New kitchen…do’s and don’ts?

[Barrenfieldoffucks]

We are finally going to get the kitchen done. The extension was completed around 5 years ago, and has had a £50 second hand kitchen patched together in there ever since.

I have been though on the DIY kitchens planner and pieced together some ideas, and have Howdens and Magnet giving me a plan too. We will probably do most of the fitting ourselves.

What I’m hoping for from this thread is any do’s and don’t s from those who have done one recently…any things you wish you’d thought of, or things you’ve since discovered don’t work or don’t get used. Layout pitfalls etc. Companies to avoid. Where we live DIY kitchens will cost around £500 to deliver, which is worth it if considerably better quality or price. I’m aware they deliver ‘built’ units which is good.

I’ve attached both the plan i put together, along with Magnet’s suggestion.

Our biggest ‘hold back’ is that we have lots of doors and windows to work around. It is like an upside down L-Shaped room, with the kitchen in the Warner…dining area at one end of the L and sofa, etc at the other.

We have an American fridge freezer which would cause mutiny if I tried to get rid of it as the ice machine is the most popular member of the family, and want eye level ovens and an induction hob. Need space for the coffee machine and air fryer, again used multiple times a day. Other large appliances can live in a cupboard or drawer really.

The Island is used massively, so is wanted. We have a separate utility so no need to incorporate laundry things.

Ceilings are 2.45m high so could take either extra tall or standard runs of cupboards.

The various runs are: approx 4,45m down the left hand side (from the corner to the french doors, shown with tall units in the images), and approx 5,10m from the corner along under the window to the bifolds. Current island is around 2m long by 1m wide.

Moved to a house with an almost new kitchen.

Love the black composite sink. The deep pan drawers, pull out corner cupboards, pull out larder. Glass hob.

Hate the island no-one can pass when the fridge is open, or you are in the oven. It creates a corridor to the back door, nowhere to put the two bins, dogs water bowl. I miss my kitchen table which is in the garage now.

Agreed it's great.

Looking at those images, I would be paying a carpenter to put in bulkheads to close the gap between the upper cupboards and the ceiling.
Lots of power points for appliances. Get at least one double PowerPoint on your island. We've got two.
Built in bins.
I have one small cupboard with vertical dividers so chopping boards, baking trays, etc can be stored standing up for easy access, that is so handy.
If you can afford it, get stone benchtops not wooden for better durability.

Don't forget somewhere for the bin!

Dont pay for a Qooker as you'll still need a kettle if you want a half decent brew!!

Things I love about my new kitchen:
Huge stainless steel sink and drainer
Dishwasher next to sink, immediatley opposite bin and cutlery drawer
Ceramic tiles on walls, very easy to clean and beautiful.
Full height Larder cupboard with individual drawers that pull out, so I don't have to haul the whole thing out every time..

Free standing (in a cupboard) bin makes it easier to swipe rubbish straight off the worktop.

drawers, drawers, and drawers!!

pull out swirly tap

90cm super-size induction hob - so easy to clean

two size usb sockets. More sockets than you think you’ll need

dimmable lighting (under cupboard and overhead)

diy kitchens have a great value for money reputation, but if you can afford it, there are better options (usually German).

tiled floors look good, but if you drop anything…😮😢. Make sure flooring is fully waterproof

Make sure you have somewhere to hang/dry damp hand and tea towels

quartz worktops are nice, but very very cold, I think I prefer laminate. Ask for samples/ cut-outs so you can check which cleaning products work.

glass splashbacks are nothing special but very easy to clean

check, check, and double check your cooker hood! Our very fancy, very neat one, isn’t very effective, and is very noisy.

An under mounted sink is impossible to properly clean. avoid it. Also lots of deep drawers. So useful for pans etc. We had full height pull out 39cm larders which broke under the weight in them. We then retrofitted a 90 with drawers and tidy could be moved in and out independently- was brilliant!

Agree with PPs on particularly I always prefer to ceiling for no cupboard gaps, in my last kitchen too, yucky grease trap
Also per another PP the utility garage is amazing and I love it. You don't have to pay full whack, you can construct it out of top and base cupboards together
I was SOOOOO anti the idea of hob in island or peninsula but now I wish I had rather than wall facing
I wouldn't have the sink facing window, if anything I'd swap hob and sink around
I wish I'd truly maximised counter top around hob. Having the corner there (same as I have) i find just wasted space
I also wish I'd got more drawers overall. Also a major mistake I made was too many 300mm cupboards vs wider ones
However many plug sockets you plan, have more
Pay someone specialist to fit counter. Even a joiner can't be sure of doing it properly (trust me - experience)
The corner cupboard thing I paid a hell of a lot for the expensive pull out option, but I use it a lot
Don't bother with a wine fridge, just put in an extra under counter fridge
If I'd had an air fryer previously I wouldn't have bothered with a double oven as I had no idea how much I could use it - lives in utility garage
So pleased I decided on a big pull out bin rather than the ones with piddly recycling options. My recycling lives in another cupboard in normal boxes. It's cheaper but also more volume efficient
I didn't realise that hob extractor cupboard was full of extractor rather than being a cupboard. I would have had a chimney thing
You can point cupboards facing a different way if it helps, but I have a peninsula, it became a games cupboard for the living space rather than a corner cupboard in the kitchen
Top tip: stainless steel sheets inside cupboards for magnet things like herb jars. Just buy them custom cut from an online supplier though, no need to pay £ for kitchen specific ones

Mine is Howdens, they were great and the kitchen is too, my regrets absolutely aren't their fault but what I wanted at the time! My builders fitted it. I fitted my last kitchen myself and wish I had again.

