Kitchen units and worktop, not for kitchen!

ChilliBob

Hey guys, I'm after some decent storage in my summerhouse now it's been totally renewed. I was thinking about some kitchen cupboards (floor standing) and a kitchen worktop. Essentially I wanted to fill most of a 4.5m wall. The aim here would be to make it not look like a kitchen though! - More like what you'd have in a lounge or office type thing.

A couple of questions I had:

1. Build - I'm guessing that building these cupboards isn't too tricky - looks like it's essentially rectangular carcases with doors attached, with most stuff pre-drilled - so probably not too dissimilar from building flat pack furniture? - I don't intend to attach it to a wall, just free standing.

2. Buy - Most places I've looked want to flog you a whole kitchen with 'consultancy' etc. If you're not in the trade (so no Howdens) where's a good place to get the carcases, doors and worktop?

The sort of look I'm going for I guess is solid wood oak type colour. To fit into a natural green wall colour, porcelain tiles that look like oldskool rustic tiles, natural type look - i.e. kitchen that's not a kitchen!

To be clear, this is just for storage - basically tools and the like...

Store stuff you'd usually store in a shed, in kitchen cupboards, but make it look like something you'd have in a lounge with books and board games in lol...!

Thoughts much appreciated!

FreeBear

ChilliBob said: 2. Buy - Most places I've looked want to flog you a whole kitchen with 'consultancy' etc. If you're not in the trade (so no Howdens) where's a good place to get the carcases, doors and worktop?

I've used cheap flat pack kitchen units (from Wickes) in my garage. Also had yet more flat pack kitchen units from ebay for my darkroom. I wouldn't hesitate to use the same elsewhere in the house - Shop around places like B&Q, Wickes, and ebay for the best value. If you don't want 600mm deep cupboards, you have a choice of slim line, or use wall units - The latter, you'll need to drill holes in the bottom for the legs.

Alderbank

I agree with the good advice from @FreeBear above. I would just add three comments:

Oak effect living room furniture will have the same oak effect inside the cupboards as the doors. Most kitchen cabinets are plain white, grey or cream inside. 
Similarly the outside end panels will be the same plain finish. Usually you can buy extra wood effect trim panels to complete the effect.
Kitchen cabinets are designed to be fixed to the wall so may not be as dimensionally stable as freestanding units. You might need to add some reinforcement across the back of the unit.

Green_hopeful

You can buy second hand kitchens on eBay or facebook. You could probably get a whole kitchen for the price of one cupboard from a diy shop. Or if you ask you might get one on freecycle. We freecycled a whole kitchen when our aunt wanted a new kitchen. It was an alright kitchen she just wanted something new. Howdens sell the cupboards ready built which is what our kitchen fitter used. They technically don’t sell to the public and their prices are very negotiable but it is useful to have the units come ready built. DIY Kitchens also sell ready built kitchens. 

ChilliBob

FreeBear said:

ChilliBob said: 2. Buy - Most places I've looked want to flog you a whole kitchen with 'consultancy' etc. If you're not in the trade (so no Howdens) where's a good place to get the carcases, doors and worktop?

I've used cheap flat pack kitchen units (from Wickes) in my garage. Also had yet more flat pack kitchen units from ebay for my darkroom. I wouldn't hesitate to use the same elsewhere in the house - Shop around places like B&Q, Wickes, and ebay for the best value. If you don't want 600mm deep cupboards, you have a choice of slim line, or use wall units - The latter, you'll need to drill holes in the bottom for the legs.

Cheers. Cupboards, probably the deeper the better - it's basically a 5m x 7m space and this is the only storage, so plenty of space for 60cm deep. Good to know though about the slimmer ones being used on the floor - could come in handy for another project I have in mind!

ChilliBob

Alderbank said:

I agree with the good advice from @FreeBear above. I would just add three comments:

Oak effect living room furniture will have the same oak effect inside the cupboards as the doors. Most kitchen cabinets are plain white, grey or cream inside. 
Similarly the outside end panels will be the same plain finish. Usually you can buy extra wood effect trim panels to complete the effect.
Kitchen cabinets are designed to be fixed to the wall so may not be as dimensionally stable as freestanding units. You might need to add some reinforcement across the back of the unit.

Thanks, to address your three points: 1. Yeah, that's not a huge issue, but would be better if it wasn't! And yeah, I'd have to factor in end panels - especially as I had intended one cupboard on the end to be say larder size for stuff like garden forks/loppers etc! 2. I didn't know that actually - I'm pretty sure my Dad's just built his and they're free standing, however, if I do need to attach it to the wall that's not a huge issue - I have a pretty good idea where the studs are, and if not plasterboard fixings should be okay - it's not like it's trying to pull something down or anything. tbh I think the weight of the stuff inside it - think drills, sanders, paint, filler etc, will keep it grounded! I think really the look I'm going for is like a solid oak sideboard - however, two of those, and something 'tall' is likely (I think!) to cost me shed loads more (see what I did there? lol) than kitchen stuff.

FreeBear

Be careful how much weight you shove in to the cupboards - The shelves are only supported by tiny little pins, and being chipboard, don't like to be loaded up too much.

The same goes if you are thinking of using the worktop for heavy machine tools & stuff - I had a pair of enlargers in the darkroom (some 50Kg each). When i took the units out, the legs were pushing up through the bottom of the carcass. Not right through, but enough to make a mess of the base board.

ChilliBob

Cheers, yeah, I've seen first hand how that can turn out. As somebody with a decent sized vinyl collection I'm used to seeing how strong something is first   

Right now I'm not sure what will go on top, but it's good to bear in mind.

Still need to solve for where I'll stash the all important 500l roofbox, oops! 

ka7e

DIY kitchens do a (limited) choice of carcasses, including a light oak, cashmere (taupe/beige) and graphite (v dark grey)