Kitchen Refurb Advice!
Wumi
5 years ago
Want to expand the kitchen by knocking through the old downstairs but leave a WC. Already got a new bathroom upstairs. I’ve drawn up some images of what it’s like now and what I hope to achieve (I’m now architect!).
How much roughly would this cost to do?
Does anyone in the building industry foresee any issues with this kind of refurb?
How much roughly would this cost to do?
Does anyone in the building industry foresee any issues with this kind of refurb?
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Comments (13)
Wumi
5 years agoA B
5 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (21)Hi Laura, You've received many suggestions and some have been quite good. Particularly useful are the photos above of the French pied a terre with the slim line cabinets on one side. If you need somewhere to eat, you can swap the table and chairs for a bar and stools with slim cabinets either side. And don't worry about losing the panel radiator. Your plumber can install a hydronic plinth heater that connects into your central heating. I think the key to your colour scheme should start with your new cooker. Have you considered beige cabinet doors in high gloss? They would make your range look integrated and help reflect light around the room. Polished black granite (or laminate) worktop will pick up the black trim on the cooker. The arched lower door of the cooker points toward a more traditional or transitional look for a cooker hood (black) or an integrated hood. Beige and black tiles would keep the walls of the working area scrubbable. Look at metro tiles for a high gloss finish or patchwork tiles for some retro designs. Lastly, change over to LED lighting with warm white lamps. Avoid harsh white light overhead, but don't forget worktop lighting. Good luck and have fun....See MoreHelp with kitchen refurb - Skylights?
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Comments (24)New Qooker Fusion Flex tap in (Brilliant bit of kit). Built a dedicated drawer for charging devices. New table acquired. Island still outstanding. To Do list Lighting Remove remainder of cupboards Install reclaimed brick wall Fit new black column rads. Paint paint paint. New flooring (still to decide but a vinyl light grey slate in mind). Paint over existing brick wall in heavy white. Cooker splashback in gloss black metro tiles. Ready for Christmas! Apart from one evening, the kitchen has remained fully functional and 'presentable' throughout. An absolute necessity for our guests....See MoreBudget kitchen refurb
Comments (15)I think I'd paint the doors & cabinets in a light colour and replace the handles - you can get some great looking, inexpensive ones, which will smarten it up right away and make it look more contemporary. If you are repainting the doors, if you find handles that have different hole spacing to those on currently, you can always fill the old holes, sand down before you paint, . Paint the walls a neutral colour - I think it's too small to carry anything too dark. Reduce the number of wall cupboards - remove the one on the cooker wall, but the remaining ones in that corner, could be moved up bit to be closer to the window, which would enable you to put up open shelves along the wall above the cooker (obviously don't go too low to the cooker top) - but these would give you the appearance of more space, with good storage, also if you feel you have enough storage these are a chance to have more decorative things. As others have said, most importantly you must remove the ceiling tiles and preferably replace the light - as Jonathan says a track light is good. Ditch the blind, the only place on earth for vertical blinds is an office! I'd hesitate in choosing a blind with too much pattern, because of the size of the room. And consider the film option for the time being. From the pictures, the floor doesn't look too bad in terms of condition, does it just need a clean up from removing the wall tiles? If it's not good, we've bought adhesive floor tiles before as a stop gap, which have been most effective and surprisingly good for what they are....See More
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5 years agoE D
5 years agoA B
5 years agoE D
5 years agoJonathan
5 years agoSometimes taking out a wall costs the same as an extension. If you have the room for a small sun room on the back to move the breakfast table into you could end up with an easier kitchen to work in plus a utility with wc
Wumi thanked JonathanWumi
5 years agoThanks for all your comments! Yes, I was worried about that being an issue, even though we don’t particularly mind (we hope to settle in this home).
Jonathan - we have a £20k budget and that has to include a new kitchen, white goods, tiling, labour, electrics...everything. I like the idea of an external extension but I’m sceptical as to whether we can afford that. If we could afford an extension we’d prefer a warmer/more energy efficient extension than a sunroom could offer - we live in the West Midlands!
The main thing to highlight is we are very keen cooks, buy in bulk and batch cook. So ideally would need to fit a large American style fridge freezer, full sized dishwasher, cooker, pantry/cupboard/shelving space for our dry goods, cupboard space for all our cooking equipment and crockery and enough counter space to prepare food on. Bearing this in mind, having such a large toilet/utility space seems a bit of a waste.
What about if we reduced the size of the bathroom, replace bath with washing machine and put a door in between? That way we could potentially create a walk in pantry out of the rest of the bathroom. Is a WC off a pantry an issue?
Wumi
3 years agoHi All,
Just want to thank you all once again for your sound advice and give a bit of an update, having lived in the house for over a year!
We've decided to save up and opted for a side to rear extension as it's a popular options that gets permission for semi-detached properties in our area. Potentially a double storey extension, if we can afford it!
The kitchen is staying as and we'll likely sell our beloved table and get a smaller one for now. We've converted the downstairs bathroom into a utility space and WC, which means we could now fit a dishwasher in the kitchen.
Next stage is a garden office to free up one of the bedrooms upstairs which is currently being used as an office.
PROmisch_MISCH studio
3 years agoWumi
3 years ago
OnePlan