Has anyone put in a secondhand kitchen?

[MerryMarigold]

I would like to do this as there seems to be so much waste of perfectly good kitchens. We have Iived with ours for nearly 8 years but the hob doesn't work properly, we have a tiny fridge I got for 20 quid 6 years ago and a built-in oven (also cheap) but not actually built in as the kitchen didn't have an oven when we moved in. There is also loads of dead space (not sure what they were thinking). So finally going to do it.

Just wondering what tips you could give me. I've been looking on Ebay and used kitchen companies but it's quite overwhelming. Any tips, pretty please.

Thank you!

Ive reused an old kitchen elsewhere. It isn’t easy because you have to work with the units that are there and they won’t necessarily be ideal for the space so you need to buy more than you think you’ll need. You’ll also need to buy worktops and filler pieces (which might mean the kitchen needs to be painted).

We did, we bought a second hand kitchen on ebay, more cupboards than we needed so we had could get the right configuration and still have a couple for the utility room. We installed the cupboards ourselves but paid for a worktop to be put in. It worked really well for us.

Following in the hope someone knowledgeable pops in to advise!

Ours is 30+ years old, predates us, and I'm hoping to replace with a secondhand (or at least ex-display) kitchen.

I'm trying to come up with ideas that are flexible as I guess it's unlikely that something fitting my exact space will come up. Eg, I'm happy to end up with base units that might be a different style to the wall units (as I'll paint them different colours) and for my island unit to have a different worktop to the run along the wall.

So I'm trying to think of multiple scenarios that will give me the best chance of finding what will work!

In most cases you have to assume new worktops. You might manage to reuse some if they’re butcher block and you have good skills

You wouldn't happen to live anywhere near York would you?
I saw a fab 2nd hand kitchen on FB yesterday, didn't even know 2nd hand kitchens were a thing.
It was absolutely beautiful, cream, high shine units and all the electrical appliances, they wanted £750 ono, absolute bargain

I have no skills!

OK, new worktop prob required.

Get more cabinets than required.

Be prepared to paint.

We've been here 8 years but the kitchen is undoubtedly 80s. It's actually lovely quality and solid wood, just configured very strangely. I hope I can find someone to have it. I got an internal door from Ebay for 1p the other day! It's immaculate. The person said they were just glad it wasn't going to the dump.

Sadly I'm in Essex.

For those who've done it, did you need to dismantle the units from the place you were buying from?

Have you thought about painting your current units, and moving them around?

It’s also possible to get new doors rather than all new units.

You may want to look at the Frenchic forum on fb and their website. Loads of ideas.

I've installed about 7 pre used kitchens all bought from eBay. Best tip I can give is always buy a kitchen with several more units than you will need as sometimes a unit has cuts out from it on the back of unit behind the doors. I filter on condition, used and closest to me. You will get the best bargain if you are willing to go somewhere and take the kitchen out. This is good because if you take it out you can use sandwich bags and put all screws and catches in a bag and tape to each unit separately. Start on wall units. Take off doors. Then take off from back wall. Take off work tops. Take off base unit doors. Take off plinths. Take base units off the back wall. I'd advise to load up large vans you go. You might be able to buy a whole kitchen which often includes the cooker, extractor fan, fridge freezer, dish washer, washing machine and tumble dryer. I've often fitted the kitchen in the btl house then had a new worktop and sometimes new plinths and handles. I've had some real bargains: a symphony kitchen 18 months old with all quality Neff double oven and Bosch appliances, granite worktops for just £700. I've seen the receipts showing over £9k was paid when new only 18 months before and it looks virtually unused. The only catch I had to dismantle it and collect it that weekend as they had builders coming the following Monday to add on an extension so wanted a new larger kitchen. Even if you have to pay a handyman to take the old kitchen out and load it up and fit it for you it will still be thousands of pounds cheaper.

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This is one I bought. The units in image was less than half of overall kitchen there was a long run for another wall of 3 metres with a built under counter fridge, built under counter freezer and a few units, sink and dishwasher that goes on the other wall.

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Here's another one.

We bought a beautiful solid oak kitchen from a large country house. I love it so much and it cost a £200 donation to charity, it must've been really expensive when it was new - it was all bespoke. The only downside was that it didn't have as many drawers as I would have liked, but I have put my own drawers in behind the cupboard doors.
We had loads of cupboards left so we have used them in the utility room.

I bought a second hand kitchen for £150 from marketplace. It was already removed and I just needed to pay someone to collect it. I paid a joiner to fit it, he was a pretty much random choice (from facebook again) and he was very skilled and made it fit really well. other than the cooker which was included in the £150 I kept my old appliances. I did have to get new worktops though and tiling etc has been extra too.

Thanks so much. This is brilliant.

My son has a very tiny kitchen. We luckily got some very good quality bathroom units in great condition from Freecycle. We made the worktop from a secondhand office desk (pale wood appearance melamine). Total cost - the price of a few screws and wall fixings.