Kitchens

iseverynamegone

So the better half wants a new kitchen. It’s been a while so I’d appreciate anyone with advice on-

—quartz  for worktops? Or something else these days like Corian?
—is there much quality difference between door construction?  I’ll be not be getting solid Wood doors but anything else construction/finish wise to be aware of? 

Iamnobody

We’ve had one newly fitted this year.

Our observations were that gloss handless was everywhere in the usual stores. That look is ok but decided it wasn’t for us.

Also cheaper doors are foil wrapped as opposed to painted. 

In the end we went for white matt slab painted doors, minimal brushed chrome wrap over handles and light grey gloss carcasses, plinths and end panels. The Matt/gloss combination looks really good.

Also went for a white quartz worktop and 100 mm upstand splashback all round except for behind the hob where it’s height is set to meet the extractor. (no tiles anywhere) that was a quarter/third of the total price. Went 20mm as 30mm looked a bit chunky and old fashioned. 20mm looked sleek and modern also a wee bit cheaper. The sink is inset and the worktop has draining grooves cut in by the sink area.

Carcasses are much of a muchness I found unless you go high end. Most come ready assembled which makes sense for fitting. I wouldn’t consider flat pack.

Mrs Steve loves it - our third house but the first kitchen we’ve designed and implemented.

Edit: just remembered something else. Our carcasses are really light grey gloss on the inside as well.. They stay cleaner much better than the white ones we’ve had that seem to pick up every speck of dirt and look grubby.

Phil_aka_Pip

Don't fit a new one unless the cupboards are knackered. Fit alternative doors, by all means, they are the bits that show, and if you want a change they are the obvious things to have a go at. The rest is like worrying about your T shirt being a colour clash with your jeans when you're wearing a thick jumper on top - it really doesn't matter!

duotone

Budget?

Bridgehouse

duotone said:

Budget?

Like this?

Fretwired

iseverynamegone said:

So the better half wants a new kitchen. It’s been a while so I’d appreciate anyone with advice on-

—quartz  for worktops? Or something else these days like Corian?
—is there much quality difference between door construction?  I’ll be not be getting solid Wood doors but anything else construction/finish wise to be aware of? 

My wife and I went for Corian. We have a very long work surface and wanted a double sink plus a centre worktop and a utility room. We found a guy up north who came down, measured up with lasers and made a bespoke one-piece unit for the main unit plus the others. Amazing - it fitted perfectly, looks great and is easy to maintain. We had marble in our bathrooms - big mistake as we have hard water.

iseverynamegone

@Iamnobody sounds like what we are going for

@phil_aka_pip unfortunately the layout needs to be changed 

@duotone 10-15k

@fretwired what sort of cost per Metre did that work out at?

cheers

Snags

Corian is lovely, particularly if you want a continuous run into splash backs, or an inset sink. You do need someone who knows how to fit it and work it properly, though, unless you just want it as an expensive alternative to formica, with none of they one-piece-finish look.
 

exocet

Don't  go for Granite. I did, wished I hadn't. 
It's a bugger to keep clean, isn't very hard wearing (It's very brittle so chips really easily).

Go for heavyweight pre-built carcasses. Think there's only two thicknesses - 15mm and 18mm? The thicker of the two is what you want. Choose doors to suit. 

Fuengi

I run an architectural business and specify kitchens for clients, and the first port of call is always Howdens for the units. 

I'd go to a worktop specialist - we use Mitchell's of Southampton.

Put a stunning worktop on a decent unit and the kitchen will look fantastic. Think carefully about colours, lighting and materials and how you use them together.

Look at acrylic worktop, a cheaper alternative to Corian that looks evey but as good. It can be factory cut or site cut but if the latter you'll need someone who knows what they are doing to cut and fit it.

We regularly supply and fit large kitchens - +7m of worktop - for under £15k and they look like £25k kitchens. 

markblack

I used diy kitchens for my new kitchen and granite worktop. Amazing price and service. My builder recommend them and they were half the price of everywhere else.(cheaper than Howdens) my fitter isn't sure how they do it. Just got which? Best buy. After service is great, one unit came damaged, they rush made a new one in under a week. 

https://www.diy-kitchens.com

Fuengi

markblack said:

I used diy kitchens for my new kitchen and granite worktop. Amazing price and service. My builder recommend them and they were half the price of everywhere else.(cheaper than Howdens) my fitter isn't sure how they do it. Just got which? Best buy. After service is great, one unit came damaged, they rush made a new one in under a week. 

https://www.diy-kitchens.com

Interesting!

boogieman

We had Howdens kitchen units put in by a chippy three years back and they're still looking really good. Nice thick carcasses and the hinges and fittings are really good and solid. We went for solid wood worktops rather than stone or Corian, those came from Worktop Express. 

