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  • Suffolk_lass
    Suffolk_lass Posts: 10,269 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Karmacat wrote: »
    Woo hoo! Ikea does a thing - a floor-standing bathroom cabinet, 30cm wide, 38cm deep, 1.8m tall, it has a door, even more woohoo. The CD rack I'm currently using is 16cm deep - so on its own, this cupboard would double my storage space for tinned food :rotfl: since I do like to have a good stock in, because of illness, and only get a delivery once a month anyway, this is fantastic!

    I might buy this before I get the rest of the kitchen done :j
    Stopping now :p before I buy it without thinking.

    Is this the CD rack? in white
    Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £4863.32 out of £6000 after May (81.05%)
    OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £1286.68/£3000 or 42.89% of my annual spend so far
    I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
    My new diary is here
  • themadvix
    themadvix Posts: 8,715 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! Photogenic
    greent wrote: »
    Oooh - worth spending on decent handles (our solid metal bars cost around £3 each from a trade place) - makes a massive difference to how doors look/ how you feel when opening them - my friends look identical at first glance, but are hollow plastic and feel cheap - and they cost basically the same as ours.

    Totally agree here and don't be ripped off by IKEA handles - they are much cheaper from Screwfix or similar.
    Mortgage free 16/06/2023! £132,500 cleared in 11 years, 3 months and 7 days

    'Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.' Ernest Hemingway


  • Karmacat
    Karmacat Posts: 39,460 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Is this the CD rack? in white
    Basically yes, SL, thats what I've already got, though mine isn't *quite* as tall. I'm looking at replacing it with this: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/storage-furniture/bathroom-storage/lill%C3%A5ngen-high-cabinet-white-art-60240672/
    its a lot more storage space, and it has a door. Woo hoo, doors!
    From the same range, and on another wall of mine, I could put two, or maybe even three (though I doubt it) of these: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/storage-furniture/bathroom-storage/lill%C3%A5ngen-wall-cabinet-white-art-40240791/
    They would be hanging over the table a little bit - if I was sitting there to eat, I'd pull it out, fractionally.

    Looking at what greent wrote (proper response later) the handle is already included. I'd want to go to the shop first, see how they feel, but the total is £135 plus whatever delivery charge there is, plus securing to walls/putting them up (I'm not doing that). Feels like a lot of positive change already, to be honest, I make do an awful lot, it would be nice not to have to do that.
    2023: the year I get to buy a car
  • Karmacat
    Karmacat Posts: 39,460 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    greent wrote: »
    We had our kitchen made, so the units are odd sizes (one set of drawers are 52.7cm wide, for example - means no wasted space or filler panels)
    A family member got a completely new kitchen and didn't fully understand about filler panels till it was too late - awful! Yes, there's something to that - if the gaps are really horrendous, I'll have a rethink, but yes, I've got a thing about filler panels, ie I hate them :D
    We have one corner cupboard and it has one joined door covering both bits with hinges on the inside which allow the door to fully fold back on itself, as well as fully open - keeps it all small and neat. We have shelves in but they are set at 90 degrees to each other - so each shelf does not take up the whole cupboard (so you can only out things over the whole of the bottom) - everything is easy to get to (no bits hiding) and the super-opening door means the opening is as unrestricted as possible.
    That sounds amazing, and *really* well thought through. I'm certainly going to have to have some proper kitchen design appointments ....
    Above the granite top (so practical in terms of easy to clean - but it *does* need polishing often (like at least once a day) to remove fingerprints) we have tall cupboards with double folding doors (to look like bottom cupboard) from worktop height to almost ceiling height - this is my pantry and the shelves are all adjustable heights (except for one on each side, which is the 'fixing shelf to keep the unit sturdy) Magnetic catches - nice and neat. The top cupboards are much shallower than the bottom cupboard/ boiler cupboard, so it resembles a dresser.
    Uh oh. My word surface is black (plastic? something artificial) and I have to work hard at remembering to clean it :o:o:o keeping things moderately clean is as good as its going to get :o I will remember to ask about cleaning regimes, its a good point, thank you.
    Oooh - worth spending on decent handles (our solid metal bars cost around £3 each from a trade place) - makes a massive difference to how doors look/ how you feel when opening them - my friends look identical at first glance, but are hollow plastic and feel cheap - and they cost basically the same as ours.
    Never occurred to me to buy the handles from a different place (madvix thanks also for the Screwfix rec). And for a material, I'd much rather have metal than plastic.
    And think about things such as door designs - Shaker doors look lovely - but there's a lot of extra edges to keep clean and dust free...… And wooden worktops can need sanding and oiling. And granite regular polishing (And if you live in a hard water area - like we do - you need to remove water marks too)
    Heavens yes! Even four panel internal doors give me nightmares, so I definitely understand what you're saying. Sanding and oiling? No, not going to happen. More research will be needed, obviously, but I need to go with the simplest system - maybe that will be resin :(
    We have built in drawer dividers in our top drawers - customised to what we store in them (so size/ number of divisions) We also have a while cupboard devoted to bins - looks like a very large drawer but is fab :D
    Wow! I have some drawers, the top is cutlery - a cutlery drawer will have to stay, of course - but the big middle one holds the bowls and pans I most commonly use, and it struggles with the weight, actually. As for bins :o:o:o I have a plastic bag hung over an unused dial for the hob, and my tins etc that are due to be put in the recycling live by the front door for a day or so.
    I like kitchen planning - much more than the reality of actually having the work done! :rotfl:
    xx
    And I'm very glad of it :rotfl: thank you :kisses3: xx
    2023: the year I get to buy a car
  • Lots of good ideas. When you thinking of having it done?
    CRx
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 17,104 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    This is all very exciting :j I've never planned a kitchen so am watching with interest :D We're unlikely to replace what we have here for now, but we've just taken a wall down to make two rooms into one and obviously all the kitcheny stuff is still in the half that was previously the kitchen so there's scope for some swapping and changing at some point. Interesting stuff!
  • Karmacat
    Karmacat Posts: 39,460 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    crossrabbit - Not till flu season finishes! That might sound awful, but I can't commit to having people in and out of the house for days (there's a rewire first) when they might be snuffly and I might well be ill. I was badly ill when I had new bathroom tiles fitted, and it was horrible, just horrible, can't go through that again.


