Browse Forums Kitchen Corner 1 Aug 15, 2014 12:39 am Hi
I would greatly appreciate some help with my kitchen layout and ideas for materials/colours. We are currently getting some proper plans drawn up (through a kitchen company) but I am wondering if there is anything I have forgotten or any better options, as we will be committing at the next appointment in 3 weeks or so. So these plans are roughly to scale, there are internal doors on each wall and external glass sliding door opposite the island. We have a concrete slab so limited to how far we can move the waste pipe. Dining area to the left as part of a big room (not a wall as shown), left door goes to bedrooms and right door to living areas and the direction from which the shopping will be carried in! Three sets of drawers on long wall with overhead cupboards, integrated rangehood and a inbuilt downlight over each bench. Cupboards over fridge (not lift up panel shown) and two drawers under oven (not three as shown). Corner pantry at 1000mm (992 shown). Island will be 2000mm x 900mm with dishwasher, undersink cupboard and bin drawer at the fridge end (not cupboard as shown). Handleless cupboards at the back of the island (so wlil be four panels rather than one). Small bulkhead above. Kickboards in the same as cupboards. Will be soft-close. Bamboo floor (warm, not dark), laminex (parchment?) or formica (like the texture? gentle beige?) cupboards, caesarstone benches (nimbus?), bosch pyrolytic oven(black/stainless) and induction cooktop (black). Not sure about double bowl sink with drainer on top of one or 1.5 with permanent drainer as we wash up a fair bit (needs to be less than 980mm). Some kind of feature tap. I am not sure about waterfall ends (just island or all three?, too busy with nimbus?) or what to do with the splashback (definitely tiles but not sure whether should be neutral or feature). Keen for contemporary and neutral but not "all white" and I do want a bit of a wow factor so I am struggling. It is a big investment! Thanks very much in advance for your feedback and ideas - Bel http://mitre10.2020.net/planner/UI/Pages/VPUI.htm?LoadDesign=82b098c3655d449faebb2c9a47a57212&UIContext=VP_Kitchen&IsSharedDesign=1&SkipIntro=Yes Re: Ideas for kitchen layout and materials/colours 2Aug 16, 2014 8:23 pm it's a good plan think about having a light inside the pantry Re: Ideas for kitchen layout and materials/colours 3Aug 16, 2014 8:48 pm Thanks 2-cupcakes-pls, a pantry light is a good idea. Went to the Melbourne Homeshow today and had 20 min with a designer, which was really good. She suggested having the back island panels in a colour plus similar in either splashback or overhead cupboards. I don't want "all white" but colour is scary...! Re: Ideas for kitchen layout and materials/colours 4Aug 16, 2014 9:12 pm We had a darker color on the back of our island and it really gave some depth and made the white look more contemporary If you wash up a lot consider moving the sink off the island, otherwise the island will be cluttered the whole time. Or have a higher part to help hide it. Recently moved to a 60's home in need of some improvement! http://s797.photobucket.com/user/leenii ... ch%20House Old house: http://s797.photobucket.com/albums/yy25 ... loo/House/ Re: Ideas for kitchen layout and materials/colours 5Aug 16, 2014 9:56 pm Had a peak at your photobucket Leni, and I like the darker colour you've got. And your tiles and downlights look great. It is just hard to imagine in advance, I just have to have some courage I guess. Unfortunately the sink has to be in the island, we can't move the waste pipe too far in our slab. I am hoping it will encourage us to wash up more promptly! Re: Ideas for kitchen layout and materials/colours 6Aug 19, 2014 10:34 am My issue would be bench space in this type of design, we had almost the same design and it was hard to use once we started living in it with 2 kids. Once you have toaster, coffee machine beside the cooktop one side gets cluttered. We also pushed sink to 1 side to give a larger uninterrupted bench space but after a few years we ripped it all out and redesigned. We ended up turning it into a U shape kitchen and ended up with much much more bench space but it doesnt look as good in a photo but in day to day use its a big relief. Re: Ideas for kitchen layout and materials/colours 7Aug 19, 2014 11:47 am Our kitchen is still a work in progress but might help. Some kitchens I've seen are useful simply because I can see they're completely NOT to my taste and help narrow down my choices. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The doors on the back of the island and the overheads on the right are the same Mushroom Linea and the tiles match pretty closely in real life. We wanted something fairly neutral and not cold and stark which all white sometimes can be. We opted for no waterfalls so we can get powerpoints on each end of the island. The island is 1300mm wide as well so there's extra benchspace and also 30-cm deep cupboards on the back of the island - this might be an option you could look at? ~ Anne I used to be indecisive but now I'm not quite sure. Eeek - We're embarking on a knockdown rebuild! Click here for our build thread Our blog: kdrhome.wordpress.com Re: Ideas for kitchen layout and materials/colours 8Aug 19, 2014 2:24 pm Splashers, the bench space is something I am still worried about but there is more practical bench than in our current U-shape which had most of the bench space in 2 corners and a small piece one end of the U. But more may not be enough! Am thinking about pushing the sink one way to get a longer bench on the island, but not sure which way I should go!?!??! Slightly random - your big kitchen is fantastic and I am most jealous of it and your walk-in pantry, we seem to be planning to have its smaller cousin. There is only a thoroughfare at the front of our island so we can't go any more wider than 900 (600 cupboards one side and 300 the outside, no sitting as it is the thoroughfare). But it is helpful to see photos of similar kitchens, and I do like the matching panels with tiles (and likely to have similar tones if I'm brave enough to have nimbus caesarstone, also looking at shi-take for a more neutral option if I end up with a "feature" tile for the splashback). Went and had a look at tiles today, too many choices!!! I am planning on the same kind of handles, square but rounded to grab. Do you know how wide your bench space is next to the cooktop? And on the small side of the sink on the island? Thanks for your comments, it all really helps - Bel (PS homeone doesn't like the word shi-take unhypenated!?!?) Re: Ideas for kitchen layout and materials/colours 9Aug 19, 2014 3:50 pm It would be more practical to push sink away from fridge and oven as this is the closest bench space, but a lot of people dont like the offset look. The doorway on the left of the cooktop where does that lead ? Re: Ideas for kitchen layout and materials/colours 10Aug 19, 2014 4:19 pm The doorway to the right side near fridge is formal dining (though currently used as toyroom) and lounge then to front of the house and garage, it is where the groceries come from so I am keen for a dumping area on the bench. The island faces out to our patio area through sliding doors. So the area in front is a walkway, not part of a bigger room. The door to the left leads to laundry, main bathroom and kids bedrooms. The kitchen is part of a larger room which is out to the left of the pictures past the door which could be a family area for couch and small dining area, we are currently using it as the main dining area (though may change back if we reclaim the formal dining area back from the toys one day). So bench on the left would be more for preparation being closer to what is going on in the dining area, serving food and perhaps dumping dishes to go into the dishwasher. But having a larger space on the other fridge side might be more practical? That's a fantastic result! Happy you got it sorted out. cheers Simeon 6 7525 You never have a fridge against wall as you’ve drawn. The doors can’t open past 90 degrees and it’s difficult and maybe impossible to remove drawers 2 8109 |