Fretwired

iseverynamegone said:

@fretwired what sort of cost per Metre did that work out at?

cheers

Not easy to calculate as we had five different surfaces made - our kitchen covers a number of different rooms.

We bought from a company called Unique Fabrications - they supply the trade and were half the price of the company we bought our kitchen from. They have moved to Milton Keynes. You can get a quote online. They measured up, made the pieces and installed them. First class job.

https://www.uniquefabrications.co.uk/

TheMarlin

Just had ours done. Looked at Corian, but it scuffs easily and doesn’t like heat. Went with quartz tops. Shaker style kitchen. 

My builders told me that every foil wrapped door they had fitted had distortions and bulges evident within five years, so we went with sold wood doors, painted in graphite and alabaster. 

Looks great. Photos soon. 

Snap

We've done quite a lot of building work recently. Kitchen xperience:

It all depends on the style you are after. Our experience with granite was the same as someone posted above - it chipped a lot, and alarmingly easily.

Quartz - very good, looks good and wears well. Had a big island top in this, years ago, in white, no issues.

Silestone - very good, looks great too, so far so good.

Quality laminate - same story, good and wears well. Not cheap for the good stuff though, but buy right buy once etc.

Corion - we had some remoulded. Essentially took out the previous kitchen tops, and had them redone for a utility room. I think the corion work & fitting was about £700 but the chap took some very battered and rough edged pieces and remoulded them into a worktop and upstands - looks new and there are no seams in sight. Amazing tbh. Just make sure you keep curry away from it, as it stains it. However, it is very durable and very repairable.

All in, I prefer silestone, but its down to personal taste, and the style of kitchen you like.

Carcasses and doors are IMO are complete racket. Appliances are something you shouldn't cut corners on IMO. If they aren't right, they get on your pip. Fridges - if built in, tbh I think there is no point in shelling out loads. Last time, we had a Miele, this time and AEG. Both built into units. Guess what, they both store and cool food equally as well, but one was half the price of the other.

Fretwired

TheMarlin said:

Just had ours done. Looked at Corian, but it scuffs easily and doesn’t like heat. Went with quartz tops. Shaker style kitchen. 

Our Corian worktops look like new ... don't mind heat and it you get a small scratch or scuff you just sand it out and polish or get a company to come and do it for you - a major advantage in my book. Ours have been in for nearly 8 years. I have a client whose worktops are 30+ years old and still look like new.

My mother has Quartz. Shows water marks (hard water area) and chips - she dropped a copper pan.

olafgarten

It's really strange that people are saying Granite Chips, we've had a granite worktop for 8 years now and it hasn't got any damage apart from a little bit of a water mark where the coffee machine leaked. 

exocet

olafgarten said:

It's really strange that people are saying Granite Chips, we've had a granite worktop for 8 years now and it hasn't got any damage apart from a little bit of a water mark where the coffee machine leaked. 

In my case it's "Granite and Le Cruset pans" - not a good combination.

Also my Granite worktop cracked when a hot pan was placed on it....again it was a heavy pan that stored a lot of heat.

Dominic

Quartz / Silestone (which is a type of quartz)
Granite is a bit outdated due to colour limitations
Corian is fine but has lost it's exclusivity now they have started using it in Motorway Services washrooms for sinks( although that is because it's very durable and easily maintained )
Corian works out more expensive than the others

Nitefly

The best advice I can give you, having had a complete kitchen strip-out to bare walls and new-install nearly 4 years ago, is to get a competent kitchen contractor firm to project-manage the whole thing, regardless of your choices re worktops etc.

We used a local firm on word-of-mouth recommendation from 2 separate acquaintances - they were fantastic, managed the whole thing in 8 days, including strip-out, plastering, electrics, plumbing, and fitting the kitchen itself.  

Also good advice above re appliances - we paid about £800 extra for Bosch throughout (induction hob, double oven, fridge, freezer, and washing machine), and have had no problems at all.