4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Jules.]

Having ummed & ahhed about whether or not to move house to a bigger one we have decided to stay put. The house is big enough for 4 of us, just, & we don't want to move & have a mortgage hanging around our necks until we are pensioners.

So, we are taking the plunge & will stay put & improve this house with a new kitchen. Those (many of you) who have passed through my doors at hen parties or on Omlet visits have seen my kitchen in all its "glory," & you have never known how I have been embarassed by its current state The final straw was the top oven door falling off this week, which has prompted us to start down the new kitchen route. The oven was in the house 9 1/2 years ago when we moved here, & I believe it was in at least 8 years before that, so I can't really complain- its done its job.

 

So in it I want:

a wall mounted double oven with microwave built-in on top

an integral dishwasher ( the kitchen man said that this would look much smarter in my teensy kitchen, & I think he is right) I currenlty don'e have a dishwasher

a possible integrated fridge/freezer

 

I need to keep my washer/dryer as it is, as it was new only last year.

 

 

What else should I include? Under counter spotlights? A bin in the cupboard, as there is no where on the kitchen floorspace for it to go in?

 

As much as possible needs to be hidden away- apart from my Kenwood Chef

 

Tell me, what items in your kitchen has made life easier for you? Any planning tips?

 

And, if you are reading this & will be arriving for a hen party in the next few weeks, please ignore the missing oven door

[Willow]

I have 2 nice wide pull out larders and they are wonderful

 

Fridge with integral water filter and ice maker pays for itself my boys drink iced water the whole time, we've bought hardly any squash or bottled water since we got that.

[Helly Welly]

Make sure corner cupboards have turntable things in so that the space is used effectively.

[chelsea]

Make sure corner cupboards have turntable things in so that the space is used effectively.

 

 

I agree. We have that awful L shaped cupboard in the corner and to date I still dont know what exists at the back of the "L"

[Olly]

Ooh, I love a bit of kitchen planning!

 

I agree with the one about the turntable for corner cupboards, you can get fold-out racks for wall corner cupboards as well. They're not cheap but it's well worth spending some money on fittings like these. I also recommend one of those pull-out larder cupboards, you will get a lot of use out of it. Ikea do some good fittings, which I believe will fit standard cupboards.

 

You'll have read all the stuff about the working triangle etc etc - just think about what you use most and where you'd put it. Tiny cupboards at the end of a run will fill up the space nicely, but aren't a lot of good for keeping anything in! Personally I'd avoid open shelving like the plague - stuff gets sticky in no time.

 

I inherited my kitchen with the house, and so I didn't choose it, but here are a few pros and cons and things I miss from my last kitchen:

 

I've got an Insinkerator waste disposal in the sink, and I'd have one again - it's fantastic for getting rid of things that won't go in the compost and you never, ever have to clear a blocked trap again!

 

I would NOT choose beech worktops; they stain easily and are a pain to maintain as they need sanding down and oiling regularly. They look lovely (when they've just been done) but I'd rather have wipe-clean ones.

 

Definitely get a dishwasher. I regret the one I left at my last house, (a) because it had a timer so I could set it to run and finish when I got up/got in from work, and (b) because I could run just one shelf, quite useful for me on my own but maybe not so crucial if you have a family.

 

My current kitchen has kickspace heaters under the cupboards. I have NEVER used them - there's a radiator in the dining half, and if you're cooking then it's not usually cold enough to need a heater. Besides I think they'd cost a fortune to run.

 

Lights under the cupboards look nice, especially at night. Not sure if they really make much difference to my cooking skills, though. An extractor fan is a must and it's worth getting one that vents ouside, rather than just a filter.

 

I've also inherited ceramic floor tiles - lovely, hardwearing, but I have gone through an entire collection of wineglasses and the grout between them gets grubby, even with my Domotec steam cleaner! In my last house I had Cushionfloor and it was much more forgiving if you dropped anything.

 

Don't be afraid to move windows, plumbing, etc if it will make things fit better - it's worth it to get the kitchen you really want. And finally - brace yourself to eat takeaways/ping dinners for a few weeks while it's all going on, it will be worth it!

[feemcg]

.....a 'utility area' for incubator and brooder

[Blackrocksrock]

Not that I have one - I have a similar kitchen to yourself but dont get an integral microwave as it is difficult to get one to fit when that goes wrong I am told. My kitchen dream is in 2012 ( endowments due out! if they are worth anything by then!) Mine has been in since 1990 so 19 years this year.

[Cinnamon]

I love my tall pull out larder cupboard & use it so much.

