The Garden Fence - help and support in tough times

Floss

A friend of ours fitted a Wickes kitchen around 10-12 years ago. 18 months ago they extended into their previous dining area and bought the same doors as the previous units for the new ones. Our IKEA kitchen was fitted in 2006, and they have now discontinued the door & drawer fronts. Luckily we bought some to renew the base units 2 years ago, which will be fitted in the next 18 months or so. The carcases are fine, the beech work top has been regularly oiled, and the wall units are all ok.

moneyistooshorttomention

Futureproofing always sounds good to me - that's the way my mind functions (ie up to many years hence in the future)...:)

Knew there was summat else nagging at edge of my mind - worktops. Can't afford things like granite worktops. Just noticed the ones today are those ones with a stick-on surface type ones. Thoughts on that?

Floss

We opted for 50mm beech block - plenty to be sanded as required and oiled regularly.

The other kitchen has Corian worktops, which are fab for pastry & chocolate work and for cleaning up after baking or brewing.

moneyistooshorttomention

Goes off to google that....

silvasava

My present kitchen units have a pan drawer underneath the oven housing with all my baking tins and roasting trays, there are three drawers underneath the hob - top is kitchen cutlery, middle is pyrex bowls and dishes, bottom one has saucepans. I have never er had a problem with any of them - the runners are metal and very sturdy and the kitchen is nearly 25 years old! I have a tall narrow pull out larder - wouldn't have one again as it wastes too much space. I like my corner base cupboards as I put seldom used items in the back corner - carousels are a waste of space IMHO. I'm also looking at glass splashback instead of tiles but its all looking at options at the moment as so much has changed since it was done last. Anyone got pros and cons about built in fridges/freezers???

DH fitted the Wickes flat pack units in my Mum's house when we sold it. They seemed very good value for the money and looked really nice when he'd finished it. Just a thought - I have black sparkle granite tiles on my bathroom floor - look stunning but show every splash and every stray hair!! Would not have anything high gloss as its shows every mark!! My worktops at the moment are just laminate and they look as good as the day they were fitted so I'm quite happy to have laminate again.

moneyistooshorttomention

Splashbacks is one of the questions in my mind.

I'm inclined towards them in order to avoid the whole thing of grout between tiles - which tends to go grotty - on the one hand.

On the other hand - I'm not sure just how glass splashbacks would work with the fact that there are power points on the walls in between base units and wall units. I suppose they would cut neatly around the glass surrounding the power points - same as they would do with tiles??

Basically - I want the most low-maintenance thing possible on my walls behind base units.

bouicca21

Money: A friend has just taken out her beautiful granite worktops - apparently they are only beautiful if regularly wiped over and polished. She has a hectic life and wanted something easier and quicker to maintain.

I have a reasonably nice kitchen, Howden units. But I don't have a carousel in the corner unit and I'd like one - does anyone know if it is easy to retrofit one?

greenbee

pollyanna_26 wrote: »

Perhaps Neptune Ivyleaf , unless I miscounted the dots - not unknown
polly

Yep very fashionable at the moment. Different price point to ik*a. But he reckons better value in terms of the quality you get for your money. And when he does work top fitting he says he rather deal with a well-fitted ik*a one.

ivyleaf

pollyanna_26 wrote: »

Perhaps Neptune Ivyleaf , unless I miscounted the dots - not unknown
polly

Ah, thanks, I haven't heard of them. I did wonder about the number of dots

ETA Oooh, they're very nice!

Softstuff

I've picked an ikea one. We don't have wickes or howdens here and the quality of other flatpack units is uck. Meanwhile a full fitted kitchen here can cost $30,000 up, so that wasn't happening.

Benchtops are a debate. I'm between beech block and caesarstone. We have a small caesarstone benchtop on the bathroom vanity. Expensive but lovely. Beech woukd be cheaper and more lived in.

All up I'd expect less than $15,000 including aeg cooktop and hob, miele fridge and freezer pigeon pair and miele microwave with a caesarstone top or less than $10,000 with beech. Taps will be Australian made and black, sink will be black granite, splash back will be tiles that look like tin paneling. Cost includes easy food for a month while I fit it