Help in Brighton! totally fed up trying to design our kitchen
Last year we opened up our dining room and breakfast room into one large space that links to the kitchen. We now have enough money to sort out a new kitchen.
The kitchen is a big space, approx 6.3m long x 3m wide. I've tried every which way to get a layout that works for our busy family but there is always some kind of compromise that doesn't work for us. I must have drawn 30-40 options.
We've had kitchen designers come over, an interior designer and an architect and non of them seem to be able to come up with a layout that functions how we want it to.
I've piles of kitchen brochures lying around, I've read endless articles on how to design a kitchen, but I still can't get the layout sorted.
Do I keep searching out local designers and keep paying their fee's? Do I continue inviting kitchen companies round to try and sell me cabinets?
What I really need is a bright young designer with creative solutions and an eye for detail - is that too much to ask?
We have what I consider to be a healthy budget - £20k all in (£5k cabinets, £5k work top, £5k appliances and £5k for extras such as splash back, lighting etc).
Are there any exciting kitchen experts based near to Brighton that might be up for a challenge?
I'd be grateful for any leads.
Thanks in advance
Comments (35)
7 years ago- 7 years ago
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Comments (4)Some brief responses to your various questions: 1. Need a cover panel here but IKEA cover panels have a max height of 240cm – we need 260cm so there will be a join ideally in line with the wall cabinets – any alternative solution to this? If you were able to identify the matching board, it might be possible to buy a larger panel through a different route - many are up to 3m long if bought from a panel distributor or the manufacturer. But that will be less likely with Ikea, assuming they are making their own. 2. 400mm height wall units – proposing to have these opening vertically – good/bad idea? Hmmm, I'm in two minds here. I don't like side opening for short but wide doors, but your top boxes will be a nightmare to use if they are top hinged because of height. You could consider pinning the top box doors to the ones below & side mounting, such that they all open together. 3. Corner is currently inaccessible with the drawers – trying to maximise drawer space over cupboard space – is this a good idea? No, a bad idea - a lot of waster space. Go for a corner with pull out Le Mans. Will be similar price to the drawers, but you get to use the corner totally. Could reconfigure with 600mm drawers but thought a 400mm cupboard to access space in the corner would be unusable. Basically, is having more drawer space a better idea? As above, use wireworks - they were designed for a reason! 4. Extractor – gone for an integrated as wanted to have no break in wall units – good or bad idea? Good idea - we do plenty of these! Consider also telescopic options and be SURE to check installation dimensions to be sure the extractor you pick will fit the wall unit - not all do! 5. Proposed a small shelf to the rear of the worktop which would be tiled as we are reducing the amount of worktop compared to the current, and wanted to maximise useable space for small items that would usually clutter up the worktop e.g condiments, kitchen roll, etc. Any thoughts on this? Anyone ever seen this, and if so, what depth/height would you suggest, and did it work/look good in reality? Yes, I've seen this done and it can be useful & effective. BUT we would normally step all the base units off the wall by that full amount, in which case you need to ensure the design of wall units takes this into account where you return around corners! 6. Kitchen is 4.8m wide, and due the cabinet widths of IKEA, will always have about 150mm to fill along the width. Do you think where we have shown the filler panel is the most suitable location, or would it be better behind the oven (bearing in mind the wall units need something to attach to if we were to have the filler panel here)? Personally I hate to see any wasted space in a kitchen. If you have at least 150mm width, I'd consider doing a full height wine rack or cookbook shelves instead. A competent fitter will fashion something for the price of an extra fitter panel or two and an hour or two's time. 7. Worktop depth – as far as we’re aware, Minerva (with the integrated sink) only comes as 650mm deep. However, IKEA cover panels are max 600mm deep (needed for fridge and oven units), meaning our fitter would have to shave 50mm off the worktop. Is it doable for a good fitter? I very rarely do this, but I must urge caution against using Minerva. It is one product we used for a number of jobs a few years back, but now we wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. We've seen multiple problems with batch colour matching, stains, heat, and crackling of sink bases with hot taps. The company was not good at supporting putting issues right, and we came to the conclusion that we were not comfortable offering it to our clients. There are better alternatives out there, and a good fabricator and keenly priced quartz will get close in price. While you can remove 50mm from the worktop, the product will get through blades rapidly, and it is harder to work with than laminates. We really would recommend proper fabricators for such products. 