Feedback on my kitchen design please

[Gentleness]

Ok - here goes! I'm a bit (ok very) nervous because the guys on moneysavingexpert don't like my plan at all! They don't seem to particularly get my thinking and it is making me wonder if my thinking is actually kaput. I just like quite quirky designs and white gloss is quirkless and needs a bit of unusual layout I think.

Bear in mind that there are basically only 2 rooms downstairs in our house - a through lounge and this, with only an understairs cupboard for any other storage.

This is the floorplan - the entrance from the hallway is the door on the right. The area to the left is the dining area with space for bookcases of cookbooks and toys and stereo and chargers and general whatever. The double doors will open into the garden.

Next a snapshot of the window wall. The wall cupboard nearest the side wall represents the boiler so probs won't be quite like that. The microwave will be below the boiler probably. The other wall cupboards (which won't be glass as they look on here) and that worktop area is for drink making so that can go on without my cooking being disturbed (real issue between dh and myself)! I'll do my chopping & food prep in the area to the left of the hob, with Ikea waste sorting under the sink, and all the crockery and pans will be stored on that side of the room. The wall units will be balanced up by some hanging utensils, pictures etc.

And this is the opposite wall, with built-in double oven and free standing fridgefreezer. I need space to store stuff like Christmas decorations & rarely used things and also hate cleaning the tops of cupboards - hence the excessive no of wall units! The worktop in the middle will be my oven/baking area. Food will be stored on that side of the room. My beloved huge whiteboard, wall-hanging mailsort thing and calendar area will be above the tall thin sliding door cupboards on the right, at the kitchen entrance. I really need that space to organise our lives visually.

Here is an opposite wall alternative. Basically loads of people said the original looked messy and was unsymmetrical so I made some amendments and quite like them. Not sure about whether the slide front cupboard on the far right should be normal worktop height (as in the spare unit over in the dining area) or the slightly higher writing height that I've used.

So experts - what have I missed? Or what could be better?

I know I have to put the toaster & breadbin somewhere and can't decide where.

I think having the double sets of wall cupboards looks a bit odd especially as it is only on one wall (sorry). Do they do a taller unit that you could use throughout or, failing that, could you put some of your stuff on shelves in the dining part of the kitchen? Alternatively, could you put a tall cupboard at the end of the sink/hob run? Or could you use one of those large cupboards with a sort of metal roll-down front instead of one of the wall cupboards to give a bit more storage.

Or could you make the two units that are on their own into tall units? You could also have just one run of wall units on that wall and display things on top (nice pans, cookery books and so on) so that you wouldn't need to go up to the ceiling.

Why didn't they like it on moneysavingexpert? It looks a bit cupboard-heavy to me which may make it feel a bit claustrophobic?

it looks fine to me

and i think it's great to go with what works for you rather than what's conventional

tho admit i don't understand why you need to store christmas decs in the kitchen... do yo have no attic space or anytthing?

Ok, your "alternative" opposite wall is better, but still way too many units. I just think it would feel claustrophobic. How wide is the kitchen, could you have an extra floor level unit coming partly across the width of the kitchen, kind of sectioning it off a bit more, rather than so many wall units? Or alternatively, have one wall (the opposite wall, as a whole wall of units, right the way across - as in floor to ceiling, without the varying heights that you currently have, and have your appliances etc on the other side, with mainly low level units as your plan currently shows?

Hmmm, I'm not sure I like the original opposite wall, it does look kind of haphazard for some reason. I think you should definitely make the slide front cupboard the same height as the others, it looks a bit odd as it is. Where you have got the 4 small cupboards over the oven, I think it would look neater as just 2 bigger cupboards, the same as the ones next to them. It would look more streamlined IYKWIM.

I would remove all wall units from the window wall then have floor to ceiling units across the whole of the opposite wall.

Yes, floor to ceiling units look really cool. Oh dear we have pulled the design to pieces between us...if you like it G'ness then go for it! It's your kitchen! If it were me though I would be having a rethink...

I have a friend that works for this company One side being heavy on units looks ok if you try and balance out the colours. If you have dark cupboards then make the opposite wall a dark colour too or make the blind a matching colour. See the one with the splodgy green wallpaper yours could look a bit like that and it seems more balanced as it has a dark wall.

Thanks all - it is all useful but at least no-one has mentioned lack of symmetry! Don't worry about criticising the plan either - I'm a tough cookie! Useful thinking about the effect of colours - the images look so grey and white but I'll have lots of warmth in the walls and in bright utensils etc.

See what you think of my reasoning here:

The wall cupboards on the window wall are because that will be a drink-making area near the sink, so one for mugs/tea/coffee and one for glasses. We find that we really get in each others way when one wants to make drinks and the other is cooking. So I wanted a drinks "triangle" to be as separate as possible from the cooking and baking triangle. I don't think it will look too unbalanced as I'll have things on the wall on the other side of the window and a bright glass splashback behind the hob.

itistheyearzero - I've made that change with the cabs above the oven and it does look better.

