From Plan to Kitchen

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Are you one of those people who would never rent an apartment that doesn't already have a kitchen built in? Sarah is one of those people, and she's usually been really lucky (you can find out more about Sarah's kitchen story here) . I'm completely different. No matter which apartment I've moved into, there was either no kitchen at all or the one I had was so bad that I ripped it out first. That's how it was for me until I finally got the Himmelloft. We rented our Himmelloft with a fitted kitchen and it's... okay.

It is simple and white. Sounds great at first, of course. The work surface is huge and the cupboards offer enough space. There is no need for wall cupboards, which make the whole picture unnecessarily heavy. At first glance, you could say: It couldn't be better.

However, I cook often. Every day. Sometimes several times a day. So for me the kitchen is more than a room, more than a piece of furniture. It is a tool. And just as you can immediately feel whether a kitchen knife feels good in your hand, you can immediately tell whether a kitchen is working. And unfortunately I have to say about our kitchen: it doesn't.

But why is that? Let's take a look at the work surface, for example: At first glance, it's huge. However, most of the free work surface is in front of the window. In reality, I always cook on the narrow piece between the sink and the hob. Why? Because I need these two things close by. So no matter how big a work surface is, that alone doesn't make it practical.

Or let's take a closer look at the cupboards. Sure, the kitchen has more than enough of them. You can basically fit everything you accumulate in them. But the cupboards have one problem. They don't have drawers. For me, that means that I regularly sit on the kitchen floor, more or less completely empty a cupboard, fish out the item I want from the furthest corner and put it back in the whole cupboard. And somehow the item you need is always at the very back.

When we decided to buy a house, my big moment had arrived. I can finally leave the kitchen in the sky loft behind me. Finally, I no longer have to worry about pointless cupboards and impractical worktop layouts every day. Finally, I can plan a kitchen again!

However, this time something is different. After all, it shouldn't be just any kitchen. It should be THE kitchen. Because one thing is absolutely clear: when you put so much love and work into a house, you don't start skimping on the kitchen. When you invest so much time in planning the house, you can also spend an evening or two planning the kitchen.

There was at least one thing I was sure of from the start: our kitchen appliances had to be from NEFF. Are you wondering why? Firstly, because there are a few solutions that you can only find at NEFF - but more on that below - and secondly, because I have a personal history with NEFF.

When I finished school and didn't really know where my career would take me, I wanted to take a year off to get my bearings. I used that year to do an internship in a photography studio. I had always loved photography and even though I couldn't imagine earning a living from it, I found the insight into the beautiful, colorful world of advertising quite appealing. The most important customer in this studio at the time was NEFF.

So you could say that NEFF is partly to blame for my staying in photography and working in this profession for more than 15 years now. A decision I have never regretted!

But now back to the kitchen: How do you go about it? What makes a well-functioning kitchen? I've racked my brains over this more than once in the last few months and of course I want to share my thoughts with you too.

The work surface

As I mentioned, I always cook between the hob and the sink. Of course, that may be different for you, but I've gotten used to it. How much space do you need there? For me, the following things have to fit on the surface: a large cutting board, various small bowls for ingredients and a second, smaller cutting board. Why do you need two cutting boards? Because I often work with food that I don't want to cut on the same board for hygiene reasons (e.g. poultry) and because sometimes there's just something lying around on the small board that's waiting to be used soon. If you ask me, you need between 120 cm and 180 cm of space to work. To be honest, too much isn't good either. After all, your food is judged by its taste and not by the miles you've covered preparing it. A relatively simple solution to create more space on the worktop is to make the kitchen deeper. Fitted kitchens are usually 60 cm deep. We decided to plan it 10 cm deeper. For this, the cabinets are not built directly against the wall, but rather at a suitable distance. The gap is then simply covered with the worktop.

