what am I missing? ktichen design process question

[sappak]

We're finally at the stage where we can plan a new kitchen (builders just started stripping out ground floor- hoping to be ready for installation in Nov). I've had months and months to ruminate, look at pictures, get quotes. We've gotten quotes from Magnet, DIY, Ikea, White Kitchen Co., Harvey Jones, independent local joiner...and all the designs seem really uninspiring to me. I'm not talking about the basic layout of the room, but the design-y stuff that makes kitchens in magazines look interesting and pretty-- where they put open shelves or boxes, different depths or heights in the cabinetry, interesting use of colours or materials or lighting...

Basically, I know I don't have a design sense - how do I get help?
My experience so far has been that the kitchen design people just do whatever I say- if I saw, 'what about a shelf?', they add a shelf. But I don't know what I'm doing, and the shelf looks like crap! What am I missing? We're in London if that helps.

I am in the middle of having my kitchen done and the fitters have been amazing, but I am very good at using the question 'What would you suggest, you are the professionals'. They have been great at giving their opinion and helping me with the design.

So if You want a shelf, instead of saying 'what about a shelf', say I was thinking of maybe a having a shelf, in your opinion which shelf would look best and do you think here would be the best place or would you suggest somewhere else?.

Cut the pictures out from the magazines and show them to the kitchen designers, that way they will know what you are looking for.

Take a look at Pinterest for kitchens you like, and pin them to one board. Take them to the kitchen showrooms and tell the designers which bits of those kitchens you like. I did this and it teased out of which things I really felt strongly about - for example nearly every kitchen I had selected had a particular style of handle. None of the kitchen shops did that style so I looked online and sourced them myself (so cheaply I might add). They really "make the kitchen".

when you think about designing a kitchen, don't think about where to put the appliances or where to put a shelf. think about how people move through the space and use the space. So if part of the kitchen is a corridor to another bit of the house, keep that area empty if possible. If part is the 'washing up zone', then make sure there is a hand towel and dishtowels there. Next to your cooker, make sure you have space to put a pan down off the heat.

Again, think of how people will use the space. Can you charge a phone somewhere and put down some shopping bags? can a teenager make coffee without getting in the way of someone doing proper cooking? Can you store the plates / serving dishes / cookbooks that you use most often and access them easily?

Overall, make sure the space will work for you and your needs.

Maybe I've just had a run of bored kitchen designers...I've tried to ask more open-ended questions, to ask for suggestions, and I've got a pinterest board. Or maybe I just have a space you can't do very much with anyway?

@parietal I aprreciate the comments about functionality. Am thinking I should abandon aesthetics. How it works is more important than how it looks. It's just so much damn money!

we used Kitchen Bee to design ours

We used Karen from oneplan on Houzz. For the same reason

She’s a favourite on here. Would highly recommend.

Independent kitchen designer? Rather than a chain?

We had an independent designer do a couple of first draft designs for us. We didn't get her to do the aesthetic stuff, but she would have if we'd wanted her to. In the end we didn't even use either of her proposed layouts but it was still worth it for helping us realise what we did want when we went for quotes.

I'm sure a designer would be happy to do it the other way around and finesse a basic design as well. And when you're forking out for a new kitchen a couple of hundred pounds extra to get it perfect is well worth it.

@sappak
You have mostly looked at budget kitchens, not bespoke ones. Where a company has loads of size options, you get a more eclectic design. Function first and aesthetics a close second. You do have to like what you’ve paid for.