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 :)

Thanks for that.

By flexible I meant that gas is easy to control the heat. I remember my mum’s electric hob and how it took ages to heat up or down.

I dont use a wok and usually cook stews or currys.

I do like the idea of an induction hob as extra work surface and easy to clean.

@Rummikub oh yes, super easy to control and incredibly quick!

My mum also had that type of hob: halogen rings that took forever to heat up (and cool down). I can't bear using it when I visit but this is totally different, domestic technology has moved on a lot in the last 30 years...!

Mine has touchable parts on the glass and it's so easy to increase or decrease heat. And super safe to leave it on a while - I've often done a 4-hour stock on the hob at a nice steady low temp.

Induction is different as it heats the pan, not the glass, so you don't wait for it to get hot. I confess I'm not exactly sure how it works - something to do with the magnetism of the metal base of the pans - but it means that only the portion of the ring that is touching the pan will get hot. Small pan on large ring? Doesn't matter. It will be cool right next to the pot. No flames licking the handle when you turn the heat up either.

And when the glass is hot, it's not from a heat source underneath, it's only because the hot pan has been resting on it - so it is cool to touch much quicker.

That sounds amazing! I’m definitely going to add this to the list. For some reason my brain can’t compute frying an egg without a heat source!

After 39 years, 4 moves and 3 new kitchens fitted, we finally got our current kitchen finished in September and we love it.
We had a wall knocked down between the original dining room and kitchen, and a 4m x 4m extension on half of the space making the whole space ‘L-shaped’.
Our dining table is at the top of the ‘L’ .
We are very glad with the result, however I have never heard Kirsty Allsopp admit what a total stress-fest it is getting there!

For the first time we have: quartz worktops
4 sets of deep drawers, *3 with divided secret drawers
an island seating 4, with extra cupboards and a sink
a walk in corner larder that even I can reach every shelf
a dedicated area for drinks

*One of the divided secret drawers holds all the cutlery etc.
One holds all the cooking prep stuff and knives.
The last has all my herbs and spices laid flat, easy to see and they no longer fall on my head as I over-reach to get to an overhead shelf.
The deep drawers hold all of our crockery, another or saucepans, the third or oven dishes and the smallest our laundry products.

We do have the draining groves in the quartz by our sinks - but I recommend silicone drying mats if you live in a hard water area. They can go in the dishwasher & fold to put away. We also have silicone heat protectors for roasting dishes that expand then fold inwards taking up very little storage space (x shaped).

We intend getting a cheap second kettle near the hob for filling saucepans.

No wine fridge or boiling tap though!

A large sink that fits roasting dishes; we have a half sink next to it and the combination of the two made a huge difference to everyday life.
Drawers are good too, I would like more.
Extra deep cupboards .

Nothing but I love threads like this for when I get a new kitchen. I do know that I want mugs, spoons, kettle and fridge near to each other so I can make a cup of tea without to-ing and fro-ing.

My Brabantia bin

This has been so helpful, a huge thank you to everyone who has taken the time to reply

Planner today suggested compact laminate as a cheaper alternative to quart but I bust enough to have. Butler sink. Anyone got this?

Island and table here so best of both island is for casual snacking and drinking as one of us cooks, table for kitchen suppers.
No boiling water tap as the induction hob is super fast (and our Alessi kettle is gorgeous) plus we have a bean to cup coffee machine that does hot water as well as coffee.
We love our Quartz worktop with draining grooves (bartenders friend sorts out any staining in seconds)

Shelf cleaning oven. Because cleaning oven its a hell

The induction hob. Easy to clean and control. With hindsight would have got one with knobs rather than press digital as sometimes a bit fiddly. But is Super sleek looking.

quartz work top. easy to clean, got a slight disco sparkle.

full height freezer and separate full height fridge. lots of room.

pull out wide pan drawers. Best thing.

underfloor wet heating.

qooker, we got used to it v quickly despite initially thinking should we bother. It’s not a game changer but it’s nice.

we spent an evening going through wha5 was in old kitchen and working out where everything would go in new one…that was well spent as realised needed another cupboard.

pull out 300 larder. Drawers in 600 larder at the bottom.

