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.

Think about the distance between the kitchen run and island/peninsula. You can get away with 1000mm but maybe a tight squeeze if you cook with someone else or a teen constantly pops in and out. Can drawers/cupboards on both sides of the wall way open without bashing into each other?

Think about how you make a cup of tea, make breakfast, prep a meal, load and unload a dishwasher etc, so you are not walking from one side of the kitchen to the other constantly for the simplest of tasks.

As others have said. Big bins. I've got a pull out bin that is the size of say a dishwasher space that houses two sections - one for recycling and one for general waste. It's massive, but brilliant. Also I regret not having enough sockets above the worktop and also lights under the wall units for ambient lighting

These are brilliant, thank you! I've never designed a kitchen before and it's a minefield...

Single central handle on drawers, rather thank double, so you can open them one handed

soft close units

avoid having the main sink or hob on the island esp if near the seating area

think about what is in your line of sight from the entrance into the kitchen, dining/seating area etc - can you avoid having a cluttered sink in the sight lines?

avoid a long circuitous route to the kitchen if possible - total pain if you have shopping to take

Was just coming on to post similar. I inherited one too but the whole design of kitchen was wrong so we got a new kitchen and I put the sink back in the island. We never have stuff on the counter now. A year on and we still leave it clean and tidy at night. Am delighted we went this way again

You can’t have too much fridge space, I’ve an under counter and FF, before it only had a tiny under counter which was a nightmare. Also love having a bathroom towel hanging radiator instead of a normal radiator, great for keeping towels dry and gives more space. Wish I’d got quartz tops, my cheap ones are now fading. Drawers over cupboards, so much easier to store and fetch things.

I love my Rangemaster fridge freezer with double doors over two freezer drawers and my Quooker tap. Also my quartz work surfaces.

What I don't like is that I forgot to factor in space for the microwave and toaster so they have ended up on the worktop. Also having glass doors on the upper cupboards means I need to keep them looking good rather than cramming stuff in. Also, the downlights in the top cupboards were a waste of money but I do wish I had put some lights under the upper cupboards to give low level lighting to use after dinner.

Well, that's it, deposit down on a new kitchen! Have taken lots of the advice on here on board, Inc @CantHaveTooMuchChocolate re towel radiator instead of a normal one. Next stage is a technical visit from the fitter. We decided to go with a local independent place which does bespoke cabinets and a complete "one stop shop" service, so they'll project manage. Fingers crossed there'll be no nightmares!

From this house compared to our previous house - I'd love to get rid of the damned peninsula - it becomes a dumping ground, it narrows the path around the kitchen a lot and I'd have room for the dining table in the kitchen rather than in the living room if I did that.

I miss our pull out cupboard bin which had two compartments and then a shelf above in there for bin bags - it was the only thing that ever thwarted a bin raiding dog who thinks party time has arrived since we've had to go back to a normal bin.

@CoffeeWithCheese ah, we have a peninsula on the design, with an induction hob on it. Then a small table the other side. So I'll be facing out when cooking and can then just pass the meals to DH and the kids. We've also got a living room / diner, and DH and one designer are really anti having another table in the kitchen as say it takes up too much space. But I've insisted, as it's where we sit to eat as a family every day, and has lovely views as it's out the back.

Ooh a little shelf within the pull-out bin drawer for the bin bags is a great tip! I shall add it to my list 😊

Ours was from Wickes and came as an all in one thing with the bin compartments. I really miss it since we moved house - because of the bin raiding ratbag canine.

One large cupboard as a larder for food. Shelves on the doors. Much easier to know what you have. No walking around trying to find things.
I love an island for food prep, make sure it has a few plugs.
Nice lighting that's dimmable.
Glass as a splashback for the cooker, much easier to clean, I chose black it looks great.
Tiles that have minimal grout on the floor that are easy to clean.