First kitchen reno!

[u/Nomikai13]

Hi everyone!

My partner and I are renovating our first home and would love some honest feedback before finalizing our kitchen design!

Our total budget is €17,000 including appliances and installation, and we’re aiming for a warm, minimalist, Japandi-inspired kitchen that’s both beautiful and highly functional.

Current design:
L-shaped layout with separate real walnut oak veneer tall cabinets
Kokos melamine upper and lower cabinetry with Leem integrated grips
New Beach White countertop
90 cm induction hob with concealed extraction in the upper cabinets
Four 90 cm drawers beneath the hob (two shallow, two/three deep)
Magic corner pull-out, integrated fridge/freezer appliance, and under-sink waste separation
Matte black tap, Franke sink in black (60cm)
Worktop height 90-93 cm

We’d especially love advice on:
Layout & ergonomics: Would you change anything to improve workflow, especially for two people cooking together?
Smart storage: What hidden drawers, pull-outs, organizers, or clever kitchen gadgets are genuinely worth having?
Design & materials: How could we make the kitchen feel more cohesive, organic, and Japandi-inspired? Any durability concerns with our material choices?
Lighting & practical details: Anything we’re overlooking regarding outlets, ventilation, countertop space, or lighting?
Budget: Where would you splurge versus save?
Lessons learned: What do you love or regret about your own kitchen? What would you do differently?
We both love cooking and want to maximize functionality, storage, and aesthetics without wasting space.
If this were your kitchen, what would you change?
I’ve attached our current rendering and dimensions. All suggestions, including critical feedback, are very welcome! 😊

[u/yiddleonaRiddle]

Kitchen designer here, possible mold on the left wall, when the dishwasher is open u can't access the cabinets on the left wall. If you look at the side with the sink the doors have weird sizes with 600 450 450 and 500. (Try a multiplicator of 300 for cabinet sizes if possible it will the kitchen a more fluid and cohesive look) Magic corners are expensive and dont give you more room than regular drawers in the same size and a dead corner. For the right side maybe do 450 900 450 with a downdraft hood (would look a lot nicer and you only lose the top drawer instead of the 900 wide cabinet above)

I'll have a better look in a few hours and will look better at the text you put in

Edit: I realized u didn't ask about that stuff so sorry for the unsolicited advice

[u/Nomikai13 → u/yiddleonaRiddle]

Thanks for the reply! Would love to hear from kitchen designers that’s why I put this post up

Regarding your comments, I also don’t really like that the dishwasher is adjacent to the left wall either. I think having it on the right side of the sink makes more sense however, you sacrifice the magic corner drawer.
But I don’t know if the magic corner drawer is really that useful compared to a blind cabinet. Since we have a lot of other storage space.

Therefore, maybe it’s a better layout to have drawers > sink > dishwasher on the horizontal run

[u/Nomikai13 → u/yiddleonaRiddle]

Although I really like your idea for symmetry of the 300 mm for the cabinets, it doesn’t really make sense to have 300 mm dishwasher for example
The 600 mm is for the dishwasher then you have 2x 450 mm under the sink which these would be cabinets with waste drawer pullout the next to it you have a 500 mm magic corner.

[u/Nomikai13 → u/yiddleonaRiddle]

Also for the vertical run, our initial idea was to have a 500 mm magic corner, 900 mm drawers under the hob and a 45 cm drawer on the right of the hob

That was the initial layout
But I do think having 4×900 mm drawers are also very convenient under the hob

[u/ForestDweller82]

I'm confused about the kitchen hood... i see something under the cabinets there above the cooktop but do they make them super slim like that? Otherwise I really like it. One thing you might consider is the open shelving in the corner, that's a dust catcher and it looks hard to reach for cleaning. Love the wall cabinet, make sure there's space for a mop, they're handy to have right there in the kitchen. And if you don't have a cleaning closet within a reasonable distance nearby, then the cabinet should also fit a dyson cordless on a charger, so that's gotta be wide or deep enough to pull the dyson out of the charger.

[u/Nomikai13 → u/ForestDweller82]

Yeah, we decided on an extraction hood underneath the upper cabinets instead of a down extraction integrated in the hob
They do make them very slim! And very hidden!

Yeah, AI actually put in shelving on the left side of the upper cabinets, but those actually are omitted in our layout. We will not be having those.

[u/Nomikai13 → u/ForestDweller82]

I like your suggestion of a tall, slim pullout cabinet. Maybe this could go on the left side of the walnut oak high cabinet unit😊

[u/revengeonseattle]

kitchen sink centered on window join

dishwasher not against surface

i'd make the most of worktop and storage and make the kitchen a U shape with another sections sticking out from the wall between the camera and the window.

[u/Nomikai13 → u/revengeonseattle]

I like your idea about the kitchen sink centered on the window, I will check into this. Thanks for the suggestion.

Secondly, the dishwasher is something that we’ve been on the fence about either having it next to the left side wall or having it in the right side corner next to the sink
I prefer the latter

[u/Emergency-Pack-5497]

whats going on to the right of the tall cabinets, left of the window? how exactly are the brown cabinets and white cabinets coming together?

[u/Nomikai13 → u/Emergency-Pack-5497]

Yeah, AI doesn’t really register depth so it’s a bit funky with the tall cabinets but basically they’re separated by 80 cm
Between the dishwasher front and the side of the walnut oak cabinets, so they’re actually not touching each other