Kitchen Layout Ideas

Hi Guys/Girls

My Fiance and I are looking to tear apart our worn 1950s kitchen and replace it with something fresh.
Currently we are considering layout and while we would love to go all out we do have a budget that we would like to keep to so moving water and gas may end up pushing the budget.
The kitchen is brick with a window (looking into next doors back yard), a single doorway entry from the right of the image to an external door left of the fridge and a double cavity door leading to the dining room (rear of the house).
Ideally what we would like is to remove the cavity door and make it open plan into dining with only a short bench (enough for 2 people) separating the 2 rooms.



Any opinions/feedback/tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
John

Edit: I should also add that the current oven is a standing upright with cooktop that we want to replace with a wall electric oven and separate gas cook top (gas outlet is to the left of the existing oven).
The sink is in the centre of the top wall and we would also like to install a dishwasher.

Hi Silver - Good luck with your reno. We are in the process of similar reno of our kitchen. We have removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room and cabinetry will extend into what was the dining room, but give a much greater space in the middle and a great sense of space with more light everywhere. One way you can afford to do things like move electrics and gas or plumbing is to contract all work yourself. It takes a lot of time to co-ordinate and will take longer than if you pay a builder to co-prdinate it all for you but you will save 10-15% of total cost and you can use these savings for paying trades. Also remember that you if you get mixer tap you will be getting plumber anyway to move the pipes under bench height, also you will already be getting electrician out to remove/install your oven and may be requred to remove powerpoints or light switches in the wall you intend to remove (if you take it down). As trades are already coming out this is a good time to get other things done, for example plumber had to come out to move water pipes dowm so had him move gas pipe at the same time, and while electrician was here to remove electics in the wall we removed we had new light switches and power points put in - a house from the 50's will likely need more power points.
On to your layout - if you want suggestions from people here measurements would be handy.
The only suggestion I would put in for layout is maybe move oven and cooktop to where the fridge is and fridge back to where the oven currently is. The oven could then be centred in middle of that wall, though this is not a huge change. I'd say remove the wall - dining rooms are not really in vogue and at least in our case an underused space so will be more useful as kitche/dining area.
Also worth calling some local kitchen companies and get them out to give you ideas and get a quote for what they suggest. Combine the ideas that most suit you, find the 2 companies/cabinet makers you like the most and incorporate most appropriate design suggestions into plans they can quote.
Ours will be due to be completed in about 4 weeks and I will post before and afters then.
Good luck with the process.

Hi,

it is difficult to make any suggestions without room measurements. Maybe you can add them to your plan.

cheers
Evelin

Hi John,

As mentioned before you will need to pass on the measurements and the height of window sills from the floor and what is happening near the immediate dining room wall next door.
The size of the kitchen should depict the selection of the appliances i.e. where bench space is tight an upright will be better.
You need to select your appliances before the kitchen is being designed so the cabinet sizes and overall design of the kitchen can be worked out.
Once the appliance selections have been made you need check the output (amps) per appliance (usually on website of manufacturer) and confer with your electrician if your meter box needs to be upgraded.
Is the wall you want to remove load bearing? Be careful there will almost likely be asbestos somewhere in the kitchen.
Keep in mind that a short open bench can be an absolute space waster; get as much cabinet, storage and bench space you can manage without sacrificing a nice design.
Make sure when calling for quotes you’re comparing apples with apples. Why is one quote cheaper? Are you getting chip-board instead of i.e. lamiwood? (Laminex product). Most kitchen places will discuss the obvious i.e do you want a bulkhead etc. however the manufacture of the kitchen is rarely discussed. Do a lot of research, as kitchens are an expensive investment and should be done right.
I won’t repeat what the previous posters have already pointed out.

Cheers

PS

Thanks for the advice.

Measurements for the room are 3x4m and the windows sits 150mm above the bench.
The wall with the cavity door leading to the dinning room has nothing on the other side and I plan to remove the sheeting on the wall to check before I remove anything. The rest of the walls are brick so I hope there is no asbestos (maybe in the floor?).
Electrical work does not worry me because I have 2 mates that are qualified but will also need a plumber for the gas and water.

We are looking at a budget of approx 12k which may result in going down the DIY path which I don't have an issue with as I can build, level, tile etc.. The only think that we would love but not sure is in the budget is a stone bench top.

your drawing shows a square kitchen. Which side is 3m long? How much is the distance from the doorway either side? What is the distance either side of the external door?

cheers
Evelin

Hi Evelin
The drawing is not to scale sorry, I just did it quickly to give everyone an idea on the current layout.
The 4m walls are the ones with fridge and sink, there is 500mm from cavity door to external door and the doorways is a touch over 800mm which leaves about 2.7m of wall.

