My kitchen [start to finish] - Opinion & tips please!!

matty_hunt

Canucklehead wrote: »

We used Osmo hard wax oil for the finish.

Canucklehead

Hi Canucklehead. Would sort of finish do you get from this wax oil? Ive just brought Liberon finishing oil which has a soft sheen but would have prefered a more gloss finish.

matty_hunt

Suniil.
I have a gloss black kitchen brought from the Trade Depot. I dont recommend buying from them! The units and doors come from different manufacturers and the units are poor. (though I dont have experience of others but I was disappointed given the quality and what I paid) eg. I brought 10 600mm brigding units. 6 where returned of which one of those was returned again. All 10 are damaged or very poorly constructed but am able to hide the worst of it. I have been back at least 15 times trying to get a refund since last February! (southampton branch) Everytime they say the appropriate person is not there and they will ring me, but never do.

If I had my time again, I would go for the wicks kitchen. It looks very good with the long square handles and there have been good reports about wicks on these forums.

Check ebay for appliances and worktop. I got 2 walnut tops identical to mfi listed at £860 each for £300 and a £340 franke tap for £98. Worth a look

suniil

little miss messiah: thanks for the tip on worktops, will check again

Canucklehead: you are here with helping hand, as always. thankyou!

suniil

I've seen wickes high gloss Casablanca kitchen with soft close hinges etc, looks very cool. Their Zebra worktop is also very good, but i don't rate their designers. This is very important as they don't have online design tools.

Any ideas on undercabinet sockets, switches for appliances so that I can keep the wall clean without any sockets etc (Ikea imperativ splashbacks cannot be cut for sockets as they are tempered glass!)

Thank you

matty_hunt wrote: »

If I had my time again, I would go for the wicks kitchen. It looks very good with the long square handles and there have been good reports about wicks on these forums.

Check ebay for appliances and worktop. I got 2 walnut tops identical to mfi listed at £860 each for £300 and a £340 franke tap for £98. Worth a look

vansboy

[/quote]


Hi Again!
To see the plan like your pic, really helps!!

Think I'd forget the right hand corner wall unit, as it looks a bit of an 'I've a space, so I'll fill it' unit!

Also. you've not balanced the number of doors either side of the cooker, unless they're like that 'cos you've a pull out drawer unit, or similar.

& you've not got any drawers, anyway!!

We've re-done our plan a zillion times & think we're finally there, so know what you're going through!

If the units are having a plinth, the wiring/pipes will all run at skirting level, concealed, so no probs there. It's only if you wanted legs, that it matters. Even then you might need to lay on the floor to see them!

& make sure you look at the plinth colours in real life, some are a bit naff!

We're not having wall sockets this time. They;ll be behind the lower trim, with concealed (Ikea) cheap lights. The trim along the bottom of the wall units costs only a few £$£$£

Don't forget the end panel covers, else you'll have white cabinets showing!!

VB

~Chameleon~

suniil wrote: »

I'm not a kitchen fitter so please feel free to ignore anything I say, but having planned and built a couple of kitchens I do have a little experience.

The kitchen as it stands looks a little unbalanced to me. The right hand corner wall unit looks wrong, as does the bridging unit over the what I assume is the fridge freezer. I'm also wondering about the larder units on the left - are they supposed to be red to match the rest? Even so, they look a bit odd standing there on their own

Could you not move the fridge freezer left to replace the larder units and then you can utilise that corner space to put in both wall and base corner units to balance up the right hand side?

You also need to change the arrangement of base units either side of the oven so they are equilateral. And finally, if you are going to keep the right hand corner wall unit I suggest you place a wall unit this side of the window too, above the washing machine just to balance things up.

If the floor space at the side of the washing machine is at least 150mm you could put a wine rack base in that corner to enable you to continue the work top up to the wall. maybe then you could put another corner wall unit at that side to balance up the window wall

I hope I don't come across as too critical, just giving my opinion on how it looks to me, but then again I'm only going from your diagram and haven't physically seen your kitchen or have any measurements to work from so my ideas might not necessarily work

suniil

~Chameleon~/vansboy - both of you talk same language, i must be wrong. will try to work out balance in both sides which both of you criticised. Also try to move the frige to the left wall and place larder units after that.

In right hand side, i've the combi bolier unit sitting. i'm assuming i can cover that up with corner unit. Otherwise i'll just go for a simple wall unit.

Downloaded plan doesn't have red units, so just kept what i got!

Just measured up again, no space for wine rack right to washing machine.

thanks for the suggestions again!

Mr_Proctalgia

I am "connected" if you like with the IKEA stuff, the Abstract Red can look stunning in a well lit kitchen and the Abstract White also looks good too. Have you considered a remeasure with the oven in the middle and then working symmetrically from the middle outwards? also as stated lose the RH corner cupboard, also consider their glass doors for some of the cupboards with lighting within.
You could also do a "dropped" area for the hob by using their shorter legs, this looks nice visually and if you are using plinths the legs can be hidden.
You do not need to buy 4 legs for every unit as the legs are designed to bridge units, I used a length of 4 by 2 on the wall to hold up the back of the base units and one leg between units at the front and no legs on narrow units (bridging bolts come with each carcase)
You can also get a 3D effect by using wall units as base units as they have shallow drawers so you can have a "base unit run" that tapers out to a hob. Also the 3 draw base units have enormous capacity and the 80 cm ones really do give a visually stunning "horizontal effect" across a run of units.
I agree the sinks are carp and the taps can be got from time to time for much less at LIDL, the "Atlant' drainage is a waste of space and not really applicable to this country - Use B & Q instead.
With a bit of lateral thinking clever use of the "Perfect" trim panels can yield some stunning results - Lighting shelves, detail trimming and general tidying up.
There have been some issues with the worktops "blowing" they need better moisture protection than normal, but most of the worst have been withdrawn now, also their worktops are slightly deeper than 60cm but others will fit, and finally if you have drawer base units and need to plumb or run electrics then there is a good 50mm or 2" clear behind the back of the drawers to get it all run in.

The base units can vary in width from 20cm (Wine Rack) to 120cm (corner unit) you can use either 60 or 37 cm deep in most configurations.

The wall units go from 30cm to 80cm in two heights 70cm and 92cm.

Tall units are in 3 heights too and there are even some available to match the depth of wall units - So lots of choice.

And.... No I don't flog the kitchens but I do carry a lot of the stuff around and get a lot of questions about the bits and bobs when people question what they have bought - So I am a generalist.

HTH

suniil

No mate! I was trying a bit of cost saving, so tried to reuse all the existing gas / plumbing as it is, never thought of measureing from the middle & re-arranging hob / oven.

I'll try and redesign as you guys suggested! All electric stuff on wall need to be lifted up and put under the wall cabinet as i've to use IKEA's glass splash back!

Any tips on where to get laminated worktops from?

What is the best option for washing machine, integrated or stand alone? (need something which is very good in washing )

Thanks

Mr_Proctalgia wrote: »

I am "connected" if you like with the IKEA stuff, the Abstract Red can look stunning in a well lit kitchen and the Abstract White also looks good too. Have you considered a remeasure with the oven in the middle and then working symmetrically from the middle outwards? also as stated lose the RH corner cupboard, also consider their glass doors for some of the cupboards with lighting within.

vansboy

Don't use the Ikea glass spash backs, as it'll be hard to manke it look neat with them.

Think anbout white glass mosaic CHEAP tiles from Homebase. It'll cost you £0 to do your lot. Top these off with black pencil strip tiles, rather than going full height to the bottom of the wall units. They come in 30cm sheets, dead easy to fit around sockets if you wanted to avoid moving them.

Forget the built in washing machine idea, as you'll have very few to choose from, lower spec/spin speeds & cost twice the price. Maybe think about it going in a cupboard elsewhere, in another oom mybe (we put the tumble dryer in another cupboard).

Assuming you'll have new other appliances, shouldn't worry about re-using pipes etc, it'll not be too much £$£$ for your man to sort this, as he'll no doubt need to chop them around anyway & wouldn't want to rely on old connections.

Do please Private Message me for pics of our red/black & glass tiled Ikea kitchen, think you'll have a good idea of what can be acheived in an awkward area!

VB