Kitchen Design input

Hi all,

Next phase of home renovations are focused on the kitchen where we're looking to knock out a few walls and open up the living space and install a whole new kitchen with butlers pantry, linen closet and study nook.

The Ikea kitchen design software has been fantastic and the plan is to use Ikea cabinets and running gear and get the doors elsewhere (currently looking at thekitchendoorcompany.com.au who make doors specifically for the Metod range of cabinets in 4 different finishes.

I think I've kept in line with most of the design considerations such as the working triangle, 1200mm between island bench and other cabinets but I'm tossing up on the position of the fridge and ovens and have two options which I'd like input and opinions on.

The first option has the ovens flush with the galley side and the fridge in a cavity at the end past the island bench.
Pro's for this is the cabinets with the ovens will fit flush and that whole side will be the same depth (600mm).
Con's for this is that in order to have enough shelving in the butlers pantry, the cavity for the fridge is around 450mm wider than the fridge we've picked out. We could fill this with filler such as cabinetry for wine bottles however I don't particularly like that look and we're also having a wine fridge installed in the cavity at the start of the kitchen.


The second option has the Fridge and ovens swapped.
Pro's for this is the ovens will fill the space more fully with a slight modification to make the doorway into the butlers pantry a little wider. This will also avoid having to run plumbing across to the fridge and the width of the cavity opening for the fridge can be built to be a more snug fit.
Con's are the fridge is a bit deeper than the cabinets (688mm) so would protrude about 10cm's. Also a concern that the fridge doors when open block the butlers pantry entry. Same goes for the ovens but they are opened much less frequently. Whilst the images show a single door fridge, the one we've bought is a french door fridge 905mm wide so about 45cm each door.




Which should we go with?

What software did you use to draw this up in? ArchiCAD

I’m a draftsman so just curious

It's software on the Ikea website, free to use. Includes all the Ikea cabinetry. Can press one button and it gives you a quote to the cent for the hardware including lighting, door handles, filler pieces, etc.

Oh wow! That’s amazing! Thanks !

Is it 3 ovens or one is microwave and another one is the steamer oven? What about warming drawer?

It is okay to stack up to 2 ovens (one on top of the other), by the way. Also you can always place an oven under the hob.

You can also place microwave into your pantry as generally you microwave (heat up/de-freeze) food which is taken from the fridge and hence microwave is a good fit for the left side of your pantry and it doesn't even have to be built-in in that kind of configuration.

Hey Alexp79,

It's two ovens, 1 a full sized steam oven, the other a pyro oven.
The other appliance there is actually an inbuilt coffee machine in the same line as the ovens (Siemens StudioLine).
In the butlers pantry we have an open cavity over the bench for the microwave.
We considered a warming drawer under the coffee machine and may still add it before it's all locked down. In most instances, the second oven won't be used for cooking so will be used for warming plates.
I looked at a design with the ovens stacked on top of each other but we didn't like the look of that as much.

I like the first option more.

I find built-in coffee machines being not very reliable on one side as well as over priced and under performing when comparing with standalone coffee machines you can get for twice lower money. This is why my coffee machine sits on bench.

You can also integrate warming drawer into your bench or under your hob.

Warming drawer is generally used to preserve the temperature of the dish instead of warming, therefore, consumes much less energy than oven.

Where is your sink, BTW?

The coffee machine has been a topic of a lot of debate with this reno. We have a Nespresso at the moment which gets used 4-5 times a day and we decided we don't want a manual machine, even though the coffee might be a little better. We prefer the convenience of the automatic setup and then just thought the appearance of an inbuilt machine over one sitting on the bench. I haven't heard anything about reliability issues with the built in machines. Will do some more research on that.

The sinks were removed when I was pricing it up but there will be one in the middle of the island and another smaller one in the butlers pantry. Also a built in dishwasher in the island and a second one in the butlers.

I'm still 50/50 on the warming drawer so you make some good points about having one included.

I say second. Mainly because the fridge is then closer to the cooktop and sink, so makes it easier when you’re cooking (the idea is that there should be a triangle between them).

Also instead of a built in coffee machine you could just have recess with a roll-down top and power points inside and have your Nespresso in there. Easy to use without taking up space in bench.

Yeah the cooking triangle we've thought about and the fridge is slightly closer in the second option but it's only a step difference.

Good suggestion about the option of having a covered recess for the Nespresso. I'm hoping the coffee out of the in built machine, whilst automatic, will still be an improvement on the Nespresso and we'd also like to get away from the pods and have fresh ground coffee. Just don't want a full manual setup with a grinder and all that.

So one vote for each....

