Freestanding Kitchen

[IRegretNothing]

Thinking about pulling out our tired kitchen and replacing with a free standing kitchen, similar to this. What are others' thoughts? Will it negatively affect the resale value a lot because it's not fitted?

Would you be taking the kitchen with you when you moved or including it?

Personally I don't like the free standing style but lots of people do!

I am the devil in your ear to say, do it!

I actually have no experience of freestanding kitchens, so will be watching with interest, but we're about to move house and I am seriously considering putting one in (our new place urgently needs new kitchen). I really like the way they look. And frankly we don't have the money for a fancy new fitted kitchen, but freestanding units seem to be much cheaper, as you can piece them together secondhand and they don't require fitting.

Plus it looks rustic and homely and all that. The one in your pic is lovely.

I have a mix. The aga like range is fixed, and does the ch, hw and cooking. I have a run of fitted units under the windows, do drawers, dishwasher space, cupboards and pan drawers (and butlers sink), the the other side of the room I have my fridge freezer, a triple cupboard I use as a pantry and Le Creuset/bakeware storage, a couple of freestanding central islands, then as you move down the room, I have my dining table, one side an old massive fireplace that houses the booze, an alcove for shelves or a cupboard, then the other side, I have an old set of victorian school cupboards that house all my glassware, posh crocks, and a plate rack/dresser that holds all my everyday crockery.

It works for me, and hasn't been a problem when we let the house. I took the triple cupboard, dining table and school cupboard when we moved abroad but left the central islands and the plate rack. we have a totally fitted kitchen in our rental abroad, but I miss my unfitted kitchen. I am vertically challenged, so having top cupboards is a waste of space and time for me, and the freestanding stuff I can move around as I please.

I'm planning a partly free standing kitchen. This will involve getting a carpenter to make some units, for the sink area for example. And the rest I hope to pick up in the local reclamation place, like a wardrobe type thing I can turn into a larder cupboard. Some open shelving maybe. I really hate the fitted kitchen cupboard look, so expensive for what it is and dates quickly.

"I really hate the fitted kitchen cupboard look, so expensive for what it is and dates quickly."

Empress this is exactly how I feel. A fitted area around the sink is practical and can also allow for dishwasher or other appliances if required, but otherwise you can put wooden dressers and long freestanding units together yourself to your taste and change them with ease. Also the freestanding look is especially practical if you want any kind of range cooker, I imagine.

I dislike them - more gaps and crevices to get dirty, not as streamlined and I just don't like the look.

My range is built into a deep stone fireplace, so I could have fitted if I wanted, but I don't. I am currently living with a very swooshy streamlined fitted continental job, and the layout just doesn't work well for me (and I can't reach half the bloody wall mounted cupboards). I can't wait to move back to UK and have my unfitted kitchen with all my furniture back in it.

Swooshy streamlined kitchens do not suit old Cornish houses imo, hence why I don't have one in the UK.

scaryteacher your house sounds amazing

I have been thinking about this too as I hate our crappy old lady kitchen that we inherited and I think freestanding is just more interesting looking. It wouldn't put me off buying a house anyway.

No, not planning on moving anytime soon but one of my dad's arguments against it is that it will lose value. I hate the identikit, modern kitchens. I've lived in houses with high gloss white cupboards and they show up any missed splashes or drips, children's' fingerprints and are really hard to get smear free after cleaning. And they've absolutely no warmth or character.

We're also slightly limited on space and I find that built in units are actually not the best way of utilising space. I want lots of shelving, pans/utensils hanging from the walls, not stacked in cupboards, wasting space. Scaryteacher, I'm more than a little jealous!

One of the things I'm not sure how to make 'work' is the fridge freezer. A regular one would look out of place I think, and I don't want a smeg one but I want lots of colour. Does this make people's eyes bleed? I'm thinking it might wake me up of a morning!

Also, my budget doesn't stretch to patterned floor tiles so will good quality wood effect laminate in an aged oak work well do you think? I know what I like but I never know how to realise my vision!

Love that fridge colour!

If you have an older house with a traditional style of kitchen, with a kitchen table, dressers and cupboards, then freestanding furniture looks fine, especially if it does not all match. You might need to have a butler sink though, which I'm not keen on (if you do, have it at a height where you can reach the bottom without stooping). I have never seen an elegant and hygienic drainer with a butler sink.

I suppose your white appliances would need to be hidden in cabinets with toning doors, or in the pantry and the boot room.

I like that look. The one in the picture is part fitted isn't it? You need quite a bit of space to carry off fully unfitted.

Like others we have an L of fitted units, with a freestanding larder at one end and fridge at the other. Then another unit which is actually an 800m drawer unit but with skirting/side panels around so it looks freestanding. And some alcove shelves and hook rails. It is all painted same colour. It suits a cottagey house IMO. We just have an old white fridge freezer so sorry it will never feature in a Sunday supplement but at least it's not too try-hard.

I would be quite conflicted about the larder if we moved as I lovingly salvaged, stripped, filled and painted it. I think I'd have to get a new one to leave behind!

Can't imagine it would negatively affect the house as long as it was still practical and well laid out, i.e. not style over substance. It seems to be a rule of houses that the buyer will want white high-gloss and rip out your efforts in the first year. So you might as well have what you want.

Yay to vintage fridge btw!

Love that kitchen! I have a semi unfitted kitchen. We used Unfitted Kitchens (units come in sections but already painted) and had our builder fit the units under the window which house the double butlers sink, and dishwasher. I have a large butchers block type island which is where i do all my prep and a 2 oven aga which we brought with us from our previous house. Instead of wall cupboards i had a 'dresser top' made which takes the place of a large kitchen dresser i couldnt fit into this house and i am using a large old pine cupboard i bought 20 years ago as a larder cupboard. I have full stave itoko worktops fnished with osmo oil and love them.

Iroko worktops!!

Hi Op if I ever move again, would go with the unfitted option so much more individual & in many ways practical, ie big old cupboards to use as pantry/crockery etc my idea of bliss😀 I have an oak engineered floor in my kitchen diner has worked well, easy to keep clean warm underfoot.