kleintje's Profile

I wish I'd seen the small kitchen competition before it had closed - I'd have surely won ;)

Try to keep your new kitchen as neutral as possible and use shelves/accessories that can be easily removed to bring your style and personality out. When you come to sell your place, there are only a few potential buyers who will enjoy that purple and green striped kitchen that you installed.

Drawers in base cabinets are brilliant; I can't believe they are a relatively new thing.

As for appliances inside cabinets, it's a winner and makes your lines very clean and gives the illusion of more space. The appliances and cabinets are built for this purpose and are easy to maintain and replace.

Lolly Otis - couldn't agree more. I have a TINY galley kitchen and installed cabinets with a depth of 20 cm/ 8 inches down one wall. They are great for glasses, cans, bottles and I would have no storage space without them.

Basically, when redesigning your kitchen you need to create it according to how YOU work. The sales lady was very upset with me when I said I didn't want a hood extractor over the stove (they are ugly, not to mention expensive, and unnecessary when you're cooking 20 cms away from an open window). She tried to insist that I have one because that was 'the norm'.

Also, don't be afraid to use your space in a non-conventional way. I have my utensils rail hanging over one of my windows as this is the only place for it. I have shelves over my stove (very high up, there's no danger of burning) and I managed to get a sink, fridge, freezer, oven, stove top, dishwasher and a washing machine into a space less than 3 meters/120 inches long by basically ignoring most 'kitchen design rules' (e.g. no extractor hood, the sink is right next to the fridge) and it works so well I am sad I didn't take the reno plunge years ago.