Anyone got new doors and worksurface for their existing kitchen?

[ampere]

It's around 10 years old (as is the house) and is sound and reasonably well laid out BUT it has a country cottage look which I want to update.

How hard is it is get someone to hang new doors and replace the work top? Is the end result as 'satisfactory' as staring from scratch? Can you retro-fit soft closers on drawers and cupboards?

Any experiences or observations welcome.

It should be fairly easy to get someone to fit new cabinets and replace worktops. You also have to think about replacing the end panels and kickboards as well. Have they got the country cottage look too?

Not sure about the soft closers, I know you can buy the stuff and add them to existing hinges. A fitter would be able to advise you on that.

For me though, we did our whole kitchen from scratch and I found it's the other things that also make the room look good - ie ... new immaculate plastering, recessed spotlights, new flooring too. Our old kitchen was in a pretty bad state though beforehand so it all depends on the condition of your room as it is now. If your house is only 10 years old, should be fine.

Do you mean 'cabinets' or just doors? We hope to retain what are unfortunately referred to as 'the carcasses' of the units, and just re-door and top them.

I think the end panels and kick boards are OK, they're plain wood-look laminate. The existing kitchen is perfectly serviceable, just dated, really, or perhaps I should say 'not to my taste'!

How difficult is it to recess spotlights in a downstairs kitchen?

Yes original plain white carcasses will be fine to keep.

Do the end panels and kick boards match the existing doors? If so, will the wood look match your new doors?

If you went for a moden white gloss doors for example, I should imagine your existing end panels and kickboards wouldn't match.

Should be ok to fit recessed spotlights into your kitchen ceiling as long as the ceiling is made of plasterboard. (In old houses, isn't always possible as ceilings made from very old original plaster)

Thanks, doozle.

The sort of 'look' we want is

this

but currently it's like

this -check out the kitchen image.

So not a massive change of colour- perhaps a little paler? Maybe with brushed aluminium effect kickboards?

Ah ok I see.

Yes aluminium kickboards would look great, especially if you go for those sort of handles in the B&Q pic.

Still reckon you'll need new end panels though to match ...or might just spoil the lovely new look. But not expensive to get and you just order them same time as the doors. By looks of your kitchen, you'll only need 4.

Oh and don't forget the trims either (the trims go at the top and bottom edges of the carcasses - ie just above and below the doors)

Do you know what kind of worktop you want? For some worktops ie granite, you need a specialist fitter. But otherwise the fitter should be able to do worktops as well.

Oops I saw in my second post I wrote "cabinets" when in fact I meant doors.

Yes, I think you're right about the end panels: they'd need to match exactly, wouldn't they?

As for work tops, probably nothing as flash as granite- B&Q or Ikea style would be good, in a dark fleck- the one in the B&Q photo above would be fine.

Do I measure up and order, then get someone in just to fit them? Or could a tradesman get cheaper prices at B&Q? The frustrating thing for us is that my BIL is a cabinet maker- but in Oz...

Small point: We haven't actually MOVED into this house yet. 5 weeks and counting!

Yes, to get a really clean new look, you'll need it all to match so I would definitely do that.

Think B&Q do a maia worktop that looks a bit like granite, very durable.

Worthwhile getting quotes from a fitter first before you go to B&Q just in case he flags up something about your carcasses or worktop that will affect your choices.

Then measure/count all your units and doors. Also measure dimensions of the room. Take all this and the photo of your kitchen with you to B&Q

They look like standard 60mm carcasses to me. They will price it up and probably do you a 3d picture of how it will all look.

It's a lot easier to just replace the existing doors than to completely change layout of the kitchen and units. So should be fairly straightforward.

By the way, Ikea has some lovely doors and same price bracket. Was also impressed by Wickes stuff too.

We kept out carcasses and then replaced the doors with B&Q ones, worktop from Ikea, new oven, hob, sink and tap. We had new colour end panels too.

The cost of doing that, and we did get the doors in the sale from B&Q and the cheap but fab worktop from Ikea was the same cost as a BRAND new Ikea kitchen. Plus then I had to pay a fitter.

Be aware that we had to have our hinge holes ALL re-drilled as the new doors didn't match up with the old ones. Plus we were limited to B&Q due to the size of our cabinets which you would think would be universal

Personally, even though our cabinets were in good nick I wish I had ripped the whole thing out and had a new Ikea kitchen. When you add in the cost of trim, and new kickboard etc it might be worth just having a look at a new kitchen.

Also removing the worktop may damage the tiles so you may need to replace the chipped or broken ones, matching in may not be easy when they are 10 years old.

I don't know if you would want to integrate the dishwasher or not. (lovely house BTW)

B&Q charge a fortune to fit a kitchen, you may want to order all your stuff and then get a local independent fitter which is what we did.

Good luck with the move.

We did this. DP measured the doors very carefully and a tour round the big name DIY chains identified that it was Wickes doors that would fit.

We replaced doors and drawer fronts, end panels, pelmets and cornices, kickboards etc. Plus new worktop, sink, hob, oven, extractor fan. All in all it cost about £2.5k because the doors we chose are solid wood. Wickes seemed to be the most expensive of the places we checked out but as they were the ones that fit we had no choice.

DP did the work replacing the doors, end panels, kickboards, extractor fan, oven. We got a kitchen fitter to fit the worksurface, hob, sink, pelmets and cornices. I think that was quite important to get it nicely finished. The doors are now soft close as its just something you fit to the hinges. Didn't bother with the drawers.

One thing I will say - you may struggle to get a kitchen fitter to help you if you need it. They can be a bit sniffy about helping out diy-ers and would prefer to book someone in with a whole new re-fit. We were lucky as the guy we got was excellent and fine with doing just what we asked. I think the cost for his work was about £6-700 in a fairly average sized kitchen.

Thanks to all!

I am so much better informed than I was a few hours ago!

So we'll move in, assess the condition of the carcasses carefully, if they're OK (and if they DO 'work' OK for us!) we'll measure up the doors/drawers etc then tour the relevant outlets- then perhaps get a fitter (if we can! -point taken, Claire!) to price the whole thing. THEN we'll price a replacement kitchen!

Then we'll prevaricate for a couple of months, then one of us will say 'Sod it, Let's DO it' and off we'll go with our chosen course of action!

A bit daunting but I feel we do spend a lot of time IN the kitchen, currently the existing one resembles the drawing room of a Gentleman's Club - all a bit TOO 'panelly' - so I would like a re-do.... AND that freestanding cupboard you see to the left of the photo (that doesn't match) doesn't come with the house- we will have an area to fill, possibly with a breakfast bar? SO we will SOME professional help!

I do agree with the Gentleman's club bit must be an arse to clean those doors, dust trap city.

We fitted the doors ourselves, but because we have a U shaped kitchen DH didn't want to mitre cut the worktop himself as all a bit too precise.

We got a fitter in to do the worktop, hob, sink and tap. We fitted the oven and dishwasher ourselves, I mean DH did I just stood there watching