It both amuses me and frustrates me that I’ve blogged this very question before, 3 years before!
Yes, it was three years ago that we first spoke to an architect and took the first, very tentative, steps towards our renovation. If I knew then that we would still not be even close to finished three years later I probably would have given up then and there. It seems life has a way of putting even the best laid plans off course… and it’s not like we’ve done nothing in the last three years. We’ve dealt with a new baby, flooded foundations (three times), and a heart attack, and none of these things have been very conducive to building our own house. So with only a little begrudging I have accepted the delays and the long drawn out processes… and here we are.
We are finally at the point where I need to make some concrete decisions about a kitchen. In the next three weeks I need to have decided on all the appliances, finalised the kitchen design and ordered it. Ok so it might not go in exactly on schedule but I don’t want to be the one holding up procedures on the off chance that we really are ready when we hope we’ll be ready!
Help!
I am not great at making decisions at the best of times, and these are no small decisions. These are big expensive decisions. Decisions I will have to use, look at and live with every day for a long time.
First on my list is appliances.
Oven? Cook Top? Range hood?
In the beginning we had plans for a beautiful wood fired oven, but things have changed a little. In the end the oven wasn’t going to heat our living area in the way we’d hoped and spending $1500 on something that wasn’t exactly perfect seemed a little excessive. So in the end we’ve decided the money is better spent on getting a new wall mounted oven and a new cook top. So now I’m waving goodbye to my blue Rayburn and trying to decide whether we need one really big oven or perhaps a double oven, one big one small?
I know I want a big cook top because I hate that I can’t fit four decent sized pots on our current one. I also know that it has to be electric and can’t be induction, so hopefully those limitations will make that decision a little easier. I also want a range hood that is big enough to really cover the cook top.
I think I want all of these appliances in that fancy, new, non-marking stainless steel…. except that we’ll keep our current dishwasher and that is white and we currently have a white fridge. Will that look funny?
We also need to look at a new fridge, and a new microwave too. I can see my budget being eaten before my very eyes!
If I can actually decide and purchase appliances then I have to move on to ordering the actual kitchen.
We are going with Ikea. For affordability, quality and range, they win hands down for us. So now I am up late every night dragging and dropping various kitchen cabinets around our ‘virtual kitchen’ and trying to figure out how to fit in every cool Ikea storage idea ever made. I’ve not even come close to making a decision about door fronts or bench tops, though I bet I’ll go with my safe fall back of white and wood, cause I’m boring like that. And what about handles? or maybe no handles?
Now lets move on to splash backs. Oh how I want glass, and if I don’t go too overboard on everything else then perhaps we can even afford it, but what colour???
Oh it’s all so darn hard, and The Father Figure is no help. He may think that saying ‘whatever you think is fine by me’ is helpful, but really it’s infuriating! Have an opinion damn you!
So tell me oh wise and wonderful blog readers…
If you were buying all new kitchen appliances what would you get?
If you were ordering your dream Ikea kitchen what would you design?
And, most importantly, what would you not do if you were building your dream kitchen?
{image: from 2012 Ikea kitchen catalogue}
Oh my, all new appliances, if I could afford a Kitchen Aid then thats number one.
I feel like I already have my dream kitchen, built 2 years ago. I love that we have a spice drawer, that rolls out and there is enough space for all the spices to lie flat labels up :-) One thing I do hate is that we dont have enough drawer space. We have the utensils drawer, the spice drawer and thats it, no other drawers. We definately need a “messy, bits and bobs draw”.
I also love that we have a built in space for my microwave and that the cables are tucked away neatly.
Big deep pots and pan drawers are a must. I have 4 in my kitchen which get used also for cake tins, baking trays etc, slow cooker, rice cooker and mixing bowls. Everything is easy to see at a glance and easy to get at. Really, I wish I could replace all my below bench cupboards with these. Another one for plastic ware would rock! :)
Yup deep pan drawers are great.