[quote="silver3l]

Hi Evelin
The drawing is not to scale sorry, I just did it quickly to give everyone an idea on the current layout.
The 4m walls are the ones with fridge and sink, there is 500mm from cavity door to external door and the doorways is a touch over 800mm which leaves about 2.7m of wall.[/quote]

and how much space is between the door on the right to the 4m wall with the sink?

and what is the width of the fridge?

what will the size of your cooktop be?

and the sink shall fit into a 600mm wide cabinet or bigger?

a couple of pictures











from the left of the window side is a

50 m fill-in panel
600 mm drawer unit



600 mm sink unit
400 mm waste unit (waste container directly under bench)
900 mm drawer unit
800 mm cooktop unit
50/50 mm infill panel for a "dead corner"
600 mm tall unit for oven and microwave

On the other side are
2 x 900 mm drawer base units and
2 x 900 mm wall units
50 mm fill-in panel between wall and cabinets


If your cooktop will be only 600 mm wide, the same 800 mm wide unit can be used and the cooktop installed in the middle or more to the left of the unit to give you more arm movement on the right. The rangehood would be smaller too, but best more than 600 mm wide, eg 700 mm.

Thanks Evelin, looks great and thanks for so much detail.
The distance from right door to wall is 1.7m and at the moment we have not chosen appliances and don't have our mind set on anything so we are quite flexible.

Edit: Also what did program did you use to mock up those pictures?

the programm is from a large German Kitchen manufacturer, ALNO. It is in English. http://www.alno.com/alnosys3/156.0.en.html

It doesn't run under Windows 7 (64bit), you have to change to the windows XP compatability mode (right click on program properties, then change compatability to Windows XP).

I guess that on the other side of the doorway or door on the right wall is not enough space to have 600mm deep cabinets? It would be a pity. maybe you can measure that space. On the fridge side I first had 3 tall cabinets, 600, 450, 600 mm but then is not enough bench space in the kitchen. Now there are 2 x 900 mm. Just to your info, the wider the cabinets, the cheaper your kitchen will be and the more space you will have.

I moved the doorway and changed the cabinet depth to 500mm next to the fridge

Hi,
Is there a window in the wall on the left side?
If you can (space wise) I would take out the dining room wall (if not load bearing) in its entirety and move the kitchen further into the dining room otherwise you will not have enough bench space and will get a disjointed kitchen.
You have a very tight budget for stone bench tops. Stone bench tops will need a stronger carcass (more cost).
Check out some stone importers directly, you might find a discontinued line and get the feel for the cost (m² price). Beware of chinese stone. It would help if you have a design first.
I saw a beautifully designed (laminated) kitchen that had a small piece of stone incorporated into the kitchen design. It comes back to good design.
A kitchen needs to represent the value of the house.
You could buy an appliance package which usually includes a number of appliances at a discount price however you may get a good cooktop with the oven being rubbish. I recommend “Choice tested” appliances to my clients as they are usually well priced and performance tested.
Cheers
PS

No room for 600mm deep, 500mm will fit though.. I also had the same idea of having 3 tall pantry cabinets beside the fridge, I can fit 2 but it will depend on the fridge size. I could possible fit a tall thin cabinet to the left of the external door but not sure it this will look odd.

You raise a great point, If we can remove that wall and extend the kitchen it will give us a lot more options and flexibility. I will have to get a builder in to check it out.
Is there any specific questions we should ask about the stone bench top apart from where it is from?

Here partial pic of the kitchen as of a few months ago, there are tenants in there at the moment who we intend to kick out soon. It is the original wood style laminate which I painted around 1 1/2 years ago, as you can see we have quite a bit of ceiling height.

Hi,
Here is some info:
http://www.choice.com.au/reviews-and-te ... tions.aspx
I wouldn’t get 20mm or 40mm thickness. 30mm seems best.
Stone comes from all over the world, Italy, Spain, South America, China etc.
I had a client that stood on her stone bench-top to clean the window and it broke in half. Not a very bright move however stone isn’t indestructible it is a natural product with all its faults.
Businesses/Importers that import stone have usually people employed that are very knowledgeable about their products. Ask lots of questions.
I would stay away from marble in the kitchen.
Re your picture: Unless your tenant is selling cookware there is definitely not enough storage.

Cheers
PS

haha, personally I think there is enough storage as the bottom cabinets are quite large.
Its a family of 6 so who knows what they have in there.