New Kitchen for £10k

[Benchwayze]

I intend to do that Rob. And I am not wasting time with MDF for the boxes. I will probably go with waterproof ply, but I notice a lot of voids in the stuff I am buying lately, so maybe 5 sheets of 18mm Birch ply will be enough, at about £300.00 that's sounds fair enough to me. I can even get the sawmill to cut the panels to size for me. SWMBO wants wooden worktops, so another £300-£400 should sort that out.
Doors have to be 'Shaker' and white, so I have a decision to make there.

Poplar would be okay for working with, but it's a bit soft. Paler hardwoods aren't so easy to get in quality. I could disobey, and use birch ply doors with iron on veneer edges. That's my present 'worry'. Next is finding time to do the job as quickly as possible. :?

Dr. Bob... Birch ply for me, because it is for me, and it's what I want. If I don't finally decide on the waterproof ply after all! 8)

 

[kostello]

looking for some advice as will be fitting a new kitchen when i move.

the space is about 11ft long by 9ft wide and will either be two straight banks of units or a U shape if we brick up the un-needed side door. Hoping to get detailed measurements next weekend if estate agent can sort me access.

Budget wise I have £10k and thats to include Oak or walnut worktops and appliances (electric oven, gas 5 burner hob, built in fridge freezer and a dish washer)

Went in Magnet (showroom as trade counter closed) today to get an idea of prices and styles and was horrified by some of their retail prices!! We didn't look at anything overly fancy or at the top end appliances!

Aside from Magnet and Howdens (will check them out once i have proper measurements) is there anywhere else folk would recommend for Kitchens? I know £10k is not going to buy me a high end kitchen but i imagined it would get me more than cheap chipboard flatpack units!

I have done this.......

I Promised my dear wife a kitchen before the baby was born...

We ended up with lovely sprayed bespoke cabinets all fitted beautifully.... and then the baby as arrived early.....

We had plywood counters and no doors on the units for 5 years before I could finish it..,..

I hindsight I would have Used standard carcasses with nice doors and modified them as required...

When I think back to how much I spent on plywood I think of the money I wasted.....

Not many other people will appreciate all the effort you put in to it... certainly not the next inhabitants of the house.......

My advice is to get it done..... especially as you have loads of other stuff to do already.......

 

[RobinBHM]

Why oh why do people jump on the "Carcasses have to be made out of birch ply to be top notch"............

Drives me bonkers, yes I will supply birch ply carcasses if the client wants them, or veneer or veneered blockboard, but are they better than MFC?

Are you going to get a water leak in all your cabinets........... no, the only carcase which will probably only get a water leak is the sink, so by all means make this out of birch ply, however a water leak will ruin birch ply as well.

In 5 years time your nicely sprayed birch ply carcasses will be scratched to buggery, MFC will look like new.

Sprayed birch ply looks so bland and virtually impossible not to have patches showing.

Todays trend is for drawers rather than highlines, so you don't see most internals anyway.

Provided the MFC carcasses are glued and screwed and good back in them they are not going to fall apart.

I run a silicone bead around all the joints in a sink cabinet and insert a water trap mat.

I have made my own kitchen for the new house, I could do whatever I wished, I want the kitchen to look good for 15 years, MFC for me with veneers in the show cabinets.

I do very little cabinet work these days, but when I do, I always recommend mfc to customers. As you say, hard wearing easy to clean and no finishing required. Mfc is also surprisingly strong, much less prone to sag than mdf for shelving. Also a woodgrain inside a painted cupboard is a lovely contrast.

The only thing that bugs me is that I get lovely brochures from kronospan and when I ring a merchant, they oh no we dont do these new ranges, you need to buy pallet qtys!

 

[Roughcut]

looking for some advice as will be fitting a new kitchen when i move.

the space is about 11ft long by 9ft wide and will either be two straight banks of units or a U shape if we brick up the un-needed side door. Hoping to get detailed measurements next weekend if estate agent can sort me access.

Budget wise I have £10k and thats to include Oak or walnut worktops and appliances (electric oven, gas 5 burner hob, built in fridge freezer and a dish washer)

Went in Magnet (showroom as trade counter closed) today to get an idea of prices and styles and was horrified by some of their retail prices!! We didn't look at anything overly fancy or at the top end appliances!

