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Renovating Before & After Kitchens

Thank you! Here's some Before / After photos of the finished kitchen

2 years ago

last modified: 2 years ago

A while ago I asked for lots of advice as part of our house renovation, the kitchen is mostly done now (furnished lightly though) so thought I'd show a few before/afters.

We used DIY kitchens for the kitchen supplier and Karen from Oneplan (here off Houzz) who was invaluable in helping us pull the kitchen design together.

We're really happy with it and couldn't have done it without everyones advice - so thank you!

Before:

After:

These were a couple of the renders that OnePlan (Karen's) put together for us as part of the design consultancy - they're not far off!

Featured Answer

Nathan B
Original Author

2 years ago

Kitchen is Helmsley (Inframe) Dove Grey. The wall colour is “light blue” by F&B - I think at least, pretty sure we worked our way through all of them at some point 😬

Comments (43)

PRO
OnePlan
2 years ago
Oh wow Nathan !!! Sooooo lovely to see the finished room !!! You have made my day !! Thank you !! It looks amazeballs ( that’s a technical term !!) Hope you and the family spend many happy hours in there !
Daisy England
2 years ago
What can I say but wow. It is gorgeous. Love it. What a transformation. I bet you are so pleased with it.

It's nice when customers post the finished contract too so that their designer/planner (OnePlan) can see it in all its glory.
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Sonia
2 years ago
Fabulous. Very elegant and stylish. Well done.
Rhian Gilmartin
2 years ago
Absolutely gorgeous! Congratulations!

(May I ask the dimensions of the room please? It's giving me some ideas!)
kazzh
2 years ago
You sure your living in the same house?ᾑ4 Stunning ....
Nathan B
Original Author
2 years ago
Thanks everyone - to answer a few of the questions… it is technically the same house but I think it would have been easier to knock it down and start again and get to the same result!

I’ll share a few before and afters once it’s photo-worthy.

The open plan kitchen area is 9m x 7.5m and the island is 4.6m x 1.2m.
Originally had a pillar to support the 9m RSJ bang in the middle but upgraded it to a monster so we didn’t need one after we knocked through and opened the space up, definitely glad that we did!
J
2 years ago
Well done! Kitchen looks great. Can I ask what painted finish did you go for?
J
2 years ago
Thanks! That's the same one I'm about the order :D
Nathan B
Original Author
2 years ago
Ahh awesome!

I’d recommend upgrading the pan drawers (if you have any) to have the glass sides, they make them much sturdier!
hmb1
2 years ago
And a beautiful red poodle to boot? Lucky you!
Daisy England
2 years ago
i’m just being nosey here 😆 …. what are the 3 different ovens?
Fran
2 years ago
Wow amazing transformation. I love the calm feel to the space and the lovely details. I’m sure you can’t believe it every morning you walk into it.
Nathan B
Original Author
last year
@Daisy - We’ve got a miele induction hob and a miele oven directly underneath (it pays to live close to the miele outlet!) and then Siemens IQ700 ovens and warming drawers in the tall units.

The logic is (Karen’s idea!), the one under the hob is our dirty oven (roasting / searing then finishing in the oven), the other is a steam oven and the other is an overflow. Seemed like overkill but it’s brilliant for roasts or dinner parties / you’d be surprised at how often we have all three running!

I’d bought the hob before the ovens but was convinced later the Siemens were just as good (and easier on the wallet!) so switched to those. But for the island, my OCD couldn’t have mixed brands within a meter of each other 😬😂 so opted to keep the Miele there!
rosemonde
last year
Lovely space. What is the wood panelling on both sides of the tv? Is it acupanels or something bespoke? Thank you!
LTS
last year
Oh wow this is gorgeous!! We used OnePlan / DIY Kitchens too. Same colour as our units…it’s such a lovely neutral grey!
move435
last year
It looks spectacular! What a transformation and I love how close it is to the One Plan render too! I'd also love to know about the TV area as just come on Houzz for ideas for exactly that
Nathan B
Original Author
last year
LTS - it’s such a nice colour almost verging on light blue in some lights!

Move435/rosemonde, I’ve attached a couple of extra photos. We used the oak naturewall panels with acoustic backing. Very easy to fit and the carpenter studded out the tv unit and stepped it out a bit at the bottom so it could fit Xbox/amp/etc. he used the cut offs from the nature wall around the base almