A young relative is looking to install a low-budget (actually, the lower the better) run of basic kitchen units, base and wall. Before she starts looking around, is there a standard recommendation for this sort of thing? Do the various DIY shed ranges differ all that much in terms of quality and design? Are there any other sources?
Many thanks.
Have a look at Wickes takeaway kitchens, think the budget one is called Dakota. Website is dreadful, pop into a store.
As far as I could tell when I was shopping around the actual units are just about identical, price only varies with the doors/fronts.
Depending on how much DIY will and skill levels are available don't ignore the possibility of buying previously used units. While nobody would like to buy dirty dirt encrusted previously used units of the day to day kind as sold in the sheds those who pay several thousands to have a kitchen fitted professionally are often the very people who can afford to have them changed more frequently because they want the latest look and before such better made units are anywhere near being worn out. Might pay to enquire from any local kitchen fitting firms who deal with the higher end of the market what they do with units they remove.
G.Harman
Avoid cheap £20 kitchen carcases from dodgy sources on eBay. Got one. Horrible chipboard, the edges dent and crumble like cheese.
Though it looks OK with £1 Ikea doors from their 'salvage department', though I also had to buy Ikea's own hinges.
Should have gone to Ikea in the first place....
+1
For that also look on FreeCycle, Freegle, local Facebook selling groups, and ex-display stuff in showrooms. From the latter, a mate picked up an entire kitchen worth of absolutely everything for less than £300 from the local Magnet. Originally was four times that!
+1
I've installed quite a few Ikea kitchens, and they are still going strong, some after many years. The carcases are all the same, and you just pay more for different doors. I don't rate their worktops or plinths very highly, though. To keep costs down, don't buy cornices and other bits of trim.
Many thanks to everyone for the replies and advice, all valuable.
IKEA.
Look at their prices, look at their guarantee.
I've installed three in different properties and would use them again without any hesitation.
Just one thing to watch out for, they don't have a gap for services behind the carcasses so you run services through them on the inside, at the back, or underneath and then up.
be aware that if you take a colour brochure from a kitchen supplier the most rxpensive range is first!
Malcolm
Thanks for the recommendation.
Are these different manufacturers' kitchens interchangeable? I presume that overall dimensions are pretty standard, but is it possible to fit, say, doors of one make onto carcasses of another? I suspect that the hinge cutouts are in standardised positions.
My preference would be for IKEA.
Once you have obtained a premade door with already hollowed out location for the hinge, you are stuck with using just that hinge unless you want to get messy with a coverup.
They are nice (Blum) but like all else it adds up.
Also, Ikea Metod cupboards hang off the wall on a suspension rail system.
Doing it traditionally with (?) won't work, it's all very specific for that make.
But, I like 'em.
I think that's highly over-optimistic.
It certainly is, largely because I inadvertently left out a word. What I intended to write was, "...are not in standardised positions..."
Lucerne is £58 for a 1 metre wall or base unit.
A sit-on sink (rather than inset) saves a metre of worktop and the cost/eff ort of cutting the hole
A lot of the cost of units can be avoided with careful use of open shelves on brackets, gaps below worktops filled with gingham curtains etc. The mock
-industrial artisanal look is very in at the moment (BBC4 informed me last night).
Owain
Owain,
Thanks for that. I didn't know that sit-on sinks were still obtainable. It's always irked me in the past to buy an expensive worktop and then remove a relatively sizeable chunk of it.
Sit-on sinks are also available at Ikea.
Is that what they call it, put the remains of window tape across the glass ,some congealing green soap in a dish and one of those rotting rubber spouts on the tap and you've got my grannies WW2 blitz damaged and never really fully repaired kitchen. She did replace the gingham curtains with some orrible nylon thing circa 1959 because it could be wiped down. Still looked awful.
G.Harman
I'd forgotten those! It was always quite exciting getting a new one and screwing it onto the tap.
Are you suggesting that my gingham curtains are not a la mode?
I was hoping to get some bonus points as they're hung from two cable rods taped together and hemmed to the right length with staples.
Owain
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