Do you know what a plinth is? Thanks to Ikea’s helpful kitchen planning guides, I now do.
We’ve been looking through all their guides that we picked up when we were in Sydney. Even though it’s a little different to the products available in Ikea in the US, it’s nice having something to flip through and ponder over.
We started thinking about those nice big ovens – the ones which are maybe 1.5 times the normal width. The problem is that they all seem to be gas hobs when you get a wide oven. Gas is so nice to cook with but it’s not sustainable. Why a wide oven? Regan loves to cook and if we’re going to have a big(ish) family and lots of roast (Wiltshire) lambs etc, a big oven could come in handy. We got sidetracked at learning about pyrolytic ovens and if there are any benefits other than them being self-cleaning? Paying three times the price so you don’t have to clean the oven every so often seemed a bit excessive to me!
Giving up on that idea of a big wide oven, we started to look at those dual ovens – the ones which are essentially 1.5 ovens sitting either next to or on top of each other. They looked pretty good actually.
So what is a plinth? My non-official definition is that piece of wood (or otherwise) which goes under the cupboards separating the cupboards from the floor and increasing the overall height of the cupboards). You can even make the plinth height such that the cupboards touch the ceiling, leaving no dust trap.
Planning a kitchen isn’t simple either – there’s lots of rules about distances and placements and things to include. (Even down to not having drawers next to a wall oven so kids don’t climb up…) Regan does more cooking than me and he’d like no corner cupboards (he hates the ones we have now) and wants an island kitchen. I love pull out pantries and all the organisers that Ikea offers. We both love our granite countertop that we have currently.
We really need to come to a rough idea of what we want, figure out what it costs and then how much it’d be to get it to New Zealand to see if it’s worth the hassle. I’ve read lots of posts about people who have imported them into NZ but the shipping and taxes side of the equation is a bit mysterious.