How to design a kitchen - Stage 3.
A kitchen design course for beginners - Storage, islands, open shelving, pantries and cupboard placement.
Hey gorgeous friends and welcome to Stage Three of my Kitchen Design Course. I’m so pleased that so many of you have found this helpful. In Stage Two we learned about function and flow. We discussed the basics of how to measure up and find out what you really need in your kitchen. It’s all about getting the best working space for both you and your family’s needs.
Now I’m going to be delving into island options, where to place certain types of cupboard and the options available for storage, including open shelving. I’ll be using our current kitchen and other previous kitchens I have designed as examples.
If you’re up to date and have read Stage One and Two, then after reading this you’l be able to crack on and get that design down on paper! If you remember what I told you in Stage Two about creating your own to-scale paper cut outs, then this will come in very handy now. We’ll discuss that in a little more detail later in this post when I give you your next task.
Next week I’ll be telling you all about the high end flat packed kitchen we used and how it saved us a fortune. Then, in the final instalment I’ll be giving you all the juicy details from my little black book for where I bought my appliances, the library ladder and rail, drawer inserts, worktops and so much more. There’s a special offer a little further down this post too!
Island or peninsula?
If there is room, then I’m telling you from experience it’s peninsula all the way! I know it’s much more popular to go for an island, but that’s because most of the people that go for them haven’t had one before! I’ve had many kitchens and the couple where we had a real bonafide island were the most annoying! I know that’s going to be a very unpopular thing to say, but I speak as I find.
Islands look so glamorous and really do give that top end look to a space, but they just aren’t that practical and they can drive you to distraction when guests come by! Because you can walk all the way around an island, guests tend to find themselves moseying on in where the action is. If you’re the cook then that means the guests are the same side of the island as you. All of a sudden you have the mother-in-law right next to your face whilst you try to shove mashed potatoes through a ricer, telling you about the problems she’s been having with her nether regions. Not fun!
Don’t get me wrong, I love being sociable and I love cooking with friends around, just not right next to me. STEP AWAY FROM THE JP! By creating a barrier at one end of your island so that it becomes a peninsula, you give a very clear directive as to where people should congregate. I’m very happy to chat while I chop, stir and titivate, but woe betide the guest who decides to muscle in on MY SIDE of the kitchen without permission!
Width matters!
Another thing about islands and peninsulas - don’t make them too wide! As the majority of base cupboards are 60cm deep, a lot of designers will put two cupboards back to back, effectively making a 1.2m deep island. Add to that an overhang lip from the worktop and you have a whopping 1.25m monolith. It might sound very impressive, but you try wiping it down from one side of the island. Unless you have freakishly long arms, I promise you that you’ll be endlessly dosey doeing around the bloody thing.
As a general rule, I usually make an island no more than 1.1m wide. That means that the cupboards on the far side will not be as deep, which could mean bespoke. However, for our current kitchen I used two wall cupboards at either end. Wall cupboards are not as deep as base cupboards, usually around 35cm deep. I simply added legs to these two cupboards and hey presto! It meant our kitchen peninsula was 95cm wide. With the countertop overhang it was just over the metre. Perfect!
Read on to find out where to place tall cupboards, whether to go for open shelving, drawers or cupboards and where I bought some of my fabulous finds. We’ll also be discussing the corner unit dilemma and how to make cupboards and drawers line up. If you’re one of my lovely free subscribers then you will need to hit the upgrade button to access the rest of this post and the upcoming stages. However, as it’s Mother’s Day, here’s a discount. The next completely free post will be in a couple of weeks.