If I was doing my kitchen again i would put in more power points than I thought I would need. Downlights above the sink and bench and I would have drawers to put all my cups, glasses, plates, saucepans and Tupperware in. We have cupboards and things get lost in the back of them.
Oh Kate. It WILL happen. I waited almost five years for my kitchen, and NOW I HAVE IT. It’s not quite finished (we still need to paint, tile, re-polish the floor), but we’re almost there.
I decided that a kitchen is far too much of an everyday commodity NOT to spend good money on things. (You will have it for the next 20 years!) So I splurged on: appliances (Miele had a deal). I put drawers wherever I could put drawers (best space saver ever – even on corner drawers!), and don’t waste space with a rangehood that just takes space. The smaller, the better. I didn’t get a fancy benchtop, because they were all harder to maintain than laminex!
I chose a big return so I have double the benchspace. Also I have a white fridge and microwave, but all the new appliances are stainless steel appliances. It looks GOOD! (I worried about that too.) My kitchen is antique white too (and I worried about the clash).
And my kitchen space before is here (http://kympiez.blogspot.com/2011/08/old-kitchen-10-things-i-dislike-about.html) and my after kitchen space is here (http://kympiez.blogspot.com/2011/08/this-saturday-im-grateful-for-beautiful.html). Oh, and we have a Victorian and so trying to be more traditional with our kitchen. So we are having tiles. But if you’re going contemporary, go the glass splashback!
This website really helped me to think differently about my kitchen spaces. http://www.dynamicspace.com/
And if you have any other questions, you’re so welcome to email me anytime! All the best as you plan your new living space!
xx
oh thanks for sharing your photos… your new kitchen looks fabulous! And I’m much more ok about the whole white dishwasher stainless everything else now! thanks!
Thank you so much for the dynamicspace link, Kymmie! Most helpful planning site I have come across.
Hi Kate,
We’ve been through something similar recently as we are building. It was made somewhat easier by the fact that we had a certain ‘package’ through the builder based on our budget and we had to fit in with that or pay more. We couldn’t really afford to pay more, so sadly, we aren’t quite getting my ‘dream’ kitchen, but with a bit of tweaking down the track (and a carpenter/joiner) for a Dad, it will hopefully get there eventually.
We are much the same in that our new oven is stainless steel, but our dishwasher and fridge are white. Our d/w is only a few years old (baby bonus present to myself when my DD was born), and its Bosch so great quality, so definitely not changing that. Our cupboards are white anyway, so its not going to standout, but if you are cgoing for laminate cupboards, an option is to cover the front door panel of the d/w with the same laminate.
Our fridge is much older, we’ve had it for about 10 years – pre-children and is quite small, so eventually it will be replaced with a bigger stainless steel version, but its down on the list of must-haves until it dies.
So what we really wanted – stone or composite benchtops…. Not happening – not included in our package price, so our thought was we’ll stick with the laminate for a few years while the kids are young and update to stone benchtops later.
A pantry room – there was NO compromise on this, I wanted a pantry room. I loved the idea of a proper walk in pantry – not a large cupboard with everything stuffed in, a lot of the small appliances will be stored in here too, and eventually a chest freezer will slot into the far wall corner. So we moved out the kitchen a bit and took over some of the massive linen cupboard on the other side of the kitchen to create the pantry room – I am SO excited about this.
Glass splashback – this was a luxury, but being that we don’t have overhead cupboards and our colour scheme is quite neutral we wanted a feature and this was it. So we have a glass splashback around the whole kitchen benchspace – colour is Dulux Red Box.
I never checked the colour against my Empire Red Kitchen aid – should really do that as Big Red will be taking pride of place on the bench (and na-naaing to the appliances hidden away in the pantry).
FYI our laminate choices are Wilsonart Astral Dovetail for the benchtop, the cupboards are Panelart Zircon Shimmer, with brushed metal kickboards.
There was an oven included with the package, but it was a standard size and we wanted a double, freestanding. So we did some research, found a floor model got it cheaply and with the credit for the oven in the package we only paid $200 for an oven that was normally over $1800… we are going gas, so can’t help you there.
