Thoughts on Kitchen design.
Discussion
Afternoon everyone,
We're getting a house refurb done in the next few months and are just in the process of finalising kitchen design.
The entire room is approx 7m x 5m.
We've decided on Gloss White handleless doors with white corian worktops. This is very plain and almost clinical i guess, but we figured we could bring it to life with a lime green splashback, coloured stools and then change this over the years to freshen it up rather than having to change the whole kitchen.
The design below is a Hacker Systemat kitchen.
Neff appliances apart from larder fridge and larder freezer which will be AEG.
Light grey porcelain tiles on the floor.
Not shown in the pictures but we're also getting a roof lantern put in at the end of the room which leads out to garden.
Would be very interested to know peoples thoughts on the design below and if anyone has any tips that'd be greatly appreciated.
We're getting a house refurb done in the next few months and are just in the process of finalising kitchen design.
The entire room is approx 7m x 5m.
We've decided on Gloss White handleless doors with white corian worktops. This is very plain and almost clinical i guess, but we figured we could bring it to life with a lime green splashback, coloured stools and then change this over the years to freshen it up rather than having to change the whole kitchen.
The design below is a Hacker Systemat kitchen.
Neff appliances apart from larder fridge and larder freezer which will be AEG.
Light grey porcelain tiles on the floor.
Not shown in the pictures but we're also getting a roof lantern put in at the end of the room which leads out to garden.
Would be very interested to know peoples thoughts on the design below and if anyone has any tips that'd be greatly appreciated.
Fair enough, appreciate its not to everyone's taste.
The pictures don't help as obviously they don't show the splashes of colour we're going to add to bring it to life.
The worktop space was a slight concern but we felt the island was large enough along with the small useable space on the other worktop would be enough for 'prepping' meals.
The pictures don't help as obviously they don't show the splashes of colour we're going to add to bring it to life.
The worktop space was a slight concern but we felt the island was large enough along with the small useable space on the other worktop would be enough for 'prepping' meals.
Thanks, we're relying on the designer at the moment and assuming what she's suggesting is the most practical way to work with the space, but maybe we're being a bit naive in thinking that.
The corner on the end of the run of tall units has been bugging us as we've had a few designs done which make it useable space but none of them look quite right, we liked it blanked off as it squares the run of tall units off nicely but the offset of that is we lose it as useable space.
The corner on the end of the run of tall units has been bugging us as we've had a few designs done which make it useable space but none of them look quite right, we liked it blanked off as it squares the run of tall units off nicely but the offset of that is we lose it as useable space.
We do cook, perhaps not to the extent of making pastry but we do buy ingredients and prep rather than just chucking something in the oven to heat up.
Valid points about worktop area and we are going to look into that.
We want the kitchen to be a social 'all in one' family room, hopefully sofa and dining table at the end of the room. We do also have a separate lounge.
Hob on the island was done so that whoever is cooking can be facing the rest of the room rather than having their back to them if it was against a wall.
Valid points about worktop area and we are going to look into that.
We want the kitchen to be a social 'all in one' family room, hopefully sofa and dining table at the end of the room. We do also have a separate lounge.
Hob on the island was done so that whoever is cooking can be facing the rest of the room rather than having their back to them if it was against a wall.
Thanks for the replies everyone, much appreciated.
This is the first time we've done our own kitchen so a bit of a learning curve !
Bit frustrating that the designer didn't highlight the point that we don't have enough worktop space, i guess that could be because they make more money from putting the tall units in?
Alock - We may look at some sort of peninsula for the island to avoid the 'waiting room' element of having the stools as they currently are, or possible a curved edge to the overhang.
DDg - We had thought about having the tall units on the wall where the sink is but i honestly can't remember why we didn't get a design mocked up for that. Looking again now it does make sense and should give us a longer run of worktop whilst also helping the room to look larger.
This is the first time we've done our own kitchen so a bit of a learning curve !
Bit frustrating that the designer didn't highlight the point that we don't have enough worktop space, i guess that could be because they make more money from putting the tall units in?
