In-frame kitchens

[hellostarling]

I remember reading on here when trawling through the kitchen archives that in frame kitchens are only ok if you get an expensive one and that cheap ones are crap. Apart from the material it is made with, what is the difference between cheap/expensive? What should we be looking out for/avoiding?

I am treading this path too. If you want to see some good quality but reasonable in-frame kitchens, find a local supplier who sells Neptune kitchens. You can see the prices of their cabinets on line, but remember to add on handles, worktops, cornices, appliances, fitting etc. I was surprised how reasonable their quote was.

I have also had a quote from someone who makes bespoke cabinets and provides everything including the fitting. Again, I was pleasantly surprised. There is little difference between these two and a Howdens MDF kitchen (although my builder says their quote will come down).

I haven't bothered with the likes of Harvey Jones - I know I can't afford it!!

Ah, we have just ripped one out. They can be very crap but more in terms of design than quality IMO.

The frame is always attached to the front of the cupboard. The door is fixed to the frame with butt hinges (better) or fixed back to the carcase with the kind of elbow hinges you have on ordinary cupboards - cheaper but much bulkier.

If a cupboard is only 30cm or 40cm wide, you put a 3cm or 4cm frame all round it, and if you have those elbow hinges the door doesn't open clear of the frame, you can end up losing over 10cm of your width and I couldn't fit pans or boxes in many of my cupboards.

If the cupboard has drawers they are much narrower to fit inside the frame - more wasted space. If it is a double door cupboard, a cheap one will have 2 frames next to each other so you have a big divider down the middle even when both doors are open, rather than a better one where there is one frame with 2 doors fitted in.

Corner cupboards can be horrendously inaccessible, especially if you have a drawer at the top, and the pull-out fittings may not work.

So the moral of the story is - make sure you don't have narrow cupboards, don't have drawers at the top, have butt hinges, look for decent double cupboards, basically get it designed to work with in frame units and not ordinary units with the doors swapped over. You could do that with even a cheap range and get a decent kitchen.

We had one when we moved into our house. I had to tighten up the drawer runners every few weeks because they were attached to spacing blocks rather than the sides of the carcasses and the fixings couldn't cope with the stresses.