Buying a New Kitchen – Your Guide to getting it
right!
Design matters
How to choose a design for your kitchen
and things to take into consideration when you are choosing doors.?
 Will they be in keeping with your existing house design? A traditional
design may not sit well if the rest of the environment is modern
and vice versa
Colour is important and if you aren't planning to redecorate your
kitchen, you choose should a colour to contrast well with your
existing décor. Darker door finishes may require increased lighting
and should be contrasted with lighter worktops or flooring.
If you want to minimise the cleaning of your doors choose a plain
design that can be wiped down easily with a cloth. A PVC edged
laminated design is a popular choice and requires less maintenance
than a panelled door.
Consider the implications of pets or children and choose a hard-wearing
exterior to avoid potential damage. Pine, for instance, would
be a mistake if your dog has a tendency to use the doors as a
leaning post while your filling it's food dish.
Handles can radically alter the design of your door and, like
doors, they fall into many categories. Although there are no hard
fast rules it's better to choose modern designs for contemporary
doors and traditional designs for classic style fascias.
Worktop Choice
Now more than ever, you have an immense choice of work surfaces
and in selecting one you will, no doubt, view cost as a consideration.
Laminates still provide the most popular choice but an increasing
number of people are considering alternatives such as granite,
engineered stone, seamless acrylics, stainless steel and even glass.
In any case it is advisable to use a protective board when cutting
on any surface despite the claims made by some retailers.
How do I choose where my cabinets and appliances
fit in my kitchen?
Many of you may have heard of the kitchen triangle. The kitchen
triangle is simply the importance of the proximity of your three
main functional kitchen components - sink, cooker and fridge.
This isn't to say that they should be fitted as close as possible
to each other but within comfortable limits is the criteria most
designers aim for.
 With the increasing popularity of range cookers and American style
fridges, it is becoming more of a challenge to designers wishing
to incorporate the triangle in a kitchen.
This is due to the larger sizes required to incorporate these appliances. Increased
appliance space reduces the amount of storage space in a kitchen.
To retain the aesthetics of certain kitchens it may be necessary
to forsake the distance factor particularly if you are intent on
buying the appliances you want.
Consideration must be given to waste services and sinks, waste
water appliances such as dishwasher and washing machines are best
sited on a wall with an exterior elevation. One rule of design,
unless it isn't possible, is to locate your sink below a window.
Should this not be possible consider a bridging unit or flyover
with an integrated light source to brighten the sink area.
A dishwasher is always best located next to a sink for service
and drainage reasons as well as convenience.
Again, there are no hard fast rules and if you really want to
incorporate an appliance that enlarges the triangle it doesn't
render your design as bad, as long as it suits your needs it is
your own work of art.
Where do I start placing cabinets?
Design should always begin in a corner of your room. You have
a large choice of cabinet sizes and corner cabinets are available
in three configurations L-shaped, diagonal and conventional cabinets
with a hidden corner. For diagonal and L-shaped corner cabinets
you must allow 900mm on both elevations.
Conventional corner cabinets are fitted to the elevation of your
choice and extend 570mm from the chosen wall. As standard size
worktops are 600mm deep, the door size you choose will ensure that
the cabinet fitted is relevant to the worktop depth. Therefore
a left-hand corner base unit with a 400mm door will extend 1000mm
or beyond (Dependent on the corner fillet size required), from
the corner to its outer gable.
A 500mm door will extend 1100mm or beyond from the corner, a 600mm door will
extend 1200mm or beyond from the corner and so on.
This rule will change if your worktops are deeper, so if using a 650mm worktop
the measurement increases by at least 50mm and a 700mm worktop increases the
measurement by at least 100mm.
Your design software will automatically configure distances for corner cabinets
yet the above details are relevant if you are one of the increasing number
of people who have decided to install their own kitchen.
You may have noted that I have not been fully precise
in detailing the distance that a corner unit should be sited from
the adjacent
wall and there is good reason for this.
The variety of handle designs available can differ greatly in their distance
from the front of the door and if installing a kitchen with deep handles, extra
care and preparation must be afforded in the corners.
The result of fitting a standard corner fillet may mean that the corner cabinet
drawers will not open fully due to the opposite cabinets handle infringing
on an adjacent drawer. This can be compensated for by the construction of a
wider corner fillet that allows full extension of the drawer.
To avoid a problem it is advisable to allow sufficient planning space if your
design may present you with a similar problem.
Do you need design assistance?
Do you need more storage and workspace? Are aesthetics your main
concern? Better traffic flow? A quiet, bright morning breakfast
spot? What bothers you about your existing kitchen? Is eating in
the kitchen important?
Sometimes it's difficult to visualise what you require from your
deign and the assistance of a designer to bring out these elements
would be of great benefit.
Often, designers will ask you to describe your daily routine to
determine the best design solutions to achieve your objectives,
in and around the kitchen area.
© Tim Foley 2004
This Article in association with Tim Foley of http://www.kitchensfitted.co.uk
Tim is the founder of the kitchensfitted.co.uk website which offers
impartial advice to site visitors via our forum and heads T Foley
Interiors, offering Consultancy in exclusive kitchen designs. TFI
offer a full design and consultancy service and act as intermediaries
between the customer and the kitchen market.
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