I am so not even going to look at the Ikea site (because I get sad that we don’t have it in Tas and also because I get lost in it and an hour later my menu plans still wont be done!), but I do love their white cupboards with the wooden benchtops, and I adore the pot racks that hang from the ceiling. I would say get as many drawers as humanly possible – so much easier to access everything. And soft close drawer runners. And a like the idea of no handles – though depends on your cupboard surface as its likely to get dirtier with fingers/hands pushing on them to click them open…
I could go on about kitchens for ours, but since its no my blog I’d best stop!
I also made sure there was a large pantry room in our design. I really want a space where we can store all our food in one spot and a large hidden bench were I can keep all appliances plugged in but out of site.
We’ll also have no overhead cupboards (we will have some wall shelves though) so I’m liking your idea of a glass splash back feature… I love the idea of red but worry I’ll get over it and hate it in a few years??
You know, we never really considered the ‘getting tired of it factor’ LOL! But its a good point! Oh well too late for us now and I’ve always wanted red for a very long time, and in the meantime I’ve changed my mind on other things, so its stood the test of time so far. We need to be bold somewhere…
We have downlights above the sink, a main light in the centre of the room, as well as in the rangehood. Above the breakfast bar will be three pendant lights. In the pantry we will be putting up a track with three lights on it that can spread the light across the whole area. I think the extra lights in the kitchen are important as you don’t want the light behind you when you are working. I think most places situate the sink in front of a window, but if it isn’t i’d consider moving plumbing as its so much nicer to look out onto something when at the sink.
Something else I thouight of to keep an eye fopr when dishwasher shopping. Some of them (I’m pretty sure LG?) have a steam vent on the front of the dishwasher which is pretty much at little kid head height. Two different friends have this on theirs and the steam can be very hot so we were carefully to ask if they had a steam vent and buy one that didn’t…
thaty is exactly what we will be doing with our pantry- will have toaster, kettle etc plugged in there. We have a cavity slider door in there so the door doesn’t take up any floor space.
We also have requested to have extra powerpoints put in as it will be difficult to add them later due to the splashback. so there is one doublepoint at least for every length of bench.
Oh and forgot to ALSO say that when I said double oven I was having a baby brain moment – I meant that our oven was an extra wide one – so its the 90cm. Its also got one of the catalytic cleaning systems – yay!
If I didn;t have an upright I probably would have gone with a wall oven – out of kiddies reach and easier to get things in and out of it – not bending down.
Something i love from Dad’s kitchen is that he has a little narrow cupboard next to his oven which has two shelves, both quite high where he stores his thin baking trays/sheets and pizza trays and the like. Great as its right next to the oven and also because they slot in upright (like books in a bookshelf), you aren’t having to lift up any trays to get to the one you want…
He also has a drawer for the rubbish bin which we are having too. it fits one of the narrow, large bins with the slide lid on them. It is fabulous as its hidden out of the way, but still easy to access.
Oh and DH is making me an outdoor woodfired pizza oven :) Way down on the list of priorities for him (higher on mine) but will happen eventually – can’t wait for that!
I would definitely get drawers for everything, so much easier to get stuff in and out of, and nothing gets lost up the back. I have a magnetic knife rack and a hanging utensil rack – both of which I want to get straight away for our new house. I think it is worth spending money on a quality oven – I would definitely get a 900mm or even bigger. I cook a lot (I teach food and hospitality), and would sooo appreciate a bigger better oven and cook top.
I agree with the other posts about getting a proper large panty. Our food is spread around 4 little cupboards and it is a pain to try and find everything. Mind you it will be worse on the farm.
Whilst you don’t want to completely blow the budget, you will have the kitchen for many years to come so I think it is worth investing in appliances and equipment which is going to meet your needs for many years too!
I spent Friday night glued over the Ikea catalogue.
