when I meant breakfast bar, I meant hidden one behind cupboards for shelf, appliances and worktop etc thanks

Can't live without my soft-close drawers and cabinets, def worth the extra money.

We get a lot of calls from customers who have designed kitchens and then left the heating consideration till last and end up with very restricted options for a radiator, so my advice is to consider the radiator or underfloor right from the beginning so you are not restricted in your choice. Vertical radiators are commonly chosen in kitchens as wall space is inevitably taken up by cabinets. Its also popular to go for one with a towel radiator to dry tea towels.

Radiators in narrow spaces · More Info

Radiators in narrow spaces · More Info

Radiators in narrow spaces · More Info

Radiators in industrial spaces · More Info

such great ideas. I am just sorting out my kitchen appliances now. I think I have the dishwasher and oven, but need to get hob and fridge and freezer... what are people's thoughts... full length fridge next to full length freezer, or two fridge freezers next to each other? Also I love the Liebherr, but they are £1300 each aghhh the AEG are a bit cheaper, but still around £700-£800 each... I was advised to look online and collate prices, then find a supplier to price match and supply as at least if something went wrong, Bentalls, John Lewis etc, are easier to return to, anyone else have any good advice for appliances?

lots of good ideas

would like to ask anyone had a dishwasher fitted at eye level i have back pain

would be an fully or semi integrated appliance

and also dishes drained well in a double bowl sink

many thanks

Where did everyone get their kitchen cabinets from? I am looking at Howdens as I have an account and it works out cheaper, and thought that if I use expensive nice worktops, no one will look at the cabinets too much... (Also I can't afford a 20k kitchen!) thoughts..

We are planning a kitchen currently, have said no to an induction hob because of a joint condition, I fear the induction pots and pans will be too heavy esp when filled with soup, gravy, pasta and boiling water etc. Can anyone comment? Do they find this an issue? Esp with arthritis, bad wrists.... would be very interested as we are just going to finalise the plans tonight. Thanks

My sister has an induction hob and bought all new "induction" pots and pans to go with it as she was told her ordinary ones wouldn't work on the hob. The induction pots and pans have a solid heavy base which conducts heat beautifully but are very heavy when full. Has anyone else bought special pans?

Ok thanks will look into it now. Would prefer induction if possible as apparently it's easier to clean than electric? Can't have gas in this kitchen because of the layout....

Ok thanks. Appreciate the input. Love the discussion. Very helpful and interesting.

Cheap as chips and light in weight Ikea 365 everyday pans work on mine ! Take a fridge magnet with you when you pan shop - if the magnet sticks to the bottom of the pan - it’s 99% likely to work on induction !

Great thread, following with interest!

In over 10 years, none of my 3 kitchens have had any heating, underfloor, radiator, or towel rack. I have never missed it. If you're in the kitchen, you're working around, using the oven, washing dishes with hot water etc. Just never felt a need for heating. Actually, one of my kitchens did have a radiator in it, but it was turned off for years. And as for drying the tea towel, I just change it daily :) much more hygienic :)

can anyone recommend any full length fridge/freezers that are integrated, cant believe they are around £800 each for a decent make?

Update. Our kitchen is now booked in, starting mid September. We have gone for an oak kitchen - Stori Clonmel, Blue Pearl Granite and a cream slightly patterned floor tile. All Siemens appliances except for Fridge and Freezer which are Liebherr, Franke Minerva Electronic 4 in 1 tap in which the tank fits under the plinth, Blanco 1.5 bowl stainless steel undermount sink, Insinkerator waste disposal, ufh. Can't wait, very excited. Oh and tip from our kitchen designer, Appliance City gave us a bulk buy discount for our appliances. The fridge and freezer were £1600 ea but we got them for £1200 each. I did compare the prices online so I know they were genuine.

We fit lots of kitchens and of, course, I have my own. Everyone has different priorities but for me they would be a Neff Slide and Hide oven, induction hob, pull out base unit for oils etc, definitely a waste disposal, induction hob, quartz worktops, Karndean flooring, glass splashback for ease of cleaning, back lit shelving, the essential wine cooler and Quooker or similar. Lesser priorities are a convey larder unit, red wine storage etc etc (time to renew my own kitchen I think!).

We are nearing the end (thank goodness) of our new kitchen project. It's something we've been planning for 14/15 years.

We've moved the kitchen from one end of the room to the other. So we've had to have new electrics, new plumbing, new waste. The new waste required a 3ft deep trench digging across the back garden lawn dug in March - which was a bit of mudbath!

We had an exposed Cotswold stone wall framed out and plastered, along with all the other walls. We've had doorways moved and resized, and had 2 sets of new double doors. We've had a window created and another removed and replaced with Panoramic doors onto the patio.

We've had dry UFH and new Amtico flooring. We've had to have steps into the kitchen remade and a shed load of self levelling on the floor.

Our must haves were:

Neff Slide & hide Pyrolytic ovens x 2

Neff built in microwave

Neff deep warming drawing

Neff 80cm induction hob

Fisher & Paykel American fridge freezer

Fisher & Paykel Double drawer dishwasher

Quooker Fusion Flex Combi

Franke 1.5 (both large bowls) sink & drainer

Corian worktop with upstand

Movable Island with inset flip top power socket in the top

Hidden rubbish and recycling in the cupboards in the island

Although it wasn't a must have, we've also got some tall seating for the end of the island, because the OH has a fantasy about sitting there on a Sunday morning with a Nespresso from his new Nespresso machine, living the dream. LOL

We've also had a free standing wine fridge which will live in the diner part of the new kitchen.

Luckily, we have a fairly large utility room which has the washer & tumble drier - The utility incidentally, has made a brilliant makeshift kitchen since May.

We've also re-done the boot room off the kitchen, with a new tall cupboard for brooms etc. a new 70cm bog standard fridge/freezer for extra capacity at Christmas etc and commercial racking.

It's been a long old job, and I've had a couple of wobbles and crises of confidence along the way, as we've designed, specc'd and bought it all ourselves and project managed the whole thing.

That said, we've had a brilliant bunch of fellas working on it, who have been a joy to work with.

Another 2ish week should see it all done.

Regrets as to what we have done or didn't do - maybe had a Neff combi oven/microwave instead of the microwave on it's own.

But my biggest regret is worrying that it's not going to look special enough and it may look too mundane, without a lot of design flair and thinking it's missed the mark somehow compared to other people's kitchens.

I also agree with the comment about having drawers for storage - even hidden behind doors. Plus pan drawers - loving those.

We also now wouldn't be without in drawer & cupboard lighting.

We've just had our kitchen done and been living with it for a few weeks now. Best bits so far are the integrated bins (we have 2x medium and 2x small in a 60cm unit) which are so convenient and make recycling dead easy. And the tall units with internal drawers. We used to have a tall cupboard without drawers and nicknamed it "the Jenga cupboard" reflecting the odds of having an unsteady pile of kitchenware fall on you when you opened the door. The drawers mean everything is accessible, all the space is used and the odds of taking a pyrex jug to the cranium are vastly reduced. Pan drawers great for same reason!

Currently planning mine, Neff gas 5 burner hob and Pyrolytic Slide & Hide over will be on the last, as will a dishwasher (never had one of my own!). I wouldn't miss a kettle in mine either, as planning the house refurb, especially the kitchen is requiring a lot of tea powered though!

Emma- which hot water tap did you get? The price of the qoouker tap is shocking!

Whilst the Quooker may be expensive, it is the only boiling water tap, that only needs a cold feed (as far as I'm aware).

Also, currently there is a free installation offer on the taps and it comes with a 2 year warranty.

Granite work surface was the best thing! Beautiful, practical and cost effective because we saved money on not tiling our kitchen. It is worth the cost because a beautiful element enhances the house and lasts forever - making it valuable piece of design if you need the sell the property one day.

No real regrets but perhaps should have had a built in Fridge freezeer. Instead we have a stand-a-lone one which sits inside a new kitchen cupboard unit that was built purposely for it as we wanted a large fridge freezer. The Lieberr fridge door is matt silver which looks great but still wished we had a built in one covered with unit door. But then we would have had a smaller fridge freezer unit. With past experiences of fridges - Bosch is the best and better than Lieberr!

Regret my choice of Bosch gas hob. It is very robust but although it looked a reasonable size in John Lewis , it has proved rather small for average size saucepans. Should have gone for the swing out corner shelving in the base units- would avoid much grovelling on the floor searching for infrequently used items.

Big plus for granite worktops- look good and indestructible!

Thank you for everyone's comments, had no idea this thread would prove so popular when I started it. We are plastering this week and we have finally bought most things for the kitchen. I did find some real 'finds' though if anyone is looking. Not sure where you are based, but regarding electrical goods we researched all our own and narrowed down our list, and once we had that we looked online for the best prices for each appliance. Instead of buying from lots of different places we took it to Bentalls, who not only matched, but also cost us less, and beat some online prices with a good 'deal' price they also then will hold on to them until you need them, but if anything goes wrong you have 'bentalls' rather than several online dealers to return items to. RDO Appliances also do this if there is one near you, but i'd advise you to research prices first. Another thing we found was inserts for the kitchens. Through our kitchen supplier these were expensive, bin inserts, pull out drawers, pull out larders, even the pop up sockets, sourced seperately through ebay and online we managed to save quite a lot of money by doing this, so our fitter will still have the right things on the day, but we are not getting the inserts from the supplier. What else..... erm kitchen worktop, unbelievably the exact same worktop, same material, same cut outs etc.. same sizes differed between suppliers by 3k! so do shop around for your quartz and granite.

Good grief, I've just realised one of the most important must have's for our kitchen!

A movable island, that was a proper island, not a butchers block! Which has been a feat of engineering to achieve.

@Ribena I was going to ask, how did you achieve that?? presumably it doesn't have a hob/electrics or a sink in it!?? Otherwise I can't even start to imagine how that would be done!