Tell me about fitting a new kitchen.

[not-bono-ever]

A friend built our kitchen to fit, with all kind of hidden drawers and sexy soft close doors. The doors were sprayed at a spray place in the shade we wanted -Made of birch ply and we sourced the worktop from a mate of the builder.cheaper than howdens all together and dare I say it, better

 

[not-bono-ever]

Floor and wall tiling are best done first. And always get more sockets than you could possibly need. I've got eight and it's not enough by long way.

And get sockets with USB ports - you can never have enough

 

[stuff_it]

How does that work then?
Basically I want someone to rip out my old one and put in a sexy new one and put down a new floor (tiles?) and tile the walls etc as well.
Where the hell do I start? Do I just go to IKEA or b&q? Do they install and do floors and tiles? Do I need to do the floor first? Gah, I'm so confused.

Get reasonably priced cupboards from Ikea or B&Q, and upgrade a couple of things to make it look swish - in my mum's house we went for the sold laminate thin worktop from B&Q, and a 'custom' cut down cupboard to put the microwave on topped with more of said laminate.

These are the cheapest B&Q units but build to my own design and installed on the cheap by a local handyman.The solid laminate allows the use of curved end cupboards without shitty stick-on strips. It's also only double a 'normal' chipboard worktop, rather than £££s for wood or marble.

Note the kickplate heater to allow for no radiator in the tiny room. Also of note is the fact that the hob extractor is vented to the outside - sometime that makes a huge impact on smells, smoke, and condensation.

This all cost around £6.5k, though at Lancashire fitting prices rather than London.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

A few people I know have Howden's kitchens and they're lovely and good quality. A couple have IKEA and they're fine. When I get round to doing my kitchen I'll be going with Howden's.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

My kitchen is from Ikea. It's been in for around 7 or 8 years and still looks good as new.

 

[Farmer Giles]

DIY-kichens.com are the best value/quality IMHO. I spent far too much of my life researching kitchens previously so feel I can offer some help. Howdens take the piss with their builder-only discounts. Magnet is way overpriced for what is.

 

[kabbes]

Once you start down this path of hell, be prepared to sink ever further into the mire of despair. And cash.

Saying that, the actual kitchen part of our kitchen is being made by this small company:

Bespoke Cabinet Maker and Joiner - Brandler London - Reclaimed Wood

They’ve been nothing but brilliant and, frankly, I’m not convinced they’ve been particularly more expensive than your off-the-peg stuff. Probably even cheaper than some.

Structural stuff, electrics, plumbing, flooring, that shit — that’s another kettle of headaches.

 

[peterkro]

DIY-kichens.com are the best value/quality IMHO. I spent far too much of my life researching kitchens previously so feel I can offer some help. Howdens take the piss with their builder-only discounts. Magnet is way overpriced for what is.

Aside from Howdens scam with discounts many of us remember the Magnet strike when mainly British Asian women were treated like dirt by the company.Yes the kitchens are produced in assemble line fashion by low paid mainly Asian women who may just put the same part on a carcass all day every day for a non living wage.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Shit. My first quote for my tiny kitchen is £10000. That's more than I was expecting. Is that normal?
It's only this big, and I don't think I asked for expensive stuff.

 

[Supine]

Shop around.

It looks quite nice already

 

[Micro]

We kept our old carcass and put on new doors, kickboards and worktops. Way, way cheaper, but you’re stuck with the old layout.

 

[Mumbles274]

Shit. My first quote for my tiny kitchen is £10000. That's more than I was expecting. Is that normal?
It's only this big, and I don't think I asked for expensive stuff.View attachment 164686

Sounds a lot. What big items are you having? We had new double cooker, hob, fridge freezer, dishwasher, all integrated. Ours was 10k fitted, we then had some extras done like lights and various bits that put the fit up a little bit still

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Sounds a lot. What big items are you having? We had new double cooker, hob, fridge freezer, dishwasher, all integrated. Ours was 10k fitted, we then had some extras done like lights and various bits that put the fit up a little bit still

Well basically everything. New oven, cooker, units, floor, intigrated washing machine, sink, tiles. The kitchen doesn't look great in the picture, but it's worse in real life. Doors are pealing, worktop rotting, tiles falling off. Fridge freezer is under the stairs so not included.

 

[purenarcotic]

Sounds expensive, my mate has just done her kitchen for 7k and that was with an island and other posh bits. DIY Kitchens was the place I think - actually based up North somewhere but the fitter travelled down here to Brum to fit. She’s really thrilled with it.

 

[kabbes]

You can’t say if it’s expensive or not without knowing the materials used, quality of the build or if appliances are included (and if so, what brands), or if you are including things other than pure fit (like flooring or replastering). On the face of it, it sounds relative high end but you haven’t really provided any information beyond size so it’s hard to say

 

[Mumbles274]

Well basically everything. New oven, cooker, units, floor, intigrated washing machine, sink, tiles. The kitchen doesn't look great in the picture, but it's worse in real life. Doors are pealing, worktop rotting, tiles falling off. Fridge freezer is under the stairs so not included.

So could well be a fair price? The cooker, WM and DW etc that we got weren't the cheap option as well felt that it was worth paying more because this is a 15-20 year install.

