More floorplan Q's - kitchen

[BERGS2]

HI All - Saturday night in kitchen design mode! How times have changed....

Please could you learned HG&DIYers have a look at the below kitchen plan & let me know if there is anything missing/to add?

Windows & doors are south facing, Cooker is on external wall (so hood will extract through)

Just a quick sketch i've put together - but should be fairly indicative of what we plan to get to...


And obvious next question - how do you guys rate experiences with various kitchen suppliers?

We want a quality 'feel' & longevity..... TBH everywhere i've look so far (howdens/Ikea/B&Q) have been pretty impressed with how things look - even the worktopws look a good deal better than when we did the last kitchen about ten years ago..

Builder is way against DIYkitchens.com but they seem well though of on here? he mentioned they'd been on rouge traders or something?

Any thoughts/advice/stories and things to consider most welcome!

Cheers,

BERGS

[Andrew_S]

I would go for an eye level oven next to the fridge freezer and a dishwasher next to the sink..

Also your corner units are a bit odd, which may cause problems with the worktop and wasted space.

Go to B&Q and sign up to their Spaces online kitchen planner then you can model your kitchen in 3D. It will also provide you with a bill of materials.

Edited by Andrew_S on Saturday 26th August 23:16

[The Moose]

I hate it when the sink is not centered under the window!

[mikeiow]

Andrew_S said:

I would go for an eye level oven next to the fridge freezer and a dishwasher next to the sink..

Also your corner units are a bit odd, which may cause problems with the worktop and wasted space.

Go to B&Q and sign up to their Spaces online kitchen planner then you can model myour kitchen in 3D. It will also provide you with a bill of materials.

I'd agree with the corner angle. Just go straight, and have decent 'magic corner' cupboards to make it useful space. Not so sure about eye level oven: perhaps a matter of taste, a nice induction range with double below works well here!
I'd then probably lose the tiny wall units and have a nice hood as the main think on that wall....the other wall cupboards (window side and opposite) could then be straight to the end wall.

I'd lose ALL the lower cupboards you show, and have 120cm drawer units instead: much easier to get things out! We did ours so almost all handles were then horizontal, looks nice - you can get the idea here http://tinyurl.com/y6vo7gm5o (before the wood top mad it onto the island!)

I'd also repeat something I often say: a good kitchen fitter will make even an average kitchen look good.....and vice versa

Edited by mikeiow on Sunday 27th August 09:23

[Tomo1971]

Andrew_S said:

I would go for an eye level oven next to the fridge freezer and a dishwasher next to the sink..

Also your corner units are a bit odd, which may cause problems with the worktop and wasted space.

Go to B&Q and sign up to their Spaces online kitchen planner then you can model your kitchen in 3D. It will also provide you with a bill of materials.

Edited by Andrew_S on Saturday 26th August 23:16

Not an expert but I wouldnt - a, the heat transfer and b, you can absolutly guarantee that when you want in the oven the kids will be through to get a drink from the fridge - or as you are preparing food from the oven, someone will want to be putting drinks on the table. Dont they recommend that the fridge / sink / oven are in a triangular position, pretty much as you appear to have them now?

[Greendubber]

We had as those angled corner units in our old kitchen, they're huge so create a lot of dark unusable space beneath them. As they are huge people really fill them up too, ours were bowing along the bottom shelf due to the previous owners of our house ramming it full of plates.

Our new kitchen has upper corner cupboards that are 90 degrees with a split door opening down the middle, much nicer to look at, easier to use and no dead space beneath.
We also have the pull out magic cupboard things on the bottom, accessed by so standard 600mm door and they're excellent, I was worried about how much load they can take but ours are rated to 40kg which is way more than we could ever get in there.

[jakesmith]

I've been to DIYkitchens.com's factory when we were on holiday in Staffs, the quality and finish is above the B&Q kitchen that was in the house we currently live in.
I think they have an excellent service and quality of materials and will use them myself when we change.
I replaced all the cupboard doors as an interim measure 2 years ago for an update to the look, quality + service was good
I do remember an issue with one door coming wrong, they were quick to rectify but with anything like this you need to be on the ball checking out the delivery, especially if you have trades booked in to fix.
Much as it pains me to say this, I would probably get the whole lot delivered 2 weeks before trades booked to allow for any issues, and that is with any supplier.
I would also fit the kitchen myself now as it removes the time pressure, looks easy, and is a massive cost saving. There really isn't much skill required, just accurate measuring & planning, the right tools ie jig for worktop

[Hitch]

jakesmith said:

I've been to DIYkitchens.com's factory when we were on holiday in Staffs

That must have been one wild holiday!