Alock - We may look at some sort of peninsula for the island to avoid the 'waiting room' element of having the stools as they currently are, or possible a curved edge to the overhang.
DDg - We had thought about having the tall units on the wall where the sink is but i honestly can't remember why we didn't get a design mocked up for that. Looking again now it does make sense and should give us a longer run of worktop whilst also helping the room to look larger.
Haha, we asked for a lime green splashback to add colour but the designer got a bit excited and created that frame in green, we'd definitely get rid of that.
I agree about the raised breakfast bar, not a fan.
We're going back to the designers and will ask them to look at changing the tall units so they go along the wall where the sink currently is. The more i look and think about it the more sense it makes.
I agree about the raised breakfast bar, not a fan.
We're going back to the designers and will ask them to look at changing the tall units so they go along the wall where the sink currently is. The more i look and think about it the more sense it makes.
Been back to the designers and changed things round a bit, it's a touch unfair as one uses a much better rendering package than the other so that one looks a lot better on screen but it may not be better in real life.
We've shifted things around and created more worktop space as the lack of it seemed to be a running theme with the previous design.
We've looked at things slightly differently now thanks to some of the comments on here, we liked the first designs but came to realise that we liked them because they were 'show' kitchens and in reality we need to think of how the kitchen would work for us rather than just how it looked.
Interested to hear peoples views on the changes.
We've shifted things around and created more worktop space as the lack of it seemed to be a running theme with the previous design.
We've looked at things slightly differently now thanks to some of the comments on here, we liked the first designs but came to realise that we liked them because they were 'show' kitchens and in reality we need to think of how the kitchen would work for us rather than just how it looked.
Interested to hear peoples views on the changes.
I take your point regarding the hob but we have decided we definitely want it on the island.
We had thought about getting a downdraft extractor to create a barrier when cooking but read that they're not particularly effective. The ceiling height is coming down a touch anyway so routing ducting for the overhead extractor shouldn't be a problem.
We may look at moving the hob so it is closer to the end of the island where the oven is and therefore the other end can be prep area and people can sit towards that end so they're a bit further away from the cooking. Although having the hob off centre may stress me out a bit!
We had thought about getting a downdraft extractor to create a barrier when cooking but read that they're not particularly effective. The ceiling height is coming down a touch anyway so routing ducting for the overhead extractor shouldn't be a problem.
We may look at moving the hob so it is closer to the end of the island where the oven is and therefore the other end can be prep area and people can sit towards that end so they're a bit further away from the cooking. Although having the hob off centre may stress me out a bit!
It certainly won't be a 'cold clinical, unusable kitchen'. Yes, we're going for white gloss handleless but there will be plenty of aspects of the room which will make it feel homely. Obviously the renders don't take into account the personal touches that we will be adding such as artwork on the walls etc.
We have struggled regarding what to do with the dead corner. We don't really like the roller shutter look and if anything I think we would put some chunky reclaimed wood shelves in there to contrast against the modern handleless units and provide storage for the ever growing cookery book collection.
We definitely want an island with seating round, it's something we've always wanted and the people we know with them do seem to get a lot of use from them.
Thanks for all the feedback.
We have struggled regarding what to do with the dead corner. We don't really like the roller shutter look and if anything I think we would put some chunky reclaimed wood shelves in there to contrast against the modern handleless units and provide storage for the ever growing cookery book collection.
We definitely want an island with seating round, it's something we've always wanted and the people we know with them do seem to get a lot of use from them.
Thanks for all the feedback.
In terms of accent material we are going to have some rustic, uneven shaped reclaimed wood shelves on the side where the wine rack is. The thought being that these would contrast nicely with the sharp clean lines of the kitchen units.
Yup, agree about the lift up units, we're thinking of not having one above the sink and then maybe just having a run of three starting from the nib but at a more useable height.
Yup, agree about the lift up units, we're thinking of not having one above the sink and then maybe just having a run of three starting from the nib but at a more useable height.
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