Kitchen Design

[rosmitchell1000]

We've just bought a house and need to renovate the kitchen.  Its very large (long but not so wide).

How do you incorporate your Thermie into your kitchen?

Any other kitchen design tips are welcome.

Cheers,
Ros

[knittercook]

I have a very small kitchen, with very little bench space but I keep what bench space I have free of clutter with the two essentials only on the breakfast bar, coffee machine and TMX.

If you are looking for inspiration for your renovation, I would recommend searching flickr.com and pinterest, this is what I do when I want to re-decorate, good luck 

Sharon

[Carine]

Kitchen design....
I guess it all depends of your family lifestyle...  How many people in the family?  Who cooks? Who likes hanging around the kitchen to "snack" or just to have a chat with the people cooking?

Our kitchen is the heart of our house:  centrally located (open-plan, linked to the family room) and always something happening or waiting to happen.  We grow lots of veggies and fruits + beef, lamb & rabbits    And we have ducks & chooks for eggs and a couple of dairy goats for milk and cheese.  So there's always some produce needing to be dealt with, and I'm glad I have lots of bench space!
Our TMX sits between kettle and toaster:  convenient access in the centre of a L-shaped bench.

Ros have you thought about:
- light:  natural light (window style) + overhead lights?
- cooking style: will you have a gas/ electric/... cooktop/ oven?
- sink:  size? with draining rack? centrally located?
- pantry & fridge: side by side for easy storage of fresh veggies & groceries? different storage system for tins/ bottles/ spices....
- cupboards:  how many pots & pans, plates & glasses, cooking utensils do you need to store and where will it be convenient to access these?
- flooring?
- appliances:  what do you use all the time?- apart from the TMX    Will you mind having some appliances on the bench or will you prefer "tucking" everything away?
- colours:  warm colours encourage appetite 

Just a few things that springs to mind.  Hope this helps!

[Halex]

I have a large island kitchen which is open plan living, dining & opens out to my alfresco kitchen area.

My TM is on the back wall by a window, has cupboards above & below,  roll down cupboard at the end with microwave & kettle, built in pantry & then large fridge freezer. All items within easy reach of TM.  My sink is a few steps away in the island.

H

[faffa_70]

LOTS AND LOTS of cupboard space ... unless you permanently stay away from the shopping thread on here 

[judydawn]

Ros, have you seen all the lovely kitchens posted in this thread.  OK it is 50 pages long but if you browse through and only look at all the photos we have posted of our kitchens, you will get some idea of where our TMX's are sitting.

[Cuilidh]

I haven't had a chance to read this thread through completely but my first thought was the kitchen sink in front of a window!  I bet you'll get lots of good ideas from everyone off this forum though - probably many of them very envious of you with the opportunity to design your own kitchen.

[ElleG]

Ros, the best kitchen design I have ever seen was in Japan. It was only a small space, but all the appliances were on a sliding shelf. So no need to lug around equipment. The shelves were designed so fit all the equipment, so some shelves were only a few inches high, and some were taller. Hard to describe, but highly functional. My pantry has 4 shelves so a lot of wasted space.
I think good points about how you want your kitchen to work - eg how many cooks, does everyone use the kitchen as the heart of the house etc.
Have fun

[keiramax]

I have recently built a new kitchen and these are the things I considered in the design.  Took me about 2 years of thinking about it, talking to friends about their kitchens, poking about in peoples kitchens, asking them what worked, what would they change etc, talking to kitchen showroom staff, etc

* Drawers instead of cupboards, with soft closing runners.  You can fit so much into them.  Cupboards in the corners and under the sink.
* No overhead cupboards as I can't reach anything in them
* The kitchen is in a corner of the house so windows above the sink and also each side of the cooker
* The breakfast bar/bench has a 40cm overhang to accommodate legs when sitting at it.  We built it based on the largest slab of Cesar stone so there are no joins in the middle of the bench and also no wastage of the stone.  We had to build a special frame to support the extra overhang of the stone.
* We used flat pack kitchen.  We had quotes to do the kitchen and using the flat packs and organising the stone mason ourselves saved $12,000.
* Double sink with a drain board each side, we grow alot of our own produce great for cleaning veg etc, bottling  I selected a sink with the drain holes towards the back of each of the sink bowls, that way the plumbing doesn't take up as much cupboard space below.
* space for a twin pair fridge and freezer side by side
* I have a large walk in pantry, with a bench and drawers underneath and shelves above (the shelves haven't been done yet)  In the pantry we have a large whiteboard for meal planning and shopping list
* The tap at the sink has an extendable flexible hose so it is easy to fill up large pots.
*  Lots of power points
* I had the glass splash back behind the cooker colour matched to my red kitchen aid mixer and food processer - I've only just got a TMX.  The splash back is so much easier to clean than tiles.
* Lighting - I have down lights directly over the main work bench, over the sink and over the benches each side of the cooker.  I also have a feature light in the middle of the kitchen ceiling (enough light to make a milo by at night time) The other lights are very bright great for cooking.  They also don't cast any shadows.  Each bank of lights is on a separate switch.
* Food for thought - I measured my largest stock pot to ensure that they would fit into a drawer.  I also worked out where I would put things in the kitchen, ie when the dishwasher is opened I can quickly put away the cutlery and plates as they are closest to the dishwasher as they are things that are used most.

