Re-doing kitchen ourselves - where to start?!

[JonbonMoany]

So, we bought our house last year and have slowly been doing up the house here and there. Our kitchen is tiny and horrendous. I don't have specific dimensions but it's about two Gretchens by a Cindy (maybe 3m wide x 6 m long).

It needs completely re-doing. From the floor to replacing the cabinets to the surfaces.

Where do I start?! And can anyone recommend somewhere to buy kitchen supplies?! Where is good quality and low value? I would like a farmhouse kind of vibe. It's one of those things that need doing but i'm so stressed at the mere thought.

My DH has some experience with this. He says it really depends on how much work you can do yourself and how much money you have available.

Are you planning to keep the existing layout? Or do you want to change it completely? Wickes and B&Q do standard kitchen cupboard carcasses and doors, as well as work tops. You can also find them online, and even on ebay. There are loads of places that do tiles, we use Topps Tiles mostly but it depends who's open at the moment I suspect.

If your existing cupboard frames and work tops are ok, you could just replace the doors and retile the walls/floor to get the look you want. If not, you could take down what you have and replace with new cupboard carcasses and doors. But you may need to plaster walls if you do that, it depends on what your walls are like and whether you're replacing the cupboards in the same place as the existing ones maybe. And if you're fitting new worktops you will probably need to get someone in to do that well.

There are tonnes of videos on youtube to show how to do things like fit cupboards and tile walls.

The only things I would avoid are messing with gas and electrics, if you need those doing, get someone professional to do that for you.

It's a big project, you'll need to plan a lot, not only how you're going to do it and lay it out etc but also how you will manage without a kitchen while it's being done. Measure carefully and make sure those measurements are absolutely accurate before committing. See if any of your friends can share their trade/student/oap discount with you. Draw it all out before you start, and make sure the layout will work for you. Think about what you like and dont like currently about the space. Make sure you have plenty of storage.

Good luck!

Start by measuring and then have a look at cabinet sizes & configurations that will fit into the space you have and what you can/can’t live without. ie are you desperate for a tall larder & would choose that over a pan cupboard? Do you need corner cupboards, if so will you be happy to stretch in for things rather than have a pull out carousel? (that costs lots more but doesn’t hold half as much)

A lot of places do a design service so they can do a computer generation of where cupboards will go and how they will look. If you can live with it a while longer there are generally sales in January -not sure on other sales timings.

You can get basic carcasses anywhere really and then spend your money on the doors & handles but don’t forget to factor in hinges, legs plinths and worktops.

Previous house we built our kitchen that we ordered from Homebase. They were fantastic quality but we no longer live near one. B & Q are reasonable enough carcasses & different price options of doors. Wickes have super basic up to pretty decent. We actually bought the kitchen for this house off eBay. Someone had bought a recently new built house & they wanted to put a grey kitchen in so listed all their (less than a year old) units.

I would draw it out on paper & see what size unit would fit where then look on line & list the price of each size needed & compare costs.

Two Gretchens by a Cindy - I understood (and enjoyed) that reference.

I’ve redone the kitchens in my current and previous house by myself and on a shoestring budget. Farmhouse style.

You can buy kitchens on eBay for very little, people just chuck em out. I bought a 1931 solid pine floor to ceiling butler’s pantry, including huge Belfast sink and teak draining board for £150. Some philistine was ripping the soul out of a beautiful Arts & Crafts home. I rejigged them a bit for our space and they looked amazing.

In my current kitchen I repainted all the cabinet doors, took some of the wall cupboards out and replaced with farmhouse style open shelving and hanging racks from Ikea. Cheap as chips and a much better use of the space.

If you like vintage / farmhouse style then freestanding pieces might be the way to go, especially if your joinery skills aren’t great (mine are basic but I get by).

Fitting them is fiddly but not that difficult if you take your time. The finish won’t be as perfect as a decent fitter, of course, but if your budget doesn’t allow...DIY kitchens are amazing - and come ready assembled so a lot less faff. However they don’t do any design work, so if you’re not comfortable doing that bit yourself, use an independent designer (couple of hundred quid) or one of the main stores’ design services. There is no obligation to buy from the store even after a design visit.

I think it's a bit of a CF thing to do to go to a showroom to get a free plan done, if you have no intention of buying from them.

We did most of the kitchen ourselves in our first house. We got the cabinets from diy kitchens as they came ready built. We had to get someone on to do the gas and plumbing but only a days work each.
We had quartz worktops but they came. To measure once the cabinets were in so that was easy.
The main difficulty We had was ensuring our measurements were exact and getting the cabinets straight.

