If you were planning a new kitchen...

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...and you had a reasonable budget, which are the things you would now do differently or include?

For example, I know some friends who opted for two dishwashers, reasoning that you typically only use a small number of items daily and so it makes sense of literally moving these from a clean dishwasher to table and then back to be washed in the 'dirty' dishwasher. Makes sense to me. Plus you would never have to have dirty dishes building up after family gatherings.

Also know some people who opted to have an extractor fan near the hob (i.e. on the same level as the hob rather than above), and they swear by it.

Another family had a cupboard they kitted out as a small bar area.

What would be the things you would change or include if you created a new large kitchen/diner/open area?

A worktop level cupboard which I believe is called an 'appliance garage' in which to store toaster, air fryer, mixer etc.

As above but for drinks.

All singing and dancing tap for boiling/iced/sparkling water.

Walk in larder or at the very least a shallow depth floor to ceiling cupboard with lots of shelves.

Mixer tap with pull out hose for rinsing plates and veg.

Drawers instead of cupboards

A seamless worktop, sink, draining board.

A desk/storage area for DH's laptop and paperwork that seems to live in the kitchen!

Couple of questions to previous posters, if I may....

1, Hob or sink in a kitchen island - and why?

2, Why drawers instead of cupboards? (This always appears on the 'must have' lists and I'd love to know why!).

1. Presumably so you’re not cooking/washing up facing a wall with your back to the room.
2. You can pull drawers right out and see what’s at the back without having to go down on your knees and crawl inside a cupboard!

@sunnysideurp

1 Hob on island ( if possible ) in my experience , the washing up congregates round the sink and will look cluttered , the hob will only be needed when you’re actually cooking ( that rogue mug and teaspoon could be there for a while )

2 I would think it’s easier to find things in big pull out drawers , rather than hoiking everything out from the back of a corner cupboard

I’ll let you know in June when my new kitchen is in !

@Frenchfancy I second the number of sockets. You can never have too many. Even though you'd put big pieces of equipment away you still need the sockets.

I don't think I'm going to explain this well! But our bin and recycling is hidden in a drawer like system.
So it's 2 bins.one in front of the other.but in one segment of the bottom worktop/cupbaord space( as in fills a whole bottom cupboard section) and rolls in and out.
A bit like how fridges and dishwasher can be Integrated behind the cupboards style doors.