I never thought about mirrors as plinths, sounds cool. However I'll stick to what Ive got... no plinths, lit with LED's, and run a feather duster under it once a month... my particular kitchen gives me peace of mind knowing there is good air flow and I spot leaks immediately. Mirror acrylic is available in big sheets, and can be cut with a jigsaw, and I suppose the clips to attach them to the legs can be glued on. If you do go this route, I warn you must get the correct glue for the mirror acryllic backing, having personal experience of using the wrong stuff, it looked fine for months, then reacted badly with the mirror backing and destroyed my project... I even wrote to the glue company about it (think was Unibond), but they sent me a tube of the right stuff free of charge so can go see what it is if you need. Would love to see photos if you get these done.

I meant on the white doors you can see watermarks, sometimes. Depending on the light. But otherwise they just look clean and without marks. Funnily enough, after I replied to you, I wiped some finger marks off the black doors and where the doors were wet from wiping, all kinds of marks showed up that you normally never see. And you don't see them on dry doors at all. They were probably dog nose marks, but you can't see those at all on dry doors 🤷🏼‍♀️ I just wanted a white peninsula and black oak tall cabinets. The doors needed to be a specific height to fit between the floor and the steel beam. Hacker does made to measure more easily than other brands. So that's why the black doors are from Hacker, not Next. And the handleless fronts of Next feel really nice, slightly rounded at the edges and enough space for fingers. I have arthritis in my fingers so tested loads of handleless kitchens. Most were too sharp around the edge (ouch) or did not have enough space to put your fingers comfortably around the front. If you can try out different brands or models, you'll know what I mean. I don't know how much spots or 'dirt' black Next doors will show. But wiping with a damp cloth is a quick and easy solution. Last week I was in a home where they had a gloss cream kitchen and that showed loads of finger marks and I don't know what else, but I do know that I'd much rather have my non glossy kitchen doors 😉 Our kitchen fitter did say that he loves working with Hacker, because of the quality and finish. I think the full name is Hacker Systemat. But I love both cabinets and as I said: would choose either or both brands again.

Hi Tani, I have an ikea kitchen. I wanted wood doors and nothing traditional and ikea did oak doors that I liked. What swung it for me was reading about how many architects use ikea. One thing I know is that they use very good designers, so their stuff tends to be 'clever'. You do have to construct the carcasses and some fitters don't like this. What is good is that the carcasses hang off a steel rail. This is attached to the wall and then all of the cupboards hang in a straight line and then the feet are adjusted at the front. My carpenter adjusted my units as he was fitting them, even reducing the depth at times, so the whole thing was bespoke. The other thing is that they are much bigger. They go much nearer to the floor and the kick plates are virtually invisible, this looks more contemporary. They are deeper to so you can't get a standard off the shelf worktop. I paid the same for the fitting as the cost of the units, in my opinion it's all about the fitting. Most carpenter use Howdens as they have accounts and it's familiar to them. I also saved money by using a thin layer of quartz over moisture resistant MDF (a bit like an engineered floor). Whole thing was 16K including removing a load bearing wall, plastering, electrics, kitchen everything.

I’m with Sonia. For me the tiles date the kitchen and the worktops are probably showing their age. If you can afford to replace them it will transform the kitchen and might well cost the same as professionally refinishing the doors. And I also agree that painting cabinets is best left to professionals but you could change the wall colour to make the room feel different. If it were my room I would try to find a Quartz worktop (try to find a warm colour as very white could make the cabinets look old) and I might well have a worktop splashback instead of tiles. And then you have a neutral kitchen and can apply almost any wall colour. Choosing this is easy- you either choose a colour consistent with other colour choices in the house or you pick a colour from the rug. I like Daisy suggestion of a soft green wall colour (but only if the blue tiles have been replaced.)