I hope this helps.  I was lucky that I could start from fresh as the kitchen was part of a new extension.  I've been using it now for 2 years and so far there is nothing I would change about the design.  Just can't wait to get the shelving in the pantry, as that would just give me more space to buy more kitchen stuff.

Sorry for such a long post.  But I had so much fun designing the kitchen. 

[Carine]

Keiramax, I'm with you:  if you're lucky enough to build your own house then it's really exciting to plan what will work for your family   
We built our house 11 years ago after thinking long and hard about design and materials we would use.  We're still happy with the end result! Our living areas face north and we have the right overhang on the eaves so we're making the most of the sunny winter days, and it keep the sun out of the house in summer.  Passive solar design makes so much sense here in Oz!

[Deeau]

I have a long skinny(ish) kitchen, things that I changed AFTER getting a TM in my kitchen, I had low overhead cupboards over much of my bench space I made them not come down as far cause they were too low for the TM with the Varoma on it to take the lid off and check, ( also put lighting under the over head cupboards and it is now a wonderful workspace ) we put drawers under that bench  for spices etc. My cooktop burners hardly gets used now  I was planning on putting in a new stove but instead I had a timber cover made for it and most of the time the TM actually sits on top of the cooktop so I can use the rangehood when cooking meals/steam etc. I suppose if I was starting from scratch I would consider a seperate 600 wide rangehood over where the TM lives so I would have something to deal with the steam and have the light, then have another ranghood over the cooktop. In a pefect world I would have a sink next to where the TM is ( not practical in my kitchen). My overhead cupboards all have doors that have a kind of "soft lift" up opening, they  stop anywhere in the lift process so you can have them right up or part up, this made a giant difference as I can have them all open when I am baking and they don't get in my way of working on the bench I have all my smaller baking ingredients in there like coconut, cocoa, nuts, rice, my big heavy flours etc are in a lower cupboard next to the TM, consider if this will effect your ceiling lighting if they are open ( why I have underbench LED lighting BTW my underbench lighting is on a timer so they come on at 5am ond go off at 9am and then come on at 4pm and off at midnight you can buy a switch plate that has this built in as a digital timer and has an override switch this is inside one of my overhead cupboards and easy to get to - I also have this in my bathroom for my heated towel rails, set and forget - brilliant. Obviously as many powerpoints as you can get I have 4 doubles along one bench and sometimes I still need more. I also have my laptop ( oneday ipad ) mounted on the wall over my bench (see photos in the kitchen photo thread) so you need a power point for that up higher maybe even consider built in speakers? and if you have a cordless wall phone put a power point and phone line  up high for that so you don't have the cords showing all the way down to bench height.

[rosmitchell1000]

Thanks for the tips guys.  Looks like I have some serious planning to do.

I'm currently staying in a small apartment and I've got everything in easy reach of my TM so this huge space seems a bit daunting and its only 3 weeks until we take possession and start the renovations.

Keep the suggestions coming.

Ros

[nazar]

 thanks for all these great ideas .
 l too would like to have a bigger house and  kitchen and l have been
working out what l want so when it happens l will know
  its a few years away yet but you need to dream a bit

[andiesenji]

There is such a thing as a kitchen that is too large.  Mine is enormous because it was designed so several people could work in it at the same time as I had a part time catering business at the time and it was necessary so I could get my kitchen certified for commercial use, which is very difficult in California.

Now I have this huge space and rarely use more than a small area and right now there are some boxes stacked in areas that I don't use so it looks rather cluttered.

I have deep drawers for storage of pots and pans that extend fully and only a limited amount of upper cupboards, mostly for glassware and china and cabinets at one end that are 7 ft high with adjustable shelves so I have a place for tall things and odd-shaped stuff, platters, etc. 
I have 34 feet of counter space, not counting the center island - this includes a 9-ft slab of marble for pastry and candy making, tempering chocolate, etc. 
That is way too much counter space for one person to use comfortably.  I tend to keep all my appliance close to the area where I usually work, close to the stove top, fridge and one of the sinks. 

I designed my kitchen myself and spent a year going to home shows, visiting open houses in new construction developments to get ideas and taking photos of kitchens that looked good to me. 
I also bought every piece of equipment, fixtures, appliances, doors, windows, lighting and flooring and had it stored in my shed and garage before any demo or construction was begun.
I was determined that once it started there would be no delays due to the wrong item being delivered or something being out of stock when it was due to be installed.
The entire process took five weeks and two days from start to finish, including one day lost waiting for an inspector who had an auto accident on the way out here. 
My contractor was skeptical before we got into it but was happy when we finished as I gave him a bonus for finishing three days early - I had originally allowed six weeks for the project.

[keiramax]

Wow that is alot of space Andiesenji.  My partner reckons the more space I have is equal to the more mess I make.

I'm a get in there and get it done type of cook, worry about cleaning up at the end.  He cleans as he goes but takes in my opinion forever to cook anything. I can't complain, at least he can put food on the table when I've got my hands full with the kids.