Seconding handmade kitchens of christchurch ( pay your deposit in the sale)
Make sure your drawers to store plates are next to dishwasher and prioritise drawers over cupboards as they are much more useful.

You could go twice the depth for your island and have lots of big drawers, it could also be longer.

My pull out bin is beside the sink but I wish it was in the island as I stand at the island to prep. A small thing but it annoys me every day.

I went with a large sink rather than sink & a half as I wanted to be able to fit oven trays in to soak.

Dishwasher at the sink and close to cutlery/crockery drawer so you lift out and put immediately into drawer without moving (if that makes sense).

Quooker is fantastic

We have a butlers pantry so microwave, coffee machine etc… are behind closed doors.

We have 2 full length doors which look like a cupboard but lead into the laundry room.

Quartz work tops and the same on the walls, as back splash which I love.

Is that an oven next to the fridge? If so move it, bain of my life is the fridge freezer freezing when the oven has been used. Why this wasnt picked up on my plan is beyond me.

My large induction hob is on my island, I love it. Guests/kids etc can all sit and natter away whilst I cook. We have a fan from the ceiling and two long lights either side for more ambient lighting plus ceiling lights.

Plenty of sockets
Larder cupboard
Power in the island has been more useful than I expected
Pull out bin
Stainless steel sink it is called stainless for a reason 😅

Hob on the island is potentially a pain in the arse for the extractor fan so we didn't do that.

My sister has wooden worktops and they mark so easily it drives her mad. We have quartz and I am a bit paranoid about the kids slamming down glasses on it but it is pretty easy to clean.

We have a big custom made to fit glass splashback all along the wall with the hob on it, I love it. It was a nice opportunity to put some colour in without having to fully commit to a colourful worktop or doors.

Get handles instead of knobs. Every time I go to walk away from the worktop my shirt or cardigan catches on the knob and I get pulled back! I will get around to changing them... one day.

Agree about cupboards going to the ceiling. What is the point of losing storage just to create a dust and grease trap too high up to easily clean?

It looks like your room has enough space for a wider island - if so definitely do that, the current island looks quite skinny. You can add 30cm deep cupboards on the bar stool side, harder to access but can be used for things that don’t get used often.

Magnet hob area looks very cramped, is hob right up against oven tower? That would be a no for me. Need space either side of hob.

That area to the right of the window, I don’t love the open shelves or your full height cupboard tbh. I’d probably either go for a single shelf with purely decorative stuff on (plants etc) or if you need more storage space, a wall cabinet or countertop cabinet. A countertop cabinet feels more current and could possibly serve as an appliance garage for coffee machine and airfryer.

We had a magnet kitchen fitted last year and happy with it. We opted for one which could be painted in the future. Units supplied made up. Definitely drawers.
If you have enough height for their taller units be careful, I very carefully stood in the showroom checking I could reach the ovens in the shorter units. When we had the technical survey he suggested switching to taller ones to maximise storage. We did this but hadn’t realised that this would raise the level of the ovens. We have two, one above the other at eye level. Or not at eye level in my case.

Separate post to list out more general tips:

Bombproof flooring. Seen beautiful wood floors looking wrecked in kitchens after a few years. I’d pick LVT (Floorify is nice) or wood look tiles if you have UFH.

Undermount stainless steel sinks. I like a combination of a very big sink (big enough to take a large roasting tray or carving board) and a very small one (to tip liquids down if big one is in use, also good for defrosting stuff or odd thing drying).

Drawers drawers drawers. I like wide drawers for dry food storage as well as the more obvious pans, crockery etc. You can get internal drawers for sink cupboards designed to fit round the plumbing - these are brilliant for sponges, gloves, d/w tablets etc (DIY has them)

A slim pull out by the oven for oils, salt and pepper and often used spices etc if you can manage it - see DIY’s pull out wire basket unit

Built in bin

Dishwasher to L of sink - all dirty plates and pots get cleared to the area above d/w and then they either go in sink or d/w

Think about everyday tasks: laying table, clearing table, making cup of tea or coffee, unpacking food shop, cooking a meal. Are you having to walk around the kitchen a lot, try to avoid this with your layout.

love my Quooker and French door fridge freezer

undercabinet lighting always

Think about height of kitchen users. No point in an oven tower if one oven is too high for anyone to use safely. No point in upper cupboards you can’t reach much of.

Thanks everyone, all very interesting. Height wise we are both quite tall (DH very tall) so taller units should be ok.

I had planned to put a vented hob on the island, but it would need a 32 amp feed which we can’t get there cause of underfloor heating etc. We will have standard power for sockets, as we planned for that when the flooring went in.

Very outing but ours comes via the ceiling. You dont see the "fishing wire type strings" usually but had to zoom in so you can see.

Don’t lay dark grey slate tiles if you have a white dog that moults 😫

I'd move the hob to across the corner so there is more space next to the ovens for putting down hot dishes and more of a run for plating up. Also ask for the wine rack to be double depth so you can fit 2 bottles in per slot. We have this and it's great.

Oh yeah that too! Ours is the brown/copper slates that get the morning sun 🫣🫣🫣

Can you run a hob across a corner? Never seen this before…

Yes I've had two kitchens like this. Worked really well.