New Kitchens - No, no's & yes, yes's ?

[lovingthesun]

We are having an extension which will house part of our new kitchen.

Our budget is around £10k, plus appliances, worktops, flooring.

Where are the good places to start ? Had a quote for £11k from Wickes, currently waiting for a quote from Howdens & Magnet.

Nothing fits the bill in B&Q, but thinking of having look at Homebase.

Any recommendations ? Am after painted wood, shaker & granite worksurfaces.

wigeon, the howdens pull out holds loads. i have jars,small bottles etc in the door and all dried etc in the body of it. it houses pratically all my dried stuff and bread.

I'm not a bit fan of pull out larders - they wobble too much and are too heavy - better to have a larder with internal drawers.

I think shaker kitchens are looking a bit dated now too. There is no such thing as a timeless design. Fitted kitchens are a modern addition to a house!

I have gone for a Matt laquer finish rather than gloss - not sure it'll be more timeless but it will be easier to keep.

I agree with you about shaker kitchens (especially if the handles aren't quite right and for some reason they hardly ever are with shakers). Am a fan of pull-out larders though (and those with internal drawers) - nothing ever gets forgotten about.

When I said "glossy" earlier, I should have said "slick" or "chichi" rather than implying high-gloss.

Wall units look better if there is less of them. Choosing shorter units and place them higher - level with the tall units if you're having them. Gives a bigger splashback and doesn't feel quite so claustrophobic. In a more traditional kitchen I'd go for shelves.
Source everything separately - units, granite/quartz, glass splashbacks, fitting and appliances - you will save quite a bit and it's very easy to do and you will save a significant amount of money.

Disparity did you get your units from Wickes? If so are you happy with them?

No the wickes pan drawer on display fell to bits when dh lent on it - so we lost faith. But up till then we were pretty happy. I liked the Caledonia...

Oh yes I remember you saying that somewhere.
Where did you find your units?
DId you find it took a long time to source everything yourself?

Cointreau - we have those horizontal cupboards now with those doors that you lift up. Only problem we found is that the arm thingy has gone a few time so you might want to watch that.

I am going for shaker style painted in a warm stone colour with similar colour worktops and oak flooring. No overhead cupboards as we don't need them. Big larder cupboard. Have seen it in a magazine and it's the only one I keep coming back to after a year of looking.

House is Edwardian so don't want anything too contemporary but I think the colour of ours will make it look a bit more modern but not jar with the rest of the house.

It's not tricky at all to source your own appliances...just google. Worktops - some suppliers will try to frighten you with stories of chinese stone - or other types of poor quality product - my advice is go for quartz and buy a brand name Silestone, Ceasar or Dupont - that way you know what you are getting. Also you can order samples and be totally sure you are getting what you are paying for.

After the wickes experience we decided to go German - looked at Hacker, Schuler, Pro norm and Leicht - units looked more robust and they all used Blum drawer runners and we wants lots of drawers. Get your design sorted and then ask for quotes - they are all fairly similar.

Thanks Disparity. I will check out the German makes you mention, German kitchens were raved about on another thread recently as well.

TheSecondComing - that's terrible! That's the first negative I've heard about Howdens, though.

We have white gloss base units from B&Q (Cooke & Lewis) and it is still looking fab 18 months on - we had the same in our old house and that was pretty bombproof too.

Having said that, the appliances we bought from B&Q have been rubbish - the induction hob is grumbling and the microwave has already packed up. We did buy fairly low-range appliances, though.....

Thanks for your comments about what is "now"
Ours is a newish family home and we couldn't trust ourselves with wooden work tops. My kitchen table has a granite top and I'd prefer granite - is it really going to look dated soon? Also the long steel handles that you see everywhere - vertical and horizontal - are they going or staying in style?

I think granite is a bit like those mosaic tiles that were everywhere in the late 90s - there's nothing wrong with it intrinsically but is a bit ubiquitous (especially the very dark stuff with hardly any "grain" in it at all). The same with those long handles (which I like) - they started as a quite high end thing and began to appear everywhere.

It depends how much it bothers you but my philosophy is, if you're putting in a new kitchen, then it's probably a good idea to put in one that is current rather than one that already looks a bit 2004 (I know that sounds snobbish but I can't think of any other way of putting it ).

I would add that a really good design in terms of layout will outlast any of the finishes though.

SECONDCOMMING!!!!!!

i thought mine was peeling,took the door off took to howdens, the kitchen fitter had forgot to take the protective film off!! try it,they did say if it was faulty they would have replaced it.we had had it a year.

So, what are the most "current" handles - feel very ashamed of the gold coloured dangly ones on my 1996 kitchen

The only ones I like at the moment are the long narrow chrome coloured ones. About to be dated or not that is what I am having!

gold dangly handles.

Recessed handles or those interior "push-click" mechanisms are the ones that architects have been specifying in the places I see. I find them a bit silly - the push click ones especially mean you end up with lots of grubby marks on your units. But I do think discreet handles are the ones that are a bit more now: small, brushed chrome, placed centrally rather than the opening side, iyswim.

Buda - absolutely. I think they're nice.

I like handleless - in my kitchen the handles are hidden - you can just see a very subtle trace of stainless along the length of the door. Agree about the push - click version of handleless they are very annoying a grip rail is much better idea.

My new kitchen is being fitted as we speak. I've gone for magnet gloss without handles. I have lots of wide drawers which I think are much easier than cupboards and two large larder cupboards which I am very excited about. I got it in the sale although out of sale at that price I would have gone to the trendy kitchen shop near my house. In sale it's reasonable. Would never ever buy the granite. Or quartz through them - even in sale it is far more exoensive than the usual price at an independent. try someone like cargo granite in bedford . Diapol is also good I've heard but they don't have a factory here so you're dependent on nothing going wrong with transport for eg to hold up your build.

We're having tiles but I have friend with kardean who are very happy with it.

Get appliances online if you have a preference for the names. Miele and Siemens are good names although you can get decent applicants from other makes...

it's a learning curve !!!

Oh dear, I need a new kitchen even more than I thought.

if you've got a bit of cash to spend then have a look at this company www.pedini.co.uk/html/home1.html. truely beautiful. and italian so v well made.

Ooh yes, forgot to mention, deep pan-drawers have changed my life! I'll never be delving in the back of a cupboard again.

YY to deep pan drawers. The island unit in my current (rented house) kitchen has 4 deep pan drawers at the back and 2 at the front with a utensils drawer above and 2 narrow pull out larder type drawers either side and it holds SO much.