#Top 10 tips for planning a new kitchen - with Kerr Drummond

Interior designer Kerr Drummond and presenter Nadia Sawalha

Kerr Drummond is an award-winning interior designer, who specialises in planning kitchens. He’s teamed up with presenter Nadia Sawalha in a brand new makeover series Kitchen SOS, which has been made by the Home TV channel. Here, he shares his top 10 tips for planning a new kitchen - to help you get it right the first time.

Brand new series of Kitchen SOS starts 8pm on Mon 27th August, exclusive to Home (Sky 246/Virgin 265).

1) Start with a basic kitchen layout

If there is one thing you must do when you are re-designing your kitchen it is to measure up properly and produce a scaled plan of the room – quite often simply by doing the maths and working out the optimum combination of base units you can gain extra storage space. Allow for opening space on your plan, make sure cabinets will fit beneath windows and always position tall cabinets at the end of your worktop. Start with the basics of kitchen design. Work to the traditional triangular layout of a food prep area, fridge and sink, all within easy reach of one another. It still applies to modern kitchen layouts.

Be very careful where you position tall units as they can cast unwanted shadows – in corners or at the end of a worktop run is best, but even better is between two walls, in a “niche”. When in a niche a neat trick is to use panelling or studwork around the tall units to give the impression of recessed units.

2) Make the most of a small kitchen

If you can’t physically make a kitchen bigger by knocking through to another room, there are small changes you can make to ensure you’re getting to most from the space you do have. Simple things like replacing your cupboard door fronts with thinner designs or choosing smaller appliances that fit under cupboards or easily inside them.

Get rid of freestanding appliances such as fridges and install under counter fridges and freezers. This means you can give yourself more worktop space in the area which was previously taken up by a free standing appliance. For more advice, read our guide on how to make the most of a small kitchen

3) Consider space-saving corner units

These are a great idea for both base and wall units as they do help to maximise space – but traditional corner units can also be a nightmare as you can easily forget what’s hiding away at the back of them and you constantly have to pull everything out just to get what you want. So, wherever possible use a carousel fitting inside or one of my favourite magic corners!

4) Embrace colour in your kitchen

Because more and more of us are staying in our homes and making improvements rather than moving, you can afford to put your personal stamp on your home. For that reason, be brave and embrace colour. Everything from bright pink to cool blues will work in a kitchen, you can even go for an all-white, glossy kitchen if you want that modern, minimal look. Be bold and you’ll be thrilled by the results.

5) Positioning your sink

It is traditional to position your sink below a window and this works well, more important for me is that there is plenty of worktop space on both sides of the sink, so dirty dishes can be queued up whilst clean ones are draining.

6) Positioning your dishwasher and washing machine

As a rule I try to keep the dishwasher and washing machine items next to the sink. But, don’t be scared of moving the sink - it’s often not a particularly difficult job to re-run pipework and wastes behind kitchen units as there is a service gap at the back of the base unit carcasses.

7) Avoid oversized fridge-freezers

Huge American fridge freezers are one of the most common design mistakes made. They take up a lot of room and as much of the freezer storage space is taken up by an ice making machine, they are not that practical either. One of the contributors on the show even had the fridge freezer in their living room because it wouldn’t fit it in the kitchen! Choose a fridge that is the right size for your kitchen and provides you with the storage you need.

8) Hiding or moving a kitchen boiler

Moving a boiler is normally a pretty expensive job and whenever a boiler is in the kitchen it’s certainly a design hurdle. Concealing the boiler within a wall unit is a neat solution but you should always discuss the ventilation issue with the manufacturer of the boiler if you intend to box it inside a cupboard - as it needs airflow to run safely. Also, bear in mind that standard wall units are not normally big enough to house it so you’ll either need an oversized unit or your kitchen fitter would need to create one for you on site.

9) Choosing a cooker hood

Cooker hoods have become one item in the kitchen that you can really make a statement with. Top-of-the range statement hoods can cost well over £1000 so be careful when buying something that looks similar but costs a lot less – they’re usually badly made.

10) Ensure you have enough electric sockets