New kitchen: must haves or what to avoid?

rosie383

Thank you to everyone for all the help so far. We are at the stage now where the old kitchen has been ripped out and we are waiting for floors etc to be finished so that we can go and buy the new one. Probably next week.
Following advice on here I have gone for mostly drawers and just have a final question...
If I have wall cupboards with shelves, do I need any cupboards with shelves on the base? I was going to go for just shelves in a couple of the shallower ones but now I'm thinking should I just go for drawers in those too?
And I will have one corner wall cupboard. Is a carousel a good idea in a wall cupboard? Or a crazy idea?
I know these extras add to the total but as we are getting it on 0% finance, it will be a tiny bit extra every month. And as Dh says, we have spent many years getting to this point and want to do it properly, once.

Islandmaid

Hi Rosie,

Glad you at the doing point - it's a nightmare, but worth it in the end.

We went for fold up door on the wall units, they pivot halfway up if that makes sense. In the main wall unit I use, I have put a couple of plastic 'lazy Susan's' on the shelves, so that I can store spices/soy sauce/dry rubs etc and turn the lazy Susan's to find what I want easily, a lot cheaper than a carousel. I also have 2 in the fridge

rosie383

Thanks IM. I didn't think about lazy Susans. Will have to investigate but sounds like a good idea. TBH my friend's sister has a drawer under her hob and has all of the spices in glass jars with labelled lids so she can see at a glance what is there. That's what I'm planning.

Should I see if I can get drawers for the couple of shallow base units too? Or would I regret not having any actual shelves?

Slinky

rosie383 wrote: »

Should I see if I can get drawers for the couple of shallow base units too? Or would I regret not having any actual shelves?

I would think that's going to be a question only you can answer. Think about the layout of your old kitchen, did you have these drawers? Did having/not having drawers seem to be a problem? Whilst the old kitchen may not have been perfect, there must have been some parts of it that worked OK that you'd want to replicate the storage in some manner I would have thought. And some bits that you must have thought I wish I'd got.....

rosie383

Most of the advice seems to be to go for drawers and honestly the best storage in the old kitchen was in the drawers. I had a pan drawer and loved it. I could see every bit of it, right to the back. Everything got used regularly.
In the cupboards with shelves the only things which got used were at the front. Nothing at the back got used, or if I had to hoke something out, everything at the front had to get taken out first and then put back.
I'm thinking that even things like my food processor and mixer, will sit quite happily in a drawer.

greenbee

The cupboard you might want to consider is one with vertical dividers for roasting/baking pans and chopping boards.

rosie383

Thanks Greenbee!
I wonder if Ikea do some kind of divider like that. In my old kitchen I had a narrow open shelf bit which I used for baking trays, chopping boards etc. I was giving it away on freegle yesterday and was thinking to myself that I didn't know how to do the same thing in the new kitchen.

The only cupboards that I will have with shelves currently, are only 37cm deep. Is it possible to get some kind of divider?

missbiggles1

rosie383 wrote: »

Thanks Greenbee!
I wonder if Ikea do some kind of divider like that. In my old kitchen I had a narrow open shelf bit which I used for baking trays, chopping boards etc. I was giving it away on freegle yesterday and was thinking to myself that I didn't know how to do the same thing in the new kitchen.

The only cupboards that I will have with shelves currently, are only 37cm deep. Is it possible to get some kind of divider?

I have one of these from Lakeland.

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/21071/Bakeware-Organiser

rosie383

Right guys. Help me out here.
I can find some shelf dividers, but nothing from Ikea which I can include in the 0% deal and really, really don't want to even pay out around £15++ if I can help it.
Does anyone have any solution that I can try? The cupboards in question are 60cm wide and 37cm deep. Anything homemade which I can try?
I am a great convert to KM (well, in a small way which works for me) and am now automatically stacking things upright in drawers and boxes so that everything can be seen and I don't have to hoke under anything.

rosie383

Thanks Missbiggles. That's exactly the kind of thing I need but even at £13 is too much for me to pay out just now. We are changing to an induction hob and I have to replace some of my essential pans as a priority so my pennies will be going on those.