New Kitchen must haves

[Sunisshining12]

Just about to embark on a new kitchen. House has been extended on the back so the space is all empty. What are your must haves? And things to bear in mind?

Never bought a new kitchen before!

American fridge/freezer or built in FF?
Hot water tap - good or a useless gadget?
Range style oven vs eye level?
Any other ‘gadgets’?
Worktop/stone advice
Flooring type

Thanks

A decent sound system.

There's a great Kitchen 'Lessons Learned' thread on here that I read prior to choosing my recent kitchen renovation. It was so useful, although I did ignore the very good advice to design a place for the kitchen bin!

Things I did and don't regret.

Massive American Fridge Freezer that makes ice. Not build around at all and looks fab.
Quartz worktops - love them.
Ceiling height wall cabinets - no where for dust and grease to settle
Range cooker - personal choice and I previously had eye level ovens but fancied a change
Double Belfast Sink
Two dishwashers
Island has been really useful as well as beautiful. Have the belfast there and one of the dishwashers plus some recylcing bins. DH and Ds sit at it a lot too.
Sockets in Island. In fact, sockets everywhere.
Working out where you will make coffee/toast and designing space for the cups/kettle etc around that area.

I don't regret anything, love it. The only integrated appliances are dishwashers. Washer and Dryer are in utility off of kitchen.

I didn't put in a boiling water tap, it freaks me out slightly.

@itwaseverthus you kitchen sounds fab! Great tips thank you!

Out of curiosity- why are your dishwashers not side by side & do you get much use out of the second?

Good note about bins as we have underfloor heating. Would you put them inside a cupboard? Or more of an open shelf type?

@canveyisland can you recommend one? We have speaker wires in ceiling to a point in the wall to connect some sort of system to

Deep pan drawers!!!

A Designated Crap Drawer: have a drawer specifically for all the little stuff that hasn't a 'proper home' but usually gets shoved in with the tea towels.
Agree about sockets. Where do you charge your phone? Maybe a socket just for that. (USB socket?)
Lighting - we had lights under the wall units in our old kitchen which were rarely used. New house, we didn't bother putting them in and we so wish we had.
Our main fuse switches for the cooker and other appliances are hidden in cupboards which is great because they are unsightly, but I wish they'd checked with me which cupboard they could be hidden in as the cooker one is large and protrudes so much as to make the cupboard less useful, i.e. I can't fit our dinner plates in it.
Pan drawers are excellent and I have a big 90cm wide one for plastic containers which works really well.

The second dishwasher is almost facing the one in the island and it's in the run of drawers where the kettle/cups/toaster are so very handy for taking clean cups from I use both all the time, when one is filling up with dirty dishes, the other is stacked with clean dishes. Rarely need to put anything away in the many drawers. In fact, my kitchen has only three actual cupboards with shelves, the rest is drawers.

Two thing I’ve loved in previous houses were Belfast sink and built in bins

Walk in pantry, pair of integrated FF's , range cooker and a single oven and microwave in a tower . Island prep sink . Lots of drawers. Totally separate area for laundry with two washer dryers in . We used a freelance concept planner to design the space with us and she was worth every penny . Helped with comparing companies as we could ask them all to quote off the same design.

Things I love in my kitchen:

• waste disposal unit. I don’t put much down it but it’s great for things like left over milk with bit of cereal in or very sloppy things that can’t go in the bin/compost
• space (if you have it) for recycling bins/bags
• American style FF with ice maker/water dispenser.

Things that have pissed me off:

• not having a double sink. I have a 1.5 under mount sink (Howdens didn’t do a double undermount)
• my boiling water tap is crap (Howdens). I don’t use it fir tea as it’s really not quite boiling - just use it to get a jump start on pasta or for rinsing rice etc. Pay extra and get a

I think range vs eye level oven is a personal choice. I knew I always wanted a range and that works great for me. I had an eye level oven in a previous house but am I short arse do always had to stand on a stool to use it!

I chose not to have integrated appliances as thought it might be a PITA to get at them if they went wrong, but I might be wrong on that.

Oops. pay extra and get a quooker.

Loving these ideas! I wouldn’t have even thought of sockets & bins!

I love the look of a Range style cooker but practical? Pros & cons?

Same with fridge - what are the pros & cons of American over integrated FF?

Rather hear from real people than the kitchen salesperson

Good point about double sink too, that must be so handy.

Re hobs. Induction in an island - yay or nay? Like the thought of easy to clean, but are they easy to use?

Anything else to add to the island other than double sink, deep drawers, 2 x dishwasher & a hob?

Worktops - they told me anything over 3m will need a ‘join’. Anyone ever have an island bigger?

Pantry style cupboard - just googled - how gorgeous!

Just done ours!

American fridge/freezer or built in FF?

