Kitchen units advice please

[Jim K..]

Assuming the window opens?

[Jim K..]

Sounds like a potentially massive ballache ... Splintered finishes, wonky units, you name it.

What's wrong with small feet? Assuming the floor is pretty level even a couple of bits of 3x2 with packers as necessary will do what he wants?

[David]

Not for the kitchen but for the home office (or junk room).

It does look pretty straightforward; a straight run of work surface roughly 2,400 mm across the room with two pan drawer units under, one at each end. Then a tall wall unit to one side of the window.

The base units, though, come with feet to raise the work surface to standing level of about 900 mm off the floor.

I would like minimalist feet (just enough twiddle to level the units) to keep the desk top at around 750 mm off the floor.

Any issues with this (for instance that they don't do little feet)?

The first supplier we are looking at is Benchmark, (where I should be able to get trade prices through my Travis Perkins trade account). Has anyone any experience of them, good or bad?

Cheers

Dave R

[Adrian Caspersz]

FWIW, I made the mistake of buying a really cheap kitchen carcase on eBay, for a wall mounted cupboard. I could almost see the chipboard woodchips through the white "laminate".

Folks normally stand in a kitchen, but ...

Have some forward overhang off the top if you do intend to sit at them, so your knees can go somewhere underneath. Having some greater depth is useful for large PC cases etc..

[Robert]

Benchmarx maybe part of Travis Perkins but when I enquired last year they wouldnt accept a TP account but was told I had to open another Trade Account for Benchmarx.

[David]

Neglected to mention there should be around 900 mm of free space in the middle between the pan drawer units with plenty of space for knees and perhaps a couple of tower PCs.

Cheers

Dave R

[David]

Guy today said a Trade Account at TP was OK. I will check and report back.

On the subject of the legs for the base unit, it looks as though they are a top, a bottom, and a plastic tube so I might be able to cut the tube very short to drop the units down almost to the floor.

Cheers

Dave R

[stephenten]

You might find if you cut the tubes too short you might have access issues accessing the rear leg for adjusting if it's against a room corner or adjacent to another unit.....

[spuorgelgoog]

Just had a look at my naff Wickes units.

The horizontal base sits within the side panels, so you could fix the base part-way up the side panels, giving you clearance for the feet, but the door and sides would come almost down to the floor.

Owain

[TimW]

Really you need to retain a plinth / kick space and have a shortened cabinet. You might be able to just cut 150mm off the top of the unit (off the parts before you assemble it). You would then need the drawers configured as 2 pan drawers plus a shallow one on top, and you would use just the two deep ones. You might find carcases that size sold as bathroom cabinets, or bedroom.

TW

[David]

I'm thinking that as I have only two units, one at each end of the run, I can lift them out to twiddle feet if necessary.

If I set the backs up then I can do the fine tuning with the front, hopefully.

I should be able to get at three of the four feet because both units are going to be in room corners.

I'm hoping that it will be a lot more straightforward than a run of several units.

Cheers

Dave r

[spuorgelgoog]

In that case you could just fix them to the side walls and not have any feet.

The worktop in between the two units, in compression, will stop the units pulling out of the wall and all the force will be downwards on the wall fixings.

Diagonal bracing on the back will transfer forces from the worktop to the walls.

Owain

[Robert]

Small adjustable feet are available from Howdens - "HKC0073" - minimum

45mm.They are adjustable from within the cabinet and worked okay for me. I assume similar ones are available elsewhere.

[GB]

Do you need adjustable feet at all? Most furniture for carpeted rooms doesn't have them. Use a thin work top (maybe just a sheet of ply) which will twist slightly and conform to any unevenness. I'd rather do that than have a desk that's too high to work at.

You'd still need battens underneath the units, to allow the bottom drawers to open, but 20mm should do it.

[David]

Room isn't carpeted. :-)

I intended to use a single run of worktop to avoid joins and hopefully add strength.

However as the with of the room is about 2.4 metres it is a good thought that a standard board such as ply in 2400 * 1200 would cut down to make a desktop without paying through the nose for chipboard and plastic.

Hmmm...no, 1200 is just too deep. However a standard worktop is 600 mm so an extra few 100 mm might not go amiss. 900 mm perhaps?

Good information on the feet from Howdens by Robert, though.

Cheers

Dave R

[spuorgelgoog]

The excess depth could be ripped down to give you a matching shelf or two full width.

Just watch the diagonal length and non-square walls for manouvring it into place.

Owain

[David]

Sadly a full width shelf across the window might be counter productive. :-)

I suspect some gaps might end up being filled at the sides.

Probably trunking across the back to hide the cables. Hmmmm.....use the excess to make matching trunking? Or just do it the easy way with plastic?

Cheers

Dave R

[spuorgelgoog]

Or it might be the ideal place for a pot plant, or anything you want to expose to UV light.

Cut in some cable access portholes so the wires can drop down out of sight.

Owain

[David]

Yes - I will be looking for those plastic rings with brush inside to act as holes for cabling.

Now wondering if I should put some sockets into the desk top with a plug on the end of the cabling to go into a wall socket. Sort of designer distribution board.

Then again, so many things, so little time....

Cheers

Dave R

[Steve Walker]

How about those pop up ones? They fit into a circular hole and can be pulled up and locked, giving multiple sockets when required.