What tips would you have for designing a kitchen?

How big is the kitchen? There are couple of things I love about ours. One is wine fridge and the other is insinkerator. Neither are essential but especially insinkerator is great for dealing with small food waste and you only notice how you start to rely on it when you are without one for a while. I think American style fridges with ice dispenser are a bit of a waste of space. I would get dishwasher even if you don't need one much now. But then it depends how you live. I cook a lot so kitchen is more adapted to everything being on hand than going for a sleek look.

I'd get couple of quotes and see with what designs they come up. One place came in very high with completely unworkable layout. But the other two both had good suggestions and we combined solutions from both.

Candlemania wrote: »

Well, since you have space for a wine fridge... why would an American style fridge be a waste of space then?

I find the American style fridge with ice dispenser to be a good purchase. I was a bit against the ice dispenser at first, but my other half really wanted it. Now, during those 3 weeks of heat wave that we had this July I was using it every day!

I also like that I can finally have all the food organised neatly on shelves both in the fridge and the freezer, as with the narrow fridge-freezer everything used to be crammed.

I think there is very little extra room in an American style fridge considering how much space they take. We had space for one but decided against it when we saw internal lay out. It's a personal preference. (I like Liebherr side by side fridges though).

Yes I would definitely have the kitchen to the front.I had always had my kitchen in the front when I lived in the uk,, I liked being able to see who was at the door from my kitchen as it was there I mostly was,then having the living room at the back of the house was more private for settling down and watching tv listening to music etc, in the evening or weekends looking out onto the back garden, the houses were
built that way

Candlemania wrote: »

I can understand that it's not ergonomic for you to bend at the sink, but try to sell a house where all the work surfaces are too high for an average-height person!
.

They don't end up too high for an average person. I'm 1.98 and we added about 15cm to floor units. Other half is much shorter and finds it easier than standard units for peeling, washing etc and you get extra drawer space!

Starting to plan a kitchen for newbuild and was told by a kitchen planner to put my island on castors unless I was putting a sink or cooker into it which required connections to be fitted in ground. He says that if having dinner party or events in house which requires space that you can roll away island to another room or into corner of kitchen and use it as table/ counter. Made a lot of sense and something simple which never thought of.

yannakis wrote: »

Interesting indeed. On the other hand, though, you'll never be able to lean on it

Another point that we bumped on with our design and might be useful for your newbuild: make sure to align your kitchen electrical/plumbing requirements with the house or vice versa.

Bold bit is probably tongue in cheek, but just in case: castors lock!

I would think the advantage of having electrical points, and hob and/or sink in an island far outweigh the compromise of not having is movable. Having a "function" on the island, or electrics, will ensure you make good use of it.

We just went through a kitcken refurb a couple of years ago

The definite things i can recommend:

quooker boiling water taps - most definately, its not just tea/coffee - its saucepans - veg, spuds, poached eggs etc etc - expensive but fantastic.
Ice cube maker in fridge door - yes
Soft close drawers - could easily forget
Soft close hinges of all doors - could easily forget too!

Good Luck

Tanka

When i got my kitchen designed it was a strange one having 4 doors from garage through kitchen to passage way to outside backdoor.

Hallway through kitchen to extension

So one sees how lack of space in the kitchen with no windows becomes and to make every bit of space needed. Cabinets and large and small pull out drawers in glossy white .

I dont have the issue with smacking your head on open units as they open up.

Think about how many outlets are needed for heavy draw ones like kettles and Air Fryers

Using a hob and a cooker hood i went for a wider one to allow airfryer to vent up beside the hob.

No room for a table and chairs but got a breakfast bar built in with 2 large sliding deep drawers going into the centre and making use of wasted space in an old chimney breast where old oil boiler once sat. one press to the right i can put my cereals on 2 shelves. To the left i have some small storage for cooking books and containers for feezing food.

I had 6 inches of space left on top of worktop to bottom of chimney breast which i used for a satbox , storage device hdd , lan switch gang switch and twin hdmi cables all hidden away and can have meds in a tub beside it as handy to get at.

Luckily had rooom for dishwasher in plans beside the sink and under the hop shallow utensil drawer and 2 deep for pots and pans and a halogen oven.

Only other wall for use i had a 2/3 fridge freezer , 2 deep pull out drawers , oven , press with open up door for stand in microwave , press above more storage. Remaining space was a countertop with coffee machines , coffee pods and another halogen oven. Press above contains delph with a lift up door.

Press under that worktop kitchen utensis in shallow pullout drawer , 2 deep pullout drawers for storage for deeper objects. Under the oven i also went for 2 deep drawers for baking items and pyrex dishes and the other for the massive size of cereals .