Buying a New Kitchen – Your Guide to getting it right!

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Where do I start?

Having decided that your kitchen is in need of a revamp you now have to plan what features it will have. It may be that you require more work and cupboard space. Your existing appliances may not offer you the specifications you require and your lighting may be inadequate. Whatever your needs you need to identify the design that best suits your needs and here we'll attempt to assist you with our view on how best to achieve this.

Kitchen layouts fall into four categories:

• Galley or corridor - For narrow rooms with an entry and exit point at opposite ends.
• One wall kitchen - More popular in apartment dwellings where space is at a premium
• L-shaped - If the existing room is interrupted by doors entering on two adjoining walls but wide enough to accommodate corner cabinets, an L-shaped kitchen is the most appropriate configuration. Front doors can shape the kitchen as well.
• U-shaped kitchens are suitable for rooms uninterrupted on three elevations and in some cases, if the room is wide enough, the U shape may return as a peninsular or against the fourth entry wall

Add to the above the ability to incorporate an island configuration in your room and you have ability to determine which style of kitchen best suits your room. Most importantly in the order of priority, recording the dimensions of your room is the first task.

Measuring up for your kitchen

Next up is measuring your room in a way that will ensure easy transfer of your plans to paper.

Proceed as follows

• Measure ceiling heights - Cabinets come in a variety of heights and your floor to ceiling height will determine which height cabinet is best suited to your room.
• Measure up your windows and doors - in addition measure the distances from each side of the aperture to the adjacent walls, from the lower sill to the floor and from the ceiling to the upper reveal of the window. The rules here also apply for any protrusions such as boxing in or pillars.
• When measuring lengths between walls hold the tape measure 600mm from the each end to simulate how the cabinet fronts will sit. This, of course, is easier if you are measuring over existing cabinetry and a centre mark will provide more accuracy if you measure to it from both sides and add the measurements.
• Check for plumb (vertical level) - It is advisable to rectify any defective plastering prior to the installation of cupboards and where a right angled corner wall cupboard is being installed it is essential that the relevant plastering is square and plumb to ensure a satisfactory alignment of the installation. You risk affecting the correct alignment of extractor and hob if attention is not given to out of plumb walls.
• Check floor levels - use a long spirit level to determine the level of your floor and, using the "600mm rule"(measuring this distance from the wall to simulate the plinth), will determine if any rectification or floor-levelling compound is required prior to installation. The criteria for an acceptable finish is in your own hands but I would suggest that a difference in level of more than 15mm will require pre-levelling before installing cabinets.
• Services - determine the dimension of any services that are sited in your kitchen such as mains water pipes, soil pipes or mains electricity/gas supplies. Again, measure their relative distance from both elevations and detail these in your plan before commencing design. Transferring them to your plan will avoid any complications with appliance obstruction. Cabinetry can always be altered to accommodate services but appliances can't.
• Checking your corner for square - As the standard worktop size is 600mm, a square template approximately this size will give you the best indication of a whether your corner is square. A shelf or purpose made square placed against the corner will determine any rectification work required before installation. Of course worktops can be scribed to suit the contours of the wall but it is advisable to achieve as square as possible a finish for aesthetic purposes.

Replacement doors and worktops

Of course, some of the above can be ignored if you are simply replacing doors and worktops but you will need to detail the position of existing hinge holes to make for easier replacement.

Here are the rules to make for easier installation.

• Measure the centres between hinge holes on your existing doors. To make this easier, mark a pencil line at the back of the hinge inside the cabinets using a straight edge to ensuring each line is central to the hinge. Measure the distance between the points and record this in millimetres.
• Next you will need to measure from the bottom of each door to the centre of the bottom hinge. Again, use a straight edge to mark the centre line of the hinge, this time on the door itself and measure from the bottom of the door to the marked line.
• Measure the door size in mm and record it's opening configuration - left hand or right hand hinge. Compile a list of your doors, detailing the door as a base, larder or wall unit fascia.
  
  For example:

If a door is integrated measuring will be difficult without removal of the appliance but a pattern may emerge showing that all the doors are consistently equidistant between hinge holes. If this is the case then it's more than likely that integrated doors are bored similar and record it as such. A good tip when measuring hinge hole centres is to commence measuring from the 100mm mark on your tape measure. Align it with the pre-marked pencil line and measure to the line marking the next hinge. This will offer a greater accuracy but don't forget to subtract 100mm from the measurement before recording it to paper. Worktops will present less of a problem and all that is required is to detail the size in width, length and depth.

© Tim Foley 2004

This Article in association with Tim Foley of http://www.kitchensfitted.co.uk

Tim is the founder of the kitchensfitted.co.uk website which offers impartial advice to site visitors via our forum and heads T Foley Interiors, offering Consultancy in exclusive kitchen designs. TFI offer a full design and consultancy service and act as intermediaries between the customer and the kitchen market.