DIY-Kitchens End panels, cornice, pelmets

kitchencrazy

Just wanting to get opinions on having cornice and pelmets on a modern gloss kitchen. I think it looks better without these as it gives a minimal look, but I'm wandering if we are going to need them if we use the gloss end panels on the exposed ends.

The stituation is that we are going to order through DIY-Kitchens.com as it has come out the best for price and from what I have read online still good quality. The only drawback seems to be that although the carcass colour is a close match to the gloss doors it still isn't exact so they advise we use gloss end panels. This is a bit dissapointing as was hoping by using a supplier with matching carcass one of the advantages was that end panels aren't needed.

From looking in their showroom the end panel has to be attached to the side, so an extra 18mm. I'm concerned that with these stuck on the side if there isn't a pelmet and cornice to frame the whole unit then it will look a little odd with the end panel on its own. What do people think? The builder was pointing out that with his flatpack supplier the end panels can be built into the carcass rather than using the normal white side.

Does anyone have experience of this with DIY-Kitchens or other rigid kitchen designs? I know the design magnet did for us had a lot of expensive end panels so I presume this would look the same, but the designer didn't design in cornice and pelmet.

The other option would be to not use the gloss end panels and just accept having matt cream sides. It would save a few £100s probably.

Thanks for your help

phill99

The end panels will really set it off. I don't think you need the pelmet and cornice, but the end panels will give it a finished look. Some flat packs (b and q included) you can change the appropriate side panel for a coloured end panel. which is an advantage of flat pack. Pre built (Howdens, Magnets etc) requires an extra panel, as you identify. Why don't you reprice the flat pack option? I think you may regret not spendinmg the extra.

hobbledehoy.

kitchencrazy wrote: »

Just wanting to get opinions on having cornice and pelmets on a modern gloss kitchen. I think it looks better without these as it gives a minimal look, but I'm wandering if we are going to need them if we use the gloss end panels on the exposed ends.

The stituation is that we are going to order through DIY-Kitchens.com as it has come out the best for price and from what I have read online still good quality. The only drawback seems to be that although the carcass colour is a close match to the gloss doors it still isn't exact so they advise we use gloss end panels. This is a bit dissapointing as was hoping by using a supplier with matching carcass one of the advantages was that end panels aren't needed.

From looking in their showroom the end panel has to be attached to the side, so an extra 18mm. I'm concerned that with these stuck on the side if there isn't a pelmet and cornice to frame the whole unit then it will look a little odd with the end panel on its own. What do people think? The builder was pointing out that with his flatpack supplier the end panels can be built into the carcass rather than using the normal white side.

Does anyone have experience of this with DIY-Kitchens or other rigid kitchen designs? I know the design magnet did for us had a lot of expensive end panels so I presume this would look the same, but the designer didn't design in cornice and pelmet.

The other option would be to not use the gloss end panels and just accept having matt cream sides. It would save a few £100s probably.

Thanks for your help

Right. You can buy end panels that have the right shade which are fitted after disgarding the original end panel. This will give you the same shade as the door when seen from the outside. However the finish will not generally be as good as the door. More matt in appearance.
To achieve the best resul is to buy the proper end panels that clad the end of the unit and are fitted/screwed from inside the unit. This will give you a superior finish overall but at a cost. Yes they will look odd to start with but they are covered by the cornice at both ends to give the effect that the clad panel is actually part of the frame.

The modern cornice can be fitted in two ways. the traditional style or using the reverse as a square edge finish. You will normally find that this will also have the same finish as the doors.The same cornice is used both at the top and bottom of the wall units. It will sit over the edges of the clad end panels to give a smooth finish both top and bottom.

Appearance wise, with full end clad panels and using the square profile cornice it would give the look of the doors being recessed into the surrounding framework and all visible surfaces would be a high gloss finish.

Yes you can cheat to save a few £'s but you will have to live with it afterwards!

Have a look at your local Wickes store to see what I mean and get hold of the sales guy to take you through the options (he will be hoping for a sale - so make the right noises!).

kitchencrazy

The end panels will really set it off. I don't think you need the pelmet and cornice, but the end panels will give it a finished look.

Yes, I have just been told in no uncertain terms by my wife that we aren't going to spend nearly £4k on a kitchen and not get gloss end panels. I've uploaded a few design images to show the layout as we need quite a few end panels. I think it will look good fine on the wall with the oven housing, but do you don't think that the end panels on single wall units will not look odd if there is no cornice and pelmet?

I can't insert pictures but here are two links

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28648383@N08/5307005629/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28648383@N08/5307598822/

kitchencrazy

phill99 wrote: »

Why don't you reprice the flat pack option? I think you may regret not spending the extra.

