help me plan my perfect kitchen/diner!....

[chimchar]

....am building a new kitchen extension from scratch and we're planning a kitchen/diner/family room....

measures about 6.5 metres wide by about 3.5 metres long. needs patio doors on one "long" side to get out to the garden.

what do you LOVE about your kitchen, and what would you do without?

all help and ANY thoughts or ideas much appreciated!

I like the fact that my kitchen is quite small and really good for cooking in - everything is within reach. It would be great to have a similarly compact arrangement within a big room so I still had this "work hub" area at one end but there was room for my children and a dining table etc.

My advice would be keep the kitchen bit quite compact and try to find space for a utility room if possible to get rid of the boiler/washing machine/general gubbins. Use as many tall cabinets as possible (preferably with slide out drawers) and integrated appliances to keep it sleek. Try to work in at least one run of worksurface that is more than 1.5m long so there is plenty of space for chopping/rolling out etc. Don't be tempted to have a draining board (get a dishwasher) because it always ends up being heaped up with saucepans etc. Get a double/1.5 sink so you can defrost in one bowl/wash vegetables in the other. Keep fridge, hob, oven and sink as close to each other as possible so you are not constantly wandering from one end of the kitchen to the other.

I could go on and on...

fab! thanks lala...just what i'm after...please, don't stop!

OK, in my mind's eye, the extension is running across the width of the back of your house so is 3.5m deep and 6.5m across. I would choose whichever end does not have any entrance doors from the rest of the house and build cabinets along three sides (about 2.5m into the room) and a small run of cabinets on the 4th (non-wall) side to block it off from the rest of the room and stop people wandering across it at will (although obviously leaving a gap of about a metre so people can get in and out). Put tall cabinets up one side, integrated f/f and tall housing for oven/microwave on the other, then fit hob and sink along remaining walled space with the breakfast bar-ish area used for main worksurface.

Dining table parallel to breakfast bar in the middle of the room and sofa at far end. Same floor covering throughout.

bingo!

thats what we've got planned tbh. must have a think about heating...any views on under floor in the dining area??

am also thinking about having a triple folding door thing at the dining table end, straight out onto the garden...

getting excited!

Sounds great. Underfloor heating very well worth doing in an extension (very fiddly to do in a typical, in situ house). Lovely stone floor - slate perhaps? - and lots of light from folding doors. If this is going to be main family room, I would also think about working in a run of storage somewhere so that it doesn't come completely over-run with children's things (assuming you have some). A trick I saw recently was to build quite a big overhang onto the roof of the extension; that way, you can have the doors open and bring the outside in even when it is raining plus it acts as a shade from the sun (one house I visited recently, the woman claimed she and her family have to wear sunglasses at the dining room sometimes and, tbh, I could believe it - double-height glass elevation onto a south-facing garden).

thanks again lala.

where we will extend to a dining area within the kitchen space, we gain a whole dining room which will become a playroom...we do have kids, 3 of the little monkeys angels! hoping to keep the kitchen crap and toy free....yes, we are having a utility room too to hide all the untidy stuff away.

its like a dream come true, it really is!!!

thanks for your imput.

Please do have a draining board. One of my big bugbears in this house is that the previous owners didn't put in a draining board. If you literally do EVERYTHING in the dishwasher I suppose you don't need it but all too regularly, guests wash up (well my mum and mil do anyway) or you just need to do a couple of things.... we have a pointless plastic fake draining board which doesn't really hold the water well as it can get moved, needs regular deep cleaning/replacing as it gets manky and looks awful. A blimming draining board would have been better.

Though obviously I can see that no draining board looks more attractive is some new kitchens (I have a very non-fancy kitchen so still don't understand why there was no draining board put in).

You can get a wall-hanging dish rack to do the odd mug and plate. Hang it over the sink if possible so it drips into it.

Maybe my problem is that I still have little baby paraphenalia so I have bottles/breastpump bits/teats/random nonsense to wash and leave to dry, not sure a wall-hanging dish rack would work out (also without a draining board I find there's less "draining" area so more water ends up dripping/splashing onto the worksurface and eventually onto the floor. But then that's maybe because we're not very tidy people - I think I should only give kitchen-related advice once my tinies have grown up a bit

I think surfaces are very important in a kitchen diner as you want the units to look good when you are sitting and eating. Some kitchens can look quite modern/indutrial which am not sure goes well with a dining space.
Also while gloss kitchens and glass spalshbacks are popular, think about how easy it is to clean them, same goes for flooring...

Personally I like painted units (so you can change them if you get bored) with perhaps wooden worktops and similar colour wooden floor.
Matt (honed?) worktops look good IMO but not sure how easy they are to keep looking good.

Dh used to be a kitchen designer so would probably be able to give you some good ideas, but my advice is do not have a corner sink unless you are quite tall.

thanks again everyone!

have already fallen for the units..well, a choice between two looks...rustic cream shaker, or rustic oak shaker.

am not at all modern..thinking light, airy farmhousey sort of feel....but not old fashioned iykwim.

thanks for letting me talk about my new kitchen...

SOUnds nice.
Waht are you having for florring/worktops?

Think also about what you're going to put on the floor near the patio doors. My choice was a HUGE coir mat, but I wish it had been sunken in so that the chair next to it doesn't wobble! My dc don't need a lot of reminding about shoes off, but they want a lot of space to leave them and for everyone to do it at the same time!

thanks again!

flooring? mmmm. not really sure. i love natural looking flooring...like terracotta or slate tiling, but wondering if its too cold. am sort of considering lino type...have some good quality wood effect stuff (not quite amtico, but similar) in my bathroom,..easy to keep clean, and not cold underfoot. am happy to take advice though!

worktops..i love natural wood, but i know i don't want to have to be worrying about looking after it, so probably some laminate type stuff....i like granite, but its too expensive and too modern i think.....

blue cow...well worth a thought, that. again, somthing i've not thought about properly!

How about solid wood flooring, with a mat well as Blue suggests?
Or proper lino (marmoleum) is great and feels nicer than vinyl to walk on but also easy to clean and warm.
www.marmoleum.co.uk/default.aspx

If you're getting UFH, stone would be great. I saw someone who had put down polished York stone in his kitchen (basically paving stones) and it looked amazing.

more thanks girls!

need to price up ufh.... if you have a heavy thivk flooring like stone though, does the heat come into the room, or just make a warm floor iykwim?

Comes through.

We have a similar layout, it's a large kitchen, patio doors in the middle and two windows either side, the functional part of the kitchen is L-shaped, ie the opposite to the patio windows and the wall inbetween, the other side has a television and a dining table-small one for 4, (we have a separate dining room with a larger one). I particuarly love the large window ledges as they are great for potted plants and herbs. Our tiled floor is always very cold though, wish we had put in underfloor heating.