Soooo I am in this in between limbo land, having seen the architect who patiently listened to all our mad ideas, measured the house and then disappeared with a promise to draw up plans that we’d all be happy about. So now we wait. We wait for the much anticipated first draft plans to arrive. And while we wait? We come with all kinds of crazy, wonderful ideas for the house that most likely a)won’t actually fit in our space or b) isn’t possible where we live or c)we can’t actually afford to do… or d) all of the above! What fun!
Currently most of my big ideas focus on the kitchen.
Our new kitchen will go pretty much in the same spot as our old one, though it will possibly end up being slightly bigger (not because we need it to be bigger but because of how everything will fit in with the other additions). Instead of me standing at the sink looking out the window to outside I will stand there and look out over the dining area part of our family/living room. Yes! I will actually be able to see my children playing in the living room while I cook – pretty much anything else apart from that is inconsequential…. but you know.. it’s fun to try and plan the best kitchen ever!
Top of my kitchen ‘I want it!’ list is one of these…a Rayburn wood fired stove with hydronic heating capabilities. Trust me to want the $15000 stove… yes that is thousand… fifteen… thousand… dollars. In my defence this will also be the heating for the entire house (it heats the water for hydronic heating) so it is more like a stove and a central heating system which doesn’t make it seem quite so freakishly expensive…. but still.
I want it in blue… or maybe red…. yes red… or blue… In fact I’d settle for any colour, except brown, which is the only colour they ever come in when people sell them second hand! Typical!
We’ll keep our current electric cooker as well (we have no mains gas here so it is electric cooking or wood or getting a gas bullet that needs to be filled all the time). It’s in perfectly good working order and it will mean I won’t have to light the fire in the heat of summer when I want to cook. So yes, effectively I want to have to ovens in my new kitchen, but I’m not greedy really I’m not! In theory the wood stove will pay for itself in electricity savings, and eventually we’ll have enough trees planted so we can even harvest our own fire wood and be pretty much self sustainable as far as cooking and heating goes, which will be really nice.
I am convinced that a red (or blue) Rayburn 355m (or similar) will somehow come to reside in my kitchen. I am not sure exactly how that will happen, but I am confident that it will, somehow. Apart from this one big, desperate desire I am not too fussed about the rest my kitchen.
I don’t want it to be huge. We don’t have a very big fridge nor do I want one. I am not worried about having heaps of storage space as we have next to none now and cope just fine. Plus we will have a walk in pantry, a real old fashioned ‘dark room’, so that will take care of a lot of the food and kitchen storage. So it’ll be just a few cupboards, some bench space and a sink I guess.
I really have no clue what kitchen things are must haves and what are definitely best left out. I am not a fancy cook, I don’t need fancy appliances (heck I don’t even have electric beaters!) so I don’t need a fancy kitchen. But I do cook quite a bit and spend a lot of time in there at this point in my life and I can’t see that getting any less any time soon. So it needs to be functional and practical and easy to use.
So come on people… hit me with your best kitchen ideas. Does anyone have a wood fired stove, am I totally out of my mind to be coveting one?? What is the best thing about your current kitchen? What would you avoid at all costs? What are the things that you don’t think about till afterwards and then wish you’d done differently? If you could build your dream kitchen…heck lets get wild and say if money was no object, what would you have in your dream kitchen?
Bettina says
In my dream kitchen I would have drawers instead of cupboards for just about everything! I know a few people who have this and it’s so much easier to find stuff in their kitchens. :)
Andrew says
its decided,
im signing you guys up to appear on grand designs..
http://www.channel4.com/4homes/on-tv/grand-designs/
:)
my grandmother used a wood oven until her hands would not let her chop the wood (i was 7 or 8) home made apple pie in a wood oven is the best.. i used to sit on her lap and poke at the fire when i was little, and she always had a kettle of water ready for a proper cup of tea.
i think its a wonderful idea. but I am a food snob*.. have you considered a wood fire pizza oven type thing, they always go on about on the abc/ cook and the chef?
2 different sinks, i think this is a must, one for food prep, and one for cleaning up.. not a double side by side, but 2 in diff locations, (i know you have less than heaps of water)
http://www.woodfiredovens.com.au/residential.php
lastly, id plumb in a commercial coffee mahicne, but thats just me :)
*we spent $12 on fancy herb ham today. because it looked so nice , and the nice man at the fancy IGA with the yuppi food cut a slice for us to try when i pointed at it..
laura says
Pull out pantry that is hidden in the cupboard space friends of ours have one and oooo la la. Above all else space. Don’t think you are crazy at all coveting a wood fired oven we had one in Perth as a kid and it was such a dream things just smelt homely.
