New Kitchen

Your kitchen design looks remarkably similar to the one that we're in the middle of installing at the moment.

Flooring wise, we've gone with electric underfloor heating with a wood look porcelain tile. I've only had the underfloor heating on once to test it so far but it felt very nice.

For worktops, we've gone with a solid oak. I don't know what they will be like to maintain but I have no problem with oiling them regularly. I've bought Rustins Danish Oil to do this.

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My kitchen is now coming along. Builder started last Monday and my initial comment on 5 days was a wee bit under. He reckons he will be finished on Wednesday (possibly Thursday) so 8 or 9 days.

Day 1 was basically just stripping out of the old kitchen/tiles etc, day 2 was some plastering and first coat painting. Day 3 was further painting, electrical and plumbing work. Day 4 was first day of units starting to be installed, day 5 had more units installed as well as sink and tap, hob and the fridge/freezer, day 6 was more units being installed with worktops and day 7 (today) should be the washing machine and dishwasher installation along with the unit doors and the start of the flooring. Day 8 tomorrow should be the floor being finished along with the niceties, knife rack mounted and all sockets swapped from rubbish white to nice metal ones.

Starting to look like a nice kitchen now.
 
I am taking pictures each evening and will provide a before and after once it is all finished, small house with lots of stuff in it means that there is just piles of stuff everywhere.

I ended up going with Benchmarx for the units and worktops, then got the appliances from a selection of places (Currys, AO, Appliances Direct and Co-Op) and the floor from B&Q.
 
Just remember you cant treat real wood work tops like Formica ones if you want them to stay looking pristine.

Keep them dry, mop up any spillages immediately, protect them from direct sunlight.

If you can I would highly recommend oiling the underneath really well before they are fitted then for the first year oil them every 3 months both sides if possible.

Wood is hygroscopic so until the outer fibers are saturated with oil the wood will continue to take and release water from the air and expand and contract. Once saturated with oil this effect lessens and your worktops will be much more stable and less prone to cracking.

Sealing just one side of the work tops isn't ideal as moisture will enter the unfinished side faster causing the tops to curl and crack.
 
My kitchen was finished today

Before (council kitchen)

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Now

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Much better. Units are Benchmarx Sherwood Grey with Cinnamon Grain Square Edge Laminate worktops. Main paint is Valspar Quiet Interlude and Hob wall is Valspar Bottlenose Dolphin.

Just need to give everything a good wipeover and then start filling the kitchen again!
 
I would recommend them or Howdens over say Wren or Magnet, the experience of dealing with both was generally much better. I opted for Benchmarx over Howdens based on the colours of the units as the price was the same from both (after I got Benchmarx to match Howdens).

The only issue is neither will provide you with a quote until you provide them with the details of your contractor, so I had a delay in getting prices as I needed their designs so the contractor could quote based on the plan.
 
The pipes for the boiler are still there :)

The worktop upstand and grey you can see below the cupboard door for the boiler is a removable piece of the same material used for the ends of the units and a piece of upstand glued to it. It means the pipes are accessible by just moving it out, but they are out of site.

The floor is B&Q Harmonia Laminate - http://www.diy.com/departments/harm...ct-laminate-flooring-205-m-pack/172416_BQ.prd

I got them when they were slightly reduced to £20 a pack, so the flooring (just the laminate) only came to £100!
 
Very nice -

Our hob is in same sort of location as yours is- I have wall unit's either side and after a few years the steam of cooking has lifted face on side of the cupboards above hob even though we have a extractor above.

Probably won't happen on yours but thought I would mention it as something to look for when cooking - That is condensation on wall unit's.
 
The old setup was the same and without a hood and had no issues with that. Did have issues whereby the steamer used to live under one of those wall cupboards (window side) and that had completely blown the structure of that cupboard over the years.

For anyone looking to update kitchen appliances I can highly recommend the oven I got It is a Samsung dual cook one with a very techy display :)

I only had a small tray to cook last night so thought I would use the dual cook aspect and just heat the top half of the oven, I expected the bottom to get warm at least, but even after 40 minutes of cooking with the top at 170c I was able to touch the bottom of the oven with my bare hand no problem, it was very odd opening an oven and removing cooked food whilst still being able to touch some of it!
 
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Very very nice, looks awesome.

I might have tried to get the door to open the other way so you can leave it open and access the fridge.
 
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