Kitchen ideas please

[peelywheely]

Hi all!

I was hoping you could give me some ideas to re-do my kitchen in my small Victorian house. I've read pretty much everyone kitchen related discussion on here but I wanted some personalised opinions. I can't afford a side-return type extension, but I have about £15-18k to re-do it my kitchen I drew up a plan below of what I thought it could look like (Pics and plan are linked HERE). I was thinking of replacing the horrible uPVC doors with a single aluminium framed glass patio door, and enlarging the window at the end to the floor. This would be the expensive bit because it needs moving to the right slightly so it doesn't run behind the worktop, and also needs opening more on the right side to see the garden so it needs a new lintel but it's a gable wall and shouldn't be bearing the load of the roof. I guess I'll need structural calcs done anyway. It is a small kitchen so I think maximising light and trying to have a flow to the outside would make it seem bigger.

I was going to go with these units

And get some white-ish quartz tops made up. If I can afford it I will go for a polished screed / concrete floor with UFH, but probably cant afford that so will just go for large format grey tiles. I was going to try and get a big 700mm undermount sink, with a silent(ish) chimney type extractor. Not sure on the backsplash.

Ideas please (so I don't spend alot of money making a mistake)!!!!

Thanks all!!!

PS pics and plan linked again HERE

Quartz used as backsplash as well as worktop?

Yeah I was thinking of doing with just the upstand bit. Originally I wanted a copper sheet like in HERE but I read on this site that metal backsplashes are hard to keep looking so good!

Yep I can second that we are also removing a stainless steel splashback, one of the proviso’s of my new kitchen is that it has to be easy to keep clean, so going integrated appliances, hidden extractor, cupboards up to ceiling, induction hob so can be wiped clean.

Does the house have any original features/character? Where's the washing machine as I didn't see it on the plan? Not keen on that kitchen - just blocky and characterless. To my mind more suited to a bigger, maybe sleeker setting.

It has some, but some have been ripped out over time. I’m not a big fan of character kitchens in general, but I agree for a small kitchen like mine it would probably be more appropriate. If I had the money I would extend into the side return and get myself an island and space for a dining table infront of sliding doors. But sadly that isn’t on the cards!

Bonkersblond, I am going for an easy clean job too and hopefully floor to ceiling units. Why is the extractor fan important to be integrated? I have struggled to find one that is very powerful and also very silent and I can’t find one unless it’s in the chimney type ones...

I'm not sure I'd go medium grey plain floor with medium grey units. It all looks a bit stark to me, but I guess that's the aesthetic you're going for.

With the fridge next to the door, do you actually need to go to the expense of fitting a pocket door? I'd just get a normal sliding door / barn door that slots into the space between fridge and wall. Have you got enough depth of unit for the door to fully slide into the recess, or would it be sticking out into the doorway?

Ideally I would maybe move the boiler, and move the fridge and oven down into the boiler corner. It's a shame to have a double galley but have the 2 sides of worktop offset, so you can never do the "spinning on a heel" thing to get to all the worktop. I think visually it would look bigger having the 2 worktops opposite each other too. But moving the boiler is obviously not to be done lightly.

Personally I'd swap the oven (which I assume is an eye level one) for built under to maximise the worktop, but this is personal choice.

Adding to what wowfudge said, we had several kitchen designers in, the first two, Magnet and Wickes weren't much cop, they designed a kitchen but nothing special and they were expensive. Out of frustration I went to an independent kitchen shop, their designer suggested a couple of tweaks, such as moving the internal kitchen door and making a window bigger and moving the boiler, they weren't afraid to suggest things which although would cost us extra money would enhance and both suggestions are going to make such a difference, you don't have to go with them just get their ideas, we ended up going with ours but we fell in love with a kitchen!

Peely, I'm done with having to get on a chair to stand on to clean my stainless steel extractor fan housing, I'm having integrated so I don't have to do this! Can't comment on performance or noise but it can't be any noiser than what we currently have.

Anenome, I completely hear what you are saying but I was just put off by having to move the boiler. Maybe I am thinking about it the wrong way, and should actually imagine the room being completely bare and then start from that. The cost is an issue though.

The pocket door or just a regular sliding door I would be fine with, it won’t stick out. But I guess just the sliding door is cheaper and takes up less space in an already small space!

I’ll have a look at an oven under the worktop. From what I see online eye level ovens are all the rage so perhaps I was blindsided by this!!!!

Bonkersblond, I will take a look at the smaller designers and see what they suggest. Interesting point about cleaning the extractor - I am quite tall so used to be able to reach up and clean the one in our old place but it helped the ceiling in the kitchen was fairly low compared to the rest of the house! Do you find it hard to reach the top of full height cabinets?? It is one thing I am concerned with not being able to get to the back of the cupboard!!!

Absolutely OP, you don't have to justify anything. We were warned that moving the boiler means taking the risk you end up replacing it - a very expensive business.

What about either wood / LVT that looks like wood / tile that looks like wood in a herringbone pattern? That would maybe add abit of character?

How old is your current boiler, we decided to replace when moved as it’s coming up 15 years old and we didn’t want to do a new kitchen around an existing boiler if it would then need replacing in a couple of years.

About 1.5 years old. When we bought the place we knew it would need one as it was old and had never been serviced, but it packed completely up after about 6 months so that was a nice 2 grand surprise!