New kitchen - advice please

[Josie1968]

I’m having a new kitchen fitted, never had one before so needing a bit of advice 😊

In terms of cupboard doors, probably wood is best but most expensive so probably not an option for us. Apparently wrapped kitchen doors are cheaper but do they last / are they hard wearing?

With regards to worktops.. I was thinking wood but that need’s maintaining regularly by sanding and oiling apparently and again will be more expensive. So I’m thinking laminate. What are peoples thoughts? To be fair anything will be an improvement on what we have, the drawers fall apart when we open them, the worktop is chipped and got heat stains from hot pans, some of the cupboard doors are wonky. Bit of a nightmare!

Any advice appreciated thank you x

I always think your kitchen should reflect the value of your house so if you have a starter home you'd want to go for a cheaper kitchen so wrapped doors, laminate worktop etc.

If your house is worth a lot more you'd want to preserve / improve its value by ensuring the kitchen reflects the house so wooden cupboards, more expensive worktops etc.

DH and I put a B&Q sale kitchen and laminate worktop in our first home. We fitted it ourselves, it looked nice, modern and the price was right for the house and our finances at the time.

We are just starting to plan to replace the kitchen in our 'forever' home and will be having it professionally fitted and are looking for a more expensive finish albeit I don't want to go mad because the house is 'mid market' for where we live.

Ps, if you go for laminate buy a granite worktop saver and put it next to your hob so you always have somewhere to put home pans down.

@FairyCakeSprinkles thank you. We’re in our 50’s and now outright own our home, but it’s only an ex-council house but at our age wouldn’t really be able to afford to move / get a mortgage anyway so I guess this is likely to be our ‘forever’ home!! It’s in a nice area though with open fields at the back in a nice quiet cul-de-sac so I guess it’s ok. Having said that I agree I wouldn’t want to spend loads as it’s not a super swanky house!! But it certainly does need updating but we’ve not had the money to do it before. So I’ll probably go low to mid range on the price I think. Anything will be an improvement on how it is now, I’m totally fed up of it 😂😅 I’m getting a local company in who has good reviews to project manage the who thing, they’re going to take everything out and also putting new flooring in throughout downstairs too. X

I thought about wood worktops and in the end I couldn't be arsed with all the faffing. Stuff like that is great if you don't use your kitchen much, but I wanted practical and not to have to worry if I set a pan down on it or spilled vindaloo or bleach. I went for laminate in the end (I'm sure plenty will be along to disagree).

I have wrapped doors and they've been fine considering I have two kids, two cats and a dog who sees a surface and thinks it will be a good springboard. I wouldn't recommend white, though for reasons outlined above (they wipe down fine but it's a never ending job).

We got a cheap kitchen which now looks mega expensive mainly because we got a really beautiful quartz worktop so it lifts the whole thing. Really love the worktop so if you can stretch to it I'd recommend quartz

Now you've said the kitchen is for the long term I think I'd go for something mid range (so you aren't going crazy compared to value of the house but it's still good quality) and price up more expensive worktops. My sister has corian which looks great.

The trouble with laminate is I think it has a shelf life after which is starts to look chipped and tired... much as you describe your current laminate. This suited us in our first house as we weren't going to stay there. My current laminate worktop was put in by previous owners and is 9 years old, it's starting to chip on the mitre etc. It was a reasonable quality laminate too.

I guess it depends on the size of the kitchen but a composite worktop (as opposed to granite which is £££) could be a really good investment. I'd avoid wood, I takes so much maintenance and if you don't do that right it won't last as long as the kitchen either.

We had a Wickes kitchen put in at our last house and had laminate wood effect work tops. The solid wood sounded like too much faff! We were really pleased with the laminate work tops - people who saw them assumed they were wooden! And they wore well. We sold the house last year and worktops were all still fine eight years after installation.

The Wickes cupboard doors weren't the highest quality - noticeably lighter than the solid wood doors, but they were fine for us and wore well in a family house with a small child crashing about!

We've done 2 kitchens (in two separate houses). Both times with a close eye on the budget. We went for thicker than average laminate wood effect worktops. Being thicker they somehow looked more high end and a lot of visitors seemed surprised when they touched the worktop and it wasn't wooden.

Go to several places, get quotes and their kitchen designers to mock up what it might look like and then haggle. We got loads off of our second kitchen. When we first got a quote it was £25,000. By the time we paid for it we had got it down to 13,000 by swapping bits in and out, looking at alternatives and persuading Wicks to throw in appliances. Not cheap by any stretch but we were fitting a large kitchen and 7 years down the line it still looks 👌🏼 and I flippin love coming down to it in the morning

I think DIY kitchens based near Pontefract is your friend....lots of posts on here about them. They do have a virtual showroom in line. You have to design it yourself or pay someone, but if you can spare a visit they will help you. Mid week is even better

Quality is lovely. Our kitchen is nearly 5 years old now and still looks like new

our kitchen is from DIY we went for acrylic wrapped doors and duropal laminate worktops very pleased with both of them the doors just need glass and window spray and a microfibre cloth to clean them and the worktops are very thick laminate not shiny and plasticky looking and very easy to keep clean