Kitchen Part 7 - The finished product

So, aside from a few minor touches—what to do with the rubbish bins, how to store potatoes, where can find hooks that match those I've had for years that Bunnings no longer stocks—the kitchen is finished. And, after using it for several weeks, I have to say - I love it. I say it every day. I say it when I cook dinner, I say it when I load and unload the dishwasher, I say it when I'm baking, I say it when we've had four or five friends around for dinner. Our kitchen is now an enjoyable space to work in. The old kitchen was functional (to a point), this one is more than functional. But enough words, more pictures:

The view from the dining room

moving around the corner

further around

sneaking into the pantry

pantry - working side

pantry wall doubling as storage

Pantry wall and hanging storage

The pantry wall needed to be reinforced so it wouldn't fall over. We looked at a couple of options, including making an L shape around the fridges, which are on the other side. We settled on this option, of a lovely timber beam all the way to the ceiling and then across the ceiling. We were able to put large hooks in the beam to create hanging storage for our frypans and wok. There's plenty of space in the cabinets, but I love having these hanging. I've always wanted a big country kitchen with the pots all hanging over the stove. This is close enough for jazz.

From the fridge side

I'm pretty keen on hanging. I hate digging through utensil drawers, stabbing myself on the stray roasting fork or grabbing the cheese cutter by the blade. In the old kitchen I used lengths of curtain rod with plastic ends for my rails. To match our black handles and shelf brackets, I found black rods at Ikea. I have compromised and used the old silver hooks. I already have them, the Ikea hooks are expensive, and they also have a 'knob' on the end, which would stop me using them for a lot of utensils. I have/will use Ikea hooks for some larger items - the cutting boards, and tubs and baskets for--stuff--under the overhead cupboards.
The blue stein by the stove full of wooden spoons has been our spoon holder for decades. No idea where Daniel got it from, but somethings are just family tradition.

The shelves in the pantry are moveable rail-and-bracket system. We had them in the old kitchen (with old pantry doors cut up to make do as shelves). I like the flexibility of the adjustable system. Underneath the shelves, I've added the spice baskets from the old pantry. I don't need them for spices anymore, which live in the pantry wall, and I almost gave them away. I'm glad I didn't. They're very handy for packets of stuff.
I've tried to set the shelves up by theme - sugars (how many sugars can you have!), flours, fruit, etc. The baskets hold related (sometimes loosely related) packets under the shelves.

 Under the sink was tricky. Our sink is very deep, which means the drain pipe is quite low. In the hold kitchen the rubbish bin hung on the inside of the sink door, but that won't work here. And none of the pull out bins will fit either. So, I've given up on the idea of putting the bin in this cupboard (my only cupboard - everything else is drawers except the lazy Susan in the corner).

Last weekend I bought a set of plastic drawers, which hold sponges, gloves, steel wool and the like. I'm quite surprised by how much more effective the space is used with that simple change. I also hung a tension rod towards the back under the sink. This lifts the spray type bottles and creates more space in the cabinet.

My only other non-drawer cabinet. The lazy Susan is a 3/4 circle, spinning continuously--no spinning one way only to realise you needed to go the other way, and the heights are adjustable. When designing the kitchen, I loved the idea of the system. However, if I had my time over again, the one change I'd make is to install this instead:

 Corner drawers. I love these. They hold so much, compared to the lazy Susan, they're easy to access and don't look as ugly as I thought. (I initially didn't consider them because the ones I'd seen looked cluttered when closed. Perhaps the wrong size handles for the size?)

All the bits and bobs for our food processer fit into one drawer and all easily accessible without reaching over something or knocking something else over.

The shelves that got moved. As you can see we've set out microwave on a slight angle, which makes it easier to access. The toaster oven at the top doesn't get a lot of use, now that we have a brilliant oven. But with a small step it's completely usable, particularly by those in the family taller than me (everyone).
In this photo you can also see our brackets. These were custom made for us. A friend commented, "Oh, they're chunky", but they're bit of a fairy tales and pink princesses type. I love them. They look solid and reliable. The 'up' design was so they didn't run down into the glass splashbacks.

Open shelves on the other side of the rangehood. These are narrower - so you don't bump into them while using the countertops.

The only overhead cupboards in the kitchen. We still need to cornice where the bulkhead touches the ceiling. My request of Matt was for the overheads to have no open top. Although I have open shelves everywhere, my experience with cupboard tops is that they get ignored and become filthy.

Last, but not least, the sink. I wanted a BIG sink. If the dishwasher was taking care of most things, the sink would be for baking pans and roasting racks. I wanted a sink that was big enough to take a whole pan, and deep enough to not splash me when I was washing the said pan. The pull out tap was a bit of a luxury items, but with the big sink it is really very handy.
And that's our new kitchen. I will do a side-by-side photo comparison with the old kitchen later.