Talk to me about planning a kitchen

[RM2013]

Hi looking for lots of advice/ideas

Recently moved house and the house has original kitchen from when built in 2006. Kitchen is serviceable but could be laid out better for more storage. Currently the units are in a small U shape but I want to extend the units further along the right hand side wall.

Ground floor plan attached room is around 16ft x 9ft so average size not massive but need to use as kitchen diner.

we currently have freestanding appliances FF, WM and separate drier from old house - I prefer idea of integrated but would probably go for integrated FF a washer/drier and a DW rather than separate washing machine and tumble
drier - DH thinks it’s a bit wasteful to get rid of our fairly new appliances to integrate new ones

Also considering is instant boiling tap worth it or no? We are tea drinkers and I’ve seen mixed reviews on them.

What were the best things you did when designing your kitchen? Any things to consider?

Price wise have no clue. Want to try and keep to a budget if possible ideally no more than £15k

Any recommendations for kitchen companies - our last kitchen was a budget B&Q one but served us well for 15 years

I highly recommend DIY Kitchens. Great choice of unit sizes, colours, and price range. There's a fab FB group dedicated to them. Lots of pics and advice. A few independent kitchen designers hang out on there too.
www.facebook.com/groups/381845813632207/?ref=share

@skippy67 brilliant thank you I’ve heard a few good things about them will take a look

We love our boiling tap, its a Qettle. Also drawers for crockery storage and pans etc, much better than cupboards. Larder cupboards have also revolutionised my life and an integrated pull out bin/recycling bin. We used DIY kitchens with great success.

I'm currently in the midst of it all with a shell of a kitchen.

Set up a makeshift kitchen and you will be able to cook almost anything - we got one of these
amzn.to/3IbWVt5
and a mini oven (£25 on Facebook) and a freestanding electric hob (already had it but they're about £30 for a two ring) and set it up in the spare room. Fridge, microwave and kettle have obviously been moved up there too and there's not much I can't cook up there, it's really not awful (Christmas was a challenge and I did draw the line at a dinner party though). All will be resold on Facebook afterwards so minimal net cost.

Find a builder first - turns out they all have strong preferences on which kitchen companies to use. We scrapped the Wren kitchen we'd paid a deposit for (refundable) after finding a brilliant builder who told us lots of horror stories about them and recommended IKEA instead. IKEA do have a good kitchen planning tool on their website though, which is fun to play with.

If you're going integrated you can just sell the existing appliances second hand which I don't think is a waste (you're not taking usable items to the tip!) but is an expense.

Think about what you want to put where when designing.

We did our last one (local guy wooden) & then had a DIY kitchens utility room. Our layout worked really well & we are replicating our fave bits now in full restoration:

• boiling tap is a must having had it before & living in a hard water area both DH & I say it's a deal breaker but we had an insinkerator one which was a third of quooker & they replaced the tank after 2 years for free no hassle when it started spitting (it was also an orange tap which was fab!)
• "breakfast" cupboard & smaller cutlery drawer so it's effectively "everything you need on the morning is there" next to crockery
• more bins than you think you need( we are having 2 x bin cupboards this time)
• extra beading = extra cleaning, just shaker this time
• seating. Seating & more seating

Ps I wouldn't have integrated, I'm with your DH

Houzz etc has quite a lot of planning resources.

I found the zone theory very useful. You want a prep zone, a cooking zone, and a plating up/down zone.

Lots of info online in detail but in summary this helps define where you want fridge, dishwasher, sink etc. Eg your sink needs to be accessible for all 3 zones really. Fridge at one end in the prep zone. Plates, glasses, cutlery etc in your plating zone - don't set up your drawers cupboards so eg the person wanting to grab a quick drink has to go into a cupboard above where you'll be prepping dinner. Ditto flow through the kitchen - someone doing food prep or cooking shouldn't be interrupted by another person just wanting to put something in the dishwasher/bin for example.

Think about this first, visualising all the kitchen activities, what you need for them and start to think about where that means certain items/groups of items need to be. And that will go a long way to ruling in/out certain options already.

Thanks all some really great ideas here. If I had an unlimited budget and space would be so easy to plan. It’s just deciding what the important things are but within budget

Another vote for DIY kitchens, the quality is excellent. We did our utility room using their units and we will be using them for the kitchen renovation that we are currently doing. You can see customers finished kitchens on their website if you don't want to join the FB group.

I wouldn't get a washer dryer as we briefly had one and it was crap and everyone else I know who has had one says the same.

I'm not sure about those boiling water taps - partner (engineer) keeps going on about them being inefficient. AIUI you're paying to heat a given volume of boiling or near boiling water constantly just to save some time but I can't see how it will be less expensive to run than just putting the amount you need in the kettle and boiling it. Unfortunately I don't know anyone who has one so no experience.

I’ve started to have a look at DIY kitchens and taken a look
at their online planning tool. Lots of people recommend the boiling tap but downsides is the tank takes up cupboard space underneath the sink. Lots to think about

We have a u shape kitchen as well. We got an integrated one installed a couple of years ago, I really like the integration but had deliberately got second free standing appliances when we first moved in as we didn’t know what we’d do with it so we didn’t mind letting the £50 fridge go after 2 years. I think it’s great to have things in there that are personal to you, for me, that’s my spice drawers, I just love them. Carousels in corner cupboards are also a must for me now.

IKEA planned ours and we bought it off them, wouldn’t use their fitters again though. Would also say that it’s been hard to sort out anything that’s needed servicing with the appliances too because they tell you you have to go to the company they bought them off and the whole thing can be a nightmare.

We have a quooker boiling water tap and it’s great, not just for tea making but also when cooking pasta, veg etc. the tank takes up about a third of the cupboard under the sink.
I like having a clear worktop so it’s nice not to have a kettle - I’ve no idea how it compares to boiling a kettle as far as energy efficiency goes though.

wrt to appliances- I’ve had a washer drier in the past and hated it. I would definitely want a separate tumble drier if possible. Is there anywhere else in the house you could house a condenser model to help with space in the kitchen?

OP you mention that planning would be easier if not restricted by budget, why not just plan it exactly how you’d want it to start with, then start to modify, remove things or find cheaper alternatives to fit the budget.

Another thought. I’m a visual person so often do this sort of thing-
If you plan to extend run of units further along the wall, I’d measure and mark it on the floor with masking tape or use cardboard on the floor to mock it up. Then keeping the internal door on the opposite wall open, mark out the space you’ll have left for a table and chairs. You can see how much space you’ll have to move around the table, pull chairs out etc, if new units are there.

We currently have a separate washing machine and tumble drier. The tumble drier was in the garage in our old house but we now live in a house with a separate garage so we’ve managed to fit the tumble drier in this kitchen where they had their dishwasher. But we would like a dishwasher so might be a squeeze to get all the appliances in plus cupboards. There isn’t really anywhere else in the house we would put the condenser.
Wondering whether we really do need a dishwasher? Not missed it since we’ve moved here

@moodymary this is a great idea. We currently have a large dining table which would restrict our space if we extend the run of units along the longest wall. We could put the table up against the wall when not in use or put the table the other way around. Ultimately the current dining table seats 6 (or 8 if needed) but usually only four of us here so would consider a smaller table. We have had this table for years and was actually given to us so
no issue in changing it

This is the current layout. Planning to relocate the radiator to install a vertical one on the wall
space on the left hand wall where the window is

Can you stack washing machine and tumble under stairs for example. We did that in our old house and freed up space in kitchen.

Plumbing would be an issue plus there’s some built in shoe cabinets under the stairs which I’d like to
leep