It would be an essential in any kitchen I had in the future

[bluekarin]

If I ever get a kitchen of my very own (were in rented) I'd have

 

Tall pull out larder

Soft close doors and cupboards

Somewhere to put all the pans and their lids

A large cupboard dedicated to all my baking stuff (ingredients and tins etc)

A pantry

A place for the bin thats not in the way of anything

Same for the ironing board

French doors into the back garden (my kitchen is at the front which I don't want again)

An extractor fan

A seating area with breakfast table (not a bar)

A gas range oven with wok burner

Lights under the top cupboards

A marble area for rolling pastry and biscuits

 

Umm . . . . I'm sure I can think of more if I thought about it hard enough

[Guest]

a cple of years ago, when ian was still workintg for MFI, we got a decent discount on a new kitchen so we had a few bells and whistles thrown in We've got those little runway style lights round the plinth, we leave them on for Molly at night so she can see her water bowl. We've also got under the counter lights which are nice on a summer's evening when you just want a bit of mood lighting.

 

We also have an integral fridge/freezer which looks great so that would be my big recommendation!

[Old Speckled Hen]

Id love an old fashioned walk-in cool room/pantry.

My mum has one, a small north facing room built with just one layer of brick with an open wire mesh window. It Remains above freezing in the winter and always very cool in the summer.

It has a slate floor and marble shelves.

She keeps everything in there and hardly needs to use the fridge.

[Aunty e]

I built my new kitchen for under £3k last year, and that was including paying my brother to come and fit the tricky bits. Essentially, I ripped the old one out, and popped a new stopcock on the water so that he could do the plumbing a bit easier, and he slotted in the new one, which I had already bought and stacked up in the spare room/hall/shed/anywhere it would fit in and laid me a lovely new (cheap) laminate floor. Then I did the painting, plastering and generally spiffying.

 

I used the Ikea kitchen planner to DEATH and must have gone through a trillion designs until I was happy. I bought the bulk of the kitchen from Ikea, with a few extra cupboards from ebay which were a huge bargain, and the appliances and sink/taps elsewhere as I couldn't find anything I liked in my budget at ikea.

 

I had the cheap as chips beech worksurfaces and I have to say that they've been a dream. I've sanded a couple of stains back and reoiled them, but it's only been an extra ten minutes here and there to maintain them over the last eighteen months, and they look so nice (and cost so very very little!)

 

My favourite thing is either my pull-out ironing board or the built in fridge freezer. But I would recommend that you put in far more storage than you think you need, I haven't regretted that aspect of my design, and I have room to expand if need be. I built quite a lot of storage in by using Hol wooden storage boxes as bench seating at two sides of my kitchen table, and now I have a handy place for all my tools, the spare bits for the vax, the giant bags of catfood and Granny's teaset, wrapped in newspaper.

[Mrs Frugal]

Good lighting ! My kitchen used to have a central fluorescent strip light which cast dark shadows on the worktops when you were doing anything. LSH took that out for me and put in lots of low energy LED lights around the edges of the ceiling instead so they illuminate the worktops and kitchen table from above. They can be left on during dull days too as they use so little energy.

 

Soft close drawers are wonderful!

 

If you have modern lowish ceilings, cupboards which go right up to the ceiling means no horrible dusting and removal of greasy patches and gives you an extra shelf in your cupboards to store things which don't get used so often and they don't end up dusty and greasy either!

 

One thing I would do if I could start my kitchen off from scratch would be to have the sink anywhere but under the window as the glass gets so badly splashed when you're washing up .

[poachedegg]

We used to have an integrated fridge freezer, however much prefer (and is much more efficient) our American Fridge/Freezer.

 

If you can have extra electric sockets that may be an idea and very useful!

 

[Seagazer]

I've got and love my american fridge/freezer with ice and cold water dispenser - kids love it too.

Lighting under the cupboards

soft close doors and drawers (so wish I had these)

Larder pull out thing (wish I had this too)

definitely integrated dishwasher

 

Do you know I'd love a space for everything thats on my work surface to be put away and to have no wires and plug sockets. I've seen those ones that pop up from the counter but then I suppose I'd probably never put anything away seeing as I am a wee bit lazy.

[Lewis]

No-one has said an egg skelter!

I like our American fridge, and we have a corner sink which is good, and it saves space + means you have a big cupboard under that.

 

Lots of lights are good. My friend has a new kitchen with those LED patio lights sunk into the side of the units along the bottom which look good, and they were off ebay.

 

I really like the look of these LED RGB strip light. You stick them under or on top of your top cupboards, or along the bottom ones on the floor and the light lights up the rest of the room. They are quite expensive, but you can buy extra strips to attach onto the one power supply, and I think they're really I want some to go on top of my wardrobe and light up the ceiling!

[iar fach goch]

When we had our new kitchen I put in drawers rather than cupboards in a lot of units, far easier to see what you've got and to get things out. Chose an induction hob as we haven't got gas, really impressed with this, heats up/cools down much quicker than usual ceramic hob. Two huge pan/baking drawers underneath the hob, separate eye level double oven. As someone else has said built in microwaves can be a pain, my mum inherited this in her house and is unable to find micro to fit original housing. Plenty of storage and a HUGE dishwasher - with 5 of us, mine is way too small.