The hob

For me, the hob is always the most important thing in the kitchen. This is where most of the work happens. What is important? The size is not that important to me. We opted for a 70 cm wide hob with four cooking zones. I never actually use more pots and pans at the same time. Other things are important to me, such as flush installation. If the hob is flush with the worktop, this has a big advantage: in an emergency, you can extend your worktop if you are missing those crucial centimeters. It was also immediately clear to me that I wanted to separate the hob and oven. Because I want to have the things I constantly need when cooking (wooden spoons, knives, spices, etc.) close by. Ideally directly under the hob. Since flush installation was important to me, it was also immediately clear that it would not be a gas hob. I am a huge fan of induction anyway and would never choose anything else again. I remember that I regularly left the hob on in our sky loft because I had gotten so used to simply taking the pot off the stove in my previous kitchens (both with induction). Induction hobs then simply switch themselves off.

The most important thing for us was that the hob had an integrated extractor hood . Because let's be honest: most extractor hoods aren't really that pretty. Fortunately, there are now a huge number of manufacturers that offer such solutions. But here too, it's difficult to choose.

If you look at the whole thing in detail, there are clear differences. For many hobs, the performance of the extractor hood is linked to the performance of the hob. A high setting on the hob equals a high setting on the extractor hood. That is not always practical. For example, when I boil water, my hob is naturally set to the highest setting from the start, but there is no steam at first. That is why we opted for a hob from NEFF, specifically the T47PD7BX2 model. A smart algorithm regulates how strong the extractor should run and the kitchen remains as quiet as possible.

The oven

The oven is definitely the second most important appliance in any kitchen and one with hidden potential. In most kitchens it leads a pitiful existence, crouched under the hob, its function reduced to heating up frozen meals. In our case, things are going to be completely different. It was clear from the start that the oven had to go in the tall cupboard. That way, I can simply turn around while cooking and immediately see what's going on in the oven. There is one small problem, however. The open door often gets in the way. After all, you now reach into the oven from the front rather than from above. But NEFF has a solution for that too: Slide&Hide® . When opened, the door simply disappears under the oven and you have free access to the inside. Great!

I've known for a long time that an oven like this can do more than just 200° top/bottom heat. But I only realized how much more is possible with it when I was researching our new kitchen. For example, our new oven is also a steamer. I'm looking forward to our Sunday rolls being even fluffier in the future.

sink and dishwasher

In most kitchens, both are firmly married, as they share a water connection and a drain. Ours is no different. At first glance, it doesn't seem like there's much potential for planning here, but that's far from the case. For example, I think there's nothing more practical than having your cupboard right next to the dishwasher. That way, you just move things from one cupboard to the other. Speaking of dishwashers: Here, too, we couldn't do without one or two technical advances. For example, we're the kind of people who don't empty their dishwasher straight away just because it's finished. We often turn it on in the evening after dinner and then empty it sometime the next day. But it can get pretty long after that. Do you know that feeling when you leave the dishwasher running for a while and then it smells a bit musty, even though the dishes are clean? That's because the dishes don't dry completely in the closed machine. At least until now. Our new household helper is equipped with a zeolite drying system, so that everything dries completely without having to open the machine.

Finally, a little extra

Anyone who likes to cook, like me, probably has that one appliance they've always wanted in their kitchen. For me it was always a warming drawer . Sacrificing an entire drawer just to preheat plates? The answer is a clear yes and no! For one thing, I love preheated plates. There are so many dishes that cool down incredibly quickly and otherwise it's often not possible to get the food to guests hot. But that's not all. A warming drawer slows things down even more in the kitchen because it's also the ideal place to keep food warm. Hopefully the stress of having to get everything ready at exactly the same time is finally over and I can finally say that cooking relaxes me.

But the part I'm most looking forward to is using it as a mini oven. Most warming drawers reach up to 80°, making them ideal for anything that needs to be cooked at low temperatures. So there's finally room in the oven even when I'm cooking meat (which I always cook at a low temperature and then sear briefly).

But the best comes last: Our new warming drawer can be seamlessly combined with the oven, so that the whole thing looks as if it were just one appliance. NEFF calls this SeamlessCombination® and it looks simply fantastic.

You can probably imagine that with every day that we move in, my anticipation of the new kitchen is increasing immeasurably and I am pretty sure that this will not be the last post on this topic. Because whether all my plans work out will only become clear when the new kitchen is finally in use.