Please give your opinion on this kitchen design

andrew-b

With ours which is now getting on for 3 years ago we spent roughly £2.5k on the kitchen and appliances - though for appliances that was double oven, hob, cooker hood and sink (tumble drier, washing machine, microwave we already had and fridge/freezer was actually a present). Overall we spent another £4k on top of that of which the majority was paying wickes for the install. Install involved additional electrics, moving plumbing about a bit and extending gas pipe. However it didn't include all the ripping out, tiling walls and floor and decorating. It's surprising how things add up!
That was wickes though..anything bespoke or a proper "kitchen designer" you could easy double or triple those costs! If i'd shopped around and employed my own tradesmen i reckon i would have saved upto £2k...if i'd done as much as i could myself and shopped around on the appliances better (i was new to moneysaving then!) then maybe i'd have done the whole lot for £3.5k at a real push.

For your budget i really think you'll need to stick to the DIY sheds like wickes for the units, shop around on the internet for appliances, and do as much of the work as you possibly can yourself and most definitely don't use a DIY store installation service but pick your own tradesmen.

As mentioned already it's easy for us to say move that door to their etc but yes it does cost. Also easy to say DIY that bit when you might not have the skills, time or inclination that i might (sometimes!)!

But having said that if your DIY is upto it moving the door into the kitchen sounds relatively minor works if you can uncover the lintel where the door once was. Similar with the suggestion of moving the back door..as no lintels are involved it's more easily DIYed - if your getting a new back door anyway it might not be such a big deal. My thinking was if you did that then you would put the sink beneath the right hand window instead and circle round clockwise from there around the diagonal wall with your units in similar sort of fashion to my own kitchen.

You did mention that you thought there wasn't enough space for dining table and chairs at that utility end but i suggest you get your tape measure and see how much room you actually need for table and chairs with room to sit comfortably and get up..it might not be as much as you think. Also by making doors open out from the kitchen rather than into might help ease space probs. When eating your dinner you probably won't want to be using the utility or opening the back door (though we do as dog always wants to go out then!)

Our dining area is in a similar sized part of our lounge with back door opening towards it and it's not really a problem when there's only two sat at the table which is most of the time. Even with 6 or more round the table and the dog wants to go out the door we just about have room. Obviously you have to be a bit sensible in the size of table you fit in.

If we could have afforded it i'd have knocked down the wall from kitchen into lounge and created a big kitchen diner, then i would have bricked up the kitchen larder, removed the airing cupboard and made a bigger bathroom too! But that would have cost me thousands as i'm pretty sure it involves supporting walls - it did cross my mind though!

Andy

puddy

right here are some rough measurements for the kitchen

the north wall is 333cm long. it has a window in it which is 108cm wide which is 47cm in from the left hand side of the edge of the wall.

the west wall is 220cm long. it has a door in it, which currently opens in to the kitchen. the door is about 1m wide and is about 10cm in from the left hand edge of the wall as you face it.

the south wall is 260cm long.

this is as you are looking at the birds eye view

puddy

i very much like the elegant kitchens website, but they have no planner on there, im useless at trying to think about where things should go and the measurements.

what sort of cupboards or drawers are best for storage. at the moment, we only have 2 cupboards with food in, they are a standard wall cupboard, probbly 400mm and a standard base unit, probably 600mm, the rest is filled ith crockery/under sink products/pans

turk3y

if you are tying to save money then keep the old cupboards and try to get second hand ones from freecycle or gumtree to do the utility room, but if you are just going to have some 600 base units going in the utility they its not a massive cost to replace with new into the kitchen, just an idea to save a penny or two. IT could end up making it more hasle than its worth tho, but a very good idea to reuse them, as I hated throwing out some of my old ones as they where nearly ok, but just not quite, if my shed was bigger they would have gone in there in the vain hope of brining some order.

I dont think there is a good reason not to go b and q, if you decide what you want they should be able to "design" what you tell then and cost it all up for you, then just check the appliances could not be sourced for a better price online

I must say personally I dont like red doors, but I do think bold colors can look very good in the kitchen, I saw a vivid red glass splash back that looked very nice with white gloss cabinets, it probably gives the apperance of space whilst not being a clinical ice box. Here is a pic of something similar to what i saw (has other colours too)

http://www.opticolour.co.uk/kitchens_with_opticolour_coloured_glass_splashbacks_installed.html

its your kitchen tho and if your not doing it up to sell to hell with what I think as its yours, but the tell the OH that cream gloss is nice really (well I think so)

With regards to ideas on layout, why do you say its impractical, i dont think ive seen a plan of how it is, and knowing that might help come up with solutions to your problems.

btw I know about the pain of changing whats really not broken, we had an extension and it destroyed the kitchen so it had to be redone but the actual old units where perfectly good mostly but just did not fit the spec for the new plan.

