New kitchen what did you learn…?

[FillyerBoots]

Know this has been done before but a while ago,

Just moved old kitchen into new kitchen last night.

Lighting is so important, dh ans electrician decided no spotlights over sink….so I’d say get on same page about lighting and really think about it. We are having something retrofitted.

We’ve got on 300 mm pull out larder cupboard. That isn’t enough for all our bottles, oil, pastes etc.

We got extra tall units from howdens, just a shallow box on top of cupboard and longer doors, pretty unusable. Looks nice when shut.

We got lots of electric sockets…still not sure it’s enough.

Lovely downwards venting induction hob….the instruction book is massive. I’m a bit intimidated.

No point having lovely lights in glass fronted cupboards if the shelves aren’t glass.

I'm worried we're not going to have enough worktop space in ours, but can't see a way round it. We'll have an island 2200 x 926 with an induction hob on it and that will be it for worktop prep space basically. There will be a bit by the sink and also a slim run elsewhere that will have toaster etc on but wouldn't really be used for prep. Does anyone think that's enough?

I'd have to see that as a floor plan tbh

I can't decide between worktops.

I know I'm not going to oil wood so that's out.

I don't mind splurging but how much better is granite/ marble/ quartz than a laminate top?

CopperLily we are setting up a temporary kitchen in a bedroom and I am cooking extra meals for freezing. Also on the weight loss trail ( I hit target weight a couple of months ago, DH has a little more to go) and I'm a bit worried about eating balanced meals during works. Tinned soup is all very well, but I need vegetables!
Sorry, wandered off down a personal worm hole there!

I've had to go for a gas hob ( direct replacement) as you can't have an induction hob with a pacemaker which is a future possibility for me. Hoping it won't look stupidly old fashioned.

Oh and everyone keeps saying "live on takeaways during works". We live rurally and there are no takeaways for 7 miles! ( Apart from a fish and chip van once a week)

We were lucky, during lockdown a whole assortment of takeaway vans started up here and there's a different one in walking distance every night of the week. As for veg, we ended up with a lot of salad and fruit. We had thought we would microwave or steam veg in the instant pot but realised we didn't want steam in a living area which also has a smoke alarm. Did use some of those frozen bagged portions of veg though.

I shall be making batches of my home made soup that involves at least 8 veg and freezes well. And the bread maker machine will be upstairs too, as DH makes lovely seeded loaves. Might save a fortune on food over the month!

@felulageller. We had laminate and went to quartz. The laminate is bomb proof and easy to take care off and can look really smart. Easy to replace if you change your mind. Change appliances….

I’m liking the sparkly quartz we got. It’s different and new for us so that’s a bit of it.

Thanks for starting the thread. Loads of good ideas.

We are waiting for a Howdens plan and my husband visited a local kitchen place on Saturday and was impressed by them. My worry is that they will be ££££

We got about 6 plans from various places. Quotes ranged from £27k to £40k for essentially the same thing. The most expensive was Magnet, I think they expected us to haggle but I was so shocked we just never went back to the woman.

Ended up with howdens premium with real wood doors and worktop from elsewhere, and howdens supplied neff and Bosch appliances.

@chestermands if you have a 600 wide hob that's only about 800mm each side. Not really enough if you want to plate up meals for more than 4 people . Might be an idea to ask for a rethink.

Some great advice so I”ll add my experience.
White sinks - no no - look lovely for a day. Soak in biological wash powder every night if you have succumbed. I did and quickly changed to stainless steel. Should have listened to my mother .
Black or coloured granite/ composite sinks - also hard to keep looking good without a lot of work. unless they are the already very shiny finish (friend has one and looks immaculate) I work hard on mine and have to oil it (yeah yuck) to make it look good)
Stainless steel the way to go! Never tried ceramic.
Always had wood work tops because at least you can sand down and start again but yes won’t look pristine. Spend the most you can afford on a good worktop (a friends from
IKEA scratched badly - they replaced it - still scratched ) . Make sure your fitter seals all the edges that butt together or are around the sink with PVA or waterproof something because if he/she doesn’t water will get in there and lift all the surface very quickly and you will have to replace whole thing .
Taps - make sure they are tall enough to fit kettle or pans under. No matter what quality they will always drip and it’s almost impossible to fix the drip but get good quality in the first place will help - but not stupidly expensive they are just taps !
More light and sockets than you think you will ever need and especially over sink,
Pelmet lights are the best . You will never have enough sockets in the right place !
Make sure you have enough space under sink for bins/recycling as don’t want to spoil kitchen with bins ....
All else is a matter of taste really but don’t forget the magic triangle ...!

@LittleOverWhelmed love your kitchen; is it from Neptune?

