New Kitchen

I found the following that should explain the current regs, it's the most recent document I could find but I accept no responsibility if it's wrong.

'In case of gas hobs, there should be a minimum overhead gap of 750mm. For electric hobs, the minimum gap above is 650mm. Any wall units built on either side of the hood should be at least 366mm above. Ensure minimum clearance of 300mm on either side of the hob.'
 
Yes, it's to do with the distance from the hob. If we had units flush against the extractor then they would have been too close to the hob I think so there has to be a small gap if the units are a certain height above the hob which ours are.
 
If this was your current kitchen I hope you haven't just skipped it. What a waste of perfectly good units and appliances if you have.
Interesting how tastes differ - if I had bought a property with the newer, darker kitchen I'd be binning it for something more akin to the older, lighter one.

Dolly; I might have missed it in the thread, but what have you done about heating the space now you've lost a radiator but gained more storage?

And what are you doing for small appliances and lighting in there? Going white for the former and LED for the latter?
 
As far as heating is concerned, there's another radiator in the utility and just outside the kitchen as well so we aren't missing the radiator we've removed.

Small appliances are going to be metallic / chrome which seems to go well. LED lights under cupboards.
 
Last edited:
All finished (more or less) - just got to put a shelf up in the utility room, hang the clock and some other minor touch ups.













 
Dark units and walls in what looks like a fairly small kitchen have just made it look smaller. Each to their own I guess and granted you've put units down the right hand side, but the old one looked a bigger lighter space. The thing I disliked the most about the old kitchen was the floor and you've kept it! Clearly you have money to burn, so sort that floor out :p
 
Any reason for the difference in colour temperatures from your lighting? Looks a bit weird with the under-cabinet lights being daylight-balanced and the rest being the warmer colour most people are used to.

What is the worktop made from? Corian or similar?
 
Lovely worktop - knowing the rough cost of that stuff, was it alone close to the cost of the cabinets?

As for the lighting, your extractor hood and the ceiling spotlights are all a different colour temperature to your under-cabinet ones. Looks a bit odd like that.
 
Ah - sorry - I didn't realise what you meant about the lighting. I've not really noticed it at all and doesn't bother me. There's no magic to it - the bulbs are just what came with the lights/LEDS. I was speaking to the fitter and he recommended changing the main spotlights to LEDS so we might do that in due course.

As for the worktop, it cost about 50% of the price of the units/kitchen as a rough guide. I always thought I wanted granite but after looking at lots of samples and also the worries I'd have about damaging it with a lemon(!), we decided to go for something more durable and practical.
 
Last edited:
Looks great, love the worktop.

We got ours from Wickes who did a really good job but I think it varies on the fitter.
 
Looks great!
Similar style to what we're after - currently looking through DIY Kitchens to work out how much it's going to be. Do you mind me asking what unit type yours are? There's a lot of shaker options on the site! Also, how was the ordering process? Were you able to speak to someone during the ordering process? I'm worried about getting measurements wrong!
 
planty;30497897 said:
Looks great!
Similar style to what we're after - currently looking through DIY Kitchens to work out how much it's going to be. Do you mind me asking what unit type yours are? There's a lot of shaker options on the site! Also, how was the ordering process? Were you able to speak to someone during the ordering process? I'm worried about getting measurements wrong!

I made a couple of trips up to the showroom (I was going up North anyway and so it was easy for me to swing by) and they were hugely helpful. I managed to find out the difference between Linwood, Milton, Norton ranges. Basically there are two "shaker" styles - one with ridges in the door and one without (I think that's the difference between Linwood and Norton)...and for each style there are two options - full wood door and foil wrapped mdf. When we priced it up the full wood (which is what Linwood is - Malton is the equivalent but foil wrapped mdf) option was only about £500-£600 more so we opted for that. On a small scale just looking at sample doors you can't notice the difference between full wood and foil wrapped mdf. However on a larger scale, the wooden doors are much more substantial and have nicer markings / are more natural in my view.

We opted for the Linwood range (graphite). I quite liked the fact we could have the carcasses the same colour.

Ordering process was pretty smooth - you can call them and speak to them or go to the showroom and work through your plan with someone. The major downside is that once the order goes through for manufacture there are no changes or returns (unless faulty or damaged). Therefore if you make a mistake it's on you / at your cost!

We ordered before Christmas as we wanted an install early January. However they then launched a 10% off sale on Boxing Day - we called them and they agreed to refund us 10% to match the sale offer which was a nice bonus and something they (strictly speaking) didn't need to do. 🙂
 
I made a couple of trips up to the showroom (I was going up North anyway and so it was easy for me to swing by) and they were hugely helpful. I managed to find out the difference between Linwood, Milton, Norton ranges. Basically there are two "shaker" styles - one with ridges in the door and one without (I think that's the difference between Linwood and Norton)...and for each style there are two options - full wood door and foil wrapped mdf. When we priced it up the full wood (which is what Linwood is - Malton is the equivalent but foil wrapped mdf) option was only about £500-£600 more so we opted for that. On a small scale just looking at sample doors you can't notice the difference between full wood and foil wrapped mdf. However on a larger scale, the wooden doors are much more substantial and have nicer markings / are more natural in my view.

We opted for the Linwood range (graphite). I quite liked the fact we could have the carcasses the same colour.

Ordering process was pretty smooth - you can call them and speak to them or go to the showroom and work through your plan with someone. The major downside is that once the order goes through for manufacture there are no changes or returns (unless faulty or damaged). Therefore if you make a mistake it's on you / at your cost!

We ordered before Christmas as we wanted an install early January. However they then launched a 10% off sale on Boxing Day - we called them and they agreed to refund us 10% to match the sale offer which was a nice bonus and something they (strictly speaking) didn't need to do. 🙂

Thanks, very helpful :)
 
I'm not sure it's actually "better" than granite - it depends on individual preference. The worktop is quartz, which is a solid surface although not 100% natural like granite is. The upside of that is that it's more durable against things like lemon!
 
Back
Top Bottom