Guera says
I agree with Bettina – drawers all the way – so much easier. In my dream kitchen (which might just…one day…become a reality) I will have all drawers with a couple of cupboard doors with internal drawers. What else? Let’s see – power points in the right place so you can plug everything in without cords. Spots to put the appliances you use regularly but don’t want out on the bench, like the kettle, toaster, breadmaker. I like the idea that when the kitchen is clean and tidy there’s lots of clear open bench-tops, not too much clutter. I’m also planning a breakfast bar cause I think it would be really good for kids’ meals and homework etc.
And I’m glad to hear someone else is lusting after an expensive oven. Although the one I want is not so bad (an Ilve – about $6K) I can’t justify it by saying it will heat the house too!
Good luck with the planning!
Angie says
Oh for drawers so that I can find things without delving into the gloomy back of the cupboard (almost impossible with a child in a pouch/sling).
But a shelf for storing your cook books is often forgotten, it’s so much better to have them to hand & to be able to see them (& not in a huge stack!)
Granma Jill says
I have my dream kitchen. I just love it. All drawers works for me and I have the cook book shelf. The power points, and a drawer with all the electric appliances in it.
But the thing I like best are the in bench rubbish bins for compost and ordinary rubbish and being able to use the tops for putting hot things on when serving.Oh and the above bench lighting so you can see EVERYTHING even at night.
You’ll have to get Gran Nan to give you a few tips on using the slow combustion stove. She said it took her six months to learn how to use. it.
Leah says
The wood fired oven and walk in pantry sound divine to me. I think all the colours are awesome, the one pictured in the blue kitchen especially floats my boat. That colour scheme is a favourite of mine, but the red looks so warm and cozy. Also love creams and whites for a french provincial look. I’d be moving in LOL I know it is big bucks, but they are so aesthetically pleasing it’d be one of your home’s main features!!
How you use the kitchen is so important to what you need, so very individual, but there is one thing I can think that would be useful for most – I would like good dedicated storage in my kitchen for cleaning stuff like the mop and broom and rubbish and recycling bins. A shallow and narrow cupboard would be fine. Maybe with a shelf for some cleaning products up the top, then a place to hang the equipment in the middle and a spot for the bins. Top shelf a good place to store stuff that is for the running of the kitchen but isn’t food – plastic bags etc … Can’t imagine that’d add too much to the costs of the cabinets.
Also with Audrey needing a packed lunch everyday, a task you’ll be doing in triplicate in no time, a dedicated “lunch stuff” cupboard is making that much easier – with the various lunch tupperware, the occasional need for ziploc bags or a paper bag for a lunch order, the drink bottles in a tub etc … just mentioning it in case you design storage space to your current needs/set up, I think this is worth making extra space for, cause you’ll be sending food out a lot more in the next decade than ever before!
mommy bee says
We want a section of counter top (likely an island) that is a chopping block…in other words, no need to have little cutting boards, just use that section of counter! I also really want a built-in grill…my aunt has one right on her stovetop–4 regular burners plus a cast iron grill. (I adore cast iron)
Seriously, a wood burning stove…does it have electric options? Cuz I’d hate to rely on wood all the time, but it would be nice as a backup…but cooking on a fire can be rough, and baking with a fire is a VERY inexact science…I mean, when was the last time you tried to set the temperature of your campfire?!
The other thing in my ideal kitchen is that it is next to a large pantry, and there are cupboard doors on the side of the kitchen (full height, floor to ceiling) that open straight onto the pantry shelves (ie, the back of the pantry shelf = door to the kitchen). That way when I go shopping I can load stuff onto pantry shelves, where there’s plenty of room for storing bulk sized items and all that…but I don’t have to have smaller containers for my kitchen, or go fetch things and move them around…it’s all jsut right there and easy to get to!
ickle Kids says
Hmmm … where do I start?
In our current kitchen I love:
* drawers hidden inside our cupboards. So every shelf pretty much pulls out which helps the old back!
* the storage space we have – floor to ceiling cupboards.
In our dream kitchen I would love:
* an island stone bench
* walk in pantry
* space for kids to sit and do their drawing, breakfast etc.
I think that’s about it …
tiff says
No low cupboards or drawers.
A walk in pantry.
A big, long bench where the kids can sit for all the informal dining, like brekkie and lunch,. That would be ideal for baking and doing homework and drawing too, so I could keep an eye on everyone while I am doing the cooking.
Would love a new dishwasher and a new oven, preferably gas and preferably a stand up stove…oh and do they make them self cleaning yet?
Perhaps I could also have cupboards that match plastics and throw out any that are useless, broken or don’t match anything.
I love your stove. I don’t think that is a bad idea at all or crazy to want something as practical and gorgeous as that.