8. Currently proposing this as open as only 200mm – would a 200mm pull-out cabinet be practical given the position in the corner? No reason why not. A good German kitchen would probably offer you an 800x800 L shaped carousel unit as one way to handle this "tight" corner. Or if you can stretch to a 300w unit, I would. - What colour of units would anyone recommend for a north facing kitchen, with a dark grey stone floor, and would you recommend matt or gloss? Possibly a steel or Spitfire blue or light green. I'd consider woodgrains too. Gloss or matt is a very personal choice, though certain colours can look better in one or the other. We have been going back and forward between green/grey (BODARP) or white, but is one too dark, and the other too stark? If white is too stark, a Limestone or Taupe might suit you. - Microwave – integrated or not? Could replace the double oven with a single oven and combi microwave oven. Single plus combi is a popular option - have a good look at the Samsung options which are jam packed with additional cooking features like Air Sous Vide, Air Fry and steam. Alternatively if you only use a microwave infrequently for relatively modest amounts (a plate, say) & reheating, consider a wall unit mounted one. - Considering going for push open for all wall units – what are thoughts on this? Anything with a push mechanism will need periodic adjustment and some mechanisms are better than others. German handleless wall units are better designed with a "finger space" rail so need no tip-on mechanism - Base units/appliances – would we be better with handles or grooves? Personal choice! If going handleless, you really can't beat true German kitchens or the Omega "flat" rail system. - Lighting – would warm or cool lighting work best in a north facing kitchen? Neither - pick "natural" (in between) at about 4000 Kelvin. And finally, interesting to hear people’s thoughts in general please? The design is a little lacking in symmetry for me and is quite "fussy", but given the limited unit options from Ikea, I kind of see why it is as it is. Be aware that IKEA use their own slightly strange "grid" system, so all sizes are pretty unique to them and them alone. Their carcasses are very basic, and I see more than the average number of customers looking to change IKEA kitchens a lot sooner than most other brands. If budgets are tight, you can get a good looking kitchen for not a lot - but with some careful design from an independent studio whose suppliers have more extensive ranges, you will probably get a much better looking kitchen that lasts longer for not a huge amount more. We could probably design a tidier layout that used far fewer overall units, but which delivered more usable space - to give an example, using German units, you could do extra-high wall units as single units, so no top boxes or triple-stacked units required! Hope that all gives you a little food for thought. I would certainly do your homework and look at reviews for Minerva - only 1.9 stars on Trustpilot. Feel free to ask anything else and I'm sure we'll be happy to give our thoughts! Caldicot Kitchens...See More
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- 6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
Thanks all for the input so far. I have added a few design options and I'd welcome any feedback.
The kitchen is in a single story extension, measure approx 3m wide by 6.3m long. It currently has a window at the end which we plan to turn into sliding patio doors to give a view of the garden. There is a single door on the side near the end which we might turn into 2.4m wide sliding doors.
Option 1 is probably our preferred option but we are concerned that the breakfast bar will cause a bottle neck at the entrance to the kitchen.
Option 2 is similar but we'd loose the table at the end of the kitchen.
Option 3 allows us to have an island, which we'd like but we are concerned that there isn't enough width in the kitchen to accommodate this layout.
Ignore the windows shown on the south side, they are only slit windows and we're going to move these.
We are a relatively social bunch and often have friends around, options 1 & 2 don't give us anywhere to put friends whilst we work in the kitchen, there's nowhere for them to stand other than to lean against the units.
We're not opposed to funky ideas with the layout.
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
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I don't know how it would alter the appearance on the exterior but have you considered losing 1 or both of those windows on the right? They don't appear to be adding much in terms of light and could help with the design enormously allowing for tall cabinets on the right. Could you also just opt for 6ft wide doors at the end and perhaps widen the window on the left? Perhaps a small banquette seat could work with a pedestal table and a couple of chairs for socialising (assume you have a formal dining table in the dining room) as obviously they can be moved. This is the architect Joseph Dirand's kitchen, I'm not sure if this is your style but you may be able to find more images
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How about this for example? You get an L shaped kitchen, peninsula island for seating, pantry space behind the island for washer/dryer/tall storage. Leaving the other space as the kitchen, leaving the rest as dining/living/office etc space?
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Roughed up my earlier sketch in the IKEA planner. It should be pretty close to the correct scale.
You could easily fit a much larger kitchen island in but I can't figure out how to do that in their planner. You also have enough space in this scheme that you could make the island a fully floating one and would have the option of rotating it 90 degrees too if you preferred.
The fridge freezer is in the tall cabinet to the right of the sink. I actually think I'd want to swap the sink and hob position round now but can't be bothered to change it again this evening lol. I think in reality you'd want to just box off the awkward bit of wall sticking out by the kitchen island. Or possibly fit some shallow shelves in.
You'd have buckets of cupboard and counter space and given the wall of floor to ceiling units you could get away with a much more open devol-esque scheme in the kitchen itself if you wanted.
Have no idea what sort of style kitchen you were after so just defaulted to my favourite scheme (sorry!).
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Claire Nicholson