Hi Tim, it's hard to tell without exact colours, we'd suggest either a medium wood colour or a grey depending on floor type; i.e.: in between the light coloured cabinets and dark coloured work top. Hope that helps PB

I would definitely go light. I think dark would make the room feel smaller and it would ruin the amazing sense of space and light you already have.

Hello Tim,

I think what would be nice is perhaps to aim for pale with some accented dark colours.. So my word here is Textures... Wooden flooring yes, but perhaps something that keeps the feeling of expansive space whilst offering something interesting in terms of layout...

So blonde woods, pale greys and or whites with the grain and I have to say... Parquet Herringbone or Chevron.. I think it would be lovely to compliment the worktop with another textural and natural element.. Then you can add to this with the rest of the space and layer the colours accordingly...Here's 3 for an example and I have to say, I rather like them together... A mixed herringbone or chevron could be fantastic! : ))

Dark floors will bring the ceiling down. You will also notice wear in a dark floor, particularly around the sink. I'd go for light every time, particularly with these worktops.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions !!

I think
that looking at a loads of pictures of kitchens, I agree with the majority of
comments on here, and think that I’ll go for a lighter shade. We currently have Karndean down so I may work
with that once the kitchen is fitted assuming that it looks good – if not then
I’ll take it up and put something else down.

This is what we have at the moment:

I am really liking the pale grey type floor. My friend is from Denmark and he has a
typically scandi house, with the white/grey wooden floors, which I must admit
look fantastic. It’s something that I’ll
definitely look into.

At the moment the wall and door colours are just a
tiny off shade of white – I’m not sure if they’ll stay like this however. It may be a bit clinical for me. I’m getting the urge to go a pale green /
mint colour on the walls – but once again, I’ll have to get the kitchen in
before making any colour decisions.

As for the island suggestion, that’s a no-go. We’ve had quite a lot of designers all try
and fit an island in – there was one design that we liked, so I taped up
the island size on the floor, and built it up with boxes and ‘lived’ with it
for a week – no chance that was staying. It made the room feel so much smaller. It’s still quite a narrow kitchen at the end
of the day.

Also, with 3 kids (7, 4, and 2) running around we
need the open space. The double doors at
the end of the kitchen (by the breakfast bar) lead out onto the playroom/garden
room. Even though that’s the kids room,
the toys etc very rarely stay in there.

The kitchen fitters are coming to start on 2nd
May – so not long to go now. I’ll make a
separate thread for that :)

Hello Tim,

Sounds like you have a plan but would you not put the flooring in first? So it's all seamless.. :))

Hi, I would also take into consideration which direction the kitchen faces to maximise the use of natural light being reflected off the floor at different times of the day and also the lighting design to understand how the lights will reflect off the floor (and their colour temperature). Hope this helps, Mike Lander, Director, Ensoul Interior Architecture

Hi Lindsey, I have to dissagree with you here. I don't think that it's impossible at all.

The kitchen fitters can fit the kitchen on what's already there - personally I don't think that the Karndean that we already have fitted will go all the way under the cabinets themselves, so they're probably just standing on a solid concrete floor.

The kitchen fitters can fit - with the floor as it is (ok, maybe I may remove a few additional boards just incase. When it comes to putting the new floor down then any decent flooring company can just butt up to the base of the cabinets and 'make good'. The flooring doesn't actually have to go under - unless you really like spiders and want them to have a nice floor as well :)

Just quickly doing a calculation - the area underneath all the cabinets roughly equals 6.10 m2 - using flooring that's in the region of £35/m2, that's £200 of flooring that's never even going to be seen as it's under the 'kitchen'.

The floor is going to have to go down after the kitchen is fitted.

Hi Mike,

The kitchen is North East facing (slightly more North facing than East if being super accurate).

Regarding the lights - We've got two rows of spotlights running the whole length (12 in total). They're going to be staying, I think that they've currently got 3500k bulbs in them.

You're absolutely spot on about the natural light, and reflective surfaces - we've just done our living room, and took loads of time to get this area of the 'design' correct, and it's defiantely worth the wait.

It's really exciting times at the moment - and as we're spending a right hefty amount on this kitchen I'm more than prepared to get this spot on.

I'm actually pretty excited about this - which I never really thought I would be.

The wife is even more excited with all the the Neff appliences she bullied me into getting for her :) - Slide&Hide single oven, Neff combination oven with microwave, Neff Island hood, Neff hob etc.

Not going to start another thread - just to ask another question (still in relation to the kitchen).

Say we decide on some sort of wood flooring - laminate, karndean, engineered etc (that's not specifically important for this question) what are peoples opinion of not having the boards running paralell to the longest wall (ie the 'standard' way).

I'm thinking of 45 degrees - there's not all that many pictures/examples of this (obviosuly if you look hard enough you can of course find them) - so is this considered to be a no-go?

Starting at the front door, going down the hallway and into the kitchen/diner all at 45 degrees to the front of the house.

* Sitting room carpeted

* Study - that's my music room/man cave - that's remaining carpet as it's not worth changing.

* Utility room and WC is currently tiled - will prob (no, definately) keep as it doesn't bother me.

* Conservatory / playroom - carpeted. Will stay as is so the kids can happily make a decent mess.

Also, if anyone would like me to do some artist impressions/sketches of their property and how things would like, let me know, you can see the quality of my work in the MS Paint edited picture above. I'm relatively cheap :)

Hello Tim,

Well Herringbone and Chevron designs are at angles anyway and I do like something that is rather more unusual! You can in theory be as creative as you like but bear in mind that certain patterns create more wastage and therefore may result in greater amounts needed if budget is a consideration...Equally you might find you save!

I would suggest you have a go with something to see what the desired effect is before you lay them permanently.. That way you'll really know what you do want.. Diagonal herringbone is absolutely a look that can be found.. So for me yes it's a sell! : )) Take a look at these for inspiration! There are so many ways to deal with flooring that doesn't have to be uniform... You can use several shades or even blend into something else... What you need is a skilled tradesman! Along with a skilled "eye" for interest : ))

Me and my partner are planning to renovate an old kitchen. We love Miele!

We are well aware of the guality and longevity of the product. Anything would be a very nice addition to our new kitchen but a washing machine or a newdishwasher would be our priority.

Fingers crossed. :)