Kitchen regrets

[ManicMonday007]

I'm just having an extension and need to plan my kitchen diner. Any tips or ideas. Anything you hate about a new kitchen and care to share for regretful decisions. We are hoping to have a decent size island for prep area. Any ideas gratefully received.

Agree with lots of sockets, especially on the island. We added more sockets to our kitchen and made sure the sockets all also had usb inputs too as our kitchen island tends to be a hub for charging devices.

See, I would/did go for gloss and would do again. It forces us to regularly clean the cupboard doors. To my mind the spills are still there whether you can see them in not.

DH insisted he wanted a dishwasher with a cutlery drawer. Then within an hour of installing the dishwasher he removed it! Fortunately the dishwasher also came with a cutlery basket which can be moved about. So all was not lost.

We went all out. 2 dishwashers, bin in cupboard, huge fridge freezer, floor to ceiling pantry, breakfast pantry, large double belfast sink, seperate drinking water tap, rinse hose, enormous extractor fan - literally put it on for 2 minites and everything is sucked away.

There are still compromises though. Ideally you want all your cutlery and crockery next to the dishwasher.

I wish the island was slightly longer. We went extra wide though and that was sensible (2.4m x 1.5m).

We did this with roughly hewn stone slabs. Looks lovely but traps dirt, eats mops and is a general pita.

Boiling water tap
Larder cupboard with sockets in for microwave, toaster, coffee machine etc so they aren’t out on the worktops
as much storage as you can get in

What’s the width of basket bit inside the pull out cupboards?
TIA

Love our island - it's big with a hob in the centre. Also stools on the opposite side.

I like the dishwasher cutlery drawer. Everything is separated so gets clean, where with a basket sometimes things get stuck together and are not washed in between.

We have one long run of (base) units / drawers along one wall with a large island parallel to it.

On the long run of units, there is a large window in that wall.

We have a lovely quartz worktop and matching upstand that's about 10-15cm high I think (off the top of my head) - so about half way up the wall between the worktop and the window sill.

It bugs me every time I look at it that we didn't get the upstand to go all the way up to the window sill and probably incorporated the window sill in the quartz too. It would have looked so much better / more high end I think.

Its those little details you need to think about which make a difference.

(but yes to 2 x single ovens side by side / drawers / pull out baskets and sink on the island - a million times better for us than a hob on an island unit if you have to have one or the other. And a small bin hidden in a cupboard. I can't stand big bins - I really don't get the idea of it being preferable to have days and days' worth of rotting stuff in a bin rather than emptying it regularly).

My kitchen designer included a pop up socket on the island design and was very pro having one, as was my husband who didn't want a white socket poking out on the side, however when the worktop people came to template I backed out of the pop up for the same reservations (I'd never been keen and the worktop guy wasn't either so that smung it); it interrupts the sleakness of the worktop, could break, also another edge for dirt to get caught round. My Island sides are a matt black and we've chosen a matt black socket to go on the island side so will blend in (plus on a side where isn't right in your face) so tucked away. In fairness I don't use a socket ont he island for much, maybe a hand help blender etc, It wouldn't occur to me to plug in phone chargers etc on mine.

This ^

I'm not keen on pull down taps so we chose an articulated one from Steamvalve Originals that resembles a pot filler type although we opted for the deck-mounted not the wall-mounted one. It can be positioned to pour into whichever part of our double belfast sink I require. I absolutely love it despite the £900 price tag!

Definitely choose drawers instead of cupboards. We have loads (our only cupboards are beneath the sink and one curved end unit), although now I'd probably get more ie, in the island where we have a mix of drawers, wine rack and open shelving.

My only real regret is the Bertazzoni range which looks fab but is very much style over substance. I'd willingly go back to my old Rsngemaster Elan!

Also, I love our pull out bins - we have two cabinets each with two bins (one for general waste, one for food waste, one for plastic/paper etc recycling and one for glass). A huge improvement on freestanding bins.

I'm also not a fan of hidden, pop-up sockets in islands as they spoil the appearance of the surface imho. We have just one double socket on ours on the end - closest to where I occasionally use an electric whisk/blender etc.

Thank you for this.

My favourite thing in my kitchen is a hose style tap that you can unclip and move around and extend within the sink, and you can change it to a sort of shower hose effect with more pressure which is amazing for washing up and cleaning the sink.

