Kitchen & Utility Improvements - where to start?

[xandersmom2]

I apologise if this seems a basic question - first time owning/improving a home in this country and not sure where to start...

We're in the process of buying a new house, it's about 11 years old so the kitchen and utility units are original. The house generally is short of cupboard space, though, so I'm pondering how to improve this...

Kitchen - is in very good shape and I like the units (oak and very traditional/clean design) and I wouldn't be thinking of replacing it for at least another few years. However there's a big chunk of space on the wall next to the kitchen window which (having measured it) would easily accommodate a double wall cupboard and give me some much-needed extra storage. Of course it's highly unlikely I'll find an exact match cupboard 11 years on (and even if I did, the existing cupboards have aged and so a new one wouldn't look exactly the same anyway). I'm not sure who I need to call for help with this - would a carpenter be able to build something to 'fit in' with the rest of the kitchen? Or do I need a joiner? Or are they one and the same thing? Or do I need to accept that I'll have to replace all of the cupboard doors in the kitchen?

Utility - it's a small, long thin room and the builder put in the bare minimum, and the owners over the years haven't done anything with it. I, however, need to make the most of every spare inch! At present there's space for a washing machine, a single base cupboard, space for an undercounter freezer, and then a space for a tall fridge/freezer. In a perfect world, I want someone to build a tall cupboard in the fridge-freezer space (to put ironing board, vacuum etc in) as my fridge-freezer will be in the kitchen, make the extra undercounter space into another cupboard, and then put some wall cabinets up to the ceiling. As there's only one cupboard door in there at the moment I don't have to worry about matching anything as I'll just replace the one existing door. Again, who do I call for this - would I need to get a kitchen fitting company to come and quote as it involves a new layout? Or is a local carpenter/joiner best?

Thanks for any help...!

Kitchen - order a glass wall unit maybe ? If you want to not see through it either put fabric behind glass or use frosted window sticker.

Utility -order a made to size cupboard from somewhere like Jali.co.uk and order a new door to size for the sink base !
You could probably do all of this yourself if you are quite handy !

Ooooh, like the idea of a glass wall unit. Excellent idea! Could then use it for my nice glasses and pretty serving dishes (that don't get used all that often sigh.

Sadly not even a little bit handy, and DH is worse (if that's possible)....

I'd go for open shelves in the kitchen - especially if you do have nice stuff.

Worktop Express sell oak shelves that might fit.

For the utility, I'd look for a larder cupboard unit in B&Q or similar. That'd be the same width as the fridge-freezer. And you could easily pick up a matching door their. For extra storage, you could have shelving all around the room at door height level. Like this.