Another kitchen thread... Pine or hardwood painted kitchen??

[scottishdaisy]

We are in the process of remodelling and extending. As part of the work, we are going to install a new kitchen. I've promised my husband that I will choose a cheaper option than the last one (!). We put a lovely in-frame painted kitchen into the previous house but seem to have moved a bit faster than we had planned.

I ended up looking at a Neptune kitchen by mistake (clearly a bad move) - it was so lovely - and now I'm desperately trying to find a similar looking kitchen for less money so my husband doesn't feel the need to cry or kill me.

Pineland kitchens were recommended on a thread here... but then I realised that most of the companies I've looked at in the past have used oak or tulip wood.... So - does anyone have any thought on whether pine is an acceptable alternative?!

Thoughts and suggestions please... If the worst comes to the worst, I can always tell him we can reallocate the money for his garage onto a beautiful kitchen...

As someone who works in the industry I would recommend use of MR MDF and hardwood.
I wouldn’t recommend all hardwood and I wouldn’t recommend softwood at all.

MDF has a stability that solid wood can’t match and if it’s being painted then there’s no point spending money on top quality hardwood that you can’t see

Softwood will give a poor finish

Thanks, Bebeboeuf! Any recommendations for a supplier that's not horrendously pricey?

I used unfitted kitchens but you would have to add on some fitting costs such as the sink units - a lot of their stuff can be free standing.

www.unfitted.co.uk/

There's a coincidence, Bilbo... that's who did ours last time! We did think they were great value but a friend of ours had a kitchen done a lot cheaper and my husband seems to have taken it as a challenge.... might end up going back to them. We had ours painted with F&B and it was awful, though... ended up wishing we had had the distressed look because it ended up just looking grubby. That put me off a bit, but they do do other paints.. what did you have, please?

We had a F&B colour (churlish green & an off-white/pale grey) but i think it was matched using another paint. Ours is 8 years old and looking fine. Maybe it was the colour you chose? I know other people who have chosen a style they want and then found a local carpenter who is able to replicate it much cheaper.

Yes local carpenters will always be cheaper than bespoke kitchen companies as they don’t have the overheads.

There’s pros and cons to each obviously but so long as you see example of said carpenters work and you are happy with it and you don’t expect a lot of hand holding

A good carpenter, mdf and tulipwood, and source all the bits (sink's, taps, etc) yourself. We had ours painted in oil eggshell, which lasts forever. I don't think that's commonly used at the minute, but some of the modern paints are not good alternatives. Also, have a visual plan and written agreement about what is included.

Thanks guys.... bilbo - I took your recommendation as a sign and gave Mark at Unfitted a shout - he's in Scotland next week so coming on Wednesday. We had Brinjal and a grey colour - maybe Charlestone - think both chipped or wore away in a five year period... might see what they say and go for colour matched or Little Greene.

Bebeboeuf/Sunonthepatio....we're new to the area so finding folk is a bit of a challenge - but definitely up for sourcing stuff ourselves. Hoping to try to get a bit of a vintage vibe so might manage to save some money that way...

Hi!
I loved the kitchens at Unfitted that Scottishdaisy and Bilbodog talked about...! May I be cheeky and ask how much roughly you paid and how big a kitchen it was? I'm trying to convince my other half to renovate the kitchen in this style but he thinks it will cost the earth...! Many thanks!

Hi Bookish... we had three walls of around 10' I think... one had a dresser, the other a double larder flanked by fridge/freezers and the third wall had an Everhot range with one wall unit and a plate rack ... we also had a really large island with breakfast bar, dishwasher and sink.... granite worktops.. the Unfitted cost was £22k and we spent another 8k on appliances. Which is probably actually very reasonable!

If you do go with Unfitted, they come along to your house and bring loads of samples with them. They were really very helpful!

Thank you, Scottishdaisy!! Time to have a chat with my DH!