Is my kitchen design OK ?

I had someone at a well known retailer design me a kitchen for a new house. This is what they came up with. Is it OK ?
Does it have any design flaws ?
Funds are tight, the kitchen needs to last 50 years at least, I don't want any mistakes !

The plumbing hasnt been done yet, there is scope to juggle things around.
I know zero about kitchen design.
There is an island in the same room, in the middle of the floor with a sink (not shown).
There is a small utility room with washing machine/dryer (not shown).

[broken link removed]

Which way does that door open? You can easily imagine it hitting pan handles etc. if it opens towards you.

If the house hasn't been built can you move the door?

Where's the fridge?

SSE

Can't say from this picture if it works or not. What's going on on the other walls?

where is ur dwasher

Presumably with the positioning of the door handle the door is opening in which as mentioned above is not good. If that's a step rather than door saddle then not keen on it at all. If the hob is gas would it work ok with the door so close? How efficient will the cooker hood be when its positioned so close to a door.

I absolutely love Belfast sinks but have heard people complain that they are back breaking. Do they crack or chip easily?

S.E.



P.S. No kitchen will last 50 years

where will your microwave sit ?

cooker and hob look to close to door regardless of which way it opens. children sometimes when playing charge through doors like little elephants so would want hot pans well away from door area.
would it not be better to have the oven and microwave and extractor built in to left corner of the kitchen as you look at it ?

then where the extractor was located to put a double top unit with glass doors for keeping your every day drinking glasses. you could run the pelmet from end of cooker to end of glass cabinets to match other side.

you would then have a nice stretch of work area on the right hand side of your sink.

have you a dishwasher ?

assume the fridge/freezer is other side of kitchen ?

are you having a sink drainer cut into the worktop ?

there is a pelmet only on one side, would get rid of it ?

so you have two sinks in the kitchen ? and one in the utility ? is that not overkill and adding to the plumbing costs ?

are you putting lights under the units ?

dont forget sockets for toaster, kettle, george foreman grill maybe, blender, phone, tv, radio

for the larder cupboard on the end right side, useful to have one of those pull out storage rack systems inside.

have you thought about your bins, people forget these and sometimes like to build them into a cupboard or just freestanding.

are you putting a TV in the kitchen ?

and agree with sue ellen on the sink style, not for me either, look good but i dont think they are that practical.

There are previous threads on kitchen design.

You could also have a look at:

http://www.in-house.ie/kitch.asp

http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_GB/rooms_ideas/splashplanners.html

looking at the photo , the fridge + freezer is to the very right(integrated)

the dishwasher is to the left of the sink (integrated)

pity about the door, the house is built, its not ideal positioning for an outside door i agree. The door opens in.

a kitchen can last 50 years, my parents got an oak kitchen in 1980, it will last at least 20 more years, it looks perfect. They did replace the worktop, handles and appliances and had the doors taken off and revarnished.

as per the websites sue ellen attached, there should be 40cm between the edge of the hob and the end of the worktop.
what is yours ?

I remember seeing a program once about kitchen design and they said that the sink, cooker & fridge all need to be within turning or 1 step from each other

I'm redoing my kitchen too so very interested in this. One change I'd make (cos it's this way in my current kitchen and drives me BATTY!) is not to have the sink and cooker too close together. When I'm cooking, I find I'm making messes and stacking them at the side of the sink. Then I go to plate up and I have nowhere to lay out the plates cos the dirty dishes are all over the counter. Although you did mention an island so you could have your plates set out there??

could you put the hob on the island or to the left of sink?or put it where the fridge is and put the fridge where the counter glass unit is.get rid of the counter glass unit as you dont have much counter space there.the cutlery drawer should be as near as possible to the sink/d washer area(less walking) if you want i have kitchen design software and could do a design for you,just give me your measurments

I know Sue Ellen has posted an IKEA link above. This part of the IKEA website goes into Kitchen Ergonomics including the working triangle and different kitchen layouts. I think we would need a full plan and/or dimensions of the kitchen. My initial feelings are that there is far too little food preparation area, in particular, either side of the hob. Also, the unit on the extreme left seems to be taking up valuable counter top space.

As a kitchen fitter I must agree this a very bad plan, if that is a D/W to the left of your sink, look how far away it is to your cutlery drawer! Maybe put all the cooking appliances and food storage on the left hand side and all your utinsil storage, sink,D/w etc on right hand side,try to have less of those very small units also, just a waste of space.

i suggest you get 3 or 4 designs from different companies before going ahead. i know it is time consuming but as you say you want the kitchen to last for 50 years ! then time well spent.

I'd agree with most of the posters here, it seems like a bad design, although it's hard to tell without an overhead view showing the rest of the room and your kitchen island. I have a peninsula (an island anchored to the wall at one end) and without it my kitchen would be terrible to use, so seeing how your island fits into things would make a big difference.

I would also, like some others, highly recommend the Ikea kitchen planner. It's really simple to use - I designed, tinkered with and redesigned my kitchen with it, in fact I can't imagine designing a kitchen in one go in only a couple of hours, even with an "expert".

Although the Planner only uses Ikea products, they have a very large range which should include most of the features you want and as most kitchen units are standard sizes you should be able to use the plan to order from another supplier. You can download the planner (for free) from here.

One final thing, the Planner also tells you how much the whole thing would cost - so you might find yourself with a better value option. I'm delighted with the finish and quality of my kitchen, the only thing I would say is that there range of worktops isn't the best, but everything else is spot on and the fitter said he was very impressed with the quality of it.

Well of course a kitchen can last 50 years....sure didn't Triggers broom last him 20 years of street sweeping ?!

LouisCribben said:

I know zero about kitchen design.

Click to expand...

I'd suggest you pick up a couple of kitchen magazines, you'll get some ideas of what's a good idea and what's not, they usually have a section in them giving tips about kitchen design. Also you'll see some things you don't like as well as things you do like, and that can be very helpful.

There are plenty of kitchen magazines in the shops, mostly UK ones, but if you're looking for an Irish one I'd recommend All Irish Kitchens.

Hi,

You could move the extractor and hob to the island and have full length presses in its place with double oven half way up. It would balance out the room a bit more.

Is there an island unit also ? Where is the work space ie where can you make a sandwich ?