Kitchen Tips - My New Kitchen Design by Rodger Marshall

I have recently had an extension to my bungalow to accommodate a new kitchen. I am fortunate in that I had the funds to do it, but I found it very difficult to get any meaningful advice on what to do and what my options there were.  My Local council Occupational Therapist would not help even with the planning stage as I was effectively too well off!  She suggested AKW who install kitchen solutions for people with mobility needs or get some private OT advice.  I called around and became more and more disillusioned with lack of advice in my locality, West Sussex.

I remember visiting the NMC and seeing some of the measures you had incorporated into your kitchen. 

Of all the people I spoke to recently Matthew was the most helpful. He gave me some excellent advice regarding worktops, cupboards and drawers and general accessibility which I incorporated into my design. 

To get some inspiration I persuaded my family to wheel me around the Ikea Superstore in Croydon and looked at online videos. 

I did get some ideas but my budget did not stretch to AKW. In the end I chose a local builder who also happens to be my neighbour to build the extension and fit the kitchen.

My builder uses Howdens to supply the kitchen units and they offer a free kitchen design service. Needless to say that their free service is limited and they have minimal experience designing a kitchen for somebody with mobility issues. 

Prior to the building work I had given the layout a lot of thought and produced my own draft before looking at Howdens plan.  I was able to sit with their planner and their more sophisticated programme and between us we came up with a suitable workable design for the units/cabinets etc.

I believe I have some practical and money saving tips to share with anybody contemplating refitting their kitchen.
   

Matthew strongly suggested having taps at the front edge of the sink rather than the traditional setting at the rear.  After a lot of searching I believe I have sourced a cheaper alternative to the VOLA taps he suggested, saving or rather not spending £400 yet achieving the same outcome.

 

FSH for me means that raising the arms above my head is becoming more and more difficult. Hours and hours searching on internet for remote controlled cooker hoods yielded nothing suitable, but I did find one that will restart on the previous settings if turned off at the mains.

I have found and installed cheap functional plinth heaters to keep me warm and which can be controlled by wall switches.

Pull switches rather than traditional rocker switches are easier to grab hold of and reduce the likelihood of a fall when twisting to turn on the lights on entering a room.   

We utilised the cutouts for the sink and hob to manufacture the pull out shelves and by buying a pair of extension runners from www.IronmongeryDirect.com my builder installed 2 bespoke pull out worktops for less than the 'off the shelf' Howdens price.

Similarly I found that it is possible to install two pull out waste sorting trays side by side under the sink. 

I find the pull out larder units easy to use and access, well worth the investment.

I am sure that like me most sufferers have developed coping mechanisms. But just maybe some of the tips and tricks I have found may help others. Nothing that a competent, empathetic, OT specialist might suggest, but working without this support these are some of the things I incorporated in my new kitchen.