It's an advantage to go and view actual appliances; look at handles and try out hinges

This is the second in a series of Ten Kitchen Design Tips, aimed at helping those who are designing their own kitchens … but also useful for anyone planning to buy a new kitchen. See the links at the bottom, for previous tips and other useful information.

Choose Your Kitchen Appliances First

In the process of designing and buying a new kitchen, there’s always scope to change your mind – right up to the moment you place the orders – and sometimes for a short time afterwards. Your initial decisions don’t need to be set in stone – but, you’ll find it much easier to design your kitchen, if you do some research and decide what sort of appliances you want before you start.

Designing a kitchen round a range cooker is going to be very different from using a separate hob and built-in double oven. And some people, these days, are choosing to build a number of single ovens into their kitchen, instead of a double oven … often teamed with other matching appliances; such as a coffee machine, or even a dishwasher or wine cooler. You could, for instance, fit a standard single oven, a compact combi-microwave, a steam oven and two warming drawers, in a line of three tall or midi-height units. That would take quite a bit more wall space than one double oven housing … and you’d need to consider whether or not you then had enough space for the coffee machine too.

Modern kitchens often have appliances sited side-by-side - which requires a lot of wall space

Even if you know, for definite, that you want a range cooker … there are a lot of different widths to choose from, starting at around 900mm and going up to 1200mm (or more, if you do some really heavy duty cooking). These days there are a lot of different hob combinations to choose from too.

Dishwashers used to be just full size, or slimline; integrated or free standing; but you can now get a compact built-in dishwasher to line up with your compact ovens (as mentioned above) or you can have one or more dishdrawers. If you have two dishdrawers, they can be fitted one on top of the other – or you can have them fitted in different parts of the kitchen.

Consider how much fridge and freezer space you actually need … and whether or not you could cope with a smaller fridge if, for instance, you had a wine cooler as well. Large, free standing fridge-freezers are very popular and often fit into a kitchen design easily.  If you choose one with an ice and water dispenser, though – it will need a water supply (consider where the pipework will go) – and the models with big curved doors often need a gap to the side, for the doors to open back properly … so they can’t be positioned with the hinge side tight against a wall.

Big, free standing, side-by-side models, although trendy,  are not always the best choice. They can sometimes be difficult to integrate into your kitchen design and may just look like an afterthought you’ve added on. Some models don’t have a huge amount of freezer space; and you often don’t have any choice but to have the fridge hinged on the right hand side. That’s not the most convenient arrangement, if your main worksurface is to the right of the fridge; you’ll always be walking around the door. It might be worth considering two integrated, built-in fridge-freezers – or a full height fridge and full height freezer – as an alternative. Integrated models can usually be hinged on either side and fitting two, side by side, makes them look like a larder. You can get integrated fridge-freezers with internal ice makers too (although they will then also need a water supply).

When not in use, these two integrated fridge-freezers, fitted side-by-side, look like a big larder cupboard

Talking of water – choose your sink too – whilst you’re researching your appliances. The bowl of a small, single bowl inset sink will fit into a 500mm base unit, a one and a half bowl sink will need at least a 600mm base … and double bowl sinks will need anything from an 800m base unit upwards. With granite or similar worktops, undermounted sinks may need a strip of worktop between them – which will require even more space.

In order to make your final decisions, look in an appliance warehouse or department store, in your locality – where you can see a number of different makes of any one sort of appliance. That allows you to get a feel for how strong the hinges are, on different makes, and exactly what the handles and accessories look like. Also check out local kitchen showrooms. There are some makes of appliance which are only available through kitchen specialists and you are more likely to find the appliances displayed in a setting of kitchen furniture.

Everything being equal you should buy the appliances from the place which had them on show and which had the most helpful staff.  Things are rarely equal, though, and I know some of you will then go away and look for the cheapest price on the internet … but that’s a subject for another day.

Previous Tips:

Kitchen Design Tip No.1: Measure carefully

Next Time: Collect Ideas

There’s more advice on choosing and buying kitchen appliances over at Advanced Kitchen Design

Tags: choosing kitchen appliances, kitchen design, Kitchen Gadgets and Appliances, Kitchen Planning & Installation, new kitchen