Finalising kitchen refurb - what have I forgotten

[Comefromaway]

After starting a kitchen refurb 3 weeks before lockdown things are finally moving again. I’ve got to finalise the design etc.

I’ve picked the style and basic layout but what have I forgotten. (Don’t say a wine rack I had one before & it was just a dust gatherer. I’ve got a lot of nice china so asked for glass display units. The kids wanted a small breakfast bar.

I also love the fact you have the washing machine / dryer seperate - it’s yuck having them in the same place you prep your food.

I'm really sorry but it's quite old fashioned.. I agree the breakfast bar is in the wrong place. I've got a howdens kitchen and they're great but they are rubbish kitchen designers!
Go to a higher end kitchen designer to get a better plan!

Good ideas I've heard recently- a fridge as a drinks fridge rather than a wine fridge and two dishwashers- one clean and one dirty!

I use my wine fridge to keep soft drinks and mixers too. Why would OP want a fridge just for soft drinks ?!? Or have I misunderstood?

That's a seriously odd and impractical layout. If you plan to stay for the life of the kitchen then go for it but otherwise you need some help from a kitchen designer with the layout. I would wager most people would rip that out even if newish.

That sticky out breakfast bar would be the bane of my life.

The dishwasher sounds a bit odd- is there nowhere else it could go? Apart from anything else a slimline dishwasher is pretty useless in a family and you’ll have to have it on all the time. Could the dishwasher not be moved to the cupboard in the same area under where it looks like you have a kettle on the worktop. Then the sink can go under the window (you can get ones with smaller draining boards). And beware of doing something so important as adding a breakfast bar for the kids, a kitchen is a huge investment and a badly planned one will make it hard to sell the house. If you really want the bar then could you move it to the end? Sorry if it seems as though everyone has a criticism but it looks as though you have a lovely room so it could be amazing if you get the details right.
In fact, what I might do in your position is go to a high end kitchen place and see if they will do a design for you and then, if you’re on a budget, get the same design somewhere cheaper. Or even get Ikea to do it for free (you used to get a free dinner in the restaurant) and then use the design somewhere else if you don’t want Ikea stuff.

We're in the process of designing a new kitchen. I agree with PPs about the breakfast bar. Odd placement. You have a decent amount of space to play with, but it still needs careful thought. Personally I dislike all those wall cupboards.
We've had 2 designs so far - Ikea and a local and highly recommended kitchen place. So far Ikea is miles better. Our next design will be from howdens so we'll see how they compare!
This one definitely needs some tweaks.

I think your breakfast bar also doubles up as a nice prep area when cooking.

I can’t see the point of a separate drinks fridge. A bottle of milk, a bottle of flavoured water and a bottle of tonic water will fit fine in the normal fridge door. Dd & Ds like their wine/gin not to be chilled. No one drinks fizzy pop.

Ah yes, definitely do not get a slimline dishwasher! We're a family of 3 and have a full size one on every day, usually there is too much to go in (especially at the moment) so slimline is useless unless you're happy to wash up by hand a lot.

I agree re design. I would've put the breakfast bar at the end overlooking the garden, or created a proper peninsula from the middle.

In my kitchen I love my pull out bin, tall larder cupboards and pot drawers. I have an island and like how my hob, sink an dishwasher are placed in a triangle shape so that I can stand virtually in one spot and reach all three.

But don’t get a slimline dishwasher, unless you don’t mind it being on constantly

Measure the depth of the deep drawers and compare to the depth of your saucepans - my kitchen's IKEA so the measurements are different, but I found I could fit all my pans, with lids on, inside a medium rather than a deep drawer so was able to fit an extra drawer and double the storage space - it's been so useful.

Deep drawers are so much more useful than cupboards. You have room for those. Can be used for pans, crockery, food. So useful.
I agree that the cupboards above the breakfast bar will be very difficult to use.
Is that a pull out larder next to the back door?

Lots of the things eg eg wall cupboards, placement of breakfast bar, larder unit are what I asked for. The plumbing layout dictated some stuff. We had to move the boiler and have pipe work re-routed and the downstairs loo is the other side of the wall where the sink is. The cooker is on the external wall with a carport the other side.

I’m not looking to change the layout, I’m more wanting to know things like do I want carousel thingies and where to put the bin. I’ve just thought I maybe need a tea towel rail.

I need more single knick knack drawers

I like one deep drawer or fans but I much prefer cupboards for other stuff. I have two deep drawers at my old house and one is wasted space.

Like that you’ve thought through personalised features and not gone with standardized advice.

I’d consider a wider backsplash panel at hob to fill whole space between top cupboards, because 1. cooking splatter always goes further than you think it will and 2. It’ll make the space between cupboards look neater/will be easier to clean. For similar reasons I’d also get a wider extractor hood.

What are you planning to do with the cormer space(s) created by the breakfast bar?

Do you want the bins showing, or integrated into the units ? I have a carousel thingy for my pots, I prefer this as they are easier to access than on top of each other in a deep drawer. Our kitchen is also howdens. Im upstairs with baby but will take a few pics when I get downstairs of my kitchen highlights.

This is the kitchen at my old house. I loved it apart from the wine rack.

We struggled to fill the Dishwasher at the old house and I often had to set it off half empty.

I agree re design. I would've put the breakfast bar at the end overlooking the garden

That’s artistic licence. The large window actually looks out onto a tarmac drive. The back door leads onto the garden.

Ignore the colour (I love it but it’s grey so v divisive on Mumsnet !) we got two of those pull out larders as they really do hold lots. A full length freezer, hidden bins and corian around the sink rather then wood as well as one of those carousels for pots and pans) I do tend to just chuck stuff in cupboards so excuse the mess !

I’m thinking of seeing if the display unit can be more centred at the back of where the breakfast bar is, then a single wall unit either side, then single glass units coming down on to the worktop either side of that.

And it was howdens too. I love your designs OP - it looks beautiful and exactly what you and your family want.