    Cheery yes, that gives you lots more options! It does need a *lot* of thought, even more than I first realised, so I'm really glad I'm doing this now, given that its all happening in late spring/early summer at best.
    2023: the year I get to buy a car
  • Suffolk_lass
    Suffolk_lass Posts: 10,269 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I have never, ever polished my granite worktop. I have never needed to. It is blue grey in colour and I use an e-cloth as my kitchen cloth. I use very hot water, squeezed out as much as possible and simply wipe it clean. The joy of it is that it is so robust, I need no mats and if something sticks, it simply lifts off with a bit of a rub - we used Vizag Blue from these people not the cheapest but 14 years on - the best work top ever
    Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £4863.32 out of £6000 after May (81.05%)
    OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £1286.68/£3000 or 42.89% of my annual spend so far
    I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
    My new diary is here
  • Karmacat
    Karmacat Posts: 39,460 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    SL, good to know an e cloth is good enough, and thanks for the linkie, thats yet another aspect of kitchen design thats completely passed me by!


    I've had the washing machine on, to clean the clothes I was wearing when I was up the stepladder and in amongst the laurel; been to Waitrose and bought foodie presents and some of the non-alcoholic drink I'm taking for Christmas Day; cut up the laurel from two days ago and got it in the bin; finally put the dishwasher on. I continually mean to migrate upstairs and sort that out, but I haven't done it, hey ho. Plenty of time :)
    2023: the year I get to buy a car
  • gallygirl
    gallygirl Posts: 17,240 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    My tuppence worth on the kitchen front:
    - Don't buy the Ikea unit yet, it will end up remaining when you redo the kitchen as you won't want to waste it. You've survived long enough, another few months won't matter. No more making do :naughty:.
    - Forget what you have already in terms of fridge freezer, table etc. Design the kitchen from scratch - there may be a better place for them, as unlikely as it seems at the moment.
    - Are you factoring in the cost of a new table and chairs? Again, no more making do (apologies if they are fabulous and you love them :o). Starting from scratch means a different shape/size may be better.
    - Another vote for using wall units as base units - I know probably not applicable to you but they are so useful and also give extra counter top which is useful if you are 'plating up' when you have visitors.
    - I have this type of carousel in my corner units. . Not connected to the door and the shelves are independent of each other so you can swing the bottom one right out for access. Makes the whole cupboard useable.
    - I'm not a massive fan of drawers for pans, I think they result in wasted space, but I'm glad I have them to stop having to bend down all the time. They work better for cooking trays & dished that can be stacked.
    - If you are having drawers you can have the cutlery drawer concealed - gives a neater look than a small unit of little drawers I think.
    - And if you have more than one deep drawer you can do this as well :smileyheaThat is just a plain shallow drawer with these to keep the jars in place. You can get drawers with angled bases but they are very expensive.
    - Consider having power points in some cupboards. My broom cupboard is deep and has a power point for the printer which sits on a high shelf.
    - If you do that, consider having a slide out shelf for a food processor or similar that you use a lot. Like this, but solid in my case. Much easier to use the food processor in situ than keep hauling it in and out. You could do the same with your toaster, or simply get a tray that is the same size and sit it on that (or sit in a shallow dish). Easy to pull out, use and put away with no crumbs (thanks Tilly for that idea!).
    - If you had a lot of workspace and wanted to keep the sides clear you could have an appliance garage. I wanted one just so I could say I had it as it amused me but it didn't fit :(
    - Pull out larder units are the bees knees, and you can get narrow ones.
    - A lot of the time what is needed is not more units but just more shelves in the existing ones. I have some only 9" apart, ideal for specific things, and some that are just tall enough for a tall glasses etc. Sometimes more is best :D.

    Finally, if you are having a standalone extractor fan over the hob, make sure it doesn't have sharp corners you will cut your head on :o.



    Plinth cupboards are great if your floor is even.


    Polish granite work-surfaces? Who knew :rotfl::o:cool:.



    look forward to hearing your plans :)
    A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort
    :) Mortgage Balance = £0 :)
    "Do what others won't early in life so you can do what others can't later in life"
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