has anyone got a non-built in kitchen

[clangermum]

Have been looking at fitted kitchen units and the problem is, I can't see anything I think I can live with, in the quantity we'd get, for the next however many years we'd keep it. I'm not overly fussy and have seen loads that are fine - just none that I lurve...

Have considered non-fitted stuff and even planned out how the IKEA bits and pieces would work in our kitchen, but the end result is if we need x amount of storage, we'll get x number of things to store it in which more or less match - and although it's not fitted it's not as though I'm going to move stuff around every time I fancy a change....

Has anyone built really solid open wooden shelving to waist height, in place of fitted cabinets, and then run fabric along the front instead of doors, or left bits open? DH thinks I'm mad but my gran used to have something similar and it lasted donkeys years, the wood even got better with age (no idea what it was) and if she fancied a change she'd change the fabric. Plus she seemed to have a lot more room. It's a bit like you see in some of the big kitchens in period drama - not that kitchen is huge....

I need to see some pictures...

My kitchen is not fitted. I have a massive old pine dresser base that has 3 drawers then an open shelf underneath which I pile all our pots, pans, serving dishes, trays and baking tins on, it doesn't have a curtain to hide them although it could I suppose. I also have 2 old bookshelves, one tall and one short which I keep all the food on and the cups and glasses. I keep all the plates etc in another dresser in the dining room - the kitchen is very small. We have one fitted unit which accomodates the sink unit - as this needed sealing around it made sense to have this built in.

I have had fitted kitchens before but would never go back, I love having everything visible and 'to hand' it feels old fashioned but real - I do have a very old house though so I think it works, not sure if it would be right in a house that is reasonably new - especially with the old, mismatched pieces I have!

Not sure how to do pictures but I can try if you really want to see it.

This is how my kitchen is my house in Cornwall looked before we moved abroad. It is how it will look again when I go home.

I have a small run of fitted floor units from Magnet for pots and pans etc and to hold the sink. I have an old triple cupboard (built by undertakers when there were no coffins required) that has long shelving for pantry stuff/baking bits along two of it's sections, and little shelves in the other bit that takes my Le Creuset and some china bits. The top of the cupboard is used for storing baking tins and the fish kettle (and my choc stash). I have a rack suspended from the ceiling near the range on which I hang all my frying pans.

The other end of the kitchen has open shelves in an alcove for cookbooks, and vases; the huge fireplace acts as the wine rack/booze shelf, (the other fire place has the range in it). Opposite the 'off licence', along the wall I have a long low ex-school pine cupboard (4 doors) which houses my glasses and some china. The rest of the china is on the plate rack on the wall.

It works for me. Fitted doesn't always work in older houses unless you can run to an individual designer and Smallbone, or John Lewis of Hungerford or whatever. I miss it.

I had a non-fitted kitchen when I was a romantic single girl and lived in a boudoir as I pleased, with no consideration for practicalities others.

It got really grimy and dusty all the time.

I am now utterly converted to Formica

Bonsoir - hadn't thought about the cleaning angle

Frutiloafrocks - photos would be great if it's not too much hassle, but don't worry if not

Thanks for the details scaryteacher. My house is originally 1920s but with some not entirely in-character additions, so a foot in both camps really. I prefer an older look though.

What an awesome idea!
My one concern would be keeping small hands out of everything. I guess a combo of open / cloth shelves and cupboards would really work though. I've been fretting about the kitchen in our new house which needs doing but which we can't afford to replace with fitted units... I wonder if this might be the solution for us as well... Hmmm puts on thinking cap

Our kitchen is a motley array of tables, a 1960's press, bookcases, a wire 'thing', worktops balanced between cooker and boiler and stuff nailed to the wall.

Oh, and one nice shelf.

I love it.

I have had both and like both too.I am on house 10 atm! I am about to move into my new house and for the last 3 or 4 I have done I do a mix of both.If you have fitted for the base units it stops crumbs etc and the built in cupboards make a neat appearance and keep all the tat out of sight.Once those are in and you have lived with it for a few weeks then get a local carpenter to shelve all the walls filling every nook and cranny with different sized shelves and storage and use that for attractive stuff and things like herbs etc that you like 'to hand'.I usually try and match the wall shelves to either the worktops or floors for a together look.HTH

I found my non fitted kitchen easier to clean than the built in Belgian nightmare planned by a man that I am lumped with atm.

Really wouldnt go for open shelves. We had that in our last kitchen and ended up with mice and flies . We ended up having to put absolutely everything in tupperware containers which wasnt a great look.

We currently have a "free standing" kitchen. Its Ikea very simple - we bought a range type cooker and cream 50s style fridge. I think its lovely simple - and less naff than the fitted kitchens I have had previously which seem quite 70s to me now. Am a convert and agree with scaryteacher actually think its cleaner than fitted as every month or so I can pull everything out and know its really clean behind everywhere. We pulled out the old crappy fitted kitchen here and what was behind the units would make you boak.

Mice and flies!I have never had that thank god!I think both can look great if they are well done.Don't agree that fitted looks dated though it depends on what you choose and good taste is timeless.The ikea ones are a real bargain and look sturdy and stylish but the habitat one is stunning too.

Yes I suppose fitted doesnt have to mean naff. Just that I am just back from my MILs house which is all 1980s fitted kitchen - she is horrified by our non fittedness

I think fitted or freestanding too many units is v dated looking and claustrophobic.

I totally agree that non-fitted kitchen could be cleaner. We have mice behind the units in our kitchen, but we can't pull the bloody things out to get rid of them (the mice). They come in through holes in the wall between our terrace & the one next door. Anyway. I long for a non fitted kitchen.

Bump -I am also considering a free-standing kitchen and would love to hear ideas (hope I'm not intruding Clangermum )

Bump

Have freestanding larder and island unit, rest is built in. However, next kitchen would love more free standing units. Hate the sterile feel of fully built in kitchens, white gloss makes me heave....

I think that fitted kitchens are horribly expensive and just look awful and fall apart really quickly. I mean, even a cheap B&Q one would cost me around 4K for my kitchen. If our house sale goes through, the house we are buying has an almost non existant kitchen and I plan to use dressers, butchers block and non fitted furniture, and build shelves myself. My only concern is that a) I will struggle to sell the house in the future without a fitted kitchen and b) small children and the dog will take everything out.

I dont see why you would get flies and mice if food was kept in shelves.... surely both can squeeze through tiny spaces anyway... like the inevitable gap between the kitchen unit and its badly fitting, dropped door?! (or is that just my kitchen?)

But yeah, I like the look, and it will work, but if you want to sell on your house soonish it probably wont be an asses. I have a cutain below the belfast sink and can see no reason why you couldnt extend that to the rest of the kitchen.

me too rollmops I don't get the gloss thing either.

siblingrivalry - the more the merrier

I am sooo sad, clangermum -I keep checking this thread for new posts and am ridiculously excited about planning a non-fitted kitchen next year

My fitted kitchen is falling apart, so I can totally justify it

I have a huge dresser in the playroom which I am going to move into the kitchen and I plan to browse ebay etc for some nice shelves etc.
I like a kitchen to feel cosy, IYKWIM, as I spend half my life in there. I just find the sleek, fitted look cold and clinical -I know other people love it but it's not for me.

I often think I was born in the wrong era - visiting museums is a total treat for me and I nick ideas!