OMG Kitchen Design - I am going mad can anyone help!?

BlueC

We're designing a kitchen and it is driving me crazy so thought I'd see if anyone here can offer any guidance. Seriously if I have to look at another F&B colour chart, worktop, or kitchen units I think I might explode!!

We think we have the layout pretty much figured out which in itself has been painful. Can anyone see any problems with what we've got in mind?

The image below shows what we're thinking of. The doorway opens in to the room between L and M. There is a tall sash window behind E, and there is a very large 3 part bay window at the bottom of the drawing (not shown). The top of the drawing has a chimney breast that we have opened up. The ceilings are very high with picture rail and very large profile and decorative cornice. The floor is real wood (pitch pine) which we will strip, sand and finish.

There are no wall units in the plan but we have dresser units above G, K and L framing the opened up chimney breast (2 each side). Units M, N, and O are tall appliance housings.

The layout has enough space at the front in the bay window for a table and 4 chairs, although we do have another more formal dining room for bigger gatherings.



We've tried to keep in mind the working triangles as best we could, but we also had certain things we wanted to do like keeping the sink under the side window. And some things through necessity like keeping the plumbing on the outside wall. We also didn't want under-counter appliances as we're both quite tall and find them a pain.

Anyone any thoughts on this? Is the island too big? Is the room too cluttered? Any problems we haven't considered? Would welcome your views.

THANKS!
Chris

(Is this the right forum to post this in?!)

sujman

Looks good and similar to my kitchen that I had done recently.

If there is 2 bits of advice I can give, its:

1. There is no such thing as "too many cupboards". With the right colour scheme, the kitchen doesn't have to look cluttered.

2. As long as you have walking / "bend over" room around the island, the bigger the better is what I say. I doubled the size of my island, just becuase, but I am so glad that I did!

Only further consideration I would have is, where are you going to hang the TV?

BlueC

Thanks sujman that is interesting to hear.

We think we have included enough cupboards and figured we could always add wall cupboards above A B and C in the future if we needed to. For the timebeing we planned to have open shelves there with tea, coffee, etc and a few errrr accessories (that is her department!).

We've tried to keep at least 1m around each side of the island, which when we've been in showrooms seems to be enough. This allows us to make the island really quite big, it is about 120 x 180 in the plan.

No TV in our kitchen!

DRP

BlueC wrote: »

Thanks sujman that is interesting to hear.

We think we have included enough cupboards and figured we could always add wall cupboards above A B and C in the future if we needed to. For the timebeing we planned to have open shelves there with tea, coffee, etc and a few errrr accessories (that is her department!).

We've tried to keep at least 1m around each side of the island, which when we've been in showrooms seems to be enough. This allows us to make the island really quite big, it is about 120 x 180 in the plan.

No TV in our kitchen!

Fantastic space for kitchen!

However personally i don't think around 1m around the island is enough - that is less than the galley kitchen in our old house - which felt narrow with 2 people working there. Given that the oven, FF, dishwasher and washing machine and sink are all along those 1m runs , this is where most kitchen activity would be happening...

I would definitely be sacrificing the island either for a smaller one or (off the top of my head) for more of a 'bar' L-shape projecting from either of the sides so that you can work and chat with whoever is sat on the table in the bay and be looking directly at them or out the window...

sorry!

pimento

It's a bit unusual to have the oven nestled between the fridge and the freezer. They will be made to work harder to stay cool while the oven is on.

SuzieSue

pimento wrote: »

It's a bit unusual to have the oven nestled between the fridge and the freezer. They will be made to work harder to stay cool while the oven is on.

Yes, I would swap the oven with K and then swap A&B and M&O so that the fridge and freezer are next to the dishwasher.

missprice

Nice kitchen design

Only 2 things move the oven closer to the hob. If you can.

And there is no such thing as too many cupboards.
I have 27 units in my kitchen and still don't have enough. I tried really hard to get 35 units in and still I reckon that would not be enough.

phoebe1989seb

I agree with moving the oven so it is closer to the hob and perhaps the metre gap between island and perimeter cabinets could be increased a little, although we have a similar space (large kitchen extension onto an original reception space, giving us 36' x 16' overall) and our walkways are only 38" at the widest point between cupboards and island.....we could easily have rotated the island to give more width, but wanted it placed *across* the room to take advantage of the views when eating/working at the island. Of course it does depend to an extent on how many cooks will be using the space at one time. There's often the two of us though and we find the space ample

We also opted to forego lots of wall cabinets - we have just two, flanking a plate rack - but instead went for some chunky floating shelves on which we have placed storage jars containing pasta, flour etc. I have to add that one end of the room is completely freestanding with large dresser, larder cupboard, wine rack etc - this is where we have our table & chairs - so we do have plenty of storage despite less wall cupboards.

We also chose to have one bank of drawer units and wish now we'd done away with base cupboards altogether as drawers are far more practical (IMHO), but as we wanted to be sympathetic to the age/style of our Georgian house we felt it was more authentic to keep some traditional cupboard space

I agree that it's best to work with the features of the room, such as placing the sink beneath the sash window. Our sink is in the new end of our space and originally the architect designed this wall with no window - we have a vaulted ceiling with double height window across the wall at the garden end which he felt let in enough light. I over-ruled him on this as I prefer to look out onto something (in our case a view of a pretty courtyard - or will be when finished, lol!) when washing up......so pleased I did!

Don't get disheartened - it'll all be worth it in the end.....we had almost six months without heating and hot water when we did ours in 2012 - a distant memory to laugh over now.....

cddc

I would not worry too much about the fridge and freezer being either side of the oven as with 36mm of chipboard and the insulation on modern ovens, it really wont cause your fridge or freezer to work harder.

1000mm either side of the island is tight but doable if you really want a 1200 wide island. You could use wall units on the floor to reduce the width to 900 which is plenty wide enough if you are not having the hob there.

Neither would I worry too much about the position of the hob to the oven. As long as you have the island it is fine..

Nice plan and a good working triangle. Everybody has opinions on kitchen design based on how they use their own kitchen, which will probably be differently to you..

As a kitchen designer myself I find I can go into two identical houses, and do two wildly different designs based on the brief from the client, and both in their own way, work. I can see nothing inherently wrong with what you have planned though personally I would advise a bit more space either side of the island.

flea72

What is the door configuration for F and G. What are U and S for?

I take it oven, fridge and freezer will be full height, giving a banked wall? If so, it may look odd finishing short of the full run

Not much worktop either side of hob. I know you have island behind, but you soon get fed up of people walking past, as you spin around with/for something

I also think theres not enough room around island. When you drop door down on dishwasher/oven how much standing space is there? And you have to totally navigate it, to get to washing machine.

DaveTheMus

I would stick the washing machine and dishwasher at K and L