From Rightmove (picture 4/13):
1. When you open the oven door, you are blocking the doorway to the kitchen - if you look at the floor plan, the kitchen door appears to open into the room. They could at least have stuck a glass panel into it (I'm not sure if it would be possible to smash said panel with the oven door).
2. There's a single sink not a double sink, which is supposed to be under the window anyway (it's tradition).
3. There's only one unit width between sink and hob. The optimum is two.
4. Basically, the built-in kitchen is on the wrong wall, the inside wall.
Had they put it on the outside wall and shifted the kitchen door into the corner (the hall layout would permit this), they could have an L-shaped run along the back wall and the outside wall, so the oven extractor fan can blow the fumes straight outside and the sink could be under the window. For sure, this leaves you the problem of where to put the radiator, which is traditionally also under the window, but in a kitchen-type-scenario, the sink gets first dibs.
Those are the rules. And don't get me started on the layout of the conservatory.
Trying to plant the same tree
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9 comments:
People make such obvious mistakes. My uncle built a house where the front door opened outwards.
AKH, that's not the worst mistake, and it's better for safety if people can push the door outwards if there's a fire. Also it makes it harder for a determined burglar to kick the door in.
I'm not sure it is possible to have an 'ideal' kitchen design.
My parents had an extension built to house a new kitchen. The space seemed 'enormous' until they tried to work out where to put things. Our general conclusion was that there is never enough 'wall' in comparison to the area.
I knew someone who built his own bungalow and his kitchen was vast and he certainly had 'enough wall', however this left a huge space in the middle that seemed to get filled by drying screens etc. which made the walk from wall-to-wall even longer.
My aunt could produce miracles from what looked like a cupboard set into the main room. Perhaps small is best?
JimS, of course you have to start with the space you are given and work backwards from that.
There are dozens of rules of thumb.
Tommy Walsh on the telly said that his rule "one appliance, one storage unit, one appliance, one storage unit" for example, but this conflicts with the other rule that you should have two units between hob and sink. Not one, not none and not three or four - two is ideal.
And so on. The ultimate design rule is actually this: "It's good design if you don't notice it".
So if you draw dozens of plans first and think "Once I've washed the plates where do I stack them? Once I've dried them, can I reach the cupboard where they are stored?" you will hopefully get it right. It can take hours and weeks to get it right.
And the next person who comes to do the washing up will automatically find the obvious place for the wet dishes, and then when he starts drying them, he will open the nearest cupboard and think "Ah - that's where I put the dishes when I've dried them".
One does wonder what they have as brains. Did they go to design school?
Whenever I design a kitchen, and I've designed a few, I try and get a flow from food preparation -> hob/oven -> dirty dishes -> sink -> clean dishes. That's what I find works. I'm not too fussed about having the sink under the window or unit spacing. In old houses the cill is often too low or the walls too thick (meaning you can't open the window unless you have arms like a gibbon). The other thing I try to avoid if the kitchen is big enough for a table, is that the cook has their back to whoever's sitting at the table, but I agree with having pot and crockery storage handy to the sink and food storage handy to the preparation area.
I have just been through the 'kitchen planning' excercise, and it's getting harder by the year.
Herself doesn't want the sink under the main window - nowadays dishwashers mean people don't stand at the sink as used to be the case 30 years ago - so why put he sink in the 'prime' location?
But then again you mustn't put the hob under or next to a window (fire risk). Neither should the hob be close to the sink (modern hobs use mains electricity even gas ones for ingnition).
The oven should not open across a doorway or 'corridor', and a high level oven, as bending is becoming less pleasant, obviously cannot be in front of a window - but neither do you want it one unit from a corner where it leaves a useless space.
Our kitchen has 4 doors and two walls with large windows. An ideal design is nigh on impossible
JH, probably.
B, if you have your own slightly different set of rules then great, as long as it "works". As to cook turning back on table, I personally like the units to be in an L-shape with the table in the middle, I don't see how the cook can possibly NOT have his or her back to the table.
W42, I take your point about the rise of the dishwasher.
Your kitchen design sounds nightmarish. Have you asked the internet?
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