Inserted deco/end panels in kitchen units

[vivienz]

I recently posted on my blog that I was waiting for some extra end panels to arrive to insert between units for my kitchen, sourced from DIY Kitchens.  @ultramods asked why this was and where they were going, so here's some detail.

 

The first couple of locations are obvious when you see them, but as a novice kitchen orderer, I missed them at the time of the original one and had to add them on afterwards.

 

These are bi-fold wall units with a top box straddling where the sink will be.  There will be a plinth ( pelmet / cornice ) below the top box ( bridging unit ), but this still means that the inner edge of the bi-fold units either side have the external carcass exposed and whilst it's a reasonable colour match, it still looks like carcass against the gloss finish of the doors.  A wall unit end panel will go on either side of the top box, giving an 18mm insert on the top section and a nicer looking, gloss finish on the inside of the bridge section.

 

 

The next additional inserts are going into the island.  I have a freestanding drinks cooler that will be going in there (they were out of stock at the time the rest of the kitchen arrived and will arrive in due course).  The cooler is floor standing and the ventilation grille sits on the floor.  Because of this, the run of the plinth will be interrupted and leave a not very pretty edge at the bottom.  Again, to give a better finish, a base unit end panel will be added in on either side of the gap (leaving enough room for the appliance).  Here's the start of the island and the location of the drinks cooler.

 

 

Finally, I'm having two single ovens, side by side and at the level of the top of the base units.  These come as standard oven housing units with pan drawers.  In my current kitchen (old and very worn out now, not expensive in the first place) the sides of the built in oven get pretty mucky and it can bleed over slightly to the units/drawers either side of the oven door.  For this reason, to the left of the left hand oven, a full length end panel will be inserted between the units to give some separation and an easy, wipe down clean for anything that escapes the oven over the course of time, rather than also having to clean the adjacent cupboard.  Here are the oven units:

 

 

Hopefully, this answers the blog query.

[jonM]

1 hour ago, vivienz said:

These are bi-fold wall units with a top box straddling where the sink will be.  There will be a plinth below the top box, but this still means that the inner edge of the bi-fold units either side have the external carcass exposed and whilst it's a reasonable colour match, it still looks like carcass against the gloss finish of the doors.  A wall unit end panel will go on either side of the top box, giving an 18mm insert on the top section and a nicer looking, gloss finish on the inside of the bridge section.

 

 

Thanks - very helpful post. One thing to add is that if you are lining up base units with the bi-folds you will need to put end panels to the left and right of the appropriate base unit to ensure the base units stay in alignment with the bi-folds. You can use one end panel, cut it in two and put the halves either side of the appropriate base unit as the base unit will be covered by the worktop. 

[vivienz]

Good points, we are doing this but I forgot to mention it.

[Nickfromwales]

5 minutes ago, jonM said:

 

Thanks - very helpful post. One thing to add is that if you are lining up base units with the bi-folds you will need to put end panels to the left and right of the appropriate base unit to ensure the base units stay in alignment with the bi-folds. You can use one end panel, cut it in two and put the halves either side of the appropriate base unit as the base unit will be covered by the worktop. 

On a Wren ( aka wretched ) kitchen, I chopped the base décor ends, as you say to get the extra free mileage, and added around a half dozen additional décor end details to the customers delight. When I asked Wren to accept returns for the 11 various wall and base décor ends that were surplus AFTER the extra details were executed, they got their "lead designer" ( guy was a total penis ) to ring me to tell me I hadn't followed the plan properly and they should all have been utilised. I had a 'quiet word' with him and they were picked up around a month later, as they don't let you return direct to store. It was during the 'quiet word' that I mentioned that the "lead designer" ( 11 years experience mind you...……….) had purposefully omitted the customer's washing machine from the kitchen plan. When I asked where it was going he said "in the utility room, out of the way"......to which I replied "you've been here 3 times for a survey. WHAT UTILITY ROOM ?!?" as the customer didn't have one . Dickhead.

Great trick with expensive kitchens, and can be an easy way to half the cost of décor ends ( which are usually massively overpriced for what they are ). Another trick is to work out if you have any shadow gaps to make up at the ends of the runs and to slice that out of the middle of a décor end panel during the 'halving'.

Then spend the saved money on beer. Cheers!

[ultramods]

@vivienz thank you for the post.