Go here - planner.diy-kitchens.com/

Create the room and then start placing some units, move them about, look at the 3D model (ignore the colouring, it's crap) and try to imagine yourself using the room.
Bin it all and start again...

Super easy and very enlightening. Also get on to Kitchen designers and see what they come up with

My DH works in the furniture/design business although his company doesn't do kitchens.
He would say firstly work out your budget, we spent 15K on ours and thats with DH making the cupboards etc fitting them doing the plumbing etc (not the gas) we completely moved everything round and put in a new window. Next think about layout, if you cook a lot then IMO you want as much workspace as possible. Are you going to eat in the kitchen decide where you want to put the table.Then look at appliances do you want a dishwasher is your washing machine in the kitchen ditto the fridge, and what sort of fridge do you want? How much space will it take up? Ovens cookers hobs we found were a minefield I looked at hundreds and couldnt decide. There are hundreds to choose from a prices vary considerably, do you want 1 or 2 ovens a separate grill more than four rings? With sinks we have a 1 1/2 bowl one I personally wouldn't be without it but it means the sink takes up more space. Lastly worktops another minefield Polished granite is hard wearing, my DH knows lots of people in the stone business they recommended "honed slate" but you do have to look after it very carefully we are not like that. Once you've choosen you need the sizes of all appliances sinks etc and then see how you can fit them in. Use a piece of paper draw a scale drawing the size of you kitchen and make cut outs to scale; the sink oven dish washers etc remember doors have to open, pipe work etc.
Then decide what look you want, thats the easy bit. My DH cant tile so we used back painted glass you can put it in walls that need replastering and totally cover it up and its super easy to look after, everyone admires it.
We has friends who were good at DIY he said fitting a kitchen really well to get a good finish is an art but not impossible if your very handy and your walls and floors are slopping all over the place or full of lumps and bumps.
Spend money on good taps and a sink and if youre a serious cook a high end cook/oven/hobb you wont regret it.

Thank you everyone. So helpful!

Be handy to know what order people do stuff in. I have an open plan kitchen/living room, and have engineered wood flooring that needs to go down (glued down rather than floating) and the advice is pretty mixed. Some say flooring should go down first, others say after. Some say take the flooring up to just under plinth, others say take all the way under cabinetry and units.

That's because there's no one right answer Smallgoon, each way makes sense for some situations. Since all are "correct" just pick whichever makes your life easiest, with an eye to expense too. If you lay the floor first, make sure it's well protected as you put the rest of the kitchen in.

Second the suggestion for diy-kitchen's planner, and I'd recommend their pieces as well if you want a fitted kitchen, they're very good.

@TheHighestSardine thank you! I've actually spent the last 2 weeks playing around with the DIY Kitchens planner - it is excellent. I couldn't get on board with the Ikea one as I didn't find it as user friendly.

I guess my concern is that my flooring could get damaged during the process of kitchen being installed. I wondered if it were any different for those gluing the floor down.

My parents did that with their recent redo Smallgoon, they chose to glue the wood down first and protected it with 8x4 sheets of plastic gaffer taped down while they rest went in, cutting it away as units went in. There's foam roll too, examples of both here:
www.wickes.co.uk/Products/Building-Materials/Protective-Sheeting/Surface-Protection/c/1018003

For the OP, don't do it all yourselves! Get help with the kitchen layout, lots of places will do that for free. You must get gas and electric done by a professional. Plumbing is a good idea to get done by a pro too, definitely on the water pipes, waste pipes are a lot easier.

It's really useful to have someone with some experience to hand when you're doing the actual build, to ask "how the fuck do we..." which will happen several times as you come across tricky cases.

Pay a lot of attention to how the current kitchen is attached and braced to the walls and each other as you remove it. Take photos!

Take photos as you go, as well. Then you'll be able to find the stopcock that's hidden behind a kitchen cabinet, later!

Wehaveafloater

I agree, and designed both of my kitchens myself, but other people see it differently.

That's cool that you can do it yourself, I have several properties and now only ever use Karen from OnePlan to design them for me. She doesn't sell stuff, just designs with you! It's quite fun!

We had to put our Marmoleum flooring in before some of the fitting. We got large packing boxes, flattened them out and taped the card over all the exposed bits of floor to protect them.

@Smallgoon If the room is empty, flooring first. Protect it and install the kitchen. It's so much easier for both the floor fitter and the kitchen fitters but make sure they protect the flooring. My lot will be putting down foam liner so they don;t ruin a very expensive flooring!

Thanks for the advice all. Given I haven't even ordered kitchen yet, but have the flooring sat in the living room waiting to be laid, makes sense to do it first. Will deffo put some foam etc down to protect it.