Kitchen ideas, help me please

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Kitchen ideas, help me please
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Leonie

Joined: 13 Sep 2005
Posts: 731
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:09 pm Post subject: Kitchen ideas, help me please

We're having a new larder/laundry room built and our kitchen completely stripped out and re-designed. Today I went to Homebase to have a browse of kitchen units....I've come home feeling very dissappointed with the choice. I've looked through brochures and all the companies seem to stock the same or very similar kitchens. In the glossy brochures they all look alright but in reality they are horrible plasticy looking things. The amount of units we need fitting is very few, we plan (although may change our minds) to have only base units fitted and no eye level units (is that what they're called, or are they called wall units?). I'm not too keen on stand alone units although I haven't discounted the idea altogether. And one option we're thinking of is buying the carcasses from a trade supplier but having the door and drawer fronts made from solid wood if we can find a local carpenter who will do this to fit our budget. If we go this route I'd be keen to use a local hardwood, oak would be one option. Is using a local hardwood ethical compared to buying off the shelf plasticy things from B&Q or similar places. What other local wood could I use as an option that is suitable for a kitchen? I don't really want pine, I don't have anything against pine as we have a lot of it in our house already, I'd just like to stay away from pine for our kitchen. Right now I'm considering my options and looking for ideas, photos, links to suppliers etc. I have read the kitchen thread earlier this year and got some ideas in there but it seemed to cover more the fitted vs stand alone subject so didn't cover all my questions. Please give me some ideas and inspiration!

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45704
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:16 pm Post subject:

An excellent plan, you need to find:

1. Carpenter
Not easy, not impossible either. At our old place we found a pine shop that made some unfinished oak doors for our kitchen units, we waxed them.

2. Wood source
If you want local wood (ours wasn't) then you need to find someone local to source from, that'll determine what you can use but all of the following would be good:

Chestnut
Maple/Sycamore
Ash
Birch
Cherry
Walnut

others too.

Leonie

Joined: 13 Sep 2005
Posts: 731
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:20 pm Post subject:
I'm very pleased walnut is in that list, I really like the colour of the walnut units in the shop, shame they're not solid wood though. But is using hardwood ethical, I was always under the impression it wasn't

Naomi

Joined: 26 Mar 2005
Posts: 1945

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:22 pm Post subject:
Have you considered using freestanding pieces of furniture instead of having a fitted kitchen. Or is that not something you'd like? You could source secondhand /antiques pieces with lots of character.That's what I have, apart from one area of fitted units around the butler sink that we made ourselves.

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:23 pm Post subject:
I suspect the ethics of the wood will depend on the replanting policy of the tree farmer in question. if they are just cutting down mature woods wholesale and putting , dare we say it, a supermarket on the land then its pretty bad, but if they are selectively harvesting wood for specific purposes and steadily replanting I don't think there is any problem.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45704
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:26 pm Post subject:

Leonie wrote:

But is using hardwood ethical, I was always under the impression it wasn't

If it's sourced sensibly then why not? Walnut's grown very widely in the US and Europe as a forestry tree, and to a limited extent in the UK too.

No issues unless it's unsustainably harvested "wild" hardwood.

You could look for FSC certification from your supplier, but some people in the trade say that it's a pretty meaningless badge.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:27 pm Post subject:

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I used to live with this bird, right. And her dad was a dairy farmer, but gave it up because it was a rubbish job and that. And he started making hardwood kitchen doors for cabinets. Quality was just excellent, woods were locally sourced, and I'm recommending him even after 15 years. I have no idea if hes still doing it, and I have no way of getting in touch with him, but he's only down the road from you (Rowlands Castle, just outside Portsmouth).

He was trading as Davalan. David Dann is his name. I'll do some more hunting.

D.R Dann
TEL: 023 92412075
Diddybones Knap Rowlands Castle PO9 6EH

Best house name ever, by the way, no?

Leonie

Joined: 13 Sep 2005
Posts: 731
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:29 pm Post subject:

Naomi, I saw the photos of your kitchen in the other thread, it is lovely and works really well. Actually I was against freestanding units until I saw your photos, now it's something I may consider

I'm not sure about freestanding because the space we have is quite small and we want to get maximum use from it, I'm concerned individually sourced units may not give us maximum use of space. Also, our kitchen is half stripped out and finding various units from antique shops/second hand shops etc will delay us by weeks. But does anyone know of a place that sells freestanding units (new) that I can browse online, it may give me some ideas.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45704
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:30 pm Post subject:

nickhowe wrote:

Diddybones Knap Rowlands Castle PO9 6EH

Best house name ever, by the way, no?

Excellent

Leonie

Joined: 13 Sep 2005
Posts: 731
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:33 pm Post subject:
Thanks Nick, I'll keep that number in a safe place and let OH talk to him once we know what we want. ooooh this is scary, the phone has just rang and it was a sales call asking when did we last have our kitchen fitted?! do these people have spy cameras in my house

Leonie

Joined: 13 Sep 2005
Posts: 731
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:35 pm Post subject:
just noticed the address....cool!

Naomi

Joined: 26 Mar 2005
Posts: 1945

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:45 pm Post subject:

Leonie wrote:

Naomi, I saw the photos of your kitchen in the other thread, it is lovely and works really well. Actually I was against freestanding units until I saw your photos, now it's something I may consider

This will give you an idea of some new freestanding units and how they work in a room..Looks pricey though!
https://www.herringport.co.uk/kitchen/kitchenprojects.htm

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46362
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:55 pm Post subject:

cant beat benchmade for doors but they are quite dear .
chainstore units can be ok but dont last like handmade carcasing but that is realy expensive .
fitting is a set of skilled tasks (only hardened diyers should apply

)especially in rooms that are not square,strait or flat .
with freestanding you get to take it if you move and if one bit is worn out you only need to replace that not the whole kitchen .
ive done loads over the years domestic and trade and best advice is find a good fitter /joiner and he/she will know a plumber ,spark,plasterer ,tiler etc be prepared for much tea swilling (oh yes please we like bisquits )and all should be well
local word of mouth should help you find a good firm ,some of the major national companies have a reputation for employing poor tradesmen but a local firm relies on good will and happy clients rather than tv ads .
a well made kitchen will last a very long time and matures rather than looks shabby .

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 1:59 pm Post subject:

Leonie wrote:

Thanks Nick, I'll keep that number in a safe place and let OH talk to him once we know what we want.

He's the worst salesman in the world, so you won't get anything pushy from him. They used to take a stand at the local country shows, as their shopfront. You could do worse than give him a ring and see if a) he's still in business, and b) exhibiting over the next couple of weeks. They were always the biggest shows, and you'd get to see his stuff with zero pressure.

Beware his daughter tho. She was very scary. However, I digress. We'll end up being moved to livestock->exotic.

Leonie

Joined: 13 Sep 2005
Posts: 731
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 06 2:29 pm Post subject:

dpack, OH is a self employed plumber and bathroom fitter so he can manage most of the work himself and we have all the subbies who we know are good, as you say as a small business we have to rely of good tradesmen and can't afford to lose our reputation with dodgy workmanship. We don't use carpenters though so we'd need to find a good one at the right price, OH will manage the fitting, it's the making of the door fronts that we'll want done. OH did a bathroom a little while ago, the customer had a bespoke kitchen made to measure and fitted too and the workmanship was outstanding, it was a local small business but I'm not sure we could afford them. OH has their business card so we'll make enquiries but we kind of expect that they're out of our budget. I know about the tea and biccies and tradesmen

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