Suggestion Box
Try to get a feel for what the congregation and community want from a new kitchen before the real planning process starts. You could start with a suggestion box a few weeks, or even months, ahead, to start gathering suggestions to incorporate. It’s an excellent idea to open your suggestion box while you are still raising funds, to give plenty of time for good ideas to build up.

Kitchen Committee
Once your dream of a new church kitchen starts to look like it’ll become a reality, assemble your kitchen dream team – a group of people within your church committee (or even the congregation) who want to help out with organising, budgeting, planning and narrowing down that box brimming with ideas to a few key points to consider.

Start exploring your options
One of the great things about putting together a kitchen committee is that you can have a bit of fun with the planning process. If you have the time, visit other cafes to source ideas and see what works and what doesn’t. Other churches, museums and libraries are all good places to start.

You can’t always get what you want
However, as the song famously says, you can get what you need. Once you’re approaching the real budgeting stage, bring your committee get together to identify the essentials you really need from your kitchen. For instance, if you have a hundred people for tea after every Sunday service, but haven’t used the oven in years, an instant water boiler might take priority over a fancy new range.

Nominate a spokesperson
When the time comes to start getting quotes, putting together designs and really getting to the nitty gritty of bringing your ideas to life, make sure you have a nominated spokesperson who can take charge. While the committee can still be there to support, once you start liaising with various companies you will need one point of contact to keep everything organised.

et help from the experts
At Steelplan, we offer a free design and consultation process before a contract is agreed, to help you get the kitchen you want. Our kitchen experts are also ready to advise on all kitchen matters – from the counter tops and cabinets to appliances and flooring – throughout the process, giving you a professional, experienced perspective on planning.

No matter where you are in the planning process, if you’d like to know more about Steelplan Kitchens’ services call us on 0844 809 9186.