Yes to get lots of plans, we got them from Howdens, Magnet, Wickes and Wren, also talked to a local independent but agreed budget would be an issue and didn't proceed to a plan. We took our time, rejigged the plans completely several over about 6 months, went with Wren in the end because their design service was streets ahead of all the others but we used our own tradespeople to fit it. Kept tweaking the plan till we were completely happy before confirming it. We bought the wooden worktop, DW, extractor fan and lights from Wren, got the cooker, sink, tap, quartz worktop elsewhere and kept our existing fridge-freezer.

If you are looking for stone/quartz worktops its well worth shopping around

What is design like with Howden's etc? Wren want a 10% deposit before they will give us the plan they did for us, but unfortunately I don't like any of their units.

Consider the placement of the microwave. It shouldn't be higher than the bench top, as spills can be disastrous, nor lower for back reasons.

@DellaPorter designer at Howden's was great, she was quite happy to give us 2 completely different plans - one Island and one peninsular. Spent time talking us through it on a a big telly in the showroom. Walked us through lots of options.

It helped that by the time we got to Howden's we'd had other designs form a mix of independent and chain. So we had a fairly good idea of what we wanted and how it would work.

But the design service was good.

Do Howdens measure up?
Do they give you a detailed plan, without you needing to pay?

@EerilyDisembodied

Yes to get lots of plans, we got them from Howdens, Magnet, Wickes and Wren, also talked to a local independent but agreed budget would be an issue and didn't proceed to a plan. We took our time, rejigged the plans completely several over about 6 months, went with Wren in the end because their design service was streets ahead of all the others but we used our own tradespeople to fit it. Kept tweaking the plan till we were completely happy before confirming it. We bought the wooden worktop, DW, extractor fan and lights from Wren, got the cooker, sink, tap, quartz worktop elsewhere and kept our existing fridge-freezer.

If you are looking for stone/quartz worktops its well worth shopping around

Just as well you didn't go with Wickes. They put our kitchen in 5 years ago and now it needs replacing. The kitchen fitters that Wickes used were shocking, they were lazy and didn't fit various things we'd paid for because they needed to wrap the job up quickly. They fridge unit was so shoddily fitted that I kept a screwdriver permanently next to the fridge as I kept having to screw the door back on. It was a horrendous experience and no way would I ever set foot in their shop again.

Boiling water tap, make sure the designers design in somewhere sensible for a big bin/recycling unit, and spend the extra on decent worktops or you;ll be stuck with the ‘temporary’ crap ones forever. I also keep the odd 15cm gap between units as somewhere to keep my foldup stepstool so I could reach the cupboards when I needed to.

@DellaPorter measured up but we didn't get the really detailed plan till we'd paid. But did get lots of pictures and a floor plan. so all you need really.

But she was really helpful emailing us measurements and things so we could check some other things.

Wren gave us a plan and measurements well before we paid the deposit. I was really impressed with the designer there too.

Our new kitchen is going in in a couple of weeks and I think we've thought of most things on this thread.

I'm having my Howdens installed now. I've done a fair few kitchens as I renovate properties to sell on but I've never had to live with one.
I like cupboards going up to the ceiling, so have stacked half cupboards on top of the tall wall cupboards and will be filling in the gap to the ceiling with a plinth. Those half cupboards cannot be reached without a step ladder, so will use them to store things like Christmas stuff etc that only gets used a couple times a year.
I had a dead corner as it's a U shaped kitchen and I have a pullout recycling bin on the turn next to the sink, which is at the short end of the U. The other side corner cupboard has a pull out thingy, but as there is no wall on other side of the dead corner I've put a cupboard facing outwards, so I access it from behind (not sure I'm explaining this clearly). I plan on using it to store dog and cat food and litter.
Drawers over cupboards for sure, cutlery drawer as big as possible (mine is 900mm), under cupboard lights, workspace next to hob is most used. Boiling water tap a must, but I can't be arsed to change filters etc for the filter one. Open shelving looks great but dust magnet and no good if you have cats.
I bought the nice double door larder with spice doors - you know the kind - only to find it costs top dollar and Howdens expect the builder to build it! It has a normal base cabinet with drawers but the top fancy bit seems far too expensive if it doesn't even have a carcass. I'm keeping the doors and getting chippie to do it cheaper.
Dishwasher must be next to sink and near to where you store your dishwater if possible (there was that thread about putting the dishwasher in a utility room which I do not understand at all). I'm tight on space so putting in a 45cm one which is fine for my small family. I like the one which projects the time remaining in to the floor - such a good idea! And all appliances integrated! Unless you have a statement fridge that too.
And I've taken space away from the spare bedroom to enlarge a first floor cupboard to house a stacked washer and dryer - can't stand having one in the kitchen and it makes sense to have the washer where your bedroom are if possible.
Last tip is tile the bar stool side of your island or peninsula to match your backsplash.

We were advised that integrated dishwashers are fine but fridge-freezers and washing machines not so good, much harder to repair or replace, especially fridge-freezers where you need to get exactly the same size, same split of fridge and freezer etc, so that's what we've done, integrated DW and cooker hood but other appliances freestanding.