I very rarely use all 4 rings (actually I rarely use more than 2!) so they're at the front if you see what I mean, away from the wall. I also don't cook much that spits or splashes, not so that it would affect the wall.

In the last kitchen, we touched up the paint once when the wall did get splashed, but I think it was once in about 3 years.

You are a tidier cook than me! We're going to have a big range cooker because we do tend to use lots of rings and going by how often I need to clean the tiles I think I'd be repainting a lot. We cook a lot of Chinese food with chilli pastes and the like in hot woks... I'm making my kitchen sound like a total mess aren't I?!

I might look at gettting a splash back in the worktop material or just a small amount of tiling (though I would dearly love not to have to clean grout any more)

glorius our room will be 10m by 4.2m with 2 sets of bifolding doors along the 10m wall. We're having a one wall kitchen with an island at one end (hob on island so i can face the rest of the room whilst cooking), a seating area at the other end and a dining table in between. Very much the same layout as in attached pics...but our room will be a little narrower!

for tiles, don't have white grout, it will never look clean. Try dark grey. Or dirt-coloured if you prefer.

Thank you glorious. We originally had no splashback behind the sink and just a granite upstand. The walk kept getting sprayed though and I got fed up with it. My DH has now tiled behind it which is so much better. I love our glass splash back behind the range cooker but I do still get the occasional splash on the wall which I have to paint over.

Wow that's going to be great black country. I love the long length being across the width rather than length as it makes it less of a corridor (sadly not an option here).

Definitely dark grout if tiles pigletjohn, noted.

Marmite I think I would be the same. Thanks for the feedback.

All this talk of splashes is making me slightly nervous

We're having our hob on the island (which is 1.2m deep) - Am I asking for trouble?

you can just mop the floor with Flash, surely? There will be a haze of grease when you fry.

Many gas hobs have a glass lid that hinges back, but it might look odd on an island.