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Pocster

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Hey!

 

SHMBO wants a fantastic looking kitchen. Saw one today at Schmidt ; that was about 30k!; ours would be about 3 times larger so NO WAY!!

In a previous house we did Ikea units with granite worktops which looked great.

But 'my boss' wants all the mod cons, like rounded kitchen units for corners, handles less, soft close, deep drawers - all the fancy things and nice fronts of course!

Any recommendations for the style and features but without the ridiculous price??

 

Cheers

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We bought a Wickes kitchen with those features. Purchased ‘granite’ worktops seperately.  We designed it, but they do designs for you and they matched the price of similar design (but without rounded corners) from b and q.

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13 minutes ago, Jml said:

We bought a Wickes kitchen with those features. Purchased ‘granite’ worktops seperately.  We designed it, but they do designs for you and they matched the price of similar design (but without rounded corners) from b and q.

Wickes and B&Q were good quality ?. Forgive my snobbery! ; I just assumed they were inferior..... but perhaps not!

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We got a Hacker (Haecker?) from our local supplier and imported from Germany. I would say much better than a previous generation "IKEA with granite" in our old house in terms of quality. Prices of assembled Hacker vs flat-pack IKEA are perhaps 40-50% higher, but if you are paying someone to assemble the IKEAs then the difference reduces to ~20%.

 

This is a personal thing, but is she sure about handleless? Not as straight-forward to open as with a good handle and grubby handmarks (unavoidable when cooking) get everywhere. I also happen to think a nice handle breaks the monotony, especially if you are going with full-height units.

Edited by ragg987
clarify prices
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I am not a fan of handleless - just a gimmick and really impractical.  I have recently bought from DIY Kitchen - Innova - made in England and good quality rigid construction,, good value and range of cabinet sizes.

 

They do rounded cupboards and soft close.  Kitchen units = row of chipboard boxes.  There is little difference in quality.  Most decent ones use the same chipboard, construction, hinges, drawer runners, wirework etc. Think through what will work for you and do not be too much of a slave to fashion.

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40 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

I am not a fan of handleless - just a gimmick and really impractical. 

 

 

We're not, either.  We did think they looked good until we stayed in a holiday let that had handless units, the ones you push and they spring open enough to grab the edge.  One of the most impractical to use design ideas I've seen, IMHO.  Try opening a high gloss finish drawer with slightly wet fingers.  I ended up having to use both hands to get enough grip a lot of the time.  After two weeks we'd definitely decided that proper handles made things a great deal easier to use, especially thinking ahead to how we might struggle if either of us developed arthritis in our hands.

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1 hour ago, Mr Punter said:

I am not a fan of handleless - just a gimmick and really impractical.  I have recently bought from DIY Kitchen - Innova - made in England and good quality rigid construction,, good value and range of cabinet sizes.

 

They do rounded cupboards and soft close.  Kitchen units = row of chipboard boxes.  There is little difference in quality.  Most decent ones use the same chipboard, construction, hinges, drawer runners, wirework etc. Think through what will work for you and do not be too much of a slave to fashion.

Lol Swmbo a slave to fashion !! Lol 

i do like handleless because of the minimal look ; but practicalities must override . I assume there’s no such thing as a handless dishwasher cabinet door ..... ??

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1 minute ago, pocster said:

 I assume there’s no such thing as a handless dishwasher cabinet door ..... ??

 

 

I can't see how there can be, as the door panel just screws to the built-in dishwasher and uses the dishwasher catches.  You need a decent handle at the top to open it easily.

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I am having handleless in my new house, I usually major on practicality but the handles are such a pain to clean I reckoned handleless will be easier, we shall see.

 

You can actually get a handleless dishwasher. Siemens make one that opens itself when it is done, it is called open door assist. You push it then it opens, I have only seeing in videos.

 

http://www.cameokitchens.co.uk/product.php?xProd=23481

 

Our next door neighbour has had a new utility room fitted using Ikea units with quartz worktops. It looks very nice. I don't really see much difference between different companies' doors and carcasses. What makes a kitchen look glamorous/expensive tends to be the worktops, appliances and taps as well as little touches like LED lights. I think you could get a fairly standard kitchen from somewhere like Wren and then add these features.

 

 

Edited by AliG
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2 hours ago, Crofter said:

Having had one of each, I would put Wickes several notches above B&Q in terms of quality.

 

+1

 

But Wickes gave some WEIRD prices and discount structures for kitchens, especially the split between the designer showroom and the boxes in the store which I have seen at up to 300%+ different in price.

 

And people get snobbish about them.

 

The seller of our current house got quite stroppy when we remarked that it looked like a Wickes kitchen.

Edited by Ferdinand
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Handleless in kitchen termonilogy really means recessed handles where channels are rebated into the carcase and metal trims inserted. Doors close on these trims. The recess that is formed is effectively your 'handle' so it could be argued that it is a bit of a misnomer.

 

Handless kitchens require different carcase  construction and door sizing to work so not every company can do it. English companies that mostly make up carcases and buy in off the peg doors have got around it my either putting magnetic push latch or spring activated drawers and removed  conventional handles and called it handleless which IMO is just a daft idea. The other option is doors with grooves on the top of the door, also not very clever as there is no grip available on appliance doors.

 

Handleless is not for everyone, especially is one suffers from arthritis.

 

For a well made handleless kitchen, you will have to look at the Europeans, particularly German or Italian kitchens. Not many of them do curved units. This is a typically British thing and the best argument I have ever heard against curved units is from a German manufacturer - Tetra Pak designed a square container for fluids that can take any shape for efficiency and  you want to buy cylindrical containers for rigid objects. So aesthetics apart, the case for curved units is weak. They are horrendously expensive as well.

 

Remember, only a fraction (typically 35-40%) of your kitchen price will be furniture so when you compare one supplier to another, you need to look at the relative differences between the furniture costs.

 

 

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I’ve just had a good look around a new Homebase Kit&Kaboodle kitchen and was impressed. Oddly I thing the build of the flat pack units was better than the pre-built ones ..!

 

Good warranty and they have a decent range of colours. 

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we've just ordered our kitchen from Howdens - I'll let you know what its like after its fitted!  The chap who came and measured up and did the plan was very clear about the difference in the door range.  we've gone for the mdf wrapped round rqther than the cheaper chipboard.  mid priced range. 

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I went to a local supplier for a Haecker kitchen, like @ragg987 above. I found

  • the price of the units was reasonable,
  • good variety of high quality systems,
  • including some up-and-fold wall unit doors, various drawer systems, and 'handleless' design.
  • The dealer was originally supply only, and provided a very good price on Neff appliances that I could not beat anywhere on line in Europe.
  • Eventually I had them install as well, to reduce pressure on myself.

I am well satisfied with the quality and looks of the product, much better than the Howdens rigid basic that I put in the Utility etc.

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