Kitchen advice

[SunshineHQ]

OK, lovely Mumsnetters. I am trying to understand kitchens, and had a few questions:

If you were buying your kitchen again, are there any bits you would do differently?

Wren kitchens were strongly pushing for integrated cooker, hob, fridge/freezer, dishwasher etc - ie integrated into the cupboard units, with matching doors etc. My mum says not to do this, and to leave under counter spaces for these (standard size) so you can choose exactly which models. What do you reckon?

Wren kitchens were also encouraging me towards a marble or granite worktop. Any recommendations on which colours are best at staying clean looking?

Am I crazy to want an American style fridge?

I would say have you looked anywhere but when because they don't get great reviews. Sorry.
Our kitchen installation starts Tuesday. We are having freestanding dishwasher and fridge freezer. Ovens (2 singles) and hob will be integrated. I don't like integrated because you don't get as much choice and they are often more expensive, fridge freezers usually have smaller capacity too. I would love an American fridge freezer but ours is not that old so will have to wait until needs replacing, I've designed the kitchen so that we can get a wider one in the future. I suppose it depends on whether the look of appliances bothers you or not.

Kitchen places will want to sell you new appliances, and if they sell you integrated they'll also sell you the carcass and doors. Integrated can be a pain if they go wrong but do give a nice seamless look.

Our budget is more separate appliances than integrated. It really depends how much you want to spend. I was doing some kitchen designs today, just on ikea so nothing £££. Using their automatic design tool, it was £2.5k for the kitchen and an extra £2.5k for all new appliances!