Right now we’re renting so there’s nothing I can do about our current kitchen but a girl can dream…
Lots of clever cupboard and drawer space is a must (you’d rather have too many than not enough). I saw a great kitchen in a display home the other day that had a ‘public kitchen’ where you could cook and serve your food and entertain. The pantry had a door next to it with your utility kitchen behind it. A place where you could leave dirty dishes and prep all your food. Too die for!
OOh what a fantastic opportunity to insulate yourself against future electricity price rises. I’d go for one big, one small oven. How often do you turn on a big oven just to bake a tray of biscuits or vegetables or a pizza. And I’d go for a super energy efficient fridge, smaller the better. From http://www.energyrating.gov.au/rfl.html “The refrigerator is the single biggest power consumer in many households. …Refrigerators and freezers typically make up over 20% of total residential electricity consumption.” We have a teeny tiny fridge and I love it – no wasting stuff lost in the back. But there are some really energy efficient affordable ones now.
That is what I love about the double oven idea…. especially during hot weather when I assume a smaller oven would make less heat?
Our long term goal is to be totally off the grid in the next five years (with solar and wind power) so we are trying hard to balance the needs of our family of 6 and the energy expenditure when it comes to a fridge, but I’m not finding it easy!
we have a double oven, one is standard size, one is small. We use them both, and really like having the option to use the small one at a different temperature too. The small one also has a thing that is a rotisserie, you can do 2 x roast chickens at once on it.
If I had the money, I would get one with a double oven where one was the bigger than standard size, and the other was standard size. But in our brand, that was around $30,000!!! Um, nope…
We have tiles as a kitchen splashback, but I regret that (we did the kitchen a few years ago now, and my tastes have changed!) – if I did it again I’d have glass. And a freestanding oven/stovetop. And it would have to be a decent sized oven as opposed to our tiny little thing that only fits two things at a time.
My favourite thing in our kitchen, though, is our island bench. With the wine rack in it. Love.
I haven’t looked at free standing oven/coook tops at all. We currently have a small cheap one and I don’t like bending down to the oven, among other things. Why would you go free standing?
We are going to have a HUGE island bench and I can’t wait!
Oh Ikea I love Ikea…………………….so jealouse. well my dream kitchen is many years off but can I just say I have been to a few houses lately that have great big ovens and I say go one great big oven. It would be great for your family of six imagine being able to fit enough pizzas in to cook at once to feed everybody. Ok that is my 2 cents worth
I don’t think there is a domestic oven big enough to cook enough pizzas for our family in one go! LOL
But I am thinking about ditching the double oven and getting my Dad to build us an outside wood fired pizza oven instead??
…hmm…we’ve designed 2 kitchens, 1 was ikea (rental), 1 not (our home at the time)….currently designing a 3rd for a rental.
are you tall? if so consider making everything 10cm taller than standard.
A freestanding cooker is easier to install than wall mounted. Our home kitchen had a 900mm wide smeg freestanding cooker…loved it!
Ikea benches suck to install if you have corner joins. Unless you have access to a commercial saw you will have to cover the join in all likelihood. Consider getting a custom bench to go on top of your ikea units. The kickplates on the ikea kitchens also are not fabulous.
As nice as drawers for everything sound/look we stuck with good old fashioned cupboards, they did the job and don’t have the same restrictions of what you can fit that drawers can.
The Fisher & paykell upside down fridge and double dishdrawer in iridium finish are absolutely my appliances of choice.
Hope there is something in there that is useful! If you have any other specific questions re our ikea kitchen experience just sing out!
Happy kitchen designing.
Tatum xx
thanks heaps for your tips!
I will have to look at our bench tops and check out what we’d need in the way of joins. I think we might get away with it if they can do one really big piece for our giant island bench.
Thanks for the tips about drawers too… my current plan is lots of draws but also quite a few standard cupboards… I can see the benefit of both.
So apart from bench tops and kick boards have you been happy with your ikea kitchens?
We put in our own kitchen at Christmas. It is all drawers, the only cupboards are under the sink (but we do have a dresser). Even the pantry is heavy duty drawers and I lie the tins down so you can see what they are. There is one tiny section of the dresser that has the things like soy sauce that you can’t lie down and one deeper drawer for flour etc and that’s it.
