Kitchen renovation and installation in France

Kitchens Renovation and Kitchen Design

General Placement

The description 'kitchen renovation' is probably misleading because more often any property renovation project will involve a complete new kitchen rather than trying to improve an existing one.

The first thing to consider with kitchens is their location within the property. This needs to be decided early on in the process so that plumbing and electrics can be included as necessary.

Beware of being tied to the existing property layout unless you are sure it is the best for you. When there is an existing kitchen in a house it is easy to start by planning your new kitchen for that room. But first you need to take a step back. If you were designing the layout of the property from new, is that the room where you would want the kitchen or the bathroom?

The modern trend is to have a large kitchen / eating area as the living centre of the house. To some extent this trend has evolved from the traditional farmhouse style, so it may be that your property already uses the best room for the purpose, but this is not always the case.

Remember that opening and doorways are usually easy to add, and existing partition walls are easy to remove. Try not to be too constrained in your thinking by existing elements. If you want the kitchen or a bathroom in a different place, or to be a different shape and size, now is the time to decide, before the electrician and plumber have packed up and gone home.

our kitchen area before renovation

General Layout

There are recommended layout plans for kitchens that are widely published. Essentially these all focus on keeping the distances between the cooker, the fridge, the sink and the work surface quite small. This is to avoid spending too much time walking about, and to reduce the risk of accidents. It just makes it easier to work in.

That's the practicalities, but as we all know the appearance of the kitchen is also very important, as is the ability for two cooks to work at the same time, and the possibility of visual contact between the cook and other people while food is being prepared - talking to your family and friends while you cook.

our kitchen after renovation

It is striking a balance between these factors that is the hardest part of kitchen design. First you need to define your priorities first and then make sure your design incorporates them. Recent kitchens I have done have all included a work surface or breakfast bar that faces into the room, towards the eating area. This I find much more inviting and friendly than a series of units against the walls of the room, forcing the cook to look primarily at the wall.

However, I personally don’t like ‘kitchen islands’ – I suppose they are practical if your arms are two metres long or you like walking around a lot, but I don’t. ‘U’ shaped, ‘L’ shaped, or two parallel lines are my preferred designs.

If at all possible, the kitchen design should include plenty of places to sit and eat, including a breakfast bar, since this allows easy communication in the room. Reserve work-surface either side of the cooker, so that hot pans can be put to one side. And no televisions please.

 

Other Considerations

There are hundreds of possibilities to choose from when the time comes to buy your kitchen, so I can't even begin to cover them all here. The crucial elements are the worksurface, the units, the appliances the flooring and your budget.

Usually in a new kitchen quite a lot of the budget goes on buying the units. Nowadays, I think that is unnecessary. I am a big fan of IKEA kitchens and have never had a problem with them, and they have styles a modern or old-fashioned as you could hope for. If you don't want to install a kitchen yourself, you can ask IKEA to recommend someone, or you can ask your local carpenter perhaps.

I would suggest that you should buy units, cupboards and doors from IKEA, for example, and then spend more if possible on the work-surface, the flooring, lighting or general additions. A well designed cheaper kitchen with quarry tiles on the floor, and a Dualit toaster and fresh flowers on the breakfast bar will usually look better than an expensive kitchen with cheaper flooring and no flowers.

Of course if you are willing to spend more money, there is an enormous choice of kitchens available and a bewildering assortment of accessories that can added to ensure every tiny corner is used to advantage. If I was spending more I would certainly talk to a local carpenter first, because often these will charge no more than a main supplier, and will provide a kitchen that is truly unique. As always, see other examples of their work first.

 

Fitting a kitchen

Unless you are very confident in your measurements, put all the units in place without fixing them before you start. That is the best time to find out for example if:

• the plumbing pipes are not correctly positioned at the back of the sink unit
• the washing machine and fridge sockets will be inaccessible
• the window will not open because of the tap
• the worksurface is higher than the windowsill etc etc

 

Although generally straightforward, the two most common problems with fitting a kitchen are:

• room corners that are not square. The easiest solution if your walls are very uneven is to not have a corner unit at all, which holds the adjacent cupboards to an exact right angle, but to have the first cupboard on each wall positioned so that their corners meet at the front. Hold them together 'behind the scenes' by screwing them to a batten of wood. One problem  is that your corner is then wasted space, so this method will only be suitable in a larger kitchen, and also it may not work for all types of door fitting. If you have the carpentry skills to adjust a 'real' corner unit that will also work, of course.
• cutting work surface accurately. Use a decent circular saw to cut straight lines across your work surface, otherwise it is very difficult to make an 'invisible join' where two lengths of worksurface meet.

 

Kitchen renovation, perhaps more than other areas of your project, needs careful planning to get right.