New kitchen: must haves or what to avoid?

rosie383

It does look lovely. Out of our budget though. Mine is costing £5k including fitting of granite worktop and most appliances.
TBH I'm not overly bothered about getting all singing, all dancing appliances. I think it's because I have made do with very old, very second (or third) hand everything all my life, that anything new is appreciated.
Ikea's appliances have all got a 5yr warranty so that is very appealing.
Also in the spirit of MS, they do 2yrs' interest free credit which helps a lot.

VfM4meplse

rosie383 wrote: »

TBH I'm not overly bothered about getting all singing, all dancing appliances. I think it's because I have made do with very old, very second (or third) hand everything all my life, that anything new is appreciated.

I say treat yourself to whatever you want, a kitchen is used several times a day but replaced once every 25-30 years unless you're flush.

rosie383

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I say treat yourself to whatever you want, a kitchen is used several times a day but replaced once every 25-30 years unless you're flush.

My husband has told me the same thing, but to be honest, because I have made do for all of my adult life with only what we could afford, usually the cheapest, or second or third hand appliances, I'm not really sure about what I need to look for.
I am going for a mid range induction hob which has a couple of power boosters and 4 cooking zones. In my mind this is what I need.

As for the dishwasher, having never had one I don't know what I need. Going for a slimline one as it won't be used every day and I am so used to washing up by hand that the energy saving side of me will mean that I would find it hard to use daily.

Built in oven again... not sure. I know that I want a fan oven as we have had one for the few months that we have been in this house and it is definitely better for baking in my opinion. But size-wise I am just looking to see if they look to be a decent size.

We already have a great microwave which will match the appliances which we are going to get.

If anyone wants to stop me making a purchase which I may later regret, then please help me out.
I probably will never have this chance again, and the frugal side of me is looking at the cheapest things as usual, rather than what I could have. Obviously money is a consideration, but not the only thing.

cyantist

As you asked... when I saw you were getting a gloss ikea kitchen I thought 'noooo!!!! don't do it".

We got a magnet gloss units in the kitchen and ikea gloss units in the utility not very long ago, as we didn't want to spend the amount that the magnet kitchen was costing on a room that wasn't going to be used that much but the gloss units looked terrible. The quality compared to the magnet ones was obvious, they marked really easily and the marks wouldn't come off no matter what we tried and they never ever looked clean. I used to spend 4 times longer cleaning the 6 cupboards in the utility than the 20 units in the kitchen that were used way more.

I know gloss does show up marks more so but I never had this issue with our kitchen, and my sister had a new gloss kitchen put in last year (which wasn't that expensive) and hers doesn't show the marks like our ikea one did. Tiny scratches that you couldn't even see on the magnet ones stood out so much on the ikea ones and it looked years old straight after being fitted.

Ours were red though so maybe other colours wouldn't be as bad.

LittleOne

One thing I have always wanted in a kitchen is spotlights! Spotlights under the wall cupboards and also running along the underneath of the bottom cubpoards/drawers just above floor level.


We are buying our first house soon and the kitchen is probably the most important room for us!

elona

I am getting the kitchen and dining room knocked into one with a breakfast bar and a row of built in ovens, fridge freezer and cabinets built where the end of the dining room is and and L shape working unit by the window with dishwasher, tumble dryer, washing machine and sink.

Builder came this morning with the print outs, ivory gloss cabinets, wood laminate (very good quality) worktops, stainless steel sink etc. I am also getting soft close doors and drawers for pans etc.

He is going to price it up and let me know tomorrow - eek :eek:

It is a Nobilia kitchen and looks great on the plans so fingers crossed.

rosie383

Hope the price isn't too much of an eek!

Cyantist you have me a bit worried now. We are going for the grey gloss and even in the store, where the doors would be getting touched constantly, marks don't seem to show up much on it. Maybe I will look more closely at that in particular the next time we are in the store.

kraftykat

rosie383 wrote: »

As for the dishwasher, having never had one I don't know what I need. Going for a slimline one as it won't be used every day and I am so used to washing up by hand that the energy saving side of me will mean that I would find it hard to use daily.

.

Most dishwashers now are very energy efficient and actually use less water than hand washing during the day.

I love my dishwasher, but I couldn't have a slimline model as I put pots and pans and everything in daily.

kraftykat

One thing I love is the led light strips under the cupboards, these are great when working at the counter tops as the light behind you usually casts a shadow. They're energy efficient too 😄

rosie383

Funnily enough I'm ordering led under cupboard lights this morning!
Thanks for mentioning about the pots and pans Kraftykat. I hadn't thought of that! This is exactly why I asked for help! I was just thinking of plates etc. Duh!
Dh keeps asking if I have finalised the kitchen plan, but every day when I come on here I end up making revisions again! In a good way though.
THANKS ONE and ALL!