Kitchen design mistakes

[peterpan765]

We are planning our new kitchen and have a design , just talking it through with my husband and he mentioned that not having the dishwasher next to the sink may not be a good idea as you would constantly carry wet plates from the sink across to the island.

I hadn't even thought of that but can't move the dishwasher back as it would ruin the design !

Are there any other key kitchen design errors I should avoid.

Any good tips or comments on the design, I have attached the plans - dishwasher is the X and sink is along the wall

TÍA

@GowithFlo Thank you! I've also just noticed knobs with back plates - can I ask where these are from too please?

Your kitchen looks beaut!

[quote Smallgoon]@GowithFlo Thank you! I've also just noticed knobs with back plates - can I ask where these are from too please?

Your kitchen looks beaut![/quote]
Smallgoon - Thank you, I'm pleased with how it's looking. I have a mixture of different brass knurled handles all from second nature 1909.
The backplate ones and those in the photos attached.

You need the microwave in the kitchen, not in the utility room. Having it away from the kitchen makes no sense.

You really need the dishwasher close to the sink, not in the island, and certainly not in the utility room.

Getting kitchen design details wrong can cost you. I would give a lot of your design a serious rethink.

Where is your bin?

Don't put the oven in the end of the run - looks like there are doors to another room there or outside? You need the oven fairly central, and definitely need a nearby worktop to put the hot dishes on when you take them out of the oven!

My kitchen is similar size to yours. We have the sink on the end (has a solid wall end), the dishwasher under the next to the sink, and the bin next to that. All fully integrated. We also have a hot tap so not kettle to faff with.

I dislike sinks or hobs on islands so we just have a massive 3m x 2n island plain worktop. It soon gets full of junk and I end up having regular clear up. It looks fabulous when its compete clear!

If I were you, I'd put the dishwasher in between the sink and the hob, and have an integrated bin under the island where you currently have the dishwasher.

@GowithFlo Thank you so much!

@HowFastIsTooFast

Just to answer the kettle question, get a boiler tap. My friends have one and I've never been so jealous of anything in my life

agree. previous owner installed one, and it was The Best Thing. It also did cold water, both were filtered.

But it started leaking out of the casing (It is it least 12 years old.) and cash was tight so it's a good thing we never got rid of the kettle.

If you have a island make sure you leave enough worktop overhang for stools and legs. I didn't on one end and it really hacks me off now. Had plenty of room to do it too.

Get a Neff oven with a slide and hide door. My kitchen is a couple of years old now and every day it makes me happy

Power points - get a pop up power tower with 3 or 4 plugs on the island.

We've had a new kitchen this year which seems to be very like yours . We don't have an island but we d have a large breakfast bar at the end of the run of units. One of the best things we got was a large bin unit . It pulls out like a large drawer but is in 3 parts , one for general waste , one for recycling and one for food waste which in our area is collected weekly for some sort of burning for power.
This drawer is between the hob and the sink where the food prep is done . It's great I'm not going up and down the kitchen or even outside to get rid of rubbish every five minutes. We hardly use our microwave but had it integrated into an upper cupboard just cos it looks nice. We keep the toaster in a cupboard and bought a nice new SMEG kettle just cos it looks good on the worktop. I also had gorgeous plain white quartz worktops fitted , so easy to keep looking pristine

@ken1976 thanks is there any chance you could share photos ?

Thank you everyone so much for feedbacks - we are going back to drawing board to look at the plan!

I'm still being stubborn insisting I don't want the sink in the island. Or because of the ceiling and extension and where the steel is going to go I don't want the cooker there either.

We are definitely having a utility room which will contain the:

Freezer
Microwave
Washing machine
Tumble drier
Bread machine
A spare sink

I do enjoy cooking/ baking so do want a large island that's a clear space for cooking with the children.

