Measuring carefully is an important first step towards your kitchen design

This is the first of Ten Kitchen Design Tips – for those of you designing your own kitchens. A lot of the tips will also be helpful for those of you who intend to use a kitchen designer to do the job for you … after all, the more input you have, the more likely you are to end up with that kitchen of your dreams.

Measure the Kitchen Carefully

It should stand to reason that you’re going to be careful with your measurements when you’re looking to fit new units in your kitchen; after all you want the new kitchen to fit … but some of you take very rough measurements indeed. I know that’s sometimes just to get an idea of what could be done – but better to be accurate in the first place, I think. A few inches can make a huge difference to a kitchen plan. And there are a few points to bear in mind:

Include the frames in the measurement of any doors and windows – many people just measure the door itself. You don’t want to have to chop away at the door frames to get the kitchen to fit!

Check that the angles at the room corners are at 90 degrees. If you measure all your walls and draw out your plan – but the walls don’t meet – then one, or more, of your corners probably varies from 90 degrees (either that – or you’ve made a mistake!). It isn’t a huge problem – but you do need to know, so that you can leave enough leeway for the units to fit. Also, if you’re fitting units into an alcove – just check that the distance across the front is the same as that across the back. If the walls run out you’re OK, but if they’re angled the other way, you could be in trouble.

If you’re knocking through a wall and extending your kitchen – don’t forget to include the actual width of the wall that’s being removed. If it’s an outside wall, that could be an extra foot for your units (and I’ve know professional kitchen designers to forget that bit!).

When a supporting wall is being removed – in order to give you that lovely big kitchen – always assume that a pillar 200-300mm deep (and the width of the wall) is going to be left at both ends of that wall – to support a beam/RSJ across the ceiling. The beam is to keep your bedrooms/bathroom supported above the kitchen … which is sort of essential. Leave these pillars out only if your builder definitely says that he can support the beam without them (and be prepared to put them back in again – trust me!).

This kitchen has a typical wall pillar remaining after the room was extended. I designed the kitchen to hide most of it, by fitting a shallow larder in front.

Make a note of everything that’s attached to the walls and isn’t being moved: boxed pipes, stop taps, boilers, radiators – everything. They may seem like minor details … but you try fitting a dishwasher on top of a stop tap! The less hassle you have during the fitting, the better. And don’t forget to include the valves of any radiators that are staying – don’t just measure across the top.

The one exception to having exact measurements before designing your kitchen – is for any part of the room that is being newly built. Use the building plans – and ask for measurements to be printed on them – scaling from a 1:50 or, worse, a 1:100 plan, is notoriously inaccurate (but sometimes it’s the only option).  If part of the room actually exists, then measure it – don’t take measurements from plans if you don’t have to.

For new build rooms, or parts of rooms, it’s important to think about the kitchen design as early as possible. It allows you to make minor adjustments to the positions of doors and internal walls, which can make a big difference to the kitchen design. I’ve written about designing the kitchen early for newly built rooms over at Advanced Kitchen Design.

And finally … before you order your lovely new kitchen units … check the measurements. Obviously that’s essential for a newly built room. You can do it before the walls are plastered – and allow for the plaster – but it needs to be done when the walls are actually there. Even if you’re just replacing the units in an existing room – still go back and check the dimensions. When you first take the measurements, you don’t know which units are going where … but when you go back and check, you know exactly where the units are going, so you can tell where any tight spots are going to be and double check that everything will fit.

Getting accurate measurements may seem a bit boring – but it’s an essential part of designing your lovely new kitchen.

Next time: Choose Your Appliances First

If you can’t wait, there’s more advice for kitchen buyers over at Advanced Kitchen Design.

Tags: kitchen design, Kitchen design, Kitchen Planning & Installation, Measuring Your Kitchen, new kitchen