New Kitchen Advice

[Blue in Munich]

Anyone come across John Lewis doing fitted kitchens? Never seen them before but it popped up in a thread.
I am assuming it is JL quality so worth a look.

We have one, Mrs BiM and I are very pleased with it and the fitter they supplied.

I've done work for JL on a couple of installations. Not cheap but excellent quality. Fantastic service too. If its within your budjet the you wont be disappointed.

Only the bigger stores have a kitchen design team

This.

If you are going to Kingston, we think the designer, who was excellent, was called Martin. Fitter was Olly.

 

[chrisd]

We used Wren about 5 years ago. We were less than impressed with their layout design and very much did that job ourselves in the end. We used our own builder to do the fitting and there were a couple of minor issues but we couldn't fault Wren in putting them right. 5 years on I'd certainly consider Wren again, given that our local Howdens were pretty useless at the time.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Accepting this is a detail and personal choice question, we are a bit stuck about whether or not we should have a worktop upstand - that usually being the same material as the worktop itself. So making it less about us, would you expect there to be an upstand or would you have one. We look in brochures of our preferred supplier and few of their kitchens show an upstand, but in their showroom most do have an upstand. Confused.

 

[chellie]

Accepting this is a detail and personal choice question, we are a bit stuck about whether or not we should have a worktop upstand - that usually being the same material as the worktop itself. So making it less about us, would you expect there to be an upstand or would you have one. We look in brochures of our preferred supplier and few of their kitchens show an upstand, but in their showroom most do have an upstand. Confused.

Personal taste. We went for no upstand and tiles down to the worktop. Depends on worktop chosen I think.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Hodens fitted our kitchen about 20 years ago.
We replaced the doors and trims about 4 years ago and it looked brand new.
Frame is still solid, certainly recommend them.
On both occasions we used a local joiner who was good,

 

[Golfmmad]

Accepting this is a detail and personal choice question, we are a bit stuck about whether or not we should have a worktop upstand - that usually being the same material as the worktop itself. So making it less about us, would you expect there to be an upstand or would you have one. We look in brochures of our preferred supplier and few of their kitchens show an upstand, but in their showroom most do have an upstand. Confused.

An upstand would be my choice every time.
It's the finished look that is always there with an upstand.
Tiling has the grout that cracks/ discolour after time.
Paint or wallpaper is difficult to keep crisp and clean after continual wiping down.

So up stands every time. ?

 

[BrianM]

An upstand would be my choice every time.
It's the finished look that is always there with an upstand.
Tiling has the grout that cracks/ discolour after time.
Paint or wallpaper is difficult to keep crisp and clean after continual wiping down.

So up stands every time. ?

You need to get a decent tiler ?

 

[Mudball]

Accepting this is a detail and personal choice question, we are a bit stuck about whether or not we should have a worktop upstand - that usually being the same material as the worktop itself. So making it less about us, would you expect there to be an upstand or would you have one. We look in brochures of our preferred supplier and few of their kitchens show an upstand, but in their showroom most do have an upstand. Confused.

Personal choice and also depends on how big the space is and the colour of the walls around.

We had the worktop as the upstand. Have seen tiles in showroom. Another one that caught attention this time is an antique/French mirror splashback . Looks brilliant if it works with the rest of the room. (Of course can’t put behind hob).
https://www.creoglass.co.uk/splashbacks/mirrored-splashbacks/antique-mirror-splashbacks

 

[chellie]

Personal choice and also depends on how big the space is and the colour of the walls around.

We had the worktop as the upstand. Have seen tiles in showroom. Another one that caught attention this time is an antique/French mirror splashback . Looks brilliant if it works with the rest of the room. (Of course can’t put behind hob).
https://www.creoglass.co.uk/splashbacks/mirrored-splashbacks/antique-mirror-splashbacks

Oh that one would drive me mad. Looks faulty.

 

[Mudball]

Oh that one would drive me mad. Looks faulty.

I thought so too… but having seen it in real life, it is not bad. Though it is too bling for me

 

[chellie]

I thought so too… but having seen it in real life, it is not bad. Though it is too bling for me

I'll stick with my grey glitter grout. Sparkly but subtle.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

We have glass splashbacks, the backing colour being white with rainbow speccles in it. Upstands are ok, but they eat into the worktop depth and still have to have something meeting them to cover the wall.
Our kitchen is gloss white units with black quartz worktops with flake in them.

 

[Golfmmad]

You need to get a decent tiler ?

It's not a decent tiler, the grout does discolour, no matter how good the tiler is, over time.
With an upstand the adhesive used does not need any filling so it's a permanent join without any kind of filler needed.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

It's not a decent tiler, the grout does discolour, no matter how good the tiler is, over time.
With an upstand the adhesive used does not need any filling so it's a permanent join without any kind of filler needed.

…if upstand it would be 100mm upstand probably same quartz as the worktop - so light granite in look if not material…not sure how that would work as an upstand. Other thing I’ve seen is worktop material used to provide worktop to underside of cabinets splashback along the full length of worktop. Feels expensive.

 

[BrianM]

It's not a decent tiler, the grout does discolour, no matter how good the tiler is, over time.
With an upstand the adhesive used does not need any filling so it's a permanent join without any kind of filler needed.

I’ve never had grout discolouration in kitchens I’ve done for myself (6 Now)
Bathrooms (Showers) on the other hand are a pain after time.

 

[BrianM]

…if upstand it would be 100mm upstand probably same quartz as the worktop - so light granite in look if not material…not sure how that would work as an upstand. Other thing I’ve seen is worktop material used to provide worktop to underside of cabinets splashback along the full length of worktop. Feels expensive.

We never went for the upstand but did get a Sill cut for the window to tie it in.

 

[Golfmmad]

I’ve never had grout discolouration in kitchens I’ve done for myself (6 Now)
Bathrooms (Showers) on the other hand are a pain after time.

That's good but I much prefer the neat finish an upstand provides.
In my kitchen I have the splashback behind the hob in the same as the upstand. Although we don't get many splashes it's very easy to keep clean. Also used the same for window sill.

 

[Mudball]

Has anyone got a Fisher & Paykal double draw dishwasher... they cost a fortune but I want to know if it is worth it. (not a chance that I will go for it, but curious)

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Looking like we are going to have to go down the recirculating route for our new extraction hood as the ducting from above cooker to outside may be too long and/or contorted for ducted extraction to work efficiently.

Any thoughts and/or recommendations on recirculating cooker hoods? Any alternatives?

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Looking like we are going to have to go down the recirculating route for our new extraction hood as the ducting from above cooker to outside may be too long and/or contorted for ducted extraction to work efficiently.

Any thoughts and/or recommendations on recirculating cooker hoods? Any alternatives?

Looks more and more like we might have to go down the recirculating route so any thoughts or advice much appreciated.

Separately. We plan to have a carpenter build a ’Utility cupboard’ for standard side washing machine and a dryer stacked and want this to be solid with a proper door for sound baffling. The space for it is tight front to back. I’m thinking we just need the door to be able to close with a small gap for any vibration. From wall to front face of door I’m thinking 750mm will be sufficient for the machines plus the framing and door. Thoughts.