Not quite sure I follow you on this bit. The flat pack option from the builder is probably about £1500 cheaper so quite a big difference, although I wasn't considering going down this route just to be able to inegrate the end panel to the cabinet as I think the DIY-Kitchens unit will be better quality overall.

The choice is really now do I need to get the cornice and pelmet in order to make the end panels blend in with the units.

The modern cornice can be fitted in two ways. the traditional style or using the reverse as a square edge finish. You will normally find that this will also have the same finish as the doors.The same cornice is used both at the top and bottom of the wall units. It will sit over the edges of the clad end panels to give a smooth finish both top and bottom.

Appearance wise, with full end clad panels and using the square profile cornice it would give the look of the doors being recessed into the surrounding framework and all visible surfaces would be a high gloss finish.

Yes you can cheat to save a few £'s but you will have to live with it afterwards!

Have a look at your local Wickes store to see what I mean and get hold of the sales guy to take you through the options (he will be hoping for a sale - so make the right noises!).

Thanks for this, I've studied quite a few kitchen pictures etc so can see how it will look with the cornice, pelmet and end panel making a frame for the unit. I would just prefer not to have the cornice and pelmet as I think it doesn't look so sleak. Also we are going to have nice modern cabinet lights so thought this is a nice design feature to have these exposed.

I'm just thinking though that with the gloss end panels which we will now be spending the money on, the cabinets will not look right without the cornice and pelmet.

Doozergirl

In the early days I didn't see the value of cornice and pelmet on a clean line kitchen, but I will tell you, for the price you pay for the lengths of it, it does finish it off because if you look carefully, without it, you will see the join in each cabinet. With pelmet and cornice, you don't see it, it looks more fitted. Buy it, you won't regret doing it but you might regret not. It's a pointless saving IMO.

Looked at you plan and I can't fathom why you have a full extra drawer unit on one side which doesn't match the others, when you have umpteen drawers on the other side?

And £4100 for those units, if you're feeling thrifty, is ok-ish. You'll do better than that in some of the current sales, I think.

kitchencrazy

Doozergirl wrote: »

In the early days I didn't see the value of cornice and pelmet on a clean line kitchen, but I will tell you, for the price you pay for the lengths of it, it does finish it off because if you look carefully, without it, you will see the join in each cabinet. With pelmet and cornice, you don't see it, it looks more fitted. Buy it, you won't regret doing it but you might regret not. It's a pointless saving IMO.

Looked at you plan and I can't fathom why you have a full extra drawer unit on one side which doesn't match the others, when you have umpteen drawers on the other side?

And £4100 for those units, if you're feeling thrifty, is ok-ish. You'll do better than that in some of the current sales, I think.

Thanks, the extra money for the cornice and pelmet isn't such an issue, I just think maybe I prefer it without. Although I take your point about seeing the join. I think we shall just go with it.

And yes agree about the 4 draw stack! We are just having a standard 600mm base unit in place of that, but the designer put it in.

Again with the price £4k should be for all units, handles, sink and wood counter. I don't even think it will be as much as that, but I need to look back at my prices. I think when I priced it with DIY-Kitchens before Christmas it came to about £2700 excluding counters and end panels.

We had similar kitchen designs priced in previous Magnet and B&Q 50% sales which were still way out of our price range, although Magnet have come down a lot now it's still a fair amount over DIY.

kitchencrazy

You'll do better than that in some of the current sales, I think.

In addition to what I just posted, I would be interested if you think I should try anywhere else to get a better price.

Doozergirl

B&Q should be considerably cheaper than Magnet in the sales but the kitchens are flat pack. In the big sale is the only price that I'd find it compares with the sort of prices we generally get from Howdens. Howdens have sent us a flyer saying the sale is over but they're keen for business - I'd take your DIY quote into them and also Wickes as this is their big sale - see if you can hammer them down. Wickes are also flat pack, Howdens are solid built but the end product on all of these kitchens aren't disimilar although flatpack will add an extra labour element.

Key with all these places is to get your price for units only - all the other fluff they try to include does exactly that - fluffs it up and detracts from the price that you're trying to find. If you already have what you think is a good price then it's worth taking it to everyone else. Plus you've done your exact inventory and a lot of the places that 'sell' you kitchens also include a lot of stuff you probably don't need 'just in case' If you're sure you have everything you need then you should find the price magically disintegrates in places like Wickes & B&Q when you're being quoted for exactly what you need. That was a revelation for us in terms of the prices we were paying; the day I was able to take control and be confident that what we were ordering was what we needed, not what someone else was adding.