Aside from Magnet and Howdens (will check them out once i have proper measurements) is there anywhere else folk would recommend for Kitchens? I know £10k is not going to buy me a high end kitchen but i imagined it would get me more than cheap chipboard flatpack units!

I have done this.......

I Promised my dear wife a kitchen before the baby was born...

We ended up with lovely sprayed bespoke cabinets all fitted beautifully.... and then the baby as arrived early.....

We had plywood counters and no doors on the units for 5 years before I could finish it..,..

I hindsight I would have Used standard carcasses with nice doors and modified them as required...

When I think back to how much I spent on plywood I think of the money I wasted.....

Not many other people will appreciate all the effort you put in to it... certainly not the next inhabitants of the house.......

My advice is to get it done..... especially as you have loads of other stuff to do already.......[/quote]
^
Have to say that I agree.
In your situation if you have a full time job to do, as well as the whole house needing doing up then I think your life will be a hell of a lot easier and more productive if you can get a Kitchen in asap rather than doing the whole making and fitting yourself.
You could probably give yourself a week off work to fit a kitchen yourself which isn't all bad but making a kitchen (especially if you've not done it before) could potentially take months or longer.

 

[Rorschach]

I would have been well p*ssed off if I had been treated like you were by magnet. Sound like rip off merchants to me.

A very workable kitchen can be done on a slim budget if you are sensible about things. After a burst water main we had to put a new kitchen in our flat on a very tight budget. I took the opportunity to improve the layout and space but otherwise we had to keep it cheap and re-use appliances. We managed to do it for under £1500 and that included cabinets, worktops, sink, some new plumbing and electrical and flooring. I assembled and fitted a lot of the cabinets myself and had a friend do the plumbing and mitre the worktops.

The kitchen was Rapide brand, very cheap standard chipboard construction and I did do a few modifications here and there but for the price we paid I was very pleased and it was a huge improvement over the 25 year old kitchen that was there before.
Maybe you could do something similar, buy a really cheap kitchen, don't worry about the door you mention and let it cover you for the next 5 years or so and in the meantime renovate the house, fit out your workshop and then build your own dream kitchen.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

I'm building and fittings my own kitchen as soon as I've saved enough. 10k budget if you do it yourself will produce a very nice finished result

 

[MattRoberts]

Why oh why do people jump on the "Carcasses have to be made out of birch ply to be top notch"............

Drives me bonkers, yes I will supply birch ply carcasses if the client wants them, or veneer or veneered blockboard, but are they better than MFC?

Yes, they are. MFC looks cheap, and is chipboard, so any hinges will gradually loosen a hell of a lot easier than ply

 

[doctor Bob]

Why oh why do people jump on the "Carcasses have to be made out of birch ply to be top notch"............

Drives me bonkers, yes I will supply birch ply carcasses if the client wants them, or veneer or veneered blockboard, but are they better than MFC?

Yes, they are. MFC looks cheap, and is chipboard, so any hinges will gradually loosen a hell of a lot easier than ply

I do all face frame so not an issue with hinges, you must not have seen the recent inovations in MFC, if you had you would not have come out with the standard claptrap, I have been a pro cabinet maker for a long time some of the textured MFC's brought out in the last couple of years are amazing. The textured egger and Kronaspan ranges have full grain detail and colour variation, I'd be hard pushed to know it was MFC. Much nicer than bland birch ply with patches.

 

[MattRoberts]

I do all face frame so not an issue with hinges, you must not have seen the recent inovations in MFC, if you had you would not have come out with the standard claptrap, I have been a pro cabinet maker for a long time some of the textured MFC's brought out in the last couple of years are amazing. The textured egger and Kronaspan ranges have full grain detail and colour variation, I'd be hard pushed to know it was MFC. Much nicer than bland birch ply with patches.

Maybe some people like their cabinets to be wood, and not just look like it.

 

[doctor Bob]

I do all face frame so not an issue with hinges, you must not have seen the recent inovations in MFC, if you had you would not have come out with the standard claptrap, I have been a pro cabinet maker for a long time some of the textured MFC's brought out in the last couple of years are amazing. The textured egger and Kronaspan ranges have full grain detail and colour variation, I'd be hard pushed to know it was MFC. Much nicer than bland birch ply with patches.

Maybe some people like their cabinets to be wood, and not just look like it.