It was a bit of a brave experiment, but I purposely went for a tiny bench space and small pantry. It means I can’t clutter anything up because I need it to cook on and I can’t let things go out of date on the back shelf. It also means I’m serious about menu planning, but I’ve found there’s still lots of room for emergency ingredients. The tiny bench space isn’t working quite as well, I need to train the girls to stack things straight into the dishwasher.
I like the very minimal setup, it gives us lots of space in the kitchen/dining room and means we can all be in there without tripping over anything. I set the girls up at the table when they are cooking and I can get to everything easily. And it’s really forcing us to look after it, which we’ve never managed with lovely spacious benches.
I still don’t have splashbacks! We got to a certain point at Christmas and couldn’t get hold of people and it all sort of ground to a halt.
Well you can probably guess the first thing I’d choose for a new kitchen ;).
But after that, it’s all about bench space. I have so very little, and what I do have is quite shallow as it’s from the 50s. I would love a lovely large bench space and a double or triple sink :). I love pull out drawers for things too.
Hi… we re-did our kitchen about 2 years ago and we went stainless.. and well I really like it, and who cares if the fridge and oven don’t match for now, or if the dishwasher and oven don’t.. the oven *SHOULD* outlast them so you’ll get new ones eventually and then you can make them all match up :-).
Also my in-laws got a plexi-glass splash back and its bigger then my tiles, easier to clean and keep clean (my grout stained almost immediately :() and ended up cheaper then my tiles. I know how I’ll go next time!
And as for other things, the only thing I can say is DRAWS ROCK! Who ever went “you know these plastics/plates/pots and pans would be better in big draws” deserves a medal! but then the those draw pantries creep me out so we went with a normal pantry.
And no handles.. you can get them like that?? that would confused the heck out of me.. I’d forget which side opens.. and with draws I don’t know how that would even work?
My opinions anyway :-).. we went through kitchen connection and they’re great but on the upper end for cost .. but we got appliances with them too (got a good deal on that) but I think next time I’d just buy the appliances..my only tip is make sure your dishwasher has a child lock.. mines sadly does not.. and with one 3 year old I have to watch her like a hawk or only have it on when we’re all out or asleep.. can’t imagine with more then one kidlet :-)
Longest comment ever.. sorry :-)
Erica.
you can get cupboard doors and drawer fronts that have kind of a recessed bit in the top that you use as a handle. So no handles stuck on the front.. does that make sense?
Our dishwasher has a child lock but we don’t know how to use it! LOL But we do have a baby gate to keep our our dishwasher menace!
We moved in to our new house in April and I agree the kitchen was the hardest bit of the design process! A couple of things that I love – I put a double power point on the end of the breakfast bar to be able to plug in the food processor or slow cooker (or blender for cocktails!) so that it is easy to reach… its away from the wall where everything seems to acumulate. I have a stainless steel chefs oven (900mm wide) with a gas cooktop and I don’t know how I lived without it before! Having said that I have all white appliances so the oven is a feature in stainless steel. Drawers over cupboards everywhere – I didn’t do this enough! Good luck!
oh gosh I haven’t even thought about where powerpoints will go… or lights! eeek!
I just got my dream kitchen 2 years ago- so happy!
I agree, if you can budget it in, get a KitchenAid – I use mine every day! And it looks great on the bench top – such a lovely design and so many colours to choose from!
I recommend as others said, drawers for everything possible. And ours are those soft closing drawers so they don’t slam every time a child closes them. We even have internal drawers in our pantry. And I love these special drawers we have next to our oven (free standing). The bottom one is called the “oil drawer” and it is really tall, for things like oil, salt, pepper grinders, etc…
On top of that drawer, is 2 x spice drawers that we use all the time. Because they are close to the stove, Dh just leaves them open while he cooks and then the spices/herbs are right at hand the whole time!