I don't have a new kitchen but the thing I hate the most about mine is the fridge freezer. It's the American style one with the freezer on the left and fridge on the right. Fridge is great but everything always falls out of the freezer because it's all shelves, and nothing fits in right. Next fridge I get will be the double fridge top and double freezer bottom with drawers only.

Oooh how exciting!

When I remodelled my favourite house's kitchen I had under cabinet lights put in and never used them once! Mood lighting to try and navigate the kitchen in the evening and eat by, how romantic. Not so much when my bf was shrieking he could see anything and "what's this?" as he held up some of his meal on a fork.

I didn't have drawers either because they were the thing that failed in the old kitchen.

This time around I want a dishwasher, bins in a cupboard and larger larder type cabinets.

We had space for an island, but went for a peninsular instead and love it. It mean are larger space and more storage underneath.

On the peninsular, we paid extra for a special, rolled edging. It just looks smarter IMO.

We installed in the utility and the kitchen tap is 3 way with filtered water that isn't softened. If you are doing a larger renovation (like we were) ask for a fresh water feed in the upstairs bathroom/en-suite. Its great and saves going to the kitchen at night to get filtered/non softened water.

We had spotlights put in, along with a peninsular, pendant light. Ensure there is no shadow from spotlights- esp over the hob and sink. My old house only had a single pendant and the sink was really dark.

The only thing I regret is the Rangmaster butler sink. The plug hole is woefully small. It has a tiny, removable basket to collect debris, but it blocks within seconds. If the basket is put in place- the water barely trickles through so the sink fills up, so then you remove the basket. Then the debris fills the hole and you have to keep removing it with your fingers! It had good reviews, but check the plug and basket size and DONT get a rangemaster like this one:
https://victoriaplum.com/browse/all-kitchens?csi=CBS595&gclid=Cj0KCQjwuLShBhC_ARIsAFod4fLlmJoZob1tliyqYIpy9yJMS09dcDg4Kl2hQOcN3G7X5N-Msr8Wr6YaArC0EALw_wcB

We went for loads of deep drawers and I really regret them! Unless you factor in the cost of drawer organisers and really think the layout through they are just so messy. We also have some of the smaller hidden drawers that pull out after you open the big drawer and I hate them, they're just really inconvenient.
I wish that we had a lovely big larder cupboard big enough for all dry goods in one place.

Don't get a "fancy" stainless steel sink with angles and seams. They look fabulous, but not practical to use / clean. I would get stainless steel as material, though, as it's everything-proof and you can clean with bleach if it's really manky. Get as big a sink as you can. I love that I can get my biggest roasting tin in flat to soak.

I have 2 ovens with a built in microwave and warming drawer in between, love them!
Love my boiling water tap, one less thing on worktop and no waiting for it to boil.
My friend had a garbage disposal in her sink which is fab! scrape any food waste into it and it mushes it and washes it way.
We have gloss doors (previous owner installed) which i wouldn't choose, so many fingerprints!
Dishwasher to side of sink
Think about freezer space, we have 2 integrated freezers which are very small so have a spare large freezer in the garage for over flow, not ideal.
I have a gas hob which can be a pain for simmering, no matter how low i turn it things still bubble too much, need some of those simmer rings, plus it's an arse to clean getting in between all the rings and dials, miss my induction hob

@iwantabreakfastpantry the 2 dishwashers are on either side of the cupboard that's under the sink - so all very accessible and makes loading and unloading just as easy as if we only had 1. We do have a big kitchen diner though, so are lucky that we have the space for them.

Do you not compost food waste in your area? We do in ours. I can't see the benefit of putting food in our water system.

@northeasrer no we don't unfortunately

Definitely get a socket on the island. Our builder has nearly finished our kitchen but is away for a couple of weeks and is yet to install the socket on the island. I'm already missing it.

We have a hob built into the old chimney breast and while it looks neat there is not quite enough space around it as I'd like, for handles that might stick out and for storing stuff like oil and salt and pepper that you use every time you cook.

Eye level ovens are great, safer with children around, safer also for adults as no need to bend down and pick up really heavy hot things, and you can see what's cooking more easily.

If you have a pantry keep it.