Deep warming drawer under combi oven, use it all the time. Double hide and slide oven next to it.

Side by side oven and microwave oven with warming drawer.

Re sink. I had one in my previous house and went for stainless steel in my new house. The white one got very tired looking. And can chip.

My current favourites.
quartz worktop
pull out bin
wide deep drawers

what I’m sorry I don’t have
a larder cupboard due to lack of space - put a cupboard for storing dry goods in utility but it’s very basic (ran out of money) it would have been better as described by barrel of otters.

It's so personal isn't it?

We ripped out the awful larder cupboards and corner pull out things as they actually didn't give extra space and we've redesigned to include proper cupboards and shelving instead.

My favourite things are the Moroccan tiles I found, American fridge/freezer and my range cooker. Oh and the units reaching to the ceiling so there's no crap stored on top and no cleaning of cupboard tops necessary.

We bought an ex-display kitchen for 2.5k and added a couple of units, as well as upcycling a huge Welsh dresser to match. Did all the work ourselves and spent less than 4k all in (already had the cooker, fridge freezer etc). Due to some unforeseen delays, we also got a free integrated dishwasher.

Yes, had a butler sink in our last house and loved it. I did use a rack with rubber feet on the bottom when washing heavy pots and pans, cleaned it every week or so with a bit of washing up liquid and a squirt of bleach and it stayed pristine for the ten years we were in that house.

We had a white high gloss worktop from Howdens when we last had our kitchen made over.

Our kitchen worktop is cleaned numerous times a day and it's now starting to stain when you put things on it, ie drinks. The stains don't always come off.

I think we've cleaned it so much that we've worn down the protective layer (or whatever you call it).

Someone recently recommended "Dekton"'worktops for their durability, they don't stain and are relatively reasonably priced. I don't have one though so you'd need to do your own research though.

Waste disposal system

Lots of uninterrupted work surface.

Big drawers instead of cupboards.

We've just moved house and the new kitchen is bigger but so badly laid out it makes me miss my old, tiny yet perfectly organised kitchen.

I'd definitely buy a bigger hob, or even have two next to each other, so that I can use a number of large saucepans at the same time!

We're 7 months into living with our new kitchen. If I had to name my very favourite thing (I love it all and have no regrets about any decisions I made), it would be the quartz worktop. It's an absolute dream to clean and looks amazing. I love our island, with seating for all of us. It's become the family hangout space. We spend much more time together then we ever used to and with 2 teens that's priceless.

We also got USB plug sockets and a pull out double bin drawer as well as pan drawers. The under top cupboards LED lighting is a win too (we have 3 different lighting options which is another win for me).

DH chose very high end appliances (that was his thing, mine was the design) which are amazing but day to day it's the carefully thought out design and worktops that make me smile every single time I'm in there, which is a lot!

An island on castors allows complete access to the corner in a small kitchen.

A row of spaces for trays, baking trays, chopping boards maximises space as I only need to be able to reach the bottom corner to pull them out. Ditto storing my largest soup pot upside down as I just need to be able to grab the handle. Both these allow use of height that would otherwise be dead space.

S hooks on a piece of wire mesh cut to size & attached to the wall
www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-6mm-Galvanised-Mesh-Panel---600-x-900mm/p/187720
and two chrome rails in front of it makes use of the space above the hob and gives you loads of storage for super cheap.

Bifold doors can enable use of tricky spaces.

Push latches mean you don't need handles on doors/drawers
www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Bumper-Push-Door-Latch-Cross-Mount---Grey-40mm-Pack-of-5/p/113640

Hope it turns out lovely!

Drawers
bins in a cupboard (didn’t go for the expensive pull out ones, just made sure I had a cupboard that would fit two decent sized bins in it.)
induction hob
eye height oven (hadn’t realised how much better this was than under counter!)
glass splashback rather than tiles (looks really sleek and so much easier to keep clean!)

Good grief- I've been quoted £8k for the quartz worktop by b and q. £8k!!!!!

@Celeste777 try going direct to the supplier it will be cheaper. I used this place, I told them what I had in mind so they quoted based on that bluepearl-granite.com