DIY kitchens- anyone want to look over my plan?

[FourOnTheHill]

Kitchen plan nearly finalised, would anyone like to take a look and comment on whether you think it’s ok?

Also... colours! It’ll be shaker style, Linwood or Norton and I want to go bespoke with the colour but we are still figuring out if we can afford that and what colour we’d choose if we did.

Worktops will be light quartz and floor will be limestone.

Anyone got a DIY kitchen they’re pleased with that they’d like to post photos of? Did you have pelmets and cornices? Are these necessary?

I think it's bonkers to design a kitchen around an existing freezer. What if it packed up a month after you get your kitchen?

I agree - can you sell the existing one?

Or perhaps ask diykitchens if there's any way of hiding it behind a a unit. I'm sure I've seen something like that on their q&a's.

It's all very well for DH to be adamant about stuff but he's not getting his "hands dirty" dealing with impact. It's an absolute no-brainer to me to put in integrated bins if they'd also buy you 50-60cm more worktop.

If you are going to fork out for an integrated fridge anyway and live with the compromise of a freestanding freezer in the dining area, I think I'd rather save your money, go with an existing fridge at the end for now (if you have a freestanding one already, keeping existing freezer in dining area) and neaten it all up by replacing both with an american FF in the longer term.

Hmm yes maybe we can sell it. It’s only a crappy cheap white Beko! Dh does in fact get his hands dirty all the time, he does most of the cooking and putting bins out and a fair share of cleaning and he could successfully use that argument against me so I’m not going to try it! Our crappy existing freestanding fridge is knackered and leaks so we need a new one anyway.

The other thing we might do is scrap the left hand side altogether, use our freestanding freezer until it dies, put our old dresser in the gap, and put all of the budget into get the other side right.

It's hard isn't it, there are soooo many variables. Our neighbours and we are both planning kitchen refits and it's amazing how different our priorities are. That leads to totally different designs. So ultimately what's ideal for you would probably still be picked at by the rest of us!

The idea of a freezer over there is sound, I think. I prefer the idea of a bank of tall cupboards on the left, but how I'd balance that against eg investing in posher worktops... No idea!

I think you just have to live with some things being a bit spread out. The thing is, the hob should not ideally be in the centre of the kitchen, it causes congestion to the left and wasted space to the right. OTOH I can completely see why it looks balanced how you have it! On balance I think more important than to put hot dishes on nearby work top than tea cup. Hope you get there!

OP, I've got a 70 cm hob with a 70 cm hood, does it job fine never wished I had a bigger hood. I have two sets of 90cm deep drawers with a shallow drawer on top, these are under my hob with no problem with the two drawers edges meeting exactly in the middle of my hob.

Ah mando12345 that’s great so it might be possible. DIY are going to check it for me I’ve done a support ticket for it but haven’t heard back yet. I sent them another 1000 questions.

thanks everyone for all the input and reading all this! It is all very subjective but we’ve got to the stage where having people pick at it is very useful. We are trying to figure out if we can afford to do a bespoke colour too but that really is hard to canvas opinions on.

PS really do the integrated bins. Get the ones with 2x 32 ltr bins, one for waste, one for recycling. Plus more worktop next to the dishwasher.

We are in discussions about the bins

I don't think it's worth fighting over the bins, if you get extra worktop space in that position I think it will be used as additional dumping ground for stuff waiting to go in the dishwasher.
I think leave the fridge and oven where they are, it's better to be nearer somewhere to put your bit stuff down from the oven. My fridge is not very near my tea and coffee area and is honestly no problem to take the milk to my beverage area.

Put the freestanding bins into the children's rooms to encourage them to be tidy!

@FourOnTheHill I'm currently planning a DIY kitchen too. Didn't know they had an online planner - how do you access it?! I've spent the last few weeks faffing with little bits of paper....

mando12345 that’s good re milk in tea!

The conversation has moved on from bins (still undecided) to open shelves instead of wall units around the hob. Is this madness? I have figured out a few things from looking at millions of customer kitchens on the diy site. 1. am not sure I like wall units 2. Their small cupboards and drawers don’t look great. Got to aim for biggest doors possible everywhere.

Jeanzbeanz google diy kitchen planner separately rather than searching via the main site? And do share your plan with us if you like once you’ve done one. The planner is a bit buggy but has worked better for me than anyone else’s online software. It hasn’t been working at all for me in the last 2 days not sure why. I need to call them again and ask... also the prices on the planner aren’t accurate so ignore them. They will check the plan for you and then add it to an actual basket once you’ve done it so you can see the actual cost.

I'd say no to open shelves near the hob unless you're the typed of person who will keep it scrupulously clean on a weekly basis. Everything that's on it will get a build up of sticky dust.

What size cupboards have you got planned for that wall atm?

I just looked at your plan again - 600mm is plenty wide enough. They look big in real life.
Here's a picture of a 500mm in our kitchen.

We had a new kitchen last year. My advice:
go for wide drawers under your hob, and get a 4 burner one with an extractor at least as wide. Swap the small set of drawers for a cupboard. We now only have 3 wide drawers Andy I was worried that I'd need another set, but I don't!
Don't have wall cupboards directly up to your hob, the heat eventually melts the wrap on the doors.
Have the fridge at the end and get the joiner to build it in, it will finish it off nicely and look intergrated.
Don't have a larder unit, you need more worktop space. Have a base and wall cupboard instead so you can put stuff from the oven there.
Open shelving attracts dust and grease. Looks good but needs cleaning lots!
Don't buy a corner carousel. I have small boxes from ikea in mine, costs very little and much better for getting stuff out. I've had a carousel before!
If there's room, have a narrow base cupboard next to the dishwasher for your bins, again ikea do great cheap pull out bins on runners.

I'd agree that you probably need fewer drawers than you think. We've only got 4 drawers in the whole kitchen.

We've got the wide integrated drawer in the pan drawers that holds all our cutlery. Then the only other drawers are in the oven tower unit (2x pan drawers) and I too use IKEA storage boxes so everything's organised and easy to access then another internal drawer in the bin cupboard.

You are right about sticky dust we have open shelves right now and they are filthy. Yes 60cm + looks fine is that a 720 high cupboard

Yes I think so - it's not an extra tall one so just the regular size. Our old cupboards in the decrepit kitchen were only about 55cm high so I love how much I can store in these.

Have as many pan drawers as you can! So much easier to get things out of drawers instead of fishing in the back of cupboards. All our crockery is in drawers as well as pans.

Yes I love pan drawers. I’m back to wanting wall cupboards now thanks to you lot! What are these Ikea boxes like MissisBoote and Bezm? Might go there tomorrow to escape the heat. IKEA does have aircon doesn’t it?

jeansbeanz did you find the planner? I still can’t get it to work! planner.diy-kitchens.com

If anyone’s still following this I went to Ikea and found the double sink that goes all the way to the back of the worksurface. It’s fab.

Also kept the DC cool on this ridiculous weather