Refurbish kitchens : alternative approaches

You need banks of plug sockets; lighting has to be both general and specific; you have appliances to fit into spaces that are inaccessible, and those appliances tend to be hidden from view, which means designers have to dream up fixing systems and swing out arms… and all that head-scratching jigsaw puzzle doesn’t even touch on the plumbing work, waste disposal, flooring, worktops, tiling, and the minor detail of ceiling and wall finishes…

It is fair to say that a kitchen is a complicated room to refurbish, and its complexities have beaten the enthusiasm out of many people – from professionals who don’t see the big picture, to enthusiastic homeowners who find out the hard way that there is no substitute for experience.

These guys may be good, but if they don’t work together, if they don’t have a shared interest in making the job go smoothly, and the client isn’t absolutely on the ball, watch out! The misunderstandings and knock-on effects can be problematic, to put it mildly.

Subbies have their own schedules and self interests and when they collide – at best the kitchen can be out of action for extra weeks and weeks, or at worst the end result can be underwhelming.

Can you just add this in. JUST is my least favourite word. Just add a light, just change a shelf, they seem small fry, but often aren’t.

I have seen all but fist fights break out when a plasterer skimmed the walls perfectly only for the electrician to pop back and JUST run a cable he forgot to install – straight through the middle of a super smooth wall. On that memorable occasion the cable went in diagonal, which just about broke every rule in the book. It had everyone not involved in plastering and electrical well entertained, but the oversight was awkward to put it mildly.

The next guy can get over that.The other common issue when assorted tradesmen are poorly coordinated is the syndrome “the next guy can get over that”. I know this one well! Thousands of us decorators regularly end up with skirting boards that don’t meet in the corners, or weird gaps where plastering isn’t finished properly, or new panels aren’t scribed properly in to wibbly wobbly walls.

“Can you JUST fill that mate?” To which the correct answer is
“Why don’t you JUST do your job properly in the first place?”

And it isn’t just painters who land up in trouble because of someone’s lack of awareness or lack of care. Kitchen fitters love leveling up units on brand new wonky floors – not.

There is no easy answer, because kitchen fitting is an organic process, and hundreds of small decisions need to be taken and re-visited. But there is hope if the person running the job has the experience and the eye for detail, and your individual tradesmen have the pride and commitment not to leave before their part of the job has been done without creating issues for the next trade in.

To design and install a brand new kitchen, these days, it seems that you can get a basic DIY supermarket all-in package fitted (probably without appliances) from around £5000. Shopping around, you can get high end workmanship from reliable companies for around £10-£15000, and the likes of a high profile Mark Wilkinson kitchen from £25-£30,000 and on up.

Within the all-in package, there are different options and variations –

1 – use the kitchen supplier to design, supply and install the whole package, responsible for all services and small building works.

2 – use the kitchen company to design and supply the units and either install yourself (literally you do it all), or employ a project manager to bring in the trades, or, hardest but cheapest financially, find and run the trades yourself.

These approaches all have pros and cons, and the best option really is dependent on your budget, experience and tolerance levels.

a- Kitchen installations are tricky at the best of times, so the turnkey packages may seem pricey, but in theory the stress is not yours, which can be priceless.

b -If you go it alone, hope that you can coordinate the fitting team, else stress, expense and delays are coming your way.

c – In my experience, the best value kitchen is one that has been designed, built and installed by a specialist independent company. There really are joinery companies out there with gifted staff and a small marketing budget doing fantastic work from their own premises for half the price of the high profile fantasticos!

The extra costs to account for: cost of hinges and handles, and labour for a fitter.

Also, on the downside, you may not find the style you want – they tend to offer the most popular sellers only. The budget painted doors are invariably sprayed, which is fine, but they have different character to custom painted units. And the biggest downside is the fixed panels in the kitchen would not match the new doors. Again, this isn’t necessarily a deal breaker, but if you are into details you are looking at extra labour and costs to modify some units.

Another option is to employ a kitchen manufacturer to come one day to remove doors and drawers from site and have them painted in their workshops. They come back and install the new doors.

There are obvious downsides to that approach! No drawer fronts, no doors, and unless they literally take the whole kitchen apart, you would still need a painter to make 4 trips to paint fitted cornices, end panels to match… But it is an option.

There is more to it than a lick of paint, but in principle, done well, every component in a hand-painted kitchen will be 100% colour matched, it will coordinate with the rest of the decor and because of the finish from a traditional oil paint, it will look elegant and interesting for years.

Another plus with this approach is the simple organisation. One craftsman working exclusively on your kitchen until completion. No juggling schedules, no endless round of phone calls trying to get different people involved. Done and dusted.

On the downside, there is disruption too. As a guide, for smaller kitchens with 10-12 doors that are bare laminate or bare timber, it can take about a week hard graft to complete the process – to protect your floors and worktops, prepare and paint in oil-based paints and put everything back together again. It takes less time if a kitchen this size has been factory pre-primed, or it has been painted before. But in simple terms, the kitchen is out of action 8.30 to 6pm and you have to be quite flexible about cooking evening meals for the duration of the work. (It is no longer surprising how many clients book a holiday when they employ me!)