ᐅ Beautiful new L-shaped kitchen in a newly built home, with no prior experience

A dead corner is also an excellent hidden storage space.

Your kitchen space is not easy to “work with,” but the design manages it quite well. I have positive experience with Siemens appliances myself—though I haven’t looked into the exact models you’ve chosen. At the time, we went with the top models due to a minimal price difference during the selection process. A good salesperson calculates so that the customer is satisfied while still keeping some margin. Perhaps that’s why I was easily convinced.

There are a few aspects where I see some potential issues, which I’ll share here.

NeuDabei2025 schrieb:

The handles should all be centered, whether on drawers or regular doors.

This visually appealing feature compromises practicality in daily use.

NeuDabei2025 schrieb:

We also haven’t decided yet what to use as niche decoration (that is, on the wall).

Consider requesting the same material as the countertop in a thinner version if you like that look. In our children’s kitchens, we used colored glass there.

NeuDabei2025 schrieb:

Wall next to the door

• There may be a French door refrigerator, centered on the wall from the door
• The oven should be on the left side next to the refrigerator, and the dishwasher (built-in at standing height) on the right

As drawn, the refrigerator, which protrudes further, will interfere with practical use of the oven. The oven is positioned so that carrying a tray or pan from the oven to the work surface is quite a long way. With some bad luck, there could be collisions since the oven is located in the “traffic lane.” From a practical standpoint (and visually much calmer), a large built-in refrigerator (or two) would be a better solution. I would place the oven further from the entrance and closer to the opposite work surface—or directly near the cooktop, which would require a tall cabinet, for example, next to the window, if placed at a comfortable height.

NeuDabei2025 schrieb:

Wall next to the door

• It would be nice if the dishwasher were the same height as the oven, but that would make it very tall and the planner says it’s not possible with the manufacturer.

Don’t make the dishwasher taller—the upper rack will be difficult to unload.

NeuDabei2025 schrieb:

Wall right of the floor-to-ceiling window

• In my opinion, the height including the countertop is 90cm (35 inches) and the baseboard is 10cm (4 inches) (but I’m not sure)
• The oven should be 90cm (35 inches) wide, and we decided on a range hood since a cooktop with integrated extractor would be more expensive and louder
• The sink should be centered under the window
• We are uncertain whether to use a ceramic sink by Franke or one made from a simpler material
• The sink should be in a cashmere color or similar
• At the end of the L-shape, we have a cabinet with a carousel unit

NeuDabei2025 schrieb:

Wall right of the floor-to-ceiling window

• In my opinion, the height including the countertop is 90cm (35 inches) and the baseboard is 10cm (4 inches) (but I’m not sure)

Be sure to test the working height.

NeuDabei2025 schrieb:

Wall right of the floor-to-ceiling window

• The sink should be centered under the window

Make sure the faucet does not interfere with opening the window.

NeuDabei2025 schrieb:

Wall right of the floor-to-ceiling window

• At the end of the L-shape, we have a cabinet with a carousel unit

The carousel’s only purpose is to facilitate access to storage space that would otherwise be hard to reach. There are various mechanisms for this. Once you know what you want to store there, you can decide whether you want it at all and which mechanism suits your needs best.

Although I appreciate aesthetics and beauty, I am less willing to compromise on ergonomics in the kitchen than in other areas. In your design, I find the distances especially from the refrigerator to the cooktop, as well as between cooktop and oven and oven to the work surface, to be too long. I am not a professional kitchen planner, so I don’t have a better solution offhand. There are probably good reasons why the kitchen layout did not play a primary role in the house design.

Although I don't usually prefer a pantry, I would reconsider in this case and recommend building it separately with an outer corner solution and a nice (sliding) door, as I wouldn't like the angled layout of the room as it is now.

Also, I would suggest considering a French door refrigerator because your selection will be quite limited, you often end up paying unnecessarily higher prices, and you only get two 45cm (18 inches) doors. I feel similarly about the American side-by-side models with narrow doors and limited interior compartments; I see that as a disadvantage.

For this reason, I have always preferred European side-by-side refrigerators—basically, two full-size freestanding units placed side by side with a connecting piece. These are offered by brands like Siemens/Bosch, Liebherr, and others, typically in two 60cm (24 inches) widths. I find it looks nicer when the interior isn’t overcrowded, and even for just two people, it doesn’t feel too large. I have all Siemens IQ500 and 700 appliances, and everything works perfectly; you just need to check the small differences between models. Most importantly, you get a sufficiently large freezer compartment and, for a few extra dollars, an ice maker if you want one. French door refrigerators always appealed to me visually, but in the end, we always decided against them for practical reasons.

I have two large-capacity built-in refrigeration units placed side by side. On the left is a freezer, on the right a refrigerator (without a freezer compartment), and there is also an 80cm (32 inches) refrigerator (without a freezer compartment) in the hallway for drinks. To be honest, this setup has occasionally led us to buy more than we needed since we already had plenty of supplies. So it’s almost too much space...

For me, just three or four drawers in a French door model would be too few, and the narrow side of a side-by-side unit is also impractical, as @Arauki11 already mentioned.

Where do we currently stand regarding size and price for something like this? Is 25,000 euros still enough?

K a t j a schrieb:

Sorry, I’m not a kitchen expert, but why wouldn’t that work?

Unfortunately, the actual countertop space will be too small.