Kitchens

[mogs0]

My landlady (who is also my aunt) has offered me £1000 to update the kitchen in my house and I have no idea where to begin. I would be prepared to put another £1000 towards it as I can see us being here for quite some time. I had a quick look at the B&Q website earlier but I could do with some ideas for keeping the costs right down.

The room is about 3.5m x 3m but is a bit awkward and only has one wall that doesn't have a door or massive chimney breast in/on it.

The idea I have is to put units along the wall where the chimney breast is but would involve building units into the hole in the middle of it and I think with my budget it's probably a bit to much to do.

What do you have already? That's a good place to start?

Best thing actually is to go into B&Q/Wickes/wherever and say 'I would like a free kitchen plan please' and make them draw it out on their computers for you - then go home and think about it and look at the pictures when you are in the space.

We kitted out a small kitchen in our guest flat for £900 so it's doable but it depends if you are skilled enough to put together the units and it may be worth paying someone £200 to do it for you if not to get a better finish

I'll probably make a few trips to various kitchen places!! Do they let you take the plans away with you? I remember a friend having one done years ago but the company wouldn't let her have a copy of it.

There are about 10 fitted cupboards and a couple of shelves but there is a lot of wasted space. The cupboards are more than 20 years old.

The house is quite old and has had tenants in it for at least 15 years so there are signs of major wear and tear!!

The cooker (which was 2nd hand 7 years ago) is narrower than standard because the gap it's in is very narrow so I'm assuming the whole row of base cupboards will need replacing to accomodate a normal sized cooker at some point.

I think I'd be able to put cupboards together but wouldn't feel comfortable attaching them to walls or even attempting to fit a worktop so would need to get someone in to do that.

The trick is to use as many large cupboards as possible. If you buy 2 500mm units as opposed to one 1000mm unit with two doors it will cost a lot more. iyswim?

Are you redesigining the lot or can you reuse some of the carcasses and get new doors and then add a few extra in.

Go to various places they will let you take the plans away.