Kitchen Journey Glossary

When embarking on your journey to find and finalize your dream kitchen, you will not only be confronted with a technically complex product with many different variables; you will also be challenged with a lot of new terminology that you might not be familiar with.

The following overview should make things easier. It is there to help you understand our terminology and how to answer the key questions as part of the developed design quizzes that will lead to your new kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, office room or living room design. It will also facilitate the process of your order finalization in the closest kitchen showroom near you once you have the design in your hands.

Room Size & Type:

We need to get an understanding on how your kitchen room or other room in order to design it for you. The room size usually gives an indication on the overall budget. An indication of the approx. SQM (multiply length in meters * width in meters of the room) should be sufficient to get started along with basic dimensions.

Do you have a closed room or an open room?

Tip: You can either, measure yourself or get the room measured by an external service provider or have your architect / landlord / developer provide you with the floor plan in PDF or AutoCad.

Kitchen Form

Can your kitchen shape be pre-defined by one of the following options within the provided room space?

Straight = A run or block of kitchen units against one wall.

L-Shape = A run or block of kitchen units that are connected along two walls.

U-Shape = A run or block of kitchen units that are all connected along three walls.

Island Shape = This could be a one of the above options including an free-standing island.

Tip: If you are not sure, please press skip / other, and we will come back to it.

Design Style

Should your kitchen have a modern or a classic theme?

Tip: In our opinion, European kitchen designs are more modern than classical.

Fronts Materials (Doors)

There are many materials system used for the kitchen door fronts.

Melamine Fronts: Optimal for kitchen furniture, very resistant, surfaces can can contain

fine textures which only enhance the beautiful wood reproduction appearance, Easy-care, affordable

Laminate Fronts: Extremely resilient, the surface is multi-layered and therefore thicker than the melamine front, sturdier than the melamine fronts, easy-care.

Lacquered Laminate Fronts: Lacquered PET film, high gloss or soft matt version, smooth front vertically seamless, In the framed version rounded on all sides and without seams, attractive alternative for genuine lacquer fronts, outstanding value for money

Lacquered Laminate (with anti-finger prints): Ultra-matt with PP edging on all sides, very resistant, very easy to clean thanks to innovative anti-fingerprint coating, wear-resistant and highly crosslinked, functional layer.

Lacquer Fronts: Pure material appeal, hard-wearing, easy to clean, seamless front faces in honed lacquer and high gloss lacquer, fronts in ultra high gloss with PP edging on all sides, honed lacquer with slight texture, for better scratch resistance.

Foil Fronts: Seamless rounding on all sides possible, extremely resilient, Also ideal as a framed front, seamless front face, an attractive alternative to genuine wood or lacquer, outstanding value for money.

Solid Wood Fronts: Genuine wood framed door with veneer infill panel, lacquered, panel made of solid wood, lacquered, due to the lacquer coating the surface is hard-wearing and easy to clean, upper price points.

Glass Fronts: High-quality acrylic, surface is easy to clean thanks to homogeneous material without pores, real glass appearance, upper price points.

It is now up to you what color finish your kitchen door fronts should have and if it should be a lighter or darker scheme and if it should be glossy or mat.

Tip: We recommend to choose white, glossy, lacquered fronts as the best choice for a timeless look. If it has to be more budget friendly whilst still being a glossy finish, we recommend to choose lacquered laminate fronts.

Carcass / Carcasses

This is the actual kitchen cabinetry that the kitchen door fronts are connected with. We differentiate between different cabinet types such as base units, built under oven units, sink units, corner units, high board units, tall units, wall units and extractor hood wall units.

Matching = Matching visible finish to the Kitchen Door Fronts

Complementing = Complementing visible finish to the Kitchen Door Fronts

Contrasting = Contrasting finish to the Kitchen Door Fronts

Tip: We recommend to choose matching visible finish for the carcass at all times unless you choose otherwise.

Handles

There are many handle types and forms for the kitchen door fronts, and they make up quite a significant portion of your total kitchen price.

Drilled = Usually, drilled handles are either a handle knob with fixed drilling diameter (around 30mm) or small size u-shaped handle with fixed drilling diameters of 128mm - 192mm and length of 20mm - 39mm.

Rail = Usually, rail handles have a flexible drilling diameter and u-shape form with length depending on door width of 184mm - 793mm and height of 30mm - 40mm.

Bar = Usually, bar handles come in full door width in top mounted form (Most Popular)

Handless = Usually, handless (or recessed handle) refers to the usage of c-shape under and l-shape profiles, whereas the kitchen door fronts remain untouched. L-shape profiles are generally used beneath the worktop on base units and beneath the top shelf on high board units. The recessed handle with c-shape profile is generally used between the fronts on base and tall units.

Tip: We recommend to go for a bar handle (as it gives a handleless look at better price points).