So by removing the in built coffee machine we can get an extra 600mm of bench space to put a proper coffee machine on. This results in both the island bench and the bench where the hob is to match at 3000mm which pleases my OCD. I think the 2nd option with the ovens at the end of the island is slightly preferred. We are playing with this as being in the oak woodgrain finish too to match the overheads which we like.



Every time I think we've settled on the design, a slight modification pops up.

I am a bit concerned that woodgrains will be closely matching your flooring, ideally there should some definite contrast.

So reviving this thread as we're now progressing with the renovation and like my garden thread, thought it would be good to document the progress here.

The final design we settled on for the kitchen removed some of the oak colouring and will be a more subdued scandinavian style with oak overheads, marble look quartz bench tops and a hexagon tiled splash back. The Ikea design app doesn't have that style so it's subway on the image.



In order to build this, we first need to do some demo work and get rid of the current kitchen and remove some walls. Was able to find a second home for the kitchen which is great and means it won't go into landfill. This is the before and after the kitchen removal.





The internal structural work will see the removal of that back wall which has a lovely 70's arched hutch on the other side and separates the kitchen/dining space from the living/lounge space.


Yesterday the builders started and they were able to do a bit of the demo which really opens up the space. Will need to install some reinforcement beams to take the load before its fully removed.


This view is similar to the view on the design which shows how the new kitchen will stretch into the space where the current wall structure is.


We're also doing some significant external cosmetic renovations which will take up the next couple of days before we get back into the Kitchen.

Oh, and Ikea Kitchens, can recommend them highly enough at the moment. Had a great guy guide us through the specifics of the design down to every last detail before placing the order. Delivery was pretty quick and 260 boxes later, we had nearly a complete kitchen (less appliances and benchtop) laying in our garage.

I've since become an expert of assembling the carcasses after building around 19 of them. Oh, then there's the draws, runners, and drawer fronts. Here's the majority of them ready to go.

Progress through to completion. A lot has happened over the past 5 months and we now have a finished product which we're very happy with.


The next step following the removal of the old kitchen and plaster from the wall that separated the kitchen/dining from the living, was to install some LVL joists to take the load ahead of removing the load bearing timbers.

Once they were in, the old wall was removed and the space opened up a massive amount.




Next step was to build out the new walls for the butlers pantry, linen closet, oven cabinets and study nook at the far end and do some rough in plumbing for the island bench. Bit of patching of the floor too before the new vinyl plank flooring goes down.


With the change in layout of the kitchen we chose to move the existing sliding door that opens onto a deck area and replace it with casement windows and knock out the old bay window and replace it with french doors. A bit more demo work required.





New doors and Windows in



The tradies had done their rough in and finished the plastering so it was back on us now to install the new Kitchen. The carcasses had been constructed and were sitting waiting to be hung for over 3 months so we were pretty excited to get this started. First ones are in!







It was a pretty straight forward process and as somebody who doesn't have much experience in construction or building things, I was able to manage the install fairly easily. Unfortunately, it stayed like this for another couple of months as I had incorrectly assumed that the stone bench top company would also include the timber substrate for the bench tops as part of their service offering but was advised that this was the 'cabinet makers' responsibility. As I didn't have a cabinet maker, and this news was delivered a week before Christmas, it meant we had to wait another 2 months before we could progress things.



Will pause here and continue in the next post....

So while we were waiting for the cabinet maker, we decided to get cracking with putting the flooring down. We chose a loose lay vinyl plank called Dunlop Heartridge. We chose this because we liked the idea of a loose lay plank so it could be replaced easily and also it is supposedly very durable and rated for commercial use which suggests it's should wear well.

After watching a number of YouTube videos, it seemed like it should be relatively straight forward to install however getting them all square proved to be a bit more challenging than expected.

Finally, after nearly two months of no progress, we had the substrate installed and we were ready to to get the stone bench and final cabinetry completed along with the splashback.



What felt like a whirlwind finish after having no progress for so long, within the space of 5 days, we had a new bench top in, tiler complete the splash back, cabinet maker install the butlers pantry, linen closet and study nook, plumbers fit off and electricians fit off.

Benches in:



Splashback in progress:


Study nook progress:


Finally, the finished product.









All in all it took about 6 months to complete, however that was also while we did a major exterior facade renovation too and we couldn't be happier with the results.

It looks so good! Glad you showed us the process and final result.

What size is the linear pendant light, if I may ask? I was thinking of getting that one (or a similar looking one I guess) from beacon myself.

Thanks for the feedback.

The light is from Beacon and it's the 1.8m long one. The island bench is just over 3m long so it sits nicely in the middle.

Love your renovation. Would really like to know how that vinyl flooring has stood up? I have heard some negative reviews of that brand so would be interested to hear if it was a laying problem or if we should steer clear of the Dunlop products?