The 6 mistakes you're making when buying a kitchen
Kitchen Design
A Kitchen is the most expensive room in a house and is possibly one of the most scariest rooms when it comes to remodelling or building a home.
What is important to remember when designing a kitchen is making sure it is designed for how you live. This may sound obvious however, the vast majority of people just don’t make use of the space available to them.
Here are the 6 biggest mistakes people make when designing and purchasing a Kitchen.
6 Mistakes
1. Using a kitchen company designer
There is nothing wrong with using a designer at a kitchen showroom as long as you understand they’re selling you a product. They’re ultimately there to encourage you to buy more expensive appliances, more cupboards and a more expensive work surfaces. Which isn’t necessarily either best for you nor the space you’ll be installing the appliances into. Only you really know how you’ll use the space day to day. Try and always keep this at the forefront of your mind.
2. Choosing a conventional layout
Take the time to work out your kitchen layout based on your lifestyle and how you live. For example, you might have lots of glasses and crockery. Having floor to ceiling cupboards for storage or maybe having a separate larder or pantry cupboard might work best.
Conventional layouts such as a U or L shaped kitchen also only work in certain spaces. Resulting in dead spaces, in the corners so installing a pull-out storage mechanism is necessary. Taller people do not think about top cupboards or pull out extractor fans, which can be irritating when working in a kitchen and using these. Most kitchen companies offer different height wall cabinets which can be installed higher than standard to make it more user friendly for taller people.
Another clever way to figure out what layouts, cupboard styles and mechanisms that work for you is to visit as many kitchen showrooms as possible. By doing this you can see the latest storage solutions. What heights of cupboards work for you and the alternative mechanisms that are available for awkward space and making life easier.
An example of an open plan kitchen with a great layout making use of large floor cupboards to maximise storage and disguise appliances
3. Placement of a kitchen in a home
We often hear that a kitchen is the most important room in the house and this is true. However, most people make the mistake of placing the kitchen in the best location. With the best views and this is not necessarily the right place. The fact is when you are in a kitchen the main purpose is cooking, cleaning dishes, stacking a dishwasher or filling a fridge full of food. Not sitting on a sofa, relaxing in the sunshine and enjoying a view of the garden.
This kitchen has been cleverly located in the darker section of the room, as it makes space for a more light and enjoyable area for the dining and relaxing space. By installing the kitchen in the darker area lighting can be cleverly used as a feature to add light, like the pendants above the Island bench.
4. Trying to save money on kitchens
As expensive as they are you really want a kitchen to last. We have seen people cut corners and try to save money on kitchens which are not always the best idea. The better the kitchen the longer its life will be.
The laminate on cheap MDF kitchen cupboards can become unstuck after a while exacerbated by cooking steam. With scratches and scuffs they do not look great for long.
Cheap hinges result in a doors, that after a while will become crooked. Cheap worktops will not last with the knocking about of pots and pans.
However, the good news is that getting several companies to quote you can negotiate, get different layout ideas, an idea of finish quality. You can also source your own appliances as most kitchen companies put a markup and with a little research you can find the same appliances for better prices.
Useful tip: When visiting show rooms you can often spot a cheap manufactured kitchen by looking at the wear and tear on the cabinets in the showroom. These kitchens have been used day in and day out by people.
If the doors are out of line then it suggests that the hinges are poor. If you can see lots of scratches and scuffs the cabinet finish might not be durable. In cheaper showrooms the staff are not always as well trained in offering advice on alternative options with in a range or helping with technical questions. The better the kitchen the longer the warranty seems to be as the company is more confident that the product will last.
An example of a quality kitchen ,which you can see by the fact that the joint lines from all the drawers all line up
5. Appliance location
The “kitchen work triangle” is the shape between the sink, fridge and stove (like the image below). This works well and is always important to remember this in most kitchen designs (not just U shaped kitchens).
6. Not Enough Storage
Most people design a kitchen which is fit for how they live today. But what you need to consider is if your family grows, where are all those Christmas plates going to be stored?
We always encourage our clients to have more storage then they need to enable the kitchen to grow with them. Besides, you’re going to need somewhere to store all those years of Christmases and birthday kitchen gadgets and accessories.
This is one extreme but an incredible larder or pantry which has been designed for the specific needs and objects that client has. Larders can be a great way to store more objects that you don’t use every day in the kitchen as well as dry foods.
