Opinions on this kitchen design please

[Minnie8]

Hello, hoping for some opinions on this kitchen design from wren. Felt a bit underwhelmed by their ideas. This was the best they could come up with. My husband likes it but there’s something not quite right/missing fit me but not sure what.

I would appreciate any thoughts ☺️

I'm a private chef and go into different people's homes for every job I do I think there is too much floor space and that it would look better with an island in the middle.

Horrible design. Way too much in the middle. And a silly tiny worktop to the left of the oven cupboards. I'd move the whole of the wall that is facing out to the left wall, so it isnt facing out, and then move the left side to the front. Swap them. That gives you much more continuous worktop in a flow rather than breaking it up. It's a terrible design I think!

I hate built in ovens that don't have worktop right beside them so I would have it on one side of the full height section.

What's on the other side of the camera, a dining table? If so I wouldn't bother with the chairs at the worktop so you could make that a double depth peninsula with drawers/cupboards on both sides.

Or move the peninsula to the hob wall so that you can see out the window while you are cooking?

I’d switch the cabinets and built in oven with the hob and workspace. Not sure about the colour of the cabinets blending into the colour of the flooring, will your floor be a similar colour or is it just the render?

I’m planning our new kitchen at the moment and have been playing around a lot on the diy kitchen planner. Once you get used to it it’s very easy to use and make changes to. Might be worth a look.

I don’t think that plan is great. I don’t mind the layout with the peninsula coming out. A friend has similar and it works really well. However I don’t like the tall run with the oven in the middle.

I would either move that whole tall run over the left hand side and have a large counter running all along that back wall with the hob in the middle. The other options is you could lose the tall cupboards completely and put a counter top larder unit in the left and right corners. I’m quite into these at the mo! They are usually 30cm deep, so more shallow than the tall units you have at the moment, but they work well as a breakfast cupboard, drinks cupboard etc. I’ll try and find a pic of one I like.

Go somewhere else for other ideas, it's a rubbish design in many ways

Thanks everyone. @DartmoorChef I was hoping for an island but they told me we didn’t have enough space. But I agree it would look better in this area.
@treesandweeds and @Feckauras good idea moving the tall units to the left. Thank you. Think the colours are just because of the render @Feckauras as looks a bit bland/too much beige on this image

@CatNamedEaster never thought about moving the peninsula, thanks for the idea. We have space at the other side of the room but not sure what we are doing with it yet.

I’m not great with envisioning so appreciate all of your comments and ideas

There is definately room for an island there. Get a other designer.

@SunnyUpNorth I’ll have a look at the DIY planner. I’ve been on their website but never used their planner before. Just googled counter too larders, lovely! Again not something I have considered so thanks for that!
How are you planning yours? Do you have a list of wants/needs? And are just just playing around with different layouts in the diy planner?

@DartmoorChef 👍🏼 Thank you. I definitely will

I agree the tall units and oven need to move but not sure an island would work. Would need to see the whole for plan.

So here is one plan that we had done. The plan I have done myself is the same on the left and right but I’m now doing shallow larder units where the wall units are. I’ll send some pics of those I’ve nicked from insta

These are the counter units. I’m going to get the glass ones either side of the hob and then the pantry style one will go to the left of my sink on the right hand run, above my bin as a tea and coffee station.

Hi @Minnie8

I often see these kitchen designs and the look like they're obviously done to maximise the number of units that they're selling you rather than to give you a wow factor kitchen.

Do you have a floor plan or any dimensions? It's easier to work out then if you can have an island. I have a peninsular btw and I do like it and it's definitely very useful, although sometimes it's a bit of a faff to walk around rather than in my last house where I had an island and the space was easier to navigate.

It's just very blah isn't it? It seems very old fashioned (probably more the colours rather than the style) - on one hand that might be good to have a more traditional style as the ones that are very popular atm (high gloss, contrasting cupboard colours, metro tiles etc) will probably date quickly, but then do you want a kitchen that looks old fashioned the day it's installed? It's a fine line to balance between classic and old fashioned and I don't think that design falls on the right side.

I personally hate kitchen Islands though so that isn't an issue for me...personally I think that design would look really cramped with an island in the middle although I suppose its hard to tell without your dimensions...you need a good few foot between the island and the other cupboards though.

I know everyone suggests it but can you go on Pinterest and pin examples you like? Doesn't have to be a full kitchen but if you could take examples of colour schemes from one, layouts with islands from another, cupboard designs from a third - the designer should be able to put something together from that if they are any good!

Nice @SunnyUpNorth given me some ideas ☺️

@SollaSollew yes I think your right. They’ve tried to add in as many units as poss. And didn’t really listen to what we asked for. We only went to wren as liked the idea of interest free payments.
I do have a floor plan somewhere. Will try and find it and upload it

@thevassal it’s not great is it?the colour in RL is really nice and not like the pictures but it’s not helping sell it to me looking like it does!
Good shout regarding Pinterest. I think i need to go away and do some more searching for myself and find a better designer to help me pull it together into a better layout.

Thanks for your help everyone

I agree that an island would probably look cramped as you need at least 1m around each side of it. Our kitchen also looks like it should fit one in but it would be squashed.

I also agree with having the tall wall to the left and a nice long area of worktop on the back wall.

I second trying the DIY kitchens planner. Even if you don’t want one of their kitchens it is a great planning tool. A bit basic at times but it gives you a lot of opportunities to play around with the layout until you get to your final choices.

Enjoy playing with it all!

We've just put in a very similar shaped kitchen (though don't have the window). I'd definitely put the tall cupboards to the left of the door, then on the back wall have the sink and dishwasher, then put the hob to the right of the window. We have the peninsula like your design and love it.

On your plan where does the extractor actually extract to? It looks like an internal wall.

I like it but think the peninsula needs an overhang (that's what looks unfinished to me) so that you can get one chair at right angles to the other 3, rather than 4 in a line. This is also good if two of you are sitting there together.

Agree with left hand wall having all tall units and back wall having the hob on it - also I'm assuming this would put the extractor on an outside wall? Stops the awful droning vibration you get if it's on an internal wall.

I don't like the way the hob is across the room from the sink. That means you will be crossing the room with hot pans (draining pasta) or dripping veg (when you've washed it at the sink and want to add it to the pan). Plus it can be dangerous if you have small children (or clumsy teens !)

We struggled to get kitchen designers to replan from scratch. They all tended to stick quite closely to what was currently there. Maybe we were just unlucky, but we got on better when we did the basic reconfigure ourselves and then asked the designers to work from that.

What are the room's dimensions? Ours is 2.9m wide which is quite limiting when combined with awkward door positions.

Tall units on the left ( do you have a pull out larder in the tall section ( love mine) - ovens side by side. Hob in the middle of the back wall ( where ovens are) - that'll give you a long sweep of worktops interrupted only by oven and sink which will look gorgeous with under cupboard lighting.