The Everybody is Doing a Kitchen Thread

still find it wild that germans take their kitchens with them

Is that true?

There was my thinking it was just the one or two places. Is this actually common then?

as far as I'm aware and am informed by my partner who grew up in germany, yes.

not all places, of course, but it is fairly common that you will rent an 'unfurnished' apartment and it won't come with a kitchen fitted as the previous tenants took it with them. think it's a function of germany's strong pro-tenancy rights, where people can live in rented accommodation often for years. you would typically want to spec and fit your own kitchen in those instances and then (since they're so expensive) take it with you when you leave

I've heard tales of people taking light fittings, sockets, even floors... not sure whether they take fitted bathrooms

Yes

That's quite a transformation! Looks good now. Also an extension, or just a different camera angle on the "after" photo?

Also, vertical tiles. Are they A Thing?

New floorboards are going in to our kitchen, starting today. It's almost a shame, because I like the green stained finish on these boards and they look ok in photos, but they'll have been sanded a couple times already and in places are really uneven and have big gaps/splits. If we were ever to replace the boards, now's the time as the old cabinets have been taken out.

I had a complete mare trying to find a joiner to do the work at short notice. All the firms seemed booked into 2021 and in some cases it was hard even to get them to answer the phone. Fair enough, people are busy and I'm glad for them. Then, yesterday, we stumbled across a joiner that has a gap to do the work immediately. Quite a relief.

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extension. the old plan hadn't been updated since the 1920s so the kitchen was an old scullery style. what you can see in the photo is essentially the extent of it (there was one more low cupboard behind where the photographer is standing). must have been about 1.5/2 sqm max

vertical tiles, well... I don't really like the horizontal metro tile look but at the same time I don't have the infinite money cheat engaged so needed some tiles which are reasonably economical. this was a nice way of making the cheap/standard tiles look a little different. 'cheap'... I mean, they're still claybrook. think I first saw it here: https://catesthill.com/2017/02/27/my-ikea-kitchen-makeover-the-transformation/

I'm trying to work out which part of town you live in from your pictures & strava #cyberstalking

I'm guessing not New Town / Stockbridge, because the floors aren't massive flagstones

Good to see progress on the kitchen.

Hillside. At least that's what the estate agents say. I've been told these flats were called "artisan flats", one bedroom things I guess aimed at the middle class hipsters of 1890.

I see. Nice idea on the tiles. I had wondered it was supposed to be a visual trick to create a sense of height and space in a small room, or something like that. I suspect we will go for a standard horizontal tile but it's good to think about options.

massive flagstones

I guess these are mostly in houses (so presumably in the Grange) or larger ground floor flats (so Stockbridge, Marchmont).

I'd definitely have a big flat or detached house if I could, but £££. The future for casa del Cupcakes might involve moving out of town, we'll see what life brings. For the meantime, Hillside seems to be the hip spot. I kinda like it more than the Southside where I lived for all my undergraduate years.

hillside. southside. edinburgh pls up your naming game

no need for any visual illusions in this room - ceilings are about 4 metres high in the kitchen space. and the living space (which is open and adjacent to the kitchen) has ceilings which are 6/7 metres. was one of the key benefits of doing the changes - we had come from a tenement with roomy ceilings, 1920s terraced houses are quite as well-proportioned.

living space has ceilings which are 6/7 metres

!!!

Would love to see a photo of that.

I'm with you on enjoying the roomy tenement ceilings. New builds feel so mean in comparison.

looking at the planning docs - think they're actually closer to 5.5/6. hard to get a sense of the scale from photos but have tried. for reference the tops of the book cases are roughly at 3m. the living space is actually quite small in terms of footprint, but doesn't feel it with the height. we have the skylights you can see here plus above the new roof there are a couple of clerestoreys for further light. pls do not play the_modern_house_xunt_bingo with these

Before.

During.

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I do hope you're restoring that incredible wall colour.

Didn't you want a pink kitchen??? I'm not a fan TBH.

Bingo notwithstanding I think that looks great.

One thing I need to keep in mind is trying to reduce clutter when the kitchen is done at my place. I wouldn't say we are bad for it, but we could be a lot better. It's always good to see 'clean' inspiration.

looks much better with a floor

Well, stuff is happening for sure. I think it's good stuff. I'm not going to lie, having this work done whole living here at the same time is making me more than a little anxious, and it's definitely not the first time I've seen the horrors that lurk under a floor.

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This is what our old kitchen was like, we had lived in the place for about 3 years before we did anything major.

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We really wanted garden access from the kitchen, this was the basis for the new one. Though everything else sort of escalated from that seed...we went on a spree to fit new central heating as well as the kitchen (we wanted underfloor heating).

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We’ve since fitted a new floor to the ground floor and redecorated

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Nice. Where are your units from?

We’re currently redesigning our kitchen and mulling over where to get units from.

I’m reluctant to pay £16k for Harvey Jones units (plus a further £2.5k) for on site painting.

I’ve found a company that does comparable bespoke stuff but from pine. I am impressed with the quality but not entirely convinced by using softwood.

The doors are nice and thick and the construction looks well done.

Any thoughts from the hive mind?

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This was the company we used, we originally went to Herringbone Kitchens in Canterbury. Lovely stuff but the quote we had was £42k and the was with Neff appliances and only half the run of units on the right (the pale blue side).

We got little change from £55k for the place we chose but got all Miele appliances and the full suite of units we wanted.

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Yikes. Thankfully there’s nowhere near as much to do in our place but that price was for the units only, not fitted, and no worktops or appliances so it’s easy to see how much it could grow.

Beautiful work on those joints.

Did you go with UFH in the end? What sort of system is it? I don’t think we’ll go with it in the kitchen because the subfloor is thin and then straight into soil as far as I can tell. But keen in the rest of the house where we have suspended floors.