Kitchens! What do you wish you had/hadn't done when you got your kitchen done

[Legoless]

Just planning ours. Two sides of a room (wider than a galley but not wide enough for a centre island). Dining table is in another room which is attached so you can chat to people when they are at it but does not eat into kitchen space, but washing machine and dryer and boiler are all in kitchen.

Wish we hadn't bothered with the swing-out corner cabinet storage system. Takes up so much room in the cupboard I can barefuly fit anything in there now :( Don't know why I've never tried to remove it!

We have a broom cupboard with a shelf for the hoover and wee one for dustpan and brush so they fit with ironing board and mop and bucket.

Pull out larder next to it. Above, a large square cupboard for the laundry bucket and IKEA bags etc, and a narrow pull-out larder for spices.

A 1.5 sink is very useful and I love my under-cupboard lights and illuminated cooker hood. And the granite worktop goes 10cm up the walls which looks really good.

No real regrets - for arcane reasons the hob had to be about 6 inches left of the main stack of drawers, and the cutlery drawer being under the hob means someone's always in the way. I probably wouldn't bother with a cheap corner carousel again - we got given a very expensive one with works OK, but the other is a bit annoying.

Agree with @Oldmrswasherwoman - I pretty much designed my kitchen around these beasts!

My architect couldn't understand why I wanted these, as the DC aren't at home any more/there are just two of us - but I love having so much space in both fridge and freezer. In my last kitchen, every time I went shopping it was like a game of Tetris trying to get everything into the fridge!

Other things I love - my glass splashback (so much easier to clean than tiles) and my Quooker tap. Means I don't have to have a kettle on the work surface.

Oh, and the other thing we managed to do was to create a space under the stairs to put the washing machine and tumble drier (stacked on top), so they didn't have to be in the kitchen.

BIWI your fridge and freezer look great, what brand are they?

I agree re pan drawers, very useful, also space for appliances tucked away and under unit lights. I use these and the hob light but not the overhead spots.

They're Samsung here

wish i had
-double sink instead of 1.5
-decent boiling water tap rather than howdens crap version which is okay to get a jump start on pasta etc but not for a cup of tea. howdens appliances in general are crap

love:

• waste disposal unit. Great for sloppy or smelly food debris, eg, mushed up cereal, fish

pros and cons:

• i have a lot of drawers, but they are more expensive than cupboards
• le mans or similar are good for stuff you use a lot, but take up storage so don't bother for stuff you use rarely

actually it's not the boiling water tap, but rather the boiler for it underneath which is crap.

The best thing is to have a smaller number of larger cupboards.

I have

1. One tall large larder that has all my food

2 . One Large unit that contains all my appliances and cooking things that are not pans , like scales, large serving dishes, measuring jugs etc

1. Pan drawers ( also contain most of my casseroles)
2. Small cupboard ( on island) for baking things
3. Wall cupboards for crockery and glasses

That’s pretty much it. I hate HATE having a kitchen with lots of small cupboards and you have to search to find where everything is. Because some idiot husband / teenager has decided to move the coffee. And the biscuits. And the sugar. Etc

Larder cupboard which has shelves which pull out, no more lurking out of date packets at the back of the food cupboard.
Induction hob.
Lights under cupboards that mean plenty of light in front of me when using work surfaces.
Plenty of plug sockets.
High cupboards so no temptation or opportunity to put things on top of them.
No decorative grooves on cupboard doors, after years of those dust traps a smooth surface that quickly wipes clean is a joy.

We had the kitchen redone nearly two years ago and there's nothing I would change. However, we knew exactly what we wanted as I'd spent five years planning it in my head whilst we saved up for the work after moving house. It was worth the wait.

Inside my larder cupboard I also have a number of 'lazy Susans', which means I can easily access all my tins/jars. mine look like this, but they're plastic not metal

We have a corner walk in larder and I love it. I had the microwave integrated and a taller shelf at worktop height with plugs where we keep the toaster and coffee machine (and prep machine when we were still using it). Nothing out on the work surfaces apart from the kettle.

I thi

@BIWI please be sure to have a fire retardant boxing put in to protect your stairs, if you have you laundry items under the stairs. They are more likely to have problems than other appliances. Stay safe. Love your fridge run !

We've recently moved and our current kitchen has 1, yes 1 drawer!!! So when we can afford it I'd like the following:

• drawers (two for cutlery, and a few pan drawers)
• pull out bin units (had these in our old house and so useful)
• corner cupboards with the lazy Susan spinners so you can utilise the space
• pull out larder units - great for all cooking ingredients and baking stuff
• appliance storage

Wouldn't get shaker style again as I found the matte cupboards became grubby from hand prints very quickly.

I agree about a decent boiling water tap. Our last house had a quooker, it was amazing. This house has something else (Hans groehe?) and it's no where near as good.

Two dishwashers are a luxury I never knew I needed

Would love a waste disposal

Appliance cupboard sounds amazing

I'm in two minds about gas or induction. Cheap inductions are useless but I managed to set fire to a tea towel with my gas job last week so now I panic.

A really good, wide fridge/freezer

@wehaveafloater the cupboard with the laundry appliances has an extractor fan, to stop it getting too hot. And the whole installation (including the kitchen) has been passed by building regulations etc. Do you still think we need that?

We have cupboards in corners ... and I wish there had been pull- outs, it's impossible to see or reach the dark depths of them and space is wasted

Oh, and definitely agree about drawers! The whole of my base units are drawers. I have:

Drawer stack 1:

• a drawer for my chopping boards
• a drawer for all the various implements and bits and pieces (e.g. thermometers, ice-cream scoop, clips for plastic bags, muslin squares, potato ricer, barbecue tools, candles - genuine random shit!)
• a drawer for tea towels, table cloths and oven gloves

Drawer stack 2 (under the induction hob):

• a drawer for cutlery
• a drawer for pans
• a second drawer for pans

Drawer stack 3:

• a drawer for kitchen implements, like wooden spoons, spatulas, ladles, measuring spoons, etc
• a drawer for crockery
• a second drawer for crockery

Drawer stack 4 (under the built-in ovens):

• a drawer for oven trays/roasting trays
• a drawer for baking paraphernalia (weighing scales, pastry cutters, metal ramekins, cake tin liners etc) and foil/clingfilm and the rolling pin

Drawer stack 5 (under the larder unit)

• a drawer for bread, and bread board and bread knife
• a drawer for snacks and biscuits
• a drawer for bin liners, freezer bags, plastic wrap covers to replace clingfilm, etc

It's fantastic having so much space to put things, and also to keep them in their own places, and easily findable, which is much harder if you have cupboards.

I also use [[https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/product/details/food-containers/sainsburys-home-fridge-organiser-small-134549461-p these in my kitchen implement drawer, to keep everything tidy and separate. So I don't have to root around a whole pile of stuff to find the right wooden spoon!

sorry, link here

@peaches1991 is your walk in larder from Wickes? I'd love to have one, as I think it'd save some space in our tiny kitchen. But I've not seen them anywhere other than Wickes.

We're moving our washer/dryer to a cupboard under the stairs. I'm pleased someone mentioned fire retardant lining - will ask builder if we need it and/or extractor as BIWI suggested.

Our new kitchen will be quite small. I'm worrying that by the time we've got job, sink, fridge/freezer etc that we won't have enough work surface.

@Gazelda. these people make one

I googled 'corner larders' and then clicked on images to find this. I have no idea what this company is like, but it does seem that people other than Wickes make them.

Fab! Thanks @BIWI. I'll investigate further