www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Hello all,

I'm in the process of deciding on a new kitchen, it's a long awaited project! I will be fitting it myself, I'm an advanced DIY'er, and make the odd bit of furniture... but this is my first kitchen install. I will possibly have help from my brother, who is a carpenter.

I've been around and had lots of conversations with a variety of kitchen suppliers, from Harvey Jones to Ikea and all in between. I now know exactly what I want...but not sure how to get it without remortgaging or taking on too much work!!
Obviously I would love the quality of a hand built kitchen, but at the cost of a Howdens kitchen!!

I'm currently mulling over buying carcasses from Howdens, making (or having made) tuplin wood shaker doors, draw fronts and oak draw boxes, and making the plinths, trims and end panels. Then fitting this altogether and hand painting (or sprayed) by me (or professionally). There are varying amounts of work I could take on, from all of it (excluding carcasses) through to only fitting... it's a cost time trade off obviously!

My main gripes with a standard Howdens/Wickes/Ikea kitchen:
- I can't get the door style and/or colours I want - although I've seen DIY kitchens discussed on here, and they seem promising from this perspective - how much support do they give you when ordering to make sure you have everything??!!
- Draws, I hate those metal sided draws...thoughts on retro fitting dovetail draw boxes?!
- Gaps/edges, a hand painted kitchen allows you to close up all of those gaps between cabinets, panels and trim to give a seamless finish.

I would welcome some advice from the those that have been there and done it!

We bought our kitchen 4 years ago from diy kitchens and the service was excellent as was the quality of their kitchens, the carcasses are ready assembled with everything you need. Because every kitchen is made to order I don’t see why you can’t order the carcasses in a format that you want even if it costs a LOT more.

Mike

I made tulip wood, or poplar framed shaker doors when I did over our kitchen, it was Magnet so I kept the carcases insitu. The doors were made using a tongue and groove router set that cut the panel housing and the joints. It took me ages to plane and thickness the stock, cut all the grooves and hinge mortices, glue up and then paint. I regretted starting it. I was going to make drawers using my dovetail jig but by this point I wanted to finish it so used metal sided draw box kits. By the time I had tiled and done worktops, floors and window dressing it must have taken me a year.

If I analyse it I paid for it out of revenue and not capital as I was buying bits as I went along over a period of time so it was not a huge outlay at once. It looks good but it is still a kitchen that will come out in a few years when a new style becomes dominant and it looks dated like the previous 90's wooden doors did.

My suggestion to you is do not get to focused on it, or spend too much, it is a disposable fitting these days and anyone moving in will pull it out and replace it.

DWD

We used DIY kitchens. Found them to be really good quality. As an example, the unit panels are edged in 2mm thick ABS where most others use melamine. If you can get to their showroom it is worth a visit. Our kitchen was fitted in 2012 and still looks as good as the day it was fitted. Another thing I can highly recommend is fitted glass splashbacks instead of tiles. They look good and are very easy to keep clean.

We also used DIY kitchens , and found them to be good.

Although we had fun and games ordering the cabinets that would enable us to fit the washing machine and dishwasher at around. 450mm high , this in the end involved me in lot of modification to standard units and doors, I think the idea generally met with rolling eyes at DIY and everywhere else. Seems to be a fairly usual thing in the US. And boy does it save ones back, and the wife,s mind you she seems to have forgotten where the dishwasher is !

I can also recommend DIY kitchens.
I used them for our kitchen and fitted it myself.So easy when all the units are prebuilt.
I've also just bought a load of narrow units for use in our bathroom as cheaper and more choice than general bathroom units.I did get a message from them as I had ordered a shelf unit for a cupboard width I had not ordered( bought as spare wood) and a plinth a different colour from the units, again ordered correctly.This must prove they check what people have ordered.

@ DWD, I think you are right to say don't get too focused on it. I'm going to investigate the DIY kitchens option as I think that will get me almost what I want, at a good price.
I'll probably go for one of their in frame hand painted options. I can always retro fit hardwood draw boxes later if I find myself caring as much as I think I might!!

Any tips for making those joins between cabinets/trim/end panels disappear?

Cheers