Beautiful new L-shaped kitchen, new construction, no experience

Hello everyone!

I have diligently followed your forum during our house construction and we are now facing the decision of how the kitchen should be.

Originally, we wanted a walk-in storage room. In our opinion, this will no longer work, which is why we have now designed the kitchen as an L-shape with plenty of storage space. Water connection and electrical planning are still pending.

We have had a first planning done (3D images; floor plan was recreated by me), but we lack experience since we have not bought a kitchen before and look forward to your suggestions! Many thanks in advance...

Regards

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We are still undecided about the technical appliances but could imagine the following:

Extractor hood
Siemens iQ500 LC81KAN60

Cooktop
Siemens iQ700 EX845HVC1E

Oven
Siemens iQ700 HB774G1B1

Dishwasher
Siemens iQ500 SN65EX12CE

For the sink, we considered the following:

Franke Maris MRG 611-78 (as shown in the picture)

I have also read a lot of critical comments regarding durability and staining from food.

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Regarding the kitchen, I can share the following:

Manufacturer
Nobilia

Fronts
Touch 336 lacquer laminate Magnolia super matte

Countertop
149 Concrete Terragrau

Cabinet
120 Magnolia

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Brief explanation of the setup (based on the floor plan and the 3D images):

General
We will probably have a direct passage from the hallway into the kitchen, which will remain open.
Overall, we are still unsure whether the kitchen should be only 240 cm high (possibly too high) and/or if a panel should be installed up to the ceiling to close it off. At friends' houses, the closed kitchen up to the ceiling looked very good.
The handles should all be centered, whether drawer or regular door.
We have not yet decided what to use as niche decoration (i.e., on the wall).

Wall next to the door

[*]there may be a refrigerator with French doors, placed centered on the wall from the door
[*]to the left of the refrigerator will be the stove and to the right the dishwasher (raised)
[*]we are still unsure whether the left cabinet should have only one door or several
[*]it would be nice if the dishwasher is the same height as the stove, but then it would be very high and according to the planner it is not possible with the manufacturer

Wall left next to the floor-to-ceiling window

[*]storage for everything should be on the left side in the L-shape, as we no longer have a storage room
[*]because of the window, the cabinets can only be 40 cm deep
[*]we are undecided whether they should have one, two, or three doors

Wall right next to the floor-to-ceiling window

[*]the standard drawer width should be 60
[*]the height including the countertop is in my opinion 90 cm and the plinth 10 cm (but I'm not sure)
[*]the stove should be 90 cm wide and we decided on an extractor hood because a cooktop with extractor would be even more expensive and noisier
[*]the sink should be centered to the window
[*]we are undecided whether we should take a ceramic sink from Franke or the other simpler material
[*]the sink should be Cashmere or something like that
[*]at the end of the L-shape, we have a cabinet with a carousel

Actually, we wanted a walk-in storage room. In our opinion, that will no longer work,

Sorry, I'm not a kitchen professional, but why shouldn't that be possible?

We dealt with the kitchen topic last autumn (installation is in two weeks). What helped us:

[*]There is a nice forum on the topic where you get great advice. [*]We looked at a large kitchen showroom in the furniture store. Not to buy directly there (but the advice was still good), rather to get an overview of what is possible at all and what the differences are between manufacturers and materials. In small kitchen studios (in one of those we ultimately bought) the display space is limited and thus there is less to see or to adjust. [*]There is no limit with kitchens. But you have to set one for yourself! You will always find a manufacturer who does it better and where it looks even more stylish. But even mid-range kitchens are not immediately ruined after 5 years. [*]If you agree, get a second offer with the desired planning

Island about 60cm longer and only the refrigerator at the top of the plan, instead of the tall cabinets, workspace and storage area. Or something similar. The upper area with the tall cabinets in the original plan can be separated with a simple (very simple) sliding door (since there are tall cabinets on one side and workspace on the other) to make the kitchen look more appealing visually. The sliding door can be left open while working and only closed when guests arrive. Maybe Kerstin has ideas?

A few more additions to your planning:

[*]Check if the height of the countertop suits you. We (173cm/165cm) are comfortable with 91cm.
[*]Cooktop including downdraft extractor is not necessarily more expensive. You just have to avoid the mistake of comparing apples and oranges. For example, switching from Siemens to Bora. Both have pros and cons.
[*]You can save a lot on electrical appliances without having to accept any limitations. For example, we chose the simplest Neff oven. We don't need a color display with a hundred programs. The oven should just warm the food with the basic functions (grill, convection, top and bottom heat).
[*]For oven and microwave, I would take devices from the same manufacturer so that it looks matching. For the other appliances, it doesn’t matter; it’s better to focus on function and price/performance.
[*]If the extractor hood sits so close to the wall cabinets, cleaning behind it becomes almost impossible, and there is a risk over the years that the cabinets will swell.
[*]I would choose larger drawers than 60cm if it fits visually with the wall cabinets. Then you would have fewer handles, which looks tidier. The drawers themselves can be subdivided.
[*]Handles in the middle of doors are difficult to open. Have you tried that?
[*]Do you need these tall drawers everywhere? They can only be filled with tall kitchen appliances if you don’t want to stack everything on top of each other. That doesn’t look optimal in terms of storage space. With Nobilia, it can be done differently.

And one more general thing:

[*]At least briefly familiarize yourselves with the materials so you won't be annoyed later. For example, at Nobilia there are few lacquered fronts, but rather lacquered foil.
[*]We now have a carousel and find it annoying because things constantly fall down and then it's hard to reach them. Therefore, in our new kitchen we decided on a "dead corner." That saves money and the loss of storage space is limited.