missile

Standard units are 600X600mm. A few manufacturers make 500mm which are great for smaller kitchens. When I last looked B&Q & Ikea brochures had sizes in and gave good guidance for DIY design. It is not rocket science, but maybe a bit beyond someone who describes herself as useless?
There are many companies who offer free design, e.g. MFI, B&Q, Magnet, Wicks, John Lewis etc

turk3y

jenner wrote: »

i very much like the elegant kitchens website, but they have no planner on there, im useless at trying to think about where things should go and the measurements.

what sort of cupboards or drawers are best for storage. at the moment, we only have 2 cupboards with food in, they are a standard wall cupboard, probbly 400mm and a standard base unit, probably 600mm, the rest is filled ith crockery/under sink products/pans

no you have to do it all yourself unfortunalty, all port of cost saving i assume

I think ikea have a good planner software on their site and the units are all pretty much standard so its doubtful ikea will have something they wont and via versa. This is good for moving units about to see what fits and visulising it as unitll I see it I find it hard to emagine it.

or the one from Alno i think is also ok.

http://www.alno.co.uk/alnosys3/267.0.en.html

click I accept if you do in the top paragraph to download it.

regarding draws, I have also seen draws that have a door front that pulls out to keep the sleek lines, then it has metal slide out draws inside, 3 or 4 of them to maximise space, I think Ikde do this sort of thing, I would assume other places will have similar trypes of stuff, online places you get the unit, then the draw, then the wire work seperately so you would have to look here

http://www.elegantkitchens.co.uk/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=759&cat=Base+Unit+Pull+Out+Storage&websess=59618528633086

then you get that to add to your unit of the correct size.

I personally think draws allow you to pack stuff in better as you dont need to get to it from the front, so its its solidly packed its still easy to pull it up out, and you dont need clearance above as once you pull the draw out there is loads, this is why we got a larder unit, but I think you can get similar for base units now. Clever wire work.

also elegant kitchens say they sell Burbidge Kitchens so google their company page and then you can find local shops that stock them to go check out the doors, their sister company diy-kitchens (exactly the same) sell second nature doors, they both then make their own units the doors fit to.

donna-j_2

Play about on the Ikea planner. I am planning a much bigger kitchen but the units and sink are coming in under 2k.

Think about what you need space for. For example I have laid out my kettle, breadbin, toaster and coffee machine to see what length of worktop I need for those.

I hate wall cupboards so am having a bank of floor-ceiling cupboards for storage. Then all deep drawers underneath the worktops rather than cupboards.

becs

I'd definately recommend the ikea planner. Once you've spent a few minutes drawing the room and putting your doors and windows in etc it's a doddle to move units about etc and see how it all looks.
I also whole heatedly agree about drawers instead of cupboards! We have mainly drawers in our kitchen (we have 1 larder cupboard, the cupboard under the sink and cupboards on the built in cooker units, other than that it's all drawers), you completely maximise storage which is invaluable when space is a premium. You can easily access everything right to the back of the unit. I shudder at the thought of the amount of stuff I have in mine that I'd need to find room for if we didn't have drawers.
I also completely agree about wall units. I absoloutely hate them, they're old fashioned and they really close in a small room. We went for 3 full height cupboards (1 larder unit, 1 for built in oven and 1 with built in microwave) and kept them all on one side of the room which makes it much brighter.

Mrs_Imp

Unless you're doing up your house to sell, forget about all the 'will it put off future buyers' TBH if your kitchen is more than about 5 years old when you sell, chances are they'll rip it out anyway and start again. I know of someone who redid their kitchen in order to sell. Their son drove past 2 weeks after the new owners had moved in and the brand new kitchen was in a skip.

Who does most of the cooking? It has to be a space that you enjoy using. Don't compromise on a kitchen - it's a room that you HAVE to use.

The more cupboards you have, the more 'stuff' you'll have to fill them. Have a think about what you've got that needs storing and how much space you want for food. I reckon that some of those cupboards are really not necessary.

If you're prepared to put in some hard graft, you can get the cost down. Our kitchen came in at around 2k including replastering, appliances, and a very nice solid wood worktop. Imp made all the units from scratch, which saved a lot and meant that they all fit in to out tiny kitchen, and we searched online for appliances.

danemi1

donna-j wrote: »

Play about on the Ikea planner. I am planning a much bigger kitchen but the units and sink are coming in under 2k.

Think about what you need space for. For example I have laid out my kettle, breadbin, toaster and coffee machine to see what length of worktop I need for those.

I hate wall cupboards so am having a bank of floor-ceiling cupboards for storage. Then all deep drawers underneath the worktops rather than cupboards.

sounds fab and just what we are thinking of doing - do you have any piccies of the finished result?