Kitchen refurb.

ohreally

Wife wanted a Wren kitchen, thankfully I've managed to knock that one into touch.

I've been measuring up units from diy-kitchens and settled down to a coffee when the penny dropped, I'm reinventing the wheel - I can use perhaps 60% of the existing carcases.

Q. is, will I be able to fit the doors from the new parts (assuming same H&W) to my existing carcases. I have no idea who the original manufacturer was.

Owain_Moneysaver

Probably, but the hinges might not be in exactly the same place. It's easier to fix hinges to carcasses though - it's the doors that are drilled.

Drawer fronts are much more variable as you usually have to rebuild the drawer.

Doozergirl

Manufacturers do seem to make their doors ever so slightly differently, even if just by a few mm, so you can have gaps showing through to the carcass, which looks awful. Then you've got the issue of hinges not lining up, so having to drill extra holes in brand new doors.

I think a mixture of brand new and used wouldn't look great. The carcass itself isn't particularly expensive and you're creating a labour cost that wouldn't have existed with new carcasses, especially you use DIY Kitchens as they cone totally pre-built, I believe.

I really wouldn't. If I were really trying to save money, I'd respray the existing kitchen if it was in good nick. Kitchens can be made to look quite different.

MarcTJTD

I'd agree with Doozergirl; in 95% of kitchens, the carcasses are one of the least expensive elements to the kitchen. Manufacturers can vary their door sizes significantly (I've seen anywhere from 704mm from Magnet up to 800mm at Ikea) with the majority settling around 715-720mm.

DIY Kitchens doors are 715mm, FYI. Matching drawer fascias is the most difficult part.

If you're lucky and the sizes are right then you -may- get away with re-using some cabinets but the cost saving would be fairly minimal, you'd have extra work to do and the interiors of your old cabinets would likely not match the interiors of your new ones.

cranford

There are companies around that will supply you with replacement doors with you specifying the sizes and where to drill for the hinges. So because you have the old doors you should be able to do this.
One example site
https://www.larkandlarks.co.uk/kitchen-doors
I see you can get samples from them.

Ten years ago I put in my kitchen from DIY-Kitchens using solid wood doors by Second Nature and its still as good as new. But in those days the supplier charged extra to drill the doors so I bought a good quality door hinge jig and did them myself. Something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbgkLFRAUxk