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.

That's a big space to have to be choosing between a full size dishwasher and a fridge and freezer. As for taking things out of the dishwasher and washing them by hand, but more crockery and put the machine on when it's full. Dishwashers use less water and wash at higher temperatures than washing up by hand. I suppose it depends what you are used to.

Iveg been studying the plan and decided I really love the layout the side where the sink will be. It’s the positioning of the display unit and the fact I want more drawers I need to change.

When you unload the dishwasher, where will you put the cutlery?

Where are your recycling bins ?

Im sorry but this is not a well planned kitchen.

In the cutlery drawer.

We have one big recycling dustbin outside. We may pop the odd cardboard box/empty plastic bottle on the worktop for half an hour until it goes straight outside. Food caddy inside the sink unit.

How far from the dishwasher/sink are your cutlery drawer and your plate cupbaords/drawers? Will you have to traipse back and forth acros the room putting stuff away?

Well we had to at the old house. Here they will be closer.

The little angled corner by the radiator - get a load of mains power points put in on top of that, it's bound to turn into a device charging point.

A friend has a very similar mini breakfast bar and that works fine.

Are you using standalone bins? I got under-unit pullout bins when we did the kitchen and I loooooooove them so much. Ours is 30cm wide, main bin and compost buckets. It's under where food prep happens so I can just pull it out and sweep things into it.

She did two versions one with it finishing just short of the window and one with the angle. We thought that one looked nearer.

Very good idea. You can never have enough charger points!

The birds eye view is much better than expected. I’d lose the run of units that extend past the breakfast bar. It looks really very odd at the moment.

Move a bigger table into the space directly in front of the radiator and then you can have a small sofa area where your table is currently positioned on the plan.

How long are you planning to stay in the house? If it’s 10 years or so, then go with whatever design you like. Any shorter than that you need to maybe think about other people’s opinions on the design. We bought a house with a 2-year old kitchen. It’s a nice kitchen, but the layout is dreadful! I visited the kitchen company who installed it to see if I can change the layout, add different units, new worktop etc. I asked the designer there why he suggested that particular design and he said the vendor chose it himself before coming into the studio and wouldn’t make changes. Such a waste, as we’re now ripping it out!

P.s. we’ve currently for the wood worktops and they’re awful, too. The marks aren’t nice and it never feels fully clean

I really don’t want a sofa in the kitchen. I’ve never liked them in kitchens.

It’s our forever house. We will only downsize when we are too old to maintain it. We moved at the end of Feb.

Don't have a sofa.
Just have really good dining chairs that lend themselves to a bit of slouching

We don’t sit in the kitchen other than to eat. Why would we when we have a beautiful lounge with a grand piano in and we are creating a library room.

We just moved but in our last house our bin ended up to the left of the hob which is where I did most of the food prep. It was a 600mm bin with black bag, recycling and food waste sections. No lids on the bins. That's important as when I was peeling spuds, cracking eggs, sweeping up crumbs, opening packets etc everything just went straight in, no fuss.

It wasn't actually supposed to have been there, due to a plumbing issue we moved it. When we do our new kitchen I will be deliberately putting it in the same place.

I also loved my pull out spice/condiment racks, like mini larder cupboards on either side of the hob. This time round I'd like a hot water tap.

Could you move the breakfast bar to the end so that it's more like an L-shape?

We have a slight dog issue with none lidded bins!

Makes the under-the-counter pullouts even more sensible!

I'd have fewer glass top cupboards for crockery displays - they may look good but they're functionally useless and just causing dead spots in the kitchen when you're using it for real.

I think that’s a really odd and impractical layout and I also think it will feel cramped tbh having seen the photos of the room.

However we are all different.

I’d never have another slimline dishwasher though. Boiling water taps are great as are integrated microwaves and anything else that keeps worktops clear. Lots of drawers and lots of cupboards that pull out so you can get into the back. You can get slimline towel rail cupboards rather than having one out on display like that.

We had our kitchen done just over a year ago after redesigning it multiple times.

I'd say you need to have more long runs of worktop. I'm not keen on the oven near the back door, the breakfast bar is in an odd place, I'd recommend deep drawers instead of cupboards and try not to have pull out "magic" corner cupboards, I hate ours.

The cooker has to be there because of the gas pipe and length of flue etc.

We have a slight dog issue with none lidded bins!

Sorry I wasn't very clear. The bins are in a 600mm pull out cupboard unit. Just don't also get lids that you have to lift after you've pulled it out as then you need three hands to also sweep stuff straight in!

Our kitchen was from howdens and think they offer both lidded and non lidded pull out styles. The one we had closed into a metal tray just above the bins to keep smells away etc. We used to keep our rolls of bin bags and spare plastic bags on top of the tray which was quite handy.

That's a bit of a pain. When we had ours done I found all the kitchen companies we talked to did really rubbish plans. I was much more effective with some squared paper and general dimensions of units. Then enter things into a 3D online planner to see how it looks.

I followed online advice to figure out where things would go straight out of the dishwasher, where the bins needed to be for food prep and the standard triangle of fridge/sink/cooker.

I am very short but we have a tall fridge freezer and units to the 2.3m ceiling to make the most of the storage and eliminate dirty cupboard tops. I just also have to have an Ikea step stool too.

You do realise that you need at least 900mm around the whole table to sit at? Where it's drawn you could only sit two people . As previous people have said this is a terrible layout. I know you said the electrics are in but simple changes like a pullout breakfast bar not fixed wouldn't affect the electrics but would improve you ability to get into the dresser units etc . I use a lady called Karen to do our properties ( landlords) now . She's so switched on . She's OnePlan on Houzz .

I think this thread is quite frustrating for people as OP seems very, very fixed on the current layout. Posters are taking time to point out areas which are problematic or could be improved but OP doesn't seem interested or flexible here. I'd go to a few more designers before you pay for a kitchen. They're expensive, you say you'll be there forever/long term - isn't it better to get it right, right from the start?

The Op seems to be saying that she can’t change anything because the first fix plumbing and electrics have been done. Or at least I think that’s what she means - I’m surprised to hear she’s a plumbers daughter !

However this doesn’t mean it’s impossible to change anything. Things like sink and DW can often be moved one or two spaces over without problems. Drops for wall sockets can be changed to take appliances.

No it’s not ideal and will cost a little bit of money to change, maybe £100- 200 to the electrician. But that’s a drop in the ocean compared to the cost of a kitchen and the years of frustration of having a poor layout.

Anyone have the name of one of those 3D planner things that’s free, easy and safe to use!! Like an app or something? I’m in the mood to see what my kitchen could look like!

I think this thread is quite frustrating for people as OP seems very, very fixed on the current layout.

It’s frustrating for me as apart from a handful of posters people have been commenting on things such as the layout which I didn’t ask for instead of details such as cupboard layouts, bins, tea towel rails, spice racks etc. Features of the kitchen. Some posters seem fixated on things I specifically said I don’t want. I hate islands for example and I want more, not less glass display cabinets. The idea of having a sofa or comfy seating in the kitchen is abhorrent to me. Someone even said the bin is in a funny place when there is no bin shown on the design. The table at our old house had to be moved around every day too as it was just a touch too big for the space.

The designer produced the layout we asked for according to certain fixed restraints such as position of the boiler on the unseen carport wall, gas pipe work and plumbing. Things do need tweaking. When she measured up all there was was a garage with an ugly garage door and no plaster boards. We have a sink corner, a cooking corner and an eating corner.