Renovating kitchen using existing cupboards - anyone done it?

[InsolentAnnie]

Plan is to get new fridge/freezer and cooker, possibly second hand, then move some of the existing units to create an island, and then get new worktops. I’m just not quite sure where to start with working out what fits, what we can do ourselves and what we need a pro to do and what order to do things in! Any advice greatly received…

There are companies that 'renovate' existing kitchens. You could call one for a quote and then you'll find out what's possible and if you can actually 'DIY'.
I kept the same layout and had new doors fitted and a new worktop, plus new sink. Very pleased with the results. It looks brand new, which on the surface it is, just the old carcasses which no one see's.

I’m thinking to do this too,OP.

I’m going to keep the original layout minus a bit that sticks out as a “ breakfast bar”. Will get new cooker and hood and possibly new cupboard and drawer fronts although tempted to keep them and paint as they’re quality and solid wood. Will get new worktops and flooring. Carcasses seem bullet proof and solid. From the mid 80’s ( when things were built to last). No point in replacing them with flimsier modern versions.
There is a company near me that does this sort of thing so it will be a fraction of the cost of a new kitchen.

Yes, we did. Did change out three cabinets, as we wanted to make the gap for the French door refrigerator wider. Kept the top two as cupboards but made the base one into drawers.

We're planning to do this. The cupboards are all solid wood and bespoke fitted into our wonky old kitchen so they're staying, we're just going to paint them, replace the floor and swap the wood worktops for quartz.

We've gone a step further - the kitchen we inherited when we bought our current cottage was a 1960s one and at first glance it was pretty hideous. Initially I repainted the white wooden cabinets and changed the handles and, in the process, realised they were actually decent quality, in-frame, built to fit the space by a 1960s trades person I guess. Better still, they were mostly drawers, albeit shallow ones.

So, having decided to relocate the kitchen to the old living room, we opted to keep some of the drawers units, carefully removing them and have added more (oak) in-frame cabinets found on eBay for less than £400. I'm now in the process of painting the whole lot in Edward Bulmer eggshell finish.

The worktops and sink/taps etc were minging and had to be ditched, so these will all be replaced. DH found some large format marble tiles at a car boot sale for £30 which will form the splash back behind the reconditioned French range cooker. Beneath layers of carpet and plywood we discovered lovely wide Georgian floorboards which we'll be restoring.

I'm aiming for a deVOL look on a miniscule budget!

You can use the 'shell' and change the doors, or paint the doors. Changing the ironmongery is the best update, and as you say the worktops.
You can match in any new units you need.
Draw a to scale floor plan and play with it.

We did.

We moved into a house with a basically unusable kitchen (every builder laughed when viewing it and said they never seen anything like it and that it was obviously DIY). It had cabinets that matched other built in cabinet doors/drawers throughout the house and these where OK (except the useless non practical layout) but everything else was built out mismatched bits found in skips by the look of it.

We kept the cabinets but completely removed, gutted everything back to brick, built new walls, new ceiling, new floor (old one had rotted), rebuilt everything (electric, plumbing, plastering) then just whacked the cabinets back in in a new more logical floor plan with new worktops and appliances.

Honestly it look 1000x better, you wouldn't possibly believe its the same kitchen. It can be hard to find a builder that will do it though, many ghosted us, wouldn't quote or no showed. Renovation companies wouldn't do it, they basically just paint/wrap/replace doors on whats their, they wouldn't change things around and fix building issues.

For planning, measure your cabinets then play around on DIY kitchens planner with same sized units. Builders might insist somethings are changed for safety or practicality of plumbing/electrics etc... but it will give you a good idea to start with.

Thanks all. I’m actually fine with the units - they’re an inoffensive cream that’s still sold everywhere so don’t look dated. We’ve also worked out a layout that only requires a few cupboards to move and no utilities moving. It’s more the practicalities of the order things are done in that we can’t get our heads round - who to ask to change from a gas hob to an induction range cooker (will a gas engineer do both or will we have to get an electrician to sort the installation of the new one?); how long it’ll take to actually chop off bits of worktop and remove cupboards to make way for the new cooker / how to work out if or how we can make an island using our existing IKEA moveable island plus some cabinets from elsewhere in the kitchen / when to get worktops and how to measure up for them and who to get to install them.