My architect advised against the AFF with built-in ice/water dispenser as apparently these often break quite soon into the life of the appliance. When I started researching them, I found that the freezer part of the appliance is often much smaller than the fridge (especially if you have the ice-maker inside, which takes up a lot of the volume). So I sent for separate appliances - side-by-side, matching fridge and freezer, each 60cm wide. Means I have acres of space in both

Hot water tap - good or a useless gadget?

I have a Quooker - so far I love it! Not only makes making coffee quick, or boiling water for cooking veg/pasta etc, it also means I don't have to have a kettle on the worktop

Range style oven vs eye level?

I looked at both, but ultimately realised that having two ovens stacked, at eye level, meant I ended up with much more drawer space under the hob. Also, someone pointed out to me that eye level is much easier to put stuff in/take stuff out without having to bend down - something to consider as you're getting older!

Any other ‘gadgets’?

Wine cooler and underfloor heating

Worktop/stone advice

I went for quartz in the end. My units are dark blue, so adding a white quartz worktop (with sparkly bits in it) helped to lift the colour/light and stop it being too dark.

Flooring type

We went for engineered wood, which is lovely and warm with the underfloor heating

Totally agree with comment about real people rather than kitchen sales people. That why we worked with karen. She has no hidden agenda.

Other things I'd recommend - as many drawers (and deep ones) as you can, rather than cupboards.

We have a pantry unit (not a floor-to-ceiling one, but one that sits above the wine cooler and a 3-drawer unit next to it). It's great because it's 85-90cm wide and 60cm deep, so holds absolutely loads. And I bought two 4 tier, wire spice racks that are fixed to the inside of each door

If you end up with a corner unit, a carousel so you can store a lot and access it easily

Boiling hot tap, 2 x dishwashers, quartz worktop with waterfall ends on the island . Okay the last one isn't an essential but it does give a nice look and does not matter if it gets bashed into by the kids... I had not realised that having an island would be a magnet for the kids to run circles round....

Brilliant ideas. So grateful for the tips. This is a big investment!

I like the look of an over mantle area with a range oven. But think stacked ovens would be more practical for me.

I’ve seen some built around mantle styles with drawers, induction hob & shelf above. But our hob & sink will be in the island so not sure if this can happen..

Waterfall worktop..love

2 x Dishwashers - better side by side or spaced?

@canveyisland can you recommend one? We have speaker wires in ceiling to a point in the wall to connect some sort of system to

I have freestanding rechargeable Bose speakers, they play music through bluetooth from my phone.

I didn't see the value in a hot water tap, until I inherited one in my current house. Now I love it and will definitely incorporate it into new kitchen.

Something else I inherited was a range cooker... which I hate. It's a PITA to keep clean, and I DREAD to think what's underneath/behind it because I'm always spilling stuff down the back/sides of it. New kitchen will have sleek induction hob and eye-level ovens.

@BIWI I would love to see a pic of your kitchen because we're also going with dark blue units and white worktops (undecided between quartz & corian). What's your flooring?

@Cheerfulcharlie what's a waterfall worktop?

I had my kitchen extended and redesigned a couple of years ago, and the things that I love the most are:-

American style fridge freezer
Range style cooker
Huge island with dining space/stools
Quartz worktops with sparkly bits
And the piece de resistance: a mahoosive wine fridge (duel temp, for red and white)

I love my range cooker- but my old cooker was so shit think I woudl have loved any cooker that worked properly! I do think its not quite a spractical as eye level but I preferred the look/lower down style as no space to build up...

drawers - I have one set for teatowels type stuff and charging leads...
also 1 big set for pans/pots etc with built in cutlery tray...its great..

think about where your chopping boards will go!

i have built in bin/recycle its great - they are not huge but big enough- and are not on the floor so heating doesnt impact

but not built in appliances as they are gen harder to fix/more expensive to replac e- although look sleeker.
I was also warned off built in water- and we in v hard water area so thought would stain/scale
only have single bowl sink - but got a deep one.....
yes to ceiling height cupboards
we got laminate worktop as trying to save money - but actually love it as is so easy to look after.. its thick curved edge white sparkly

think about placement of lighting

not keen on hot water taps (have at work) again hard water area and they look scruffy

have glass splashback which is easy to clean - no grout ....but shoudl have got it earlier in the build process as they couldnt fit right to the window sill

My architect advised against the AFF with built-in ice/water dispenser as apparently these often break quite soon into the life of the appliance

I have an LG that's moved country 3 times (and then from the other side of the world!) then moved house with me twice, then gone to my sibling and it's still going strong nearly 15 years later! Not massive-massive american, but a double door with ice maker, enough room for a small family of 3-4. Very impressed, will buy an LG fridge again!

Granite worktops I used to think were a waste, but now I've lived in a place with one, it's bloody indestructable. I think I'll go for part granite, part wood (and make the wood easily replacable for when I inevitably ruin it)

Built in bins are the best thing about my kitchen - which is now 10+ years old & I love it. So lovely not to have a free standing bin(s) & leads to so much less mess. WOrth every penny.