Worktop

There are many options for the worktop which play an important role as contrasting element for your overall kitchen look & feel, in particular when going for a timeless kitchen in white high gloss.

Laminate = Laminate worktops are usually coming from the kitchen manufacturer it and allow perfectly matching, complementing or contrasting colors besides easy installation.

Natural Stone = Granite + Marble are the most popular natural materials

Artificial Stone = Quartz is the most popular engineered material

Tip: We recommend to go for Quartz worktops (keeping in mind cleaning and maintenance) and if it has to be at an more affordable price point, go for Granite.

Back Splash / Niche Cladding

There are multiple options for the niche cladding that can cover the wall area above the worktop all the way up to the bottom of the wall units. It can be matching, complementing or contrasting the selected worktop material. It can cover the area either partially or fully.

Tip: We recommend to go full with same material as for the worktops.

Fridge / Freezer

The fridge can be built into a tall unit, a high board unit, an under counter base unit or be free-standing. The freezer can be built into a tall unit, a high board unit, an under counter base unit or be free-standing. The fridge / freezer combination can be built into a tall unit, a high board unit, an under counter base unit or be free-standing.

Tip: We recommend to have a built-in fridge freezer combination for the tall units (to give the design a real German look and feel).

Oven / Microwave

The oven can be built into a tall unit, a high board unit, an under counter base unit or simply be free-standing.

Tip: We recommend to have it built-in to a tall unit (due to ergonomics).

Cooker Hob

There are different way on where to position the cooker hob and how to install it.

Tip: We recommend to have the cooker hob separated from the oven and located on an island (if your kitchen room space allows). If not, go with set back positioning.

Cooker Hood

Depending on the oven and cooker hob solution you choose, you need to decide what your solution for the cooker hood should be.

Tip: As the extractor hood can be an eye catching design element, it comes out best when planned above the island. Our choice is 90CM width at all times.

Dishwasher

It is either a dishwasher solution of 45CM Built-In or 60CM Built-In or no dishwasher at all.

Note: We always recommend to have a 60CM Built-in version next to the sink unit (due to water supply) and also to go for a high-end brand.

Sink Mixer / Sink Bowl

It is either a single lever mixer tap or a mixer tap with two levers (left and right) or a mixer with a a pull-out rinser.

Tip: We always recommend to have a mixer tap with pull-out rinser in stainless steel or chrome finish with matching single sink bowl with width of 860mm.

Lighting

When it comes to high-light your kitchen room and kitchen cabinetry, there are multiple options.

Ceiling = Just ceiling lights to have the room equally lid up

Above Cabinets = This is to illuminate the cabinets and kitchen room in general. This type of lighting solution is found in both, modern as well as classical kitchen designs.

Below Cabinets = This is to illuminate the working space areas above worktop and below wall units.

Inside Cabinets = A feature that should be part of the premium accessories. With no glass wall cabinets, it does not make sense.

Tip: We recommend to go for below cabinets lighting as the room would normally have ceiling lighting anyways. When turned off, indirect light gives a nice atmosphere when having an open plan kitchen.

Accessories

There are many accessory options for a kitchen which need to be carefully reviewed when finalizing a design as well as final order with the sales staff in the kitchen showroom.

Our design approach:

Basic = We plan 1 X cutlery insert matching the drawer width, 1 X Aluminum Sheet for the sink unit to protect bottom from leakages and we plan 1 X smallest available waste bin in door mounted format inside to the sink unit.

Standard = We plan a 1 X cutlery insert matching the drawer width, 1 X Aluminum Sheet for the sink unit matching the cabinet width to protect from leakages and we plan 1 X smallest available waste bin in door mounted format inside to the sink unit. The pull-outs come with additional steel sides.

Premium = We basically fill the kitchen design with the best matching accessories available. Every drawer and pull-out is filled with most premium options (f.ex. glass sides), and we even include lighting inside the cabinets (where possible).

Budget

The budget of the kitchen is a very challenging and personal subject.

When looking at the total kitchen budget, we recommend to first understand that many factors will influence the final purchase price of your kitchen or other furniture solution.

It starts from the final brands chosen, the final product specification selected, the final design confirmed and eventually, it will also depend on the flexibility of the distributor (including the sales staff) finalizing it with you.

It is also important to understand that the kitchen sales price is usually broken down into 2 main components, the imported products (kitchen cabinetry and accessories) as well as the local products (worktops, appliances as well as sink & mixer tap). This is mainly related to warranty and maintenance requirements.

As a rule of thumb for a full, newly designed kitchen, again, depending on all the many variables that can influence the final price, the ratio between kitchen cabinetry and accessories as well as other components would be approximately 60 / 40.

Furthermore, we believe that all leading kitchen manufacturers can perfectly cater to all price brackets as part of our developed design quizzes.

Tip: A good orientation is to have a look at our marketplace, where many different kitchen showroom displays are offered to give you an indication.

For more information, please use the contact form on the website.