[RobUK]

Hi,
I've just registered to the site but have been browsing it for a few days now and have been pretty well convinced to go with Ikea for my new kitchen.

The house is a three-bed end-of-terrace and the kitchen hasn't been renovated since it was built in the 1960s, apart from painting the walls and getting some new appliances to replace ones that broke down!

As you'll see from the attached plans the room is pretty small but a fairly regular shape, with just a small jog in of the interior wall. Just one window at the end.

The wall facing the doorway is an exterior wall so I plan to have an extractor venting to the outside.

I would like to have an high-level oven rather than one built under the worktop.

Currently I have a washing machine and dishwasher in the kitchen but I plan to move the WM to the garage so don't need to find space for that.

A bit of background about who'll be using the kitchen, currently it's just my wife and me (got married last summer) but we do plan to have children in the next 2 or 3 years, and we probably won't be moving for a while.

We both like to cook (although my wife does tend to do most of it!) although with the size of the kitchen we're under no illusions that it can be used for anything other than food preparation - it's not a place to loiter!

Which brings me to the plans... you'll notice the door marked, that is how it is currently but it opens right into the middle of the room and takes up too much space (not to mention blocking the planned fridge position). So I plan to replace it either with a bi-fold door hinged at the other side, or (preferably) a sliding door that will open along the wall and fit in the gap beside the fridge.

The sink is currently on the wall to the right of the window, so the water pipes are in that corner. We'd like the sink under the window and then it would make sense to have the dishwasher in the corner to avoid lots of new plumbing.

My concerns about this plan:
1) Fridge and oven next to each other. We're planning to keep our existing fridge-freezer there so it won't be built in and we can leave a gap, I assume it is OK to have these next to each other?

2) Fridge right in the corner. Hopefully with my sliding door plan this will be easily accessible (I envisage having the door open most of the time and only shutting it if doing heavy-duty smoky cooking!)

3) The wall cabinets in the corner to the right of the tall oven unit. It seems a bit weird having these less deep than the oven cabinet, might make opening the cupboards awkward?


NB Although we are thinking of Adel Birch, the actual layout of shelving/drawers etc is nothing like final - at this stage we are just playing with basic layouts then we can fine tune. Also the filler pieces aren't necessarily in the right place - I assume we would need some more filler beside the corner cab at the oven end?

Sorry for such a long post, but any feedback would be appreciated!

[NBeth]

Welcome! The American approach to that doorway would be to lose the door altogether, especially if you're able to vent outside. Simpler and cheaper. A couple of quick other notes: fan cabs are generally shorter than the rest of your wall cabs, for heat clearance over range. I think you can fit taller wall cabs elsewhere but it's hard to tell for sure.

Drawers: Ikea's drawers are fabulous. You'll have a corner unit for extra tall stuff so turn those larger base cabinets into big drawer cabs. Your back and knees will thank me, as they age....

[RobUK]

Originally Posted by NBeth

Welcome! The American approach to that doorway would be to lose the door altogether, especially if you're able to vent outside. Simpler and cheaper. A couple of quick other notes: fan cabs are generally shorter than the rest of your wall cabs, for heat clearance over range. I think you can fit taller wall cabs elsewhere but it's hard to tell for sure.

Drawers: Ikea's drawers are fabulous. You'll have a corner unit for extra tall stuff so turn those larger base cabinets into big drawer cabs. Your back and knees will thank me, as they age....

Yes, I am thinking of getting rid of the door altogether. I am planning to have the kitchen floor and hallway tiled at the same time which will link the rooms together.

Re the fan cabinet - the Kitchen Planner program says allow 65cm (26") above an electric hob. At the moment I have all the wall cabinets lined up with the base of this (using 70cm high cabs) but I guess it would give me much more storage if I had the rest of them as 92cm wall cabs.

That would leave me with only about 40cm (16") of clearance between the worktop and the bottom of the cabinets - do you think that would be enough?

[NBeth]

I can't see your room dimensions. 16" is considered pretty low nowadays. If you can't move your cabs any further up toward the ceiling, it looks like you're stuck with the 70cm cabs. That said, 26" may or may not be the right clearance for your particular cooktop: you need to look at the specs for that model. Fans also have restrictions about how high above they have to be. Many Americans will buy a 24" high fan cab to go with 30" high regular wall cabs, just to get the necessary clearance.

[RobUK]

My ceiling height is 240cm (94"). I could go a little higher (although there is coving round the wall/ceiling angle which I don't really want to have to remove).

Also my wife is not very tall so have to strike the balance between sufficient space below cabinets and being able to reach them!