I take it that quote is for the dry fit too? Does that also include fitting the extras like tiles and flooring? They were additional costs paid to the fitter rather than what the basic quote and dry fit was from supplier (wickes)

 

[Callie]

Shit. My first quote for my tiny kitchen is £10000. That's more than I was expecting. Is that normal?
It's only this big, and I don't think I asked for expensive stuff.View attachment 164686

Where from?!? Sounds very expensive I think

 

[stuff_it]

Shit. My first quote for my tiny kitchen is £10000. That's more than I was expecting. Is that normal?
It's only this big, and I don't think I asked for expensive stuff.View attachment 164686

That sounds like a lot. The kitchen I posted included an integrated fridge / freezer, single oven , glass topped electric hob, extractor fan, tap with a pull out sprayer, upgraded worktops, tiling, lino and a half width dish washer. We also got those metal corner cupboard oblong shelves that come out on a hinge when you open the door , under cupboard lights, and the top cupboards on the left are the ones that open up with an accordion door that you lift up.

The 2/3 height cupboard with the microwave is a cut down full height one. Upgrading the whole range just to have an official 2/3 height cupboard would have been another £1.5k I think?

Our handyman fitter had a B&Q trade card that gave him an additional 10% off. The only difference that being in London might cause is the cost of fitting (which was a LOT less from the handyman than from B&Q).

With a washing machine and being in London I would have thought we'd be looking at £7k rather than £6.5. You've got a slightly larger kitchen xx so I think the same thing in yours would be £8k or so?

Get the cheapest cupboards and doors that aren't actually shit (B&Q, IKEA, etc) and dress them up a bit (nice tap, cupboard inserts, countertop). Don't be afraid to get quotes for fitting from a 3rd party fitter.

I fucking love the countertop we chose, and it was only double the cost of bog standard. Not sure if only B&Q do it, but you can get it separately from the rest.

 

[SheilaNaGig]

.

 

[Ted Striker]

Heard really good things about Diy kitchens dot com.

My mum once said that a good kitchen is all in the installation, and I think there's a lot of mileage in that.

 

[Epona]

Reading this thread, I am just so upset about how shit my kitchen is right now - I'll never be able to afford anything nice

 

[19sixtysix]

My current flat has a round kitchen walls. Anyone know anything about fitting worktops in round spaces?

I did my last kitchen myself but need some ideas for worktop construction.

 

[Cid]

My current flat has a round kitchen walls. Anyone know anything about fitting worktops in round spaces?

I did my last kitchen myself but need some ideas for worktop construction.

How round?

 

[oryx]

<joins thread> Hoping to get a new kitchen fitted soon.

If I ever see another website featuring undermounted sinks it'll be too soon.

Can't wait to get rid of the white kitchen floor. We're going for rusty/bronzy coloured tiles which (hopefully) won't show up the fact that our cats are messy eaters.

 

[girasol]

Shit. My first quote for my tiny kitchen is £10000. That's more than I was expecting. Is that normal?

We spent over £20k on ours but it was completely gutted, boiler moved from one side to another, replastered, tiling on floor and walls plus new oven, cooker, quartz worktop, washing machine, dryer and cabinets (Howdens). We live in S London. Kitchen is medium size, 4.5m x 2.5m.

Not sure I'd use Howdens again, well, it's a small thing, but the heavy use cabinet door has absorbed moisture where it's touched by the fingers and it's bulging a little bit (doesn't show on photos, it's subtle). Apart from that all soft close cabinets are still in good working order. We had it done just under 3 years ago.

Finally, I have an excuse to post my before and after shots

 

[danski]

We spent over £20k on ours but it was completely gutted, boiler moved from one side to another, replastered, tiling on floor and walls plus new oven, cooker, quartz worktop, washing machine, dryer and cabinets (Howdens). We live in S London. Kitchen is medium size, 4.5m x 2.5m.

Not sure I'd use Howdens again, well, it's a small thing, but the heavy use cabinet door has absorbed moisture where it's touched by the fingers and it's bulging a little bit (doesn't show on photos, it's subtle). Apart from that all soft close cabinets are still in good working order. We had it done just under 3 years ago.

Finally, I have an excuse to post my before and after shots
View attachment 165345View attachment 165347 View attachment 165348

Looks nice but please be careful reaching for spices when the hob is lit.
And keep the blind up.

 

[Cid]

Mine... I think I spent around £2k, ikea base units (and the white doors), rest done myself. It does help being a furniture maker of course.

 

[girasol]

Looks nice but please be careful reaching for spices when the hob is lit.
And keep the blind up.

that was just after it was done, it's a lot more populated (erm, cluttered) now. I've survived spice getting so far.

 

[19sixtysix]

How round?

Circular with radius 5m or so. Part of my flat is a basically a turret

 

[Cid]

Circular with radius 5m or so. Part of my flat is a basically a turret

I mean in principle it should be the same as any other worktop... Just probably in a few more sections. And you'd have to get them over width to account for lost material... I think I'd start with card templates to get to the right size for each section. Personally would then transfer that to mdf and get it as neat as possible (got some jigs and things that allow copy routing curves), then use the MDF as templates to rout the final shape. Of course it would probably also be possible just to take the card templates to a place that does bespoke worktops (they'd probably draw them up and use CNC for wood, or whatever it is for granite things). I reckon small tiles would probably be most appropriate for backsplash, or maybe vertical parquet fingers (obviously narrower will fit curve better). With that radius you might be able to do a solid wood beading around the top too...

So yeah, essentially start with a series of oversized rectangles, then cut them to the shape you want. Either rout to curved front, or leave the fronts straight so you get a kind of angled thing going. Back wants to be routed to fit, or just jigsawed (depending on level of obsessiveness) and covered with backsplash etc. In terms of connection you can probably still use standard connectors, just make sure the groves they sit in are in the right position to pull it together.

That's how I'd approach it anyway, I'm not really a fitted furniture type most of the time, and I imagine someone more knowledgeable would use a bunch of shortcuts. But I'd think similar principle.