Best kitchen decisions on a budget?

[Isohungy]

We are about to put in a kitchen- one wall floor to ceiling pantry etc then 2 walls just base units, small island.

I find on here people are often spending 15-30k+ on kitchens which just isn't whats going to happen here...

I want to make my kitchen low maintenance, look great and prioritise money to choices that will make all the difference...

What can't you live without but isn't a 6k walk in pantry 😬

A deeper drawer for pans and a dishwasher, those are my essentials. My kitchen was done on a budget years ago, got everything from Howdens. It still looks good now.

I saw an island on a programme somewhere that was on rubber wheels and could be moved to where you wanted it. I thought that was a great idea. Sadly haven't been able to copy yet.

Wide pan drawers with cutlery drawers over. We have 2 X 80cm ones for pans, jugs, cutlery, Tupperware etc. For larder cupboards I like the separate pull out drawers.

If you like ceramic sinks we are pleased with our apron-fronted-look IKEA one that is suitable for use with laminate. It's one of the Havsens I think.

For the corner, one L shaped cupboard is fine, much cheaper than the whizzy gizmos in blind corner cabinets, and useful for big bowls, roasting tins etc. I do also love a magic corner unit but they are expensive.

Our integrated beko dishwasher is great.

Pan drawers. I love them we have them either side of our range.
I went for a baking cupboard instead of a larder one. I like to bake and this meant the Kenwood could be out on the worktop all the time. The doors are down to the worktop and hinged so they can be folded back when I need to. It houses all my sugar, flour, icing etc above and a few things like lentils, cereal etc in Tupperware. I have a better quality corner cupboard than I used to have and it is great. The other one dipped after a couple of years and drove me a bit mad.

Love our breakfast bar. Dishwasher invaluable. Our fridge is 2/3 fridge, 1/3 freezer and not big enough. (Am guessing it will never breakdown on us so that I can replace it) Otherwise layout is just fab and that's what makes it. Kitchen quite basic.

We've got 3 larder/pantry units (sorry, I'm not fully down with the lingo! One normal corner base cupboard, one magic corner and then everything else is pan drawers (2 utensil ones inside) i'm wondering if I'll miss having some pull out normal draws for keeping crap ?

Going for a composite sink. Sadly our plan to have stone work tops are swiftly circling the drain as fitting and remedial works are pushing everything up to circa 12k faints current kitchen really is a shit hole though and we have fuck all storage elsewhere hence the wall of larders.

I feel really stressed actually. Not enjoying this at all! So many mistakes to be made.

My DD has a wall of floor to ceiling units with built in microwave and American fridge freezer. They are too high to reach at the top, the pull out larder thingies don't hold very much and are a bugger to close when full.

Currently storing everything on top of units that I can't reach as it is! Mainly for kids craft and extra bits really. I'll buy a set of steps perhaps?

I feel sick with worry that we are spending so much and I've no idea if it'll be right.

Redwood- im considering a free standing island but worried they look obviously "not part of" /cheaper?

Having worked through some of this for ourselves recently (with imaginary money) I've decided that yeah, the whole kitchen thing is a bit insane!
Really our budget is non existent once appliances have been factored in.
We also may extend out in a few years (we have just bought the house) so putting a pricey fitted kitchen in seems wasteful.
The solution I've come to is..

• the kitchen is about the activities that take place there, and how it makes you feel
• for me, fond memories of sitting at a big kitchen table while talking to my mum made me realise that
• it's not about the finish or the additional extras
• it's a place to cook, be together, have friends, entertain
• we are going for a few freestanding units (iKEA varde / habitat Olivia) and the best appliances we can afford
• it will evolve over time
• got a nice piece of marble from Freecycle too!

(Btw we have a budget of £4.5k)

Think really practically about how the kitchen will function in use. For example:

Is there a space for your kettle near the sink, rather than the other side of the room?

Do you have plug sockets where you want small appliances to go?

Do you have a counter top near the fridge to put down items?

What items do you actually have that you need to store, eg pans, baking trays, serving platters, and do have got somewhere for all of them?

Stuff like that doesn't cost anything but it makes the kitchen work so much better in practice.

Here here to @PCohle
Planning is so important

A few total bargains can free up money for other bits. Our actual cabinets are an eBay bargain from someone’s much larger kitchen (John Lewis of hungerford £250) a bit of graph paper and a few evenings drawing everything out and a good fitter gave us a perfect layout.

