DIY Kitchens!!!

[YummyMummy27645]

Has anyone got a kitchen from DIY Kitchens and if so which range and colour combination would you recommend (preferably shaker style)? Open to any opinions and would love to see pics if possible. Thanks, Samantha.

[123itsme]

We have Luca Matt White in our holiday home. We got OnePlanOnHouzz to design it with us involved too, she supplies all the colour pictures and we got a list and plan etc to order with. Cost us just under £6k all in,with a granite island top and laminate worktops around the edge. We reused our previous appliances, and BIL fitted it for us.

[Stumbleine]

Thank you

[Titsywoo]

You could easily do it with 3.7m imo.

[Titsywoo]

We have a lot of space - more than needed - it's about 1.4m.

[Stumbleine]

Titsywoo - sorry to be a pest but...how much space do you have between the island and the other cabinets?

[Stumbleine]

That's really helpful thanks. Ours will be smaller than yours at 3.7 x 7m. I am worried about space around the island (though we will have a 900mm width rather than 1.2m like yours).

Other than that the room is to be laid out pretty much identically.

[Titsywoo]

Dimensions are 7.9m by 4.5m but that includes the bit with the sofa area and table. The bit where the actual kitchen is measures is about 4m by 4.5 but the end of the island is at the end of that section IYSWIM so you'd need about 5m by 4.5 to fit it comfortably (although we have a lot of space to the side of the island so you could get away with 4m width).

[Stumbleine]

Titsywoo - your kitchen looks gorgeous and very well proportioned! Do you mind me what the room dimensions are that you have there? We're getting at diy kitchen and your room looks like a similar layout to what ours will be.

[SuzyLucy]

Your kitchens look lovely Loumate and Titsywoo.

I need to place the order this weekend to have the kitchen in time for the builders according to their schedule. The trouble is the extension wall are just blocks at the moment. The plasterboard and plaster needs to be added. I thought I would add 5cm to each wall to account for this and then make sure I have some fillers in case I overestimate. Does that sound ok?

I have a sample of the cornflower blue flummoxedlummox. It's really lovely. We are going for a run of light grey and then hoping to colour match to a one of the farrow and ball deep blue paints for the island.

[Titsywoo]

This is our kitchen from diy. The units cost about 3900 Inc delivery. There are 7 base units, 2 double wall units, 1 larder unit and 2 bridging wall units (above fridge and sink). The island is 2m by 1.2m and is made up of 2 large drawer units and a tray section on one side then 2 narrow base units on other side (there is a gap underneath for stools). Diy were brilliant. I got my design from benchmarx then sent them the quote and they copied it. The cost of everything else (appliances and quartz) came to 6k plus decorating so your budget is more than doable!

[flummoxedlummox]

I've just ordered Carerra in cornflower blue. One straight run of units all floor + sink was £1700. I used the Ikea kitchen planner as it's very user friendly.

Fingers crossed.

[RaisingSteam]

We have one and no problems at all with the quality. We had Broadoak and painted it ourselves, my mum has Clayton and they both look great. Clayton might be a good choice for you. Broadoak you can faintly see the grain, Clayton is very smooth.

Couple of things:
The carcase units are as good as you will find anywhere for a chipboard kitchen, plus they have huge choice of sizes, extras, finishes etc. Really no need to worry on that front.

They do a big range of doors at different price points and so the cheaper ones will be foil wrapped, the more expensive lacquered or painted wood . I would really recommend getting sample doors if you are trying to choose between a few. Or ring them and ask them to explain the different finishes.

For the F&B colours I suspect they use a hardwearing spray paint tinted to colours licensed from F&B, but again if you get a sample it will soon become obvious. F&B themselves do a range of different paints with different finishes (matt, eggshell etc) , it is not one paint.

The DIY bit is doing your own measuring, design and parts list so if you are not confident in that then perhaps read up on it or enlist some help. But in the end you can do it on graph paper and they have lots of information on their website on how to handle corners etc.

[Loumate666]

Here's ours, units were around £6.5k from memory. It's a DIY kitchens Broadoak painted in F&B Purbeck Stone. Very pleased with it.

We got plans from howdens and wicks and then used them to input to DIYK site...pretty straight forward. No problems with the F&B paint finish...durable and easy to clean so far

Photos here uk.pinterest.com/hyde1571/kitchen/

[Ramona75]

The Careera will look nice. It's the same door as mine but it's the version where you put a handle on it. It has no foil wrap, just paint and laquer.

[SuzyLucy]

We are about to order the Careera in light grey with an island in F&B black blue. I am worried about the comment that the colour may look plasticky! The Careera is lacquered MDF (tiny budget) so maybe the painted look doesn't work so well as wood?Any ideas?

[YummyMummy2764]

Thanks Scuttle22 please do! We would love some opinions - should we go for harewood/Milton range or Broadoak range? (We want light grey shaker cabinets and white Quartz worktops). All opinions welcome

[Scuttle22]

there

[Scuttle22]

I would but it still boxed up in the garage! DH has demolished the kitchen and now awaiting electricians! Did you look on the website their are some good examples if you click on Broadoak bespoke and then customer reviews. I will post it but it may be in a couple of months!

[YummyMummy2764]

I'm so very grateful for all of this advice, Scuttle22 could you send a few pics of your kitchen as that's exactly what we're looking for - sorry if that sounds rude?

[Scuttle22]

We have just bought a painted oak in Farrow and Ball from the Broadoak range. It cost about £5000 without appliances. We have a built in fridge and oven which adds to the cost as the side panels for the cabinets are eye-watering. It is exceptional quality and the price is about half what you would pay on the high street.

My DH is fitting it himself so is quite good with plans etc he worked it out for himself and made his own scale diagrams etc.

[namechangedtoday15]

I think its the extras that add - not necessarily the units. I would expect the units to come in for about £5k depending on what you want - whether you want wall units on your run of units, whether you got for "specialist" units such as the pull out bin, pull out storage etc.

Then its the extras and how high end you want to go - how long is a piece of string?! Depends on where you are in the country, how much time you can dedicate to donkey work (in terms of getting deals / face to face with local companies, ringing round quartz suppliers etc - thats what I did). Do you want quartz just on the top of your island or for the side panels too for the "wrapped" look? What about upstands? Tiles? Bespoke splashbacks? Do you want wine cooler / Quooker tap / built in coffee machine??

£15k sounds alot but it will soon disappear depending on your spec.

[YummyMummy2764]

Thanks so much Ramona, you've really put my mind at ease

[Ramona75]

2 tall units, 6 wall units, 4 big base units + 1 x 1000mm wide pan drawer unit. 13 units in total + plinth, cornice, pelmet, end panels and Laminate worktop + soft close on all units. The price did not include appliances as I managed to reuse some and got some others from appliances online.

Your additional costs will come from a quartz worktop, could be looking at a few grand for that. A kitchen island is basically another kitchen so they can be as cheap or as expensive as you want them to be, put a wine cooler in there and watch the price sky rocket:-) I think you'll blitz it though for 15k.

[YummyMummy2764]

Hi Ramona, we would want a long row of units across one wall and a large(ish) island unit plus Quartz/corian worktops and high end appliances. What sort of size and spec is your kitchen?

[Ramona75]

Mine came to £3,500. It would have been 10k with Betta living! How many kitchen units do you think you need in your kitchen?