I did want floor to ceiling cupboards but I also really want food prep areas. Also, the floor to ceilings would have to be 60cm deep and I think that would look even more oppressive than wall units up to the top. It is a really tall room so even taller wall cab won't reach the ceiling (and I hate cleaning cupboard tops anyway!).

thisisyesterday - thanks for the cheer on. no we don't have a lot of loft space either...

Oh - and the units at the right of the cooker wall are where my organising space will be. I don't want it taking over the eating area but I have a big magnetic whiteboard, hanging mail sorter and calendar there at the moment and they are invaluable!

I think I'd be tempted to put the FF at the end of the run, but that wouldn't work with the organising area you need. What about one of those base units with the roll top wall cabinet like this sort of thing?

I think the wall cabinets could look good, if you go for the right mix, along these sort lines Adel images.

On the whole, I like it, good use of space and I love galley style kitchens, such an effective use of space.

Ok - done some revamping and see what you think of these - no huge changes really, just some balancing up of lines and trying to add some colour to give a better impression.

opposite wall 3

window wall 2

That looks good, much clearer idea of how it'll look.

They obviously know nothing on MSE!

Have you thought about using open shelving for the area to the left of the sink? I think it would go a long way to making it seem less heavy, as well as maximising the light from the window.
As you are using the area for cups, glasses etc they could look nice out on display. See here, here, and here for some examples.

Alternatively if you really feel you need closed cabinets you could have the frosted glass doors which create an illusion of openness. I have these in my (Ikea) kitchen, I think they look good with white units.

I love the look of open shelving but the one time I had everything just got so dusty and greasy. Mind you I had no extractor fan then.

Our cups and glasses collection is eclectic to say the least and dh has NO and I mean absolutely NO idea about using nice things on nice occasions. He'll give the builders our smartest cups and his grandmother a Renault F1 chunky ugly thing.

But frosted glass would certainly help. I used it in my original design but thought things might still look chaotic behind it.

I think the MSE people had a lot of good points - I'd just got a really specific brief for myself for functionality and hadn't considered the looks. I think the newer designs are getting there.

Thanks everyone for your help - keep it coming!

You can't really see the stuff inside the frosted glass, just vague suggestions of it.

Ok, if you're not convicible with the open shelving how about reducing the wall cupboards there to 2? You won't need all 3 for a few cups and glasses and packets of tea and 2 won't block light from the window so much. Also would look better corresponding to the 2 cupboards below. You could always add the third later on if you really feel the need.

Too many cupboards and not enough symetry.Open shelves look a lot more contemporary and floor to ceiling is modern and practical.The window wall would look better with shelves it feels closed iygwim.but as someone else said its v personal.Is the far end for a table?

Yes it really is a lot of cupboards. Have you gone through your stuff and actually worked out how much space you really need? Is there stuff you can cull? My kitchen has less than half this amount of cupboards, and I still have empty space in some of them.

How about open shelves over the worktop on the cooker wall? It's far from the hob so stuff shouldn't get greasy. If you put stuff you use fairly often there then it shouldn't get dusty either. Put nice looking bowls and things like that, maybe even your breadbin. You can also collect smaller items in baskets and keep those on the shelves to keep things organised.

How about lots some mahoosive pan drawers, you can put half of Wales into those and have room to spare. Cupboards have their use but I'm more for large larder units and drawers.

Well from the look of it OP has at least 8 big pan drawers (I have spent a lot of time with the Ikea kitchen planner!). They are really roomy, I have all my pans plus mixing bowls, random baking stuff and a few plastic boxes in 1 80cm unit. Another 80cm unit under the sink holds the 3 rubbish bins. Then I have a tall 60cm wide pull out unit which holds nearly all the food, still not full and I am someone that stocks up on special offer stuff.

Upper wall units have crockery, glasses, a few oven dishes etc, condiments and tea/coffee. One also has some cleaning stuff and random non-food items. I have a unit over the fridge which I still haven't put anything in.

Admittedly I am anti small kitchen appliances, when my food processer and blender packed in I replaced them with a handheld stick thing and never looked back. That stuff takes up a lot of space.

BTW speaking of pull out drawers, is there a particular reason why the end unit on the window side a cupboard? Would look better with drawers like the others.

Funnily enough, I just saw an article today about not sacrificing aesthetics to storage in kitchen design, here

She does indeed, I think I didn't open all the links. I do wonder though, why so much storage? I have several full dinner and tea sets and bazillion pots-pans etc also countless gadgets yet all of those would happily fit into 1/3 of the storage on OPs layout.

I have Ikea wall cabinets with frosted glass doors and under cupboard lighting which lights the cupboard and the work surface. Looks really nice