Kitchen Design

R

richsmith2005

My partner and I are both in our 20's and have just bought our first house, a modest mid-terrace. The kitchen is fairly small (4 x 5m). We've ripped out the fitted units so have the luxury of a blank canvas.

We're both clueless about how it should go. We're using a register electrician for the electrical work and my dad is helping us with fitting the kitchen, the plumbing etc.

Our budget is limited, but we want a fair job. The kitchen we've spec'd up using the Ikea planner can be seen here http://www.antjournals.com/kitchen.asp and comes out at £1,400 and another £1,400 for the appliances from Currys leaving £800 for the work.

We orignaly had a more ideal design, with a working traingle and the units going round 3 walls in a 'U' instead of the 2 wall 'L' design we are currently considering. The reason for the change is that we think even with the new design, we're never going to exceed the available storage as we hope to be in the house less than 5 years.

Any comments or suggestions regarding the design or chosen vendors for the project would be appreciated.
 
Sponsored Links
I see you've drawn a round sink with no drainer. I've had them, wouldn't recommend it. You will get water on the worktop, round the sink, round the taps, leading to limescale marks and to the worktop breaking up as the water seal will not be perfect.; nowhere to put your coffee mug when you've rinsed it.

If you want a sink that will blend in with the worktop there are some good asterite or fake marble ones around, though stainless is I am sure the best material all round. I wouldn't go for ceramic as you will get more broken glasses and cups when you drop them.

Make sure your kitchen floor units have screw down adjustable legs.

If you have gas in the kitchen a gas hob is much quicker than an electric one. But an electric fan oven is better than a gas oven for everything except rice puddings and consuming the smell of hot fat.

You have a corner unit. Make sure you can get into it from both sides of the corner, or you will put things in it and never see them again.

Is your extractor hood on an outside wall so you can easily blow the fumes out? A recirculator is useless.

You will want lots of sockets and FCUs. Have them in a row about 150mm above worktop height. This is economical in labour and materials as you do not have to loop up (or down) to each outlet. One every 60cm is not too many.

You will not get much water flow from a single-hole tap with small tails - the pipes are only as thick as a pencil.

The fridge-freezer is too far from the cooker and sink. You need these three things in a small triangle with worktops between them. The other worktops will not get used much. Would it go diagonally across corner 5? Otherwise, corner space is lost.

richsmith2005 said:
...we're never going to exceed the available storage as we hope to be in the house less than 5 years... .

Hahaha! Whatever storage space you have, you will fill. Architects have a saying "there's no point in giving people cupboards, all they do is put things in them"

I find wall cupboards a lot more use than underworktop ones. They are shallow and you can see and use what's in them.
 
http://www.antjournals.com/kitchen.asp

Redesign. Now with square sink and drainer (stainless).

I'll check about the floor units and screw down adjustable legs.

We're going electric for both the hob and cooker.

The extractor is not on an outside wall. Is a recirculator a waste of money?
 
A double or a "sink and a half" is particularly useful as you can tip stuff down one while you're washing up or peeling potatoes in the other.

See if you could use ducting for the steam and smells from a cooker hood to get them outside. you can put ducting out of sight above wall units, and drilling a 105mm hole is very easy with a hired core drill.

If you were to put the washer in position 5 you would have shorter pipe and drain runs.

cupboards 2 and 4 you can hide things in as you'll never see them again.
 
Sponsored Links
Put the washine machine near to the sink or you end up with all kinds of drainage problems. Also you seem to be lacking in base units.
 
Thanks very much for your input, some useful suggestions.

Like you've rightly pointed out, I'm very lacking in base unit cupboard space. I guess I'll have to proactively utilize the corner units (they are the sort which have a rotating circular tray inside). The washing machine must go in the kitchen, and I'm not sure I can live without a dish washer. We also really want a table that can comfortably sit 4, so I guess we'll have to rely on the wall units for storing plates etc.

I've modified the positions of the appliances http://www.antjournals.com/kitchen.asp any further suggestions greatly welcomed...
 
Rich,
Although your kitchen is an adequate size I don't think you've got enough storage space, but if you find this a problem you can always go back to Ikea for more storage solutions.

I'd put all the appliances that need plumbing on the same (outside) wall. You can get one under a draining board. Measure carefully first.
I agree with the earlier comments about recirculating units, but unless you do a lot of smoky fatty hob cooking you can just open a window - a much underrated option!

If you haven't already bought your table and chairs I'd suggest getting a cheap one that can be replaced, it's often the one thing that people want to change.

I suggest that you improvise a mock up of your proposed layout in your kitchen using boxes, tables and anything else that you can think of and try and use the space for a few weeks. You might find that you want to change things after a month!

Anyway you can always move things around afterwards, just make sure that you have plenty of sockets and get the plumbing and cooker point in the right place first time.
 
Screw down legs available from B+Q......I used them to strenthen F*cus :evil: units
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top