New kitchen build

Hi everyone!

My husband and I are about to settle on our new home for our family of 5 and are in the middle of planning the renovations with our draughtsman. We are not very handy and don’t have any experience with renos so would love any advice or tips that you can throw at us. I’ve read quite a few of the discussions and really enjoy the helpful ideas and friendly vibes on this site. I might make a few posts for different areas of the house but thought I’d start with the kitchen.

It will be relocated during the renovation so we will be starting from scratch. I’m planning on doing a kaboodle kitchen. I’ll attach the current working layout for the area of the house though we have not gone into detail at all about the layout of the kitchen. I’d love to have a rectangle walk in pantry on the side wall if it does not appear obtrusive when you enter from the living room. Do you think this would work?

It would be great to have some bench space in there either end to have appliance plugged in on. If a rectangle walk in pantry is too obtrusive into the room do you have any other suggestions for how I can include hidden away areas for my appliances to be plugged in?

Another question I have is about where I should incorporate windows into the kitchen as the back wall is north facing? I’d love any suggestions or brainwaves anyone has when they look at my plan as I’ve never done this before and am feeling the weight of all of the decisions to be made though I am also excited about the opportunity.

Thanks heaps!

jess

also, the length of the kitchen is about 4m and we live in Melbourne

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Jason

Hi @JessG,

Welcome to Workshop. We're thrilled to have you join us at this exciting time and really look forward to seeing how you can put your own stamp on your new home.

Many thanks for all the detail and the house plans. Let me tag a couple of experts in @2Belindas and @redracer01 who might like to kick off the discussion about your proposed new kitchen.

Please let me know if you ever need a hand getting the most from the site, or have any feedback about how we can improve Workshop for you.

Jason

JessG

Thanks so much Jason! Any advice is much appreciated for this absolute newbie!!

redracer01

Hello Jess,

I suggest to imagine how you will arrange all your things in the kitchen. Is the walk in pantry just a storage for all the food? Will it have a secondary function like a butlers pantry? This will require more space. It all boils down to space and how you want to use it. I have drawn you a basic lay out and one where it will require you to use a great deal of space but the pay off is that you get a huge walk through pantry. I strongly suggest to get the chalk line and tape measure out and start finding out just how far your willing to go for that pantry. Oh and yes make sure to have a window in the pantry to provide some natural light. Hope you enjoy the drawings. I will put your secondary drawings as another post.

redracer01

Hello Jess,

Here is the second set of drawings with the walk through pantry.

I took the wall down for you to see what it will look when your at the start of it.

Jason

Wow, I reckon anyone who loves cooking would be hugely envious of a pantry like that @redracer01! Fantastic work as always.

Which option do you like @JessG?

Jason

JessG

Wow! @redracer01 thanks so much for your time and energy into these plans! I had never thought of either of these layouts so I’m very appreciative. I would absolutely love to do the big walk through one behind the kitchen but I think it might limit our dining space a bit much. The other one looks great and pretty achievable. Do you think it would be possible to fit a sliding door in to the long edge of the pantry instead of having it open from the short end? May I ask how wide you have made the pantry? Thanks so much for all your help!

redracer01

It is 1200 mm left to right 1300 if you include the wall. I will post the measurements this evening.

JessG

Awesome! thanks!

redracer01

Hello Jess,

Please note that all measurements are approximate and are based on the measurements on the given plans.

Can you place a sliding door on the long side? Answer yes! I suggest a barn style sliding door with exposed black steel rollers to give it that rustic look.

Don't forget to place the window in the pantry! The cabinets in the pantry are actually wall cabinets that are mounted low, so low that they look like regular cabinets. You also have the choice of just having shelves from top to bottom. The big plus of having a slim bench top in the pantry is that you can park your appliances there like the kitchen aid, blender, sandwich maker etc. You can also have louvred bi-fold doors so you can maximise the opening which is 1200 mm. Hope this helps.

redracer01

How much floor space will that walk through take you say? Have a look and see if it will fit.

find out if it fits!

JessG

Thank you so much! This is so helpful! I would not have thought of using the upper cabinets down low to create the bench tops. It’s such a good idea. Thanks for sharing your expertise with me. My kitchen is going to be amazing! I’ll get stuck into some measuring and chalk drawing.

Shellbelle

Hi @JessG!

Congrats on the new house and Reno’s! Exciting times!

You’ll get heaps of valuable advice here, but I’ve got 2 tips (mid reno and wish I’d known/done these things).

This may not be an issue for you, but we chose Grey Spice for our kaboodle kitchen colour. Apparently there’s a saying, the darker the colour the longer the wait! We’ll be waiting the full 6 weeks for our kitchen. Not a huge drama for us but something to consider in your time line. We’re also getting a Think Bench top, don’t forget to add the extra 4 weeks AFTER your kitchen is installed and measured, for the bench tops to go in. As novice renoers we assumed it would all go in together and hadn’t planned on 10 (it’ll be 14 weeks total) without 100% usable kitchen.

If you’re like me and a visual person, I highly recommend laying your design footprint out to size in the space It’s going to be in, using newspaper. I was seriously shocked when I saw how wide our bench was actually going to be, even though we had the 3D plans. It also gave me the chance to “walk through” how I use the kitchen and make a couple fo tweaks.

My last piece of advice is make sure you take your time and get it the way you want it and the way it’ll work for you. And have fun!! Oh, and Uber eats are a life saver 🙂

Jason

Thanks for joining in the discussion and sharing your experience @Shellbelle. I'm sure Jess appreciates the feedback.

It would be great to see what you are doing with your renovation project and how you are putting your stamp on your home. Perhaps you could hit the Start a discussion button and share some photos? I'm sure you also have more reno tips you could share and other members would get some inspiration from what you have done. You will certainly get plenty of helpful advice and information in return. Our members are sharing advice and inspiration on the site every day.

Welcome to Workshop,

Jason

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