Indeed, as I said I make many kitchens out of birch ply, I am just giving a balanced opinion from someone who makes a lot of kitchens.
I suspect some people in the past frowned upon veneers, etc..... materials move with the time, there really are some spectacular new man made materials on the market.

 

[tomatwark]

We use a mixture of MFC, Birch Ply and Veneered Board, depending on the customers choice.

What I am increasingly finding are customers, who went down either the solid wood carcase or lacquered route with their last kitchens and now want MFC for their new ones as it is easier to maintain and the finishes are great, if you use a good quality board such as Egger or Kronospan.

The problem is that the likes of MFI ( when they existed ), Magnet and Howdens are pitching at a mass market so selling on price an will use a lower grade MFC, where as the bespoke market is selling a design tailored to the customer so can afford to use a better product.

You can make something really funky and different with some of the colours and wood grains that are now available.

I would say about 90% of my customers go for MFC, especially if you offer a choice of colours/woodgrain effects instead of white or cream.

 

[Benchwayze]

Hi Bob,

I am not a fan of chipboard, and when I used it in the past, if feasible, I lipped it where I was going to hinge.
However, I have a cupboard to make for storing tinned food. I'm prepared to have a go with MFC, or maybe some other man-made board I might normally pass over.

So which of the modern chipboard/laminated pine (block-board minus veneers) etc would you suggest?

I'll let you know what happens of course, and what if any difficulties I might have.

John

 

[doctor Bob]

Hi Bob,

I am not a fan of chipboard, and when I used it in the past, if feasible, I lipped it where I was going to hinge.
However, I have a cupboard to make for storing tinned food. I'm prepared to have a go with MFC, or maybe some other man-made board I might normally pass over.

So which of the modern chipboard/laminated pine (block-board minus veneers) etc would you suggest?

I'll let you know what happens of course, and what if any difficulties I might have.

John

Hi, I like the Kronospan collection of heavily embossed wood grains, or just the wood grain collection, Egger do a similar range. The problem is stock and quantities, usually they like a decent size order to make it worth their while to bring in a pack.

 

[tomatwark]

As Bob has said the suppliers often need a bigger sized order to bring it in, so it is worth having a couple of options, also you will sometimes find the bigger players such as Meyer or IDS may have some in a branch elsewhere left over from an order, so it is worth ringing around.

 

[Bodgers]

The suggestions here about making your own kitchen from scratch in a house you are just moving into is just insane IMO... From a hobbiest view point making shed loads of identical cabinet carcasses is not exactly fulfilling woodworking work anyway. It may make some sense to buy the carcasses and make the doors...that's where you might see the benefits of self-made customisation etc.

 

[MattRoberts]

My suggestion was more about saving £6k by building it yourself

 

[Jake]

You will save next to nothing building the carcasses though.

 

[chippy1970]

You will save next to nothing building the carcasses though.

Totally agree the only reason to make your own is if they're a very unusual shape or size, or maybe you just want to have the pleasure of doing them yourself.

I couldn't make carcases for the price I can buy them in for.

Sent from my ALE-L21 using Tapatalk

 

[MMUK]

I've got accounts at most kitchen suppliers. I wouldn't use magnet they're nowhere near as good as they were years ago.

Never had an issue with Magnet, maybe it's a local issue?

 

[kdampney]

the space is about 11ft long by 9ft wide and will either be two straight banks of units or a U shape if we brick up the un-needed side door. Hoping to get detailed measurements next weekend if estate agent can sort me access.

Budget wise I have £10k and thats to include Oak or walnut worktops and appliances (electric oven, gas 5 burner hob, built in fridge freezer and a dish washer)

Having renovated, and had kids recently, I wouldn't suggest building your own kitchen for the first time when you have no workshop, a whole house to renovate, and a pregnant wife to keep happy. Recipe for stress!

While it's not as satisfying as building your own, it'll probably be cheaper using a local kitchen fitting company than a big name like Magnet. We bought a kitchen from a local company which came in around 9K for a similar size as yours (9 x 15, U-shaped with a small peninsula). We bought the appliances ourselves from Appliances Online which worked out cheaper, adding another £800 or so, and flooring from B&Q (another £3-400 I think), which the company fitted. It's a wood-grain effect, and the doors feel a bit lightweight, but it was all done and dusted within 2 weeks. This was 4 years ago, and in Leicester, so not London prices.