We also love our Caeserstone bench tops. We don’t have glass spashbacks, but an unusual black designed tile which we love, it is very unique.
We also love having a long bench that has stools on the “non kitchen” side so that the kids can sit and do their homework opposite me/Dh while we cook. Also great for socialising/parties etc.. (we entertain a lot).
And it goes without saying, Gas stove top if at all possible, and our oven is electric.
How exciting for you! So much fun planning it!
unfortunately we don’t have gas here so I am limited to an electric cook top and not an induction one because DH can’t use those because it interferes with his internal defibrillator… which is really limiting me in choices which is driving me nuts!
But we have designed a HUGE bench which over looks our dining area with heaps of space for stools on one side… I can’t wait to use that bit!
I’ve looked at cesear stone benches but I’m a bit worried that white cupboards, white walls AND white benches might be too much… and I don’t like any of the other colour choices…
yeah, sounds pretty white lol! And bummer re: the Gas – I thought that may be the case with you guys, because my mum is on a property and she doesn’t have gas either.
You could get a colored glass splash back to give you colour. We have white bench tops & white cupboards but we have slate floors so I decided there was colour there & we have 2 green glass splash backs. (plus lots of crap on the bench so it doesn’t look too white at all!!) Also with a white bench top ours is corian I think & it does stain easily with tomatoes, strawberries etc. It does come off with jiff & scrubbing but a bit annoying.
Agree with all the above
double oven (love my Neff and its cooktop but v expensive), lots of drawers (much more functional). Glass splash backs – no grout to keep clean. Though I know the architect thinks big tiles with machined joints are as good
The most important thing about the range hood is the strength of the fan as well as the size. There is quite a difference between the domestic and more commercial models. Get Simon to check exhaust capacity.Unfortunately the stronger the fan the more noisy they are!!!
Bench tops around the sink need to be rot proof. I have kept a method for making the concrete bench top that was in the paper over the weekend for you.
Very exciting
love GJ
Just read the last couple of comments.
Put power points everywhere — much easier to do while setting up. You dont have to use them
Make sure there is good light over all work spaces (that’s my inner lab scientist speaking) central ceiling lights are useless in a kitchen.
Do the double oven… it’s so handy! I wish I had one in our house. I also think you should do stainless new appliances… you never know when your dishwasher is break and need to be replaced and you would be super disappointed if you had all white appliances new and had to go with it. Also, I think they make covers that could turn your white one into a stainless look.
We put in a freestanding 900mm oven/cooktop and would do the same again, loved my oven!
I much preferred the big drawers to cupboards, we have 800mm drawers and that worked well. We did the boring white and timber but it looked great! White glass splashback was little boring but it was $80 on ebay so not complaining. We jazzed it up a bit with teeny mosaic tiles on the edges and I was really happy with that.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.487729029615.266474.658789615&type=1 that’s pretty much the whole reno. I LOVED the oak tops, will definitely do timber tops again.
Good luck, lots of fun :)
the best thing we did was have our bin in a large pull out drawer. the large IKEA white bins fit in to it. not only have it in a drawer but have it BESIDE THE SINK! : ) THE handiest spot to have your bin – plus it is out of site. i will do that again in the next house we have. makes life easy.
the best thing we did was have our bin in a large pull out drawer. the large IKEA white bins fit in to it. not only have it in a drawer but have it BESIDE THE SINK! : ) THE handiest spot to have your bin – plus it is out of site. i will do that again in the next house we have. makes life easy.
A glass splash back will be so much easier to clean than tiles. We have black tiles that are forever covered in olive oil splashes. I really want a beautiful green glass splash back. I think it would go so nicely with your white kitchen!
A double oven sounds like a dream. Every time we have the family over for dinner I struggle to cook all the food at once.
We have black granite benchtops but they are hard to keep clean. I think the cesear stone would be a great option. It doesn’t have to be white does it? I thought it comes in a pale green, pale pink and a sandy colour too?
Don’t forget, even if you end up with an all white kitchen, you could paint the cupboard doors in a few years to change the whole look.