KITCHEN UNITS FITTED

Many months back when I first started looking for kitchen units, I searched high and low for a retailer that would supply me with a black carcass coupled with oak doors.  Don’t be daft, no-one wants that colour combo for a kitchen so it was no surprise that kitchen units fitting this specification couldn’t be found anywhere for love nor money. 

 

Black and wood - a lovely combo

Eventually I got a quote from IKEA – certainly can’t be beaten on price for their units.  Their quote was about half the price of all the other suppliers approached (Homebase, Wickes, B&Q etc) and if you have a small kitchen then you know IKEA’s design is going to make the best use of all available space.  Of course, all units are supplied flat packed so ask yourself do you really want to spend hours assembling it all?  Not likely.  IKEA’s installation costs are calculated on a per unit basis, the more you have to build, the higher the price.  As a rough guide I was quoted £1,500 for assembly of my kitchen layout. 

Colour wise, IKEA’s black Metod cabinets would have been perfect but for the lack of oak look doors and the fact that they don’t supply 500 mm wide units.  The closest wood look door called Askersund, a light ash offering the colour of partially cooked pasta, just didn’t do it for me.

 

The closest choice for black cabinets

Too light in colour

In the end I purchased the kitchen units from Covers at Chichester who supplied these ready built instead of flat packed, a bit like a Howdens kitchen.  Lovely oak doors but no black carcasses. 

 

Kitchen units - grey and oak

My kitchen units are grey in colour with dark anthracite wood grained panels on the ends. 

 

New England oak coloured doors

Dark anthracite grained end panels

The doors are called New England oak, a beautiful colour with realistic looking wood grain which you can choose to have either vertical or horizontal.  I’ve gone for a vertical grain.

Vertical grain oak doors

To gain the most storage space from the wall hung cabinets, I have chosen the tallest possible.  At 900 mm high these cabinets are huge, almost too tall for the height of the room and to leave a decent gap between the worktop and the cabinet, they’ve been hung directly under the cornice. 

 

Very tall wall hung cabinet 

Cabinet height is something to bear in mind when designing your kitchen.  You don’t want lots of wasted space above the wall units that only gather junk, dust/grease but at the same time, you need to ensure the room doesn’t look overwhelmed by units that are not in proportion overall. 

 

Lots of storage but too high?

Always check that your kitchen supplier will exchange any cabinets after you’ve taken delivery of them.  A fact that was not pointed out to me at the point of purchase otherwise I would have paid more attention to the dimensions of both the room and the cabinets on the design plan and perhaps selected ones less tall.

 

Base units all fitted

Other design issues to look out for - kitchen sinks and the cabinets that house them.  My new sink is a single stainless steel bowl with no drainer.  It’s small, sleek and has little shelves which are used with an over sink drainer or chopping board.  Fabulous!  Except that it is quite deep.  

Small but quite deep

So?  Well once the plumbing is added under the sink, you’ve lost half your cupboard space.  Not something your kitchen designer points out to you when they’re flogging you an expensive new sink.

 

Position of new sink

Corner units – now these are an interesting kettle of fish.  It appears not all corner units have L shaped shelves inside them, some just have a single straight shelf or a variety of carousel type attachments.  These conveniently allow you to rotate pots outwards but are not very space effective as all your pots/pans can only be placed inside the carousel unit.  Consider carefully how and what you’re going to store in it.

 

For best use of space, get an L shaped shelf

My corner unit has a lovely shaped internal shelf but has doors that do not appear to open centrally outwards as depicted in the installation diagram.  Instead, these are hinged in the middle which means you have to side step around the door when opening it in order to get into the cupboard.  Weird or what?  Again, something to double check during kitchen design.

 

Centrally opening doors on corner cabinet

This is what I've ended up with

Now that the kitchen units have been fitted, the whole room has taken on a completely different look definitely feeling larger and more spacious than the old kitchen.

New kitchen

Old kitchen