Planning a kitchen

[Nearlyhaveahouse]

Does anyone have any words of wisdom on planning a kitchen from scratch. The difficulty being that we're not wanting a fitted kitchen and want to do it ourselves...

You want this thread...
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/1554664-The-MN-lessons-learnt-kitchen-thread

Ah... Thanks!

NoSuchThing :

Thanks for that thread.

Renovating my flat and had to fire my builder because of some of the things I wanted and he did not see the need for them:

I wanted cabinet all the way to the ceiling
Tiled the whole kitchen floor before cabinets are installed. He just wanted to tile up to the cabinets.
I wanted porcelain tiles that resemble hard wood flooring
I wanted the area around the cooker hood completely tiled so that the hood will be resting on the tiles.
I wanted no handles - after reading that thread might reconsider.

Even if its an unfitted kitchen, the ergonomics /layout and storage need to work. Don't end up with quirky but impractical. The messy areas (sink, prep) should be easy to clean too.

Fridge, oven and sink in a triangle. Cupboards that are 800 wide with 2 x 400 wide doors easier to open than 600 wide doors (especially high level.) Lots of drawers, easier than cupboards for accessing pans etc.

I find it hard to understand how a non fitted kitchen works. How do the work surfaces butt up to the walls? How do you stop grease etc going behind the cabinet tops (work surface)? Marks and Spencer and Habitat used to do non fitted but I really thought it was a recipe for difficult cleaning!