[jakesmith]

Hitch said:

That must have been one wild holiday!

The kitchen bit was a high point, cheap day out

[Condi]

jakesmith said:

I would also fit the kitchen myself now as it removes the time pressure, looks easy, and is a massive cost saving. There really isn't much skill required, just accurate measuring & planning, the right tools ie jig for worktop

It looks easy, and it is easy when you say it's just a case of getting everything level and square, but in practice that's not as easy as it sounds, especially if you have a room which isn't square or a floor which isn't level.

Also, a big vote for diy kitchens, very happy with the quality of the products, although the week long delivery Windows are st, you either need to order it to be delivered in advance and thus have it all stored somewhere in the house, or risk waiting around for 4 days. Pay more for specified day delivery.

[BERGS2]

Latest re-think below:

I'm slightly concerned wih the levels of storage - but wifey want to keep the brekkie room 'unit free'



Linky

[BERGS2]

or this -

we have flex as to the orientation of window / patio door

plus side of this is the kitchen will possible feel more like one room, wheras the journey to make a cup of tea will be a couple of seconds longer each time....

any thoughts?

[PositronicRay]

BERGS2 said:

or this -

we have flex as to the orientation of window / patio door

plus side of this is the kitchen will possible feel more like one room, wheras the journey to make a cup of tea will be a couple of seconds longer each time....

any thoughts?

This

[B17NNS]

Definitely the second option.

[Harry Flashman]

B17NNS is right - you will get REALLY annoyed with people walking through the kitchen when you are cooking to get through to the communal space, whether for the doors and garden access in summer, or to get to the dining area all year round.

On storage, go ceiling high. I did this in my flat and occasional use stuff happily lives up in the top row of cabinets.

Also, who are you getting the kitchen from? If you are after a painted one, I really recommend solidwodokitchencabinets.co.uk. Extraordinarily nice cabinets in oak throughout, and arrive assembled. Fitters loved them as wood is easy to work with compared with chipboard..

High level cabinets in the flat. Two colors make it less dominant.

Untitled by baconrashers, on Flickr

[BERGS2]

Harry Flashman said:

On storage, go ceiling high. I did this in my flat and occasional use stuff happily lives up in the top row of cabinets.

Also, who are you getting the kitchen from? If you are after a painted one, I really recommend solidwodokitchencabinets.co.uk. Extraordinarily nice cabinets in oak throughout, and arrive assembled. Fitters loved them as wood is easy to work with compared with chipboard..

Thanks Harry - agree on the points on access - however, revisions to the floorplan (entrance returning to where it originally was on the front) mean that we need a degree of separation between the patio doors and the front door)

The front patio will be only opened for summer BBQ's etc. so through traffic shouldn't be too much of a problem in the day to day...

On the kitchen supply - not sure yet - using howdens to get a base cost for layout and cabinets

Here's where we are on the floorplan, kitchen sketch & elevations:

Oh, and we've just decided to build a garage on the side (where the porch initially was)....

Just was to get cracking on it now - so if you (or anyone else South London/Surrey way) have any builder recommendations - would be great

floorplan:




Kitchen sketch (excuse the very crude cut'n'paste of two designs:



Frontage: (again - chopped an pasted by me on paint/powerpoint (the actual window designs will be different)

[Harry Flashman]

PM me for builders etc.

[Harry Flashman]

Also I really wouldn't divide access between sink and cooker like that, especially with that narrow pinchpoint caused by the peninsula.

The "triangle" of easy access to fridge, cooker and sink is (IMHO) critical. Exacerbated if you have kids and things to trip over.

[BERGS2]

Yeah - thats a good point.

we'll maybe look at putting the sink on the kitchen side of the penninsular

We did consider the 'distance to sink' issue - it's possibly less of an issue for us as a family as we have a strict demarcation of kitchen duties (Prep & Cooking = Me, Clear up & Washing = her)

but thinking about it, pans to sink, straining veg, even filling drinks - a sink thats a distance from the rest does not make too much sense...


Sent you a PM yesterday - will try again

[BERGS2]

Something a little like this possibly...

(s'cuse the super crap powerpoint skillz)