Our lovely sink was another eBay bargain. I knew exactly what I wanted and scouted and stalked until I found the exact one, drove about an hour to get it but well worth it to save £300.

Our worktops are slate from the reclaimation yard (not actually pre used, comes in long lengths) but were less than £600.

We bought a posh tap and beautiful tiles, which we did ourselves, just behind the cooker rather than all around. We also tiled the floor ourselves , the first tiling we’d ever done but actually straight forward and easily diy-able.

We’ve got nice sockets, not a huge expense but finish it off nicely. And we painted it all, cabinets and walls ourselves which was pretty boring but still look good 4 or 5 years on

Oh and I don’t think islands are all that. Much prefer a big table. More practical and SO much cheaper. You can push it out of the way when you need a kitchen dance floor. Get an old pine farmhouse one

I really liked the idea of a big farmhouse table. Food prep at one end, kids doing homework at the other, casual dining - real heart of the home stuff. But my friend got one and it's at totally the wrong height for food prep and has just become a dumping ground.

Like others I have gone for all drawer units in the bases, other than corners. Drawers are much more useful as you can get to the back.

Pan drawers are fine. I have used different sized baskets and trays inside one for my bits and bobs drawer. I have also got a bin unit that has a waste bin and recycling bin - with more space I would have had a unit with one waste and 2 recycling.

Look at planner.diy-kitchens.com/plan/edit-shape/ You can plan your kitchen on there and see all the different options re drawers, pullout units, cupboards, tall units, islands etc. There are lots of different widths and configurations. My kitchen from there (abut 3 m of tall units including fridge and oven housing, 3 m of base and a small island) was about 3.5 thousand

@PCohle can I ask why the table is wrong height for food prep? Surely you would be sitting down? Curious as we are thinking of adapting our design to replace island with the large kitchen table we already have. Our space isn't really big enough for bothZ

Have you looked at DIY Kitchens? One showroom in Yorkshire which is how they keep their prices down. I had a great day out there having got train from London. I got three double pan drawers, six upper cupboards, a magic corner, three pull out tall larder units, a double oven tower with cupboards top and bottom, an island which has cupboards /drawers ago-go and also integral bins, plus three large tall cupboards and four top boxes for under £8k the lot. They're AMAZING.

Alternatively go for Ikea carcasses and go elsewhere for nice doors.

Plykea

Superfront

Others are available!

We can't put a table in- well we can but at the expense of layout= storage.

I hear you RE the planning. I will try to upload our plans.

Depending on how much and what sort of thing you cook, I love my pull out spice rack (3 shelves) and oil rack (2 shelves). They are so much better access and neater than having herbs / oils rammed into a cupboard / piled up on the worktop.

Magic corners waste a lot of space in a cupboard compared to a L shaped cupboard with a folding door. Depending on how tight on space you are, it might be something to reconsider.

So with a limited budget here’s what I would prioritise:

• Layout (doesn’t cost anything, just keep thinking about how you’d do daily tasks and redrawing till you are happy)
• Drawers rather than cupboards, as many as possible
• Decent tap
• Decent size fridge (May not actually be more expensive - just check the internal sizes carefully)
• Under cabinet lighting, makes such a difference and also you can get away with fewer ceiling lights if you have it
• Nice handles (although if you go handleless you can save money and get a high end look )

For stone - there is a lot of second hand or new but heavily reduced granite around as everyone now wants marble or quartz. If you are happy with granite look around and I bet you will find a bargain. Wood is just as beautiful and much cheaper of course but more high maintenance.

What do you guys make of this?

I cook lots, 2 kids, 2dogs and a cat. Use lots of spices and herbs etc.

My parents had a Poggenpohl kitchen, and this had secret drawers instead of kickboards at the bottom. Great for kids craft stuff - get the kids to take it out and put it back, save you bending over.
I'm seriously tempted to stick some floor runners and a drawer behind my (cheap, 25+ year old kitchen) kickboards. Am sure it'd be pretty cheap to do. Failing that I'm considering just sticking an under bed box under there....

@TiddleTaddleTat it is the right height if you're sitting, but I (most people?) prefer to stand to prep food.

My friend was making dinner and watching her going back and forth between the fridge/cooker/sink/prep area whilst also bobbing up and down and trying to pull out a chair with her hands full of food looked a huge pain. She mostly ended up crouching over the table with the chair strewn in the middle of the kitchen.

@PCohle hmmm you're right, it does sound annoying now you describe it like that.