Kitchen Design Help/Advice

JimminyCricket

Hi people, I was just wondering if anyone fancied casting their eye over some kitchen plans we have had drawn up by a local independent and giving their expert opinion?

The kitchen is fairly small (3.5m x 2.2m) so there isn't much that can be done with it. We are having a bit of a crisis as we were originally going to go for Walnut colour doors with balck worksurface and black slate effect Karndean floor but now have big concerns that might all be a bit too dark. The wife really wants the dark worksurface and floor so we are now looking at lighter colour doors. Have found quite a nice light oak door (Verve Lissa Oak by Chippendale, for those that know them) but I find it really hard to visualise things like this and so can't be sure that it will look good with the dark surface and floor. Anyone got any piccies of a similar set up, or advice on what colours go nicely together?

I'm not allowed to post links yet so you will have to copy and paste the urls below rather than just click on them. Hope they work - never done this before!

Any tips/advice would be most welcome.

rapidshare.com/files/307088829/JR1.pdf
rapidshare.com/files/307089652/JR2.pdf
rapidshare.com/files/307089653/JR3.pdf
rapidshare.com/files/307089654/JR4.pdf
rapidshare.com/files/307089655/JRplan.pdf

A couple of things to explain - the single cupboard by the door in file JR4 hides the boiler. There is an integrated dishwasher next to the washing machine, and to fit that in plus a full size sink she has had to put a 500mm base unit which would mean the bowl of the sink is cut slightly into the corner cupbaord next to it. The other base corner cupboard will have a 'magic corner', and the 300mm larder will have the pullout drawers rather than wirework.

Thanks again,
James.

CKdesigner

Hi James

Where do I start!

I would definately agree Walnut door fronts, black worksurface and slate floor all seems quite dark to me, Light Oak would be much better and is a classic combination with black granite.

As for the design/plan, I don't think its very good! A 300 mm Tall larder unit with internal drawers - a waste of time as the drawer sides take up a lot of space, I only use this unit 500 or 600mm wide, the usual wirework system is much better at this width. Is that your existing free standing fridge freezer? If it is I would put a bridging unit above it to link the tall pullout larder to the wall otherwise it would look much better with an integrated fridge freezer or no tall pullout unit at all. The main problem is the wrong use of the corner units, it looks completely uneven and I would never use a straight corner unit and a 90 x 90 corner unit in the same 'U' shape kitchen. Did you want that wall unit wine rack? If not it looks terrible there and completly wrong to put it so close to the cooking area.

I don't mean to completely put you of it, as part of the reason for the poor design is the relatively small amount of possible unit sizes from Chipendale.

Good luck

CK

mjburton

Try the Ikea kitchen planner on their website to try different layouts etc ( or get your wife to). It's possible to make a small kitchen more practical with more storage and workspace than a larger kitchen that is poorly planned - trust me!!!

Avoid all dark together as it won't look good. As to what goes together - have a look at display kitchens in different places for ideas.

JimminyCricket

Thanks for the replies. :beer:
Think we're probably going to go with light oak, although there is quite a nice Buttermilk one as well. There are too many decisions to make!

As for the plan...

We asked for the larder to be put in and had been told by a couple of people that even the 300mm wirework ones can be a bit awkward to pull out if they are full, which is why we had asked for the pullout drawers instead. I didn't actually ask what the useable width of the drawers would be - any idea?

Yes it is our existing fridge/freezer, and the woman did actually say that she would put in a bridging bit over the top, maybe with a fake cupboard door, to blend it in. Think I uploaded a slightly older version of the plan.

As for the corners, yes you are right I suppose they are mismatched, maybe as much because I wanted to get the cooker as central as I could in the end of the kitchen. I think the plan we had from Wickes had the same problem as well. Do other manufacturers (of a similar quality/cost) have more flexible options with the corner units?

The wine rack - no I'm not sure about it really either. I think it looks odd so we might just go with a 150mm pullout or cupboard.

Another question I've thought of. I assume that wall units can be fitted at any height - neither of us are particularly tall and it's a struggle for my wife to reach the top shelves. Especially if we go for the builtin microwave, it might be better to have them a bit lower than the current ones we have.

Thanks again for any help/suggestions.

edgex

built-in microwave - no no
they are way overpriced for what they really are, go & look at one in a kitchen, & youll soon see how little usable space there is in them, but how much space they take up.
then, if you want to change it, youve got to find one that will fit.

integrated dishwasher - why not just have a standard dishwasher?

the wall unit between the cooker & sink (17) is unusable

wine rack, up in the air, above a heat source? stupid!


as for it being dark
theres no reason why the doors on wall & base cupboards have to be the same, especially if theres no units linking them.


wall-unit fixing height
they have to be a certain distance away from the hob, so if you have units on that wall, that will dictate the height theyre fixed at



does that external door open inwards or outwards?

JimminyCricket

Thanks for the reply.

We were looking at a built in microwave really just to save some worktop space. We only have a small one at the moment (about 20L capacity) and don't use it for any major cooking so size of the built in ones won't be an issue. Although I do agree they are expensive... so really that choice is just down to whether we think having that extra bit of worksurface is worth the extra cost.

Integrated dishwasher just because it's then hidden and looks 'smarter'. We can get a Bosch one for just over £300 which I think is a good price. Is there a reason why we shouldn't be going integrated?

We currently have a double wall unit in that tricky corner between the cooker and sink, and yes it is hard to reach the top corner of it. But we didn't want to leave that corner empty as then that wall would look unbalanced. Any suggestions what we could do instead?

I agree on the wine rack - it was just put there as a filler so that there is the same gap either side of the hood. We might just put a 150 door on the front if we can't come up with another layout for that wall.

Blimey we are having enough trouble choosing one colour door, let alone multiple colours!!!:eek: But thanks for the suggestion - will mull it over, probably in a bit when I'm trying to get to sleep....:mad:

The external door opens outwards.

Thanks again for the comments/suggestions.

edgex

ok, ive had a bit of a play around with the design:

unit 17, wall unit to right of cooker, scrap that, its useless & just looks blocky
as for looking 'unbalanced', maybe have something lighter like the cooker hood, some glass shelves?

unit 14, the corner wall unit, have an angled one instead, with the 45degree angled front-door on it, & scrap unit 15. that softens the transition round the corner.

unit 1, the tall larder unit, scrap that. just continue the base, worktop & wall units along, leaving a 60cm width for a standard fridge/freezer
(im assuming your keeping/having a tall one, if not & you could have under-counter ones, continue worktop & units all the way into corner)



as CK says, it all seems a bit dark
why does your wife want the dark worksurface & floor? has she seen it in a showroom, a magazine pic etc? they are usually larger kitchens, & with a lot of additional lighting!

a dark floor is practical in a kitchen, but i would then go with a lighter worktop, or much lighter doors than on those plans.
or could try a worktop in the same/similar colour as the doors, maybe a wooden one?



is the archway fixed, or is that pootentially moveable? i assume thats into a dining room?

JimminyCricket

Thanks for the suggestions - gives us more ideas to ponder on.

We're definitely going for light oak now so I think it will be fine with the dark worksurface and floor.

The archway is fixed, and yes goes through to the lounge/diner. We don't have any flexibility in the shape/size of the room unfortunately.

Thanks for all the help.

Mummy_Jo

Hi

For some reason I can not view your plans - nor am I a kitchen fitter either! but I thought I'd add my two penneth to the mix with the choice of colours. We knocked a wall down to give us a kitchen diner. The kitchen itself is very very small and galley shaped with black granite tiles and a black/grey worksurface, a black glass hob and black accessories (including oven). We did however keep our cupboards light - a cream colour. The nature of the tiles and the hob mean that they are highly reflective. The room does not get a lot of natural light. To help this I put a very large mirror on one wall in the dining room to help reflect natural light into the kitchen and put up extra light fittings in the ceiling too with directional bulbs to help. I think that if it had been all dark it would not have worked. The cream works well in breaking it up.

Consider getting a light colour for your units

Hope you get sorted soon - there are just too many decisions to make!

Edinburghlass_2

Having recently done my kitchen, going from pine to white I'd certainly agree that it made my kitchen much brighter, that and taking down a row of wall cupboards and only putting up some in what is a dark corner anyway with some lighting underneath it.

As regards the built in microwave, I put my normal microwave in an inbuilt oven housing which has a cupboard above and below the oven. Only 5.1 myself and I can still use the microwave okay although I would need a step to get to anything above it.

As regards dark flooring, had I not already had some beige, ceramic floor tiles I would probably have gone for a dark/black floor to match in with my worktop but I'm now glad I used the beige as being much lighter and goes better with the light laminate in the room off the kitchen if you see what I mean.