Please give advice on this kitchen design.

PasturesNew

Meepster's is better - I couldn't "get" why all those ridiculously narrow cupboards were used in the first one. I think cupboards/drawers should be as large/deep as possible: my perfect kitchen would have virtually no cupboards and I'd have one big open larder as stuff fits better.

I preferred the black floor of the original design though ... although I think those slabs were too large.

I preferred meepster's breakfast bar, but still think it looks a bit clunky - is that wine stack really needed? It just looks a bit like a "make do and mend" solution in somebody's shed, iyswim.

Something's still massively "not right" though. Meepster's stuck with the original design and improved the look/feel, but it's still "wrong", only I have no idea how/where

CKdesigner

Hi Meepster

The dynamic space system is OK as long as the customer has a room that perfectly fits one of the Blum layouts, but I never seen a customer's room that does yet!

Actually I was just thinking a tall oven housing on the hob/sink wall on the far left would be much better then the sink possibly on the other wall.

It just goes to show yet again idependents are much better than the multiples! :-)

CK

Meepster

CKdesigner wrote: »

Hi Meepster

The dynamic space system is OK as long as the customer has a room that perfectly fits one of the Blum layouts, but I never seen a customer's room that does yet!

Actually I was just thinking a tall oven housing on the hob/sink wall on the far left would be much better then the sink possibly on the other wall.

It just goes to show yet again idependents are much better than the multiples! :-)

CK

It doesn't need to fit the Blum system perfectly, but you'd still want to keep the cooking zone together, fragmenting it just isn't practical.

I was tinkering with a tall oven housing on the wall where the hob is, but the problem with that is, you lose all symmetry. That is unless you were happy to have a 450mm unit either side of the hob, but then it is too close to the sink. I always plan around the "600mm between hob and sink" principle, even if it's a gas hob. I didn't suggest moving the sink, as I'm guessing the drainage is to the left of the exterior door and this wouldn't be easy to work around when having to sink to the right of it.

And yes, independents are better than the multiples (I'm pretty sure you remember I've worked for both) and designing a kitchen is a lot easier for an independent, due to the sheer quantity of unit options. But when you can get a kitchen done for 1/2, or even 1/3 of an independents price (by using Howdens, Benchmarx or Magnet Trade) the odd filler, or lack of choice of unit configuration, becomes less of an issue.

richardw

It is a much better design, what is the distance between the hob and sink? Perhaps go down to 2 x 400 base units, so the sink is a nearer to the fridge.

Doozergirl

The cooking wall looks a lot better.

The other wall just looks like some sort of compromise. It's quite a good sized kitchen, I don't really like all that space in the middle and then the bulk of larder units and the emptiness of the breakfast bar. There's enough space to have more streamlined units on the other side and a breakfast bar too. If you had a breakfast bar in the room somewhere, you could still work it so you had a view out of the window and be able to talk to the person cooking too. That's something for the OP to consider.

I'm not a fan of those little drawer sets, they're only good enough for hiding bills and useless screws in. Big drawers are much more practical.

GSDog

Thanks for the comments.

I'll definitely consider losing the wine rack and putting something more practical there. I don't think I can shift the breakfast bar along much further without compromising the entrance but I guess I could consider losing the 300mm larder unit which would allow me to perhaps have 2 x 500mm draws either side of the breakfast bar. If Howdens did an 800mm larder I would definitely replace the 300+500 larders with that, but unfortunately they don't.

I don't really want to lose or move the breakfast bar from where it is because there is a nice view from that window overlooking beautiful countryside.

Moving the sink to the other side of the room would be too much of a pain because the drainage is located on the side where the sink is currently. I should also add that I am on a tight budget and the house will almost certainly be sold in a couple of years anyway.

jamais

Hi, can I hijack and ask what you used to plan your kitchen? Was it an online planner? I am struggling with ikea's clunky planner... Thanks very much.

Meepster

jamais wrote: »

Hi, can I hijack and ask what you used to plan your kitchen? Was it an online planner? I am struggling with ikea's clunky planner... Thanks very much.

The OP had their design done at Howdens (I think) who use Planit Fusion

I used 20-20 V8

Neither are really available for home use. Most online planners tend to be "clunky" to be fair