I read somewhere that modern day couples spend very little time in the kitchen cooking, preferring to eat out or order takeaways. Obviously the author of that article never met my wife yet. Nowadays, the kitchens of new HDBs are getting smaller. So, you got to really maximise your space in there to be able to hold everything you would expect in a kitchen.
All great chefs have big fridges. If you plan to cook often, or you have many people in your home, when choosing a fridge, think big! It's going to hold your vegetables, fruits, yoghurt and all the healthy food you will buy. Ahem.. That said, it will also hold your soft drinks, beer cans, ice cream tubs, chocolates, etc....
Best Denki has a refrigerator buying guide. It's useful to check it out to know what to look for in a fridge. I just went for a top freezer model, with lots of space, and lots of ticks for efficiency. My parents have a side-by-side fridge, which I find quite restrictive in terms of space. You are going to have some problems fitting in that special 2 kg cake you bought for the birthday party. :)
The only thing to note, is that you make sure the fridge you buy, can fit through your front door, and your kitchen entrance. This includes consideration for space for manoeuvring that fridge into position. Take note where will your not-yet-completed cabinets will be. Once built, they can pose a problem to moving your fridge into place. I bought myself one 490 litres fridge from LG, the biggest one I can fit into my kitchen.
Best Denki has a refrigerator buying guide. It's useful to check it out to know what to look for in a fridge. I just went for a top freezer model, with lots of space, and lots of ticks for efficiency. My parents have a side-by-side fridge, which I find quite restrictive in terms of space. You are going to have some problems fitting in that special 2 kg cake you bought for the birthday party. :)
The only thing to note, is that you make sure the fridge you buy, can fit through your front door, and your kitchen entrance. This includes consideration for space for manoeuvring that fridge into position. Take note where will your not-yet-completed cabinets will be. Once built, they can pose a problem to moving your fridge into place. I bought myself one 490 litres fridge from LG, the biggest one I can fit into my kitchen.
Look for energy savings! All refrigerators in Singapore have an Energy Efficiency Rating. This is determine how efficient the fridge is, and also lists the capacity of the fridge. When picking a fridge, just remember that better efficiency will offset it's purchase price in the long run.
Get a kitchen door to keep the smells in. I gotten one folding kitchen door. Very solid door that helps keep all the oil and smells in the kitchen. Note that the frame will reduce width and height slightly, meaning your earlier door measurements for your fridge might need to be re-taken again.
Kitchens need raised floors. Simply because you will probably mop this place the most often, and you do not want water seeping into your brand new cabinets. I also had a small raised dais just for my fridge.
Also, take note I have also added a edge protector to keep the sharp edge covered.
Choosing your table top. There are a lot of choices when if comes to choosing your table top. For the newbie, do go visit IKEA's kitchen section, where they have a lot of variety of tabletops you can check out. If you already have a contractor, he should be able to provide samples of stone tops as well. For more details of what types are out there, check out Houzz Kitchen Counter Top 101. Quite insightful.
My wife insisted having quartz for my kitchen. Since it was non-negotiable, I stuck with her decision, even though it is much more expensive than solid table tops. We picked a quartz that is white with specks of grey.
My wife insisted having quartz for my kitchen. Since it was non-negotiable, I stuck with her decision, even though it is much more expensive than solid table tops. We picked a quartz that is white with specks of grey.
One personal suggestion is to maximise the amount of table top space available. You will start to realise that you will run out of space very quickly, as you start to populate every corner of your kitchen. Space for your cups, jugs, spice tray, rice cooker, preparation area, mini-oven, etc.
Cabinets for storage space in important. You will need to figure out what colour your cabinets will be, and how easy to maintain them, especially if you spend a lot of time cooking. Oil stains will form over time.
Decide how wide and how deep your cabinets need to be. Take note that those rice cookers, BBQ hot plates, will take up a lot of space. Shallow cabinets means they can't even fit in. A majority of my cabinets now house a variety of bulky household appliances. I wish I had asked my contractor to make some of the cabinets deeper, so that I got more space to work with.
You also need to pick out the handles. Do you want to be able to hang stuff from the handles? Make sure you choose those that allow to do that.
Create some hanging space as well. It is a kitchen, so chances are, you're going to have a lot of things to hang. Cooking utensils need to be hung to dry. Cleaning towels as well. Go grab some GRUNTAL metal rails from IKEA. Simple and functional. And IKEA have a number of accessories that work well with the metal rail.
Drying those plates. You will probably need some space to dry your dishes. Instead of buying a table top drying rack, go with one that is built into the cabinet above your sink. Save you some table space, and blends in nicely with your cabinet design.
Don't trust that red/blue tape on the wall. I had a nasty lesson on behind-wall piping. When you have entered your new HDB, you will have noted that there are blue and red tapes pasted on the walls. These are meant to mark where the water pipes are. They only provided a "rough" estimate where the pipes are.
While mounting up the cabinets, my contractor's worker drilled 20 cm away from the tape. Pop goes a pipe and water gushed all over my new cabinets. I did raised the question to HDB office downstairs, why the tapes do not show the precise locations, but I got the reply, that we must keep more than 20cm distance away from the markings. However, out of good will, HDB will help fix the pipes without additional costs.
Check out the rest of my Renovation Blog
Master Bedroom | Bedroom 2 | Bedroom 3 | Bathrooms | Dining Room | Living Room | Shelter | Service Yard | Kitchen
Hi
ReplyDeleteCome across your blog while google for HDB service yard design and realised your other blog on renovation did help with me newbie on the renovation.
Just to say thanks :)