We have big families and host a lot so I want to use the storage in the island to keep all the 'party' stuff and additional serving dishes that once get used every few months

The reason behind the line of drawers - was I liked the streamlined look. But also the sink unit has a bottom drawer for recycling

And the other drawers near the cooker had space for drawers for utensils and cutlery. Also o currently keep pans and plates / serving dishes etc in large drawers and much prefer it to cupboards. Easier to access and better use of space IMO.

I don't know where glasses are going to go - o had forgotten about that !

Plug points in the island, we decided with that a pull up point would ruin the sleek effect, so we are going for plug points in the sides to plug in food mixer and laptops etc

I love cooking and am very messy and work FT so really hate housework!! So the key brief for the kitchen was that I wanted it easy to keep clean and tidy, no tiles etc or nooks and crannies and bits that would accumulate dirt. Lots of messy things to be kept in the new utility room, and we want nothing on the workspace.
We have a lot of workspace at the moment and it is covered in crap, piles of paper, garden stuff, microwave, food mixer , bread maker coffee machine toaster kettle, bread bin, biscuit barrels, cakes tins . It's absolutely ridiculous and every cupboard is packed with stuff ! I have two cupboards with just baking stuff, three cupboard with bottle of drink (alcohol and drinks for kids!!!)

We will have a big dining table as we are a family of 5 and often have 7 or 8 for dinner at weekends

Wall units that don't sit flush to the ceiling (within reason).

My kitchen is almost identical, just in reverse. I don't think you need to drastically change much.

You want the bin, dishwasher and sink near each other.

Pan draws I agree are fab. Keep those.

A few things you could consider - having the ovens one on top of the other. That would give you a whole new full height cupboard space.

You could add wall cupboards in between the cooker hood and sink for glasses and mugs etc.

The gap at the end on the right - what's going there? If it's accurate and you have a gap then you have more space to play with. Just notice the gap on the left too - is that really there? Make sure you maximise space. If you can move left or right then you could possibly add in extra units or change the sizes of current units.

Here ours by OnePlan

These panoramics were what clinched it for me. Can't wait to see mine like this.
panorama.2020.net/view/yom5vyce80mhba0olqlsq/

panorama.2020.net/view/eoudz6ud2eejkscadyu5aq/

panorama.2020.net/view/bs20h1pec0ex6vazjqgrng/

I Should add, i copy pasted these from her Houzz pro pages, lots of designs that she's done on there and loads and loads of reviews too.

@sergeilavrov

If you’re right handed, think about the process of cooking and moving to the right. This limits the amount of coming and going, it’s efficient and makes everything feel smooth and well designed. So fridge, then prep space, then ovens, then sink and dishwasher. The reverse is true if you’re left handed. Same with cupboard purposes - chopping boards, spices, knives and prep items go after the fridge, pasta close to the oven as it rarely needs anything before boiling.

And what does family that is half left handed and half right handed do ?

My worktop space is about 3.5m and though it's generous I don't have as much prep space as I'd like. Think about the kettle, microwave, toaster and in our case a blender which DH uses daily. We also have a slow cooker that's out fairly frequently. You say you have a utility room but I personally wouldn't want part of my cooking facilities (eg microwave) in another room especially one that's used for cleaning clothes (the smells). We make scrambled eggs, bechamel sauce, and cook peas etc in ours so it's not purely for reheating. Everyone's situation is different though, this is just our situation.

If you are messy with a large family, things may never get put away in the place you want to hide them. It might be easier to have it so things are intuitively where you want to use them. E.g toaster/kettle is on a side near to the fridge, cutlery and larder so everything can be used and put away with hardly moving.

@peterpan765 Have you decided where the dishwasher will go then?

[quote Smallgoon]@peterpan765 Have you decided where the dishwasher will go then?[/quote]
Not yet , we are going back to kitchen shop on Friday and will look at different configurations to get the dishwasher and bin near the sink.

We are also trying to finalise the design of the extension so we know where the columns and pipes need to go as DH hadn't mentioned that we were going to have to box in both the steel column and pipes from outside and so hadn't built it into the plans !!!

@CountFosco Ah, you just need two kitchens, and problem solved