What you love most in your kitchen?

[Celeste777]

Hi :)
I'm now designing a new kitchen. It's a decent space (was the kitchen and diner originally) but we are certainly not on a luxury budget so boiling water taps for 1k are not on the radar.
But I would LOVE to know what you love in your kitchen that it's worth me thinking about, I've never before had the opportunity to design a kitchen and so I'd like to get it right but would really appreciate advice of those who have been there and done that,
Thanks so much for your time :)

We do too. I’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve both tried to get cutlery out of the washing machine and milk out of the pullout larder cupboard. I’m sure we’ll get used to it.

We have just installed our dream kitchen and no. 1 top of the list is the boiling water tap. I think it was £500 but tea is so quick. Boiling a pan of water - instant! Making a bit of extra gravy - no problem! Soaking stained baking trays - a breeze! You get the gist 🤣🤣 but it's amazing! 2nd would be the quartz worktop it is beautiful and so much easier to look after than wood. Also love my larder and lots of large deep drawers. Full size freezer for batch cooking and filling up with reduced food too. We have an integrated bin with 4 sections which I really like as nothing left out like food caddy or recycling.

I've got lots of worktop space!

I love my Fired Earth tiles with country animals on. A lot more expensive than the other animal option but they make me smile every day.

Also the kitchen has a massive chimney breast which probably used to be a bread oven. Some genius put the modern oven in there. Perfect height, great use of space. I didn't change that when I redid the room.

Pan drawers instead of lower cupboards, ceiling height top cupboards, ceiling to floor pantry cupboard & built on appliances.

My kitchen was completed in February and I love everything about it however my favourite features are:
Underfloor heating
Boiling water tap- Qettle
All drawers rather than low cupboards
Induction hob

After ages, I had my kitchen done. My old kitchen has lots of random 30cm cupboards and made no sense!
Things I did:
dishwasher, cutlery and plates all close together.

Like a previous poster, I have a tall fridge freezer in the main kitchen and then an under-counter breakfast fridge in a ‘breakfast’ zone. Instead of having a built in larder I made a little L shaped-zone breakfast zone with: top cupboards (cereals, sauces, tea and coffee) and bottom cupboards (crisps/biccies) single built in fridge for milk, jam etc, single oven (bakes) and over-counter microwave.

On the counter I have the kettle, toaster and blender. I love this part of the kitchen and I especially love that my 2 ovens are in separate areas of the kitchen so one is more of a baking oven and the other main one is for roasts and stuff.

I also love ceramic sinks but not built in ones so I had a deep set top- mounted single with built in drainer. So all the water stays off the counter.

I love having drawers on either side of the hob for utensils and spices and then big cupboards underneath it for pots and pans.

I didn’t care so much about the finishing touches as much as I cared about it making sense!

2 x fridge/freezers!

A large island with seating on one side. Plenty of space for food prep and organisation. Electric sockets by seating and on each end with USB ports. Wish I’d put more drawers above base unit cupboards. We put chunky shelves on the walls which look nice. Should have put a narrow base cupboard by cooker for baking trays. Also wish I’d put a tv in kitchen. Enjoy designing your kitchen a lot to think about.

Definitely the underfloor heating...... But I always have cold feet, 10 years later and still makes me sigh blissfully with the warm tiles underfoot, especially today!

Totally agree - great for a quick supper. It's just my DH and most of the time so the island is great for casual eating; we have a dining room but only use that when we have people to eat.

*Hattie1970abc
*
Totally agree - great for a quick supper. It's just my DH and most of the time so the island is great for casual eating; we have a dining room but only use that when we have people to eat.

You eat people? Is that with a nice chianti? Are you married to Hannibal Lecter?

Sorry, my previous message should have been aimed at @MissFritton65

I’ve been watching old tv series. And I’ve noticed they have a kitchen table instead of islands.

im thinking it gives a more flexible space. Or is it a bad idea?

We decided again hot water tap. No regrets. We have breakfast pantry now with hot water dispenser kettle/ toaster etc in so everything is hidden.

New induction hob boost function heats water so fast to boiling, that we have no need to fill saucepans with boiling water anymore. Just cold and heat on hob. Safer also.

Our kitchen is pretty small for kitchen diner, so we needed the space under sink hot water filter would have taken up also for bins

Also have quartz. No grooves. Kitchen showroom said they stain and food gets stuck in so they longer offer as service. I like it with no drainer. Just large ceramic sink built under quartz seemlessly. We just have drying mat under sink if drying mat needed, but we put 95% everything In dishwasher anyway.

Dining bench super comfortable

@iwasaterribleteen 🤣🤣

Depends how much space you have but the most convenient things for me were:

• dishwasher right next to cutlery drawer and across from glass cupboards (up high) and plate/bowl drawers - I can stand in one spot and unload everything and I only walk to put my pans away.
• the oven hood has a shelf/ledge on it, very handy for keeping things like matches, first aid kit etc high out of reach of children but easy to find because you can see it easily
• triangle of fridge/sink/oven close together
• glass induction hob means more prep space (we had a gas hob before which was harder to clean and unusable for prep space), also can put hot roasting pans or casseroles straight down on it from the oven
• the.... boiling water tap, sorry 😂

Much, much prefer a kitchen table. When we moved into this house, there was a huge island in the middle of the kitchen, taking up so much space. Ripped it out and replaced it with a big wooden table, which is far more useful (imo). Not a fan of islands that replace a proper table.

It does seem better to have a table. Right height for short me. Sit down to prep veg. Hmm...

@BattleofBeamfleot

Is the induction hob as flexible as a gas hob? I was considering options to future proof. Even tho it’ll be a long while before gas is no longer an option.

I've had induction hobs of various types since 2009 - I'm not sure what you mean by flexible but my Neff hob does everything I could want. So I had my gas capped off. Safer, cooler to touch, easier to clean, looks more polished, another flat surface to put things on when it's a big occasion and I'm running out of prep space and on the glass surface I know my Pyrex jug isn't going to tip over on the rings if I nudge it half an inch out of position!

The only thing I've found that might be better on gas burners is wok cooking - I haven't found a decent induction wok yet and anyway since it only works through contact with the surface that's better for flat bottomed pans. If you cook using a wok a lot, you might struggle. For everyday non-wok cooking, it's great.

We have a table in preference to an island. It’s perfect for food prep and we eat most of our meals at it and, of course, it’s flexible as it can be moved around and extended because it has an extra leaf.

The contents of my fridge of course. Nothing else it all needs an upgrade and I can't see it happening.

For those of you with granite worktops, how do you clean the limescale that builds up around the taps?

Just asked the man to add a boiling tap.
Mumsnet said so

My walk in pantry. I can hide from the dc in there and secretly stuff my face 😳