New kitchen: must haves or what to avoid?

Slinky

There's a divider in Ikea for storing pan lids, a sort of metal concertina thing. I use it to store my chopping boards upright. It was only about a fiver. If I can find it I'll post it up.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/70154800/

rosie383

Thanks Slinky. I just found it and figured that would do the job rightly.
Has anyone used the Ikea finance to buy a kitchen? If so, do you know if all of these storage bits can be included in to total price? I'd really love it if they could be. I intend getting the bins that fit in the under sink drawer and drawer dividers etc. Dh told me to get what I need and I've never had the chance before so I'm going for it! I figure that an extra £100 won't be noticeable over two years.

bouncydog1

Following this thread with great interest. We've just ripped out our 20 year old mfi oak kitchen. Couldn't even give it away so the doors have all gone for fire wood and the cabinets are off to the tip. Must haves: full height wine fridge, 2 full size single ovens, large induction hob, extractor and quooker tap! We bought a hotpoint induction hob and loved it so definately going induction. We were having handmade, but can't quite reconcile that it would cost more than the house did 35 years ago, so am now thinking another DIY fitted by a specialist and adding granite worktops. All the look for less money! Am going to look at magnets as a friends 20 year old magnet kitchen looks like a handmade Mark Wilkinson!

Kitchenbloke_Leeds

Buy the best quality furniture that your budgeting will allow. Its the furniture that's difficult and expensive to replace should you find you've made a bad choice. As much as I love to buy British, the difference in quality between Howdens, Ikea, B&Q and the like and good independent German or dutch brands is enormous and doesn't always cost much more. Get professional design advice rather than having a salesperson "guide" you...

evie451

We are currently fitting a new Ikea Metod kitchen so this might be of use to some of you


Yes the rail is good to hang the units off of but not so good if you don't have good walls....DH has spent a lot of time with packing pieces and a level......
the Metod units are a doddle to put together but we have had to chop the hob one for the gas pipe and the sink one for the plumbing (plus the one next to the sink as well) and made an upper cabinet fit the boiler and the one underneath the boiler had to be chopped as well.......we now describe these as frankencupboards.........
Ikea metod units are deeper than 'normal' units so therefore ikea worktops for METOD are 63.5 cm deep instead of the more usual one in the uk of 60/61cm odd.......This was entertaining to discover at the weekend while DH was fitting them.........my lovely bargain oak worktops.......sigh bloomin IKEA...
We are in the midst of it just now, hence the slight negativity here but it will be beautiful when its finished etc and the old kitchen was truly horrific!

bossymoo

Mine is almost done now, just splashback and a bit of electrics to hook up and woodwork to paint.

Things I love: (all of it really )

1. Full height pull out larder cupboard - six spacious shelves store all our food - I've only overflowed into one "pan drawer" with cereals
2. Integrated bin / recycling tub - I used to hate having these out on display. They are slightly smaller so I have to empty the bin more often, but smaller bags also means it fits better in the wheelie bin
3. One of the pan drawers under the breakfast bar has cereal, bowls, cups, in fact everything we use on a morning. I've stored by purpose rather than type of object and this works really well on mornings
4. Scribes / boxed in up to the ceiling - one less place to clean!

I'm getting glass splashbacks but they are being tempered so the jury's out on that one so far. Love the induction hob - tip - lots of manufacturers has offers of free pans, I had no idea and thankfully hadn't bought any yet but when it arrived, so did a set of rather posh pans!

Happy kitchens, everyone!

purpleivy

I have quite a lot of deep drawers, but find I struggle for places to put tall things. E.g, kenwood, boxes of cornflakes, spaghetti box.

purpleivy

greenbee wrote: »

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

I decided against dividers, as things are never just the right size for the compartment and unless you have those pans with the removable handles, they won't fit in, or a lot of space will be wasted.

EpsomOldie

Kitchenbloke_Leeds wrote: »

Buy the best quality furniture that your budgeting will allow. Its the furniture that's difficult and expensive to replace should you find you've made a bad choice. As much as I love to buy British, the difference in quality between Howdens, Ikea, B&Q and the like and good independent German or dutch brands is enormous and doesn't always cost much more. Get professional design advice rather than having a salesperson "guide" you...

Hi Kitchenbloke, re the German / Dutch independents, do you have any names to start me off? Thank you.

I've been following this thread with interest for some time as I hope to have a new kitchen one day. I've always had previous occupants' kitchens and they've all been underwhelming or just grim, poorly organised, short on storage and difficult to keep clean.

bouncydog1

Have had a look at Magnet and think the quality is not that great! We'll no doubt choose something when I see how much cash we have left after doing the structural work. Unfortunately I don't like the flat look of most of the German kitchens I've seen - Kitchenbloke would be grateful to see what you are thinking of. Think we had a quote from Hacker but think that is down the bottom end of the range and we want something better.