Cupboard to fit in space for washing machine or dryer

RHemmings

I'm not sure this is the right place for this question - please move or tell me if there is somewhere better. 

I've got a small kitchen, but a big hole where a clothes dryer or something else washing machine sized would go. I would like to put a floorstanding cupboard in that space, ideally split into three drawers.

So far, I can't see something like this. Could anyone advise where I could find one? I've tried searching one, but my google-fu has failed and I only seem to find cupboards to hide a washing machine in.

Would I have to have one custom made? If so, is that going to cost a lot? 

EDIT: This would be a general purpose cupboard to store cooking implements, bowls, etc. 

DullGreyGuy

Do you know where your kitchen is from? Is it going to be easy to colour match the doors or are you not bothered?

We replaced a 900mm slot in cooker with a drawer unit with a hob on top. It's a temporary measure so just bought the appropriate sized cupboard from Ikea with basic white fronts. We had the issue of a work surface which you won't have but presumably you'll also need a short run of kickboard which we didn't. 

So something like https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/enhet-base-cb-w-3-drawers-white-s09320988/ plus legs and kick board.

Cherryfudge

I assume it was a standard 600mm gap? I Googled '3 drawer kitchen unit 600' and there are quite a few options, including tall units. If you add in 'under counter', there are still quite a lot. The difficulty will be getting something to go with what you already have, but that might be solved with paint!

RHemmings

Thanks all. I will measure the gap when I get back to the house, so that I can google on actual measurements rather than the search terms I used before. Thanks for 'under counter' too. I'm guessing the 600m will be right. 

At present, I'm not particularly worried about colour matching. We as a family made a conscious decision to move to a house with the same number of bedrooms but smaller. And, when I turn the central heating on it actually heats up. Unlike my leaky monstrosity of a rented house that I'm in right this second. Stage 1 is to fit into the new house, and then we can be concerned about aesthetics. I've spotted two areas where cupboards will go. This is one; the other will fit a normal wardrobe-sized cupboard which I think will be easy. 

I think (note that I don't actually remember the exact colour - that's how important it is to me ) the current cupboards are white, and I don't really mind if a new cupboard matches perfectly or not. But, white is a very common colour - it will probably be easy to get a ballpark match. I probably won't go for fluorescent green. 

I don't know where the kitchen is from, and I guess that I won't find out. But I'm not worried about an exact match.

The Ikea ENHET looks reasonable (would prefer equal-sized drawers), but I would want the top drawer covered. The work surface is not flat above the space, but triangular. So, the top would be exposed. I built my first ever Ikea piece of furniture about a month ago, and it was a success. 

What is a 'kickboard'? I googled, and I only find the type of kickboard I'm familiar with from swimming. 

casper_gutman

Kickboard is what you might also see called the "plinth" or "kick plinth". A board running horizontally at the bottom of the kitchen units, so you can't see under them.

Cherryfudge

RHemmings said:

I don't know where the kitchen is from, and I guess that I won't find out. But I'm not worried about an exact match.

Could you do a Google lens search? Go onto Google and use the camera icon (the square one, which on mine is to the far right of the place where you type in your search) to take a photo. Google then matches it to whatever it think it might be.) It's a bit of a long shot but it might help you find if it's something you could match (though our experience is they change the design and it's not easy to match bits you bought yourself a few months ago!)

RHemmings said:

What is a 'kickboard'? I googled, and I only find the type of kickboard I'm familiar with from swimming. 

It's the bit that tidies up the front of the cupboard so there's no access to the gap underneath where crumbs, lids, dog biscuits, woodlice and any other mobile thing that reaches ground level will go. Rather like a skirting board, but under the front of the cupboard. Some ingenious person also thought of making kickboard drawers, presumably for baking trays and other flat things that are hard to fit in elsewhere. If you are fitting into a smaller space, that might also be worth considering.

DullGreyGuy

RHemmings said:

Thanks all. I will measure the gap when I get back to the house, so that I can google on actual measurements rather than the search terms I used before. Thanks for 'under counter' too. I'm guessing the 600m will be right. 

At present, I'm not particularly worried about colour matching. We as a family made a conscious decision to move to a house with the same number of bedrooms but smaller. And, when I turn the central heating on it actually heats up. Unlike my leaky monstrosity of a rented house that I'm in right this second. Stage 1 is to fit into the new house, and then we can be concerned about aesthetics. I've spotted two areas where cupboards will go. This is one; the other will fit a normal wardrobe-sized cupboard which I think will be easy. 

I think (note that I don't actually remember the exact colour - that's how important it is to me ) the current cupboards are white, and I don't really mind if a new cupboard matches perfectly or not. But, white is a very common colour - it will probably be easy to get a ballpark match. I probably won't go for fluorescent green. 

I don't know where the kitchen is from, and I guess that I won't find out. But I'm not worried about an exact match.

The Ikea ENHET looks reasonable (would prefer equal-sized drawers), but I would want the top drawer covered. The work surface is not flat above the space, but triangular. So, the top would be exposed. I built my first ever Ikea piece of furniture about a month ago, and it was a success. 

What is a 'kickboard'? I googled, and I only find the type of kickboard I'm familiar with from swimming. 

The Ikea link was just intended to be representative, there are host of other different draw heights/formats available from them and other retailers. Ikea are useful as there is no minimum order, some cheaper places may have a minimum number of units however they don't have the greatest amount of room behind for services so if there are pipes etc at the back you may be better with a different brand. 

Kickboard in a kitchen sense is the board that goes along the base hiding the gap between the unit and the floor. In most cases it's held in place by clips that attach to the legs of the units. In some kitchens you won't have one and you can see under the units which in theory increases the sense of space but makes cleaning more of a pain. 

Mr.Generous

On any standard white kitchen unit you can geerally use conti board or similar white melamine finish board for a plinth (kickboard). The clips come with the base unit when you buy that, and the usual height for a plinth is about 150mm (or 6" in old money) - an 1800 x 150mm white contiboard is about £6 (DIY.com is so hard to search on I gave up) - you can get it cut to size in the warehouse stores free, and it would be much cheaper than a plinth from the kitchen dept even if you add iron on edging. The offcut makes a handy shelf for the cupboard under the stairs, the loft or the shed.

RHemmings

This thread is on pause for me, as I seem to have packed ALL of my tape-measures ... somewhere. It might not be as simple as I first thought, because too large an item might restrict access to the kitchen. If I removed that part of the worksurface (but I need worksurface), then I could put a narrower and taller cupboard there.

Cherryfudge

The work surface thing is tricky and I can understand you wanting to keep as much work surface as possible. I assume it wouldn't work to slide everything along and put a taller item at the end? It's probably unlikely. Measuring could be done without a tape measure in situ: if you have a standard sized 600mm unit elsewhere in the kitchen (like a cooker or fridge), measure the front with a piece of string or even parcel tape doubled over. Check the specifics of the piece you've measured online, just in case it's not standard, then hold your correct length of string against the space you want to use. (As my FiL would say, 'measure twice, cut once').

I assume a higher work surface is also not an answer? After all, working too high up will only lead to problems, but I doubt anybody gets their kitchen surfaces fitted according to their leg length...

Cherryfudge

Another thought - would it work to have a trolley unit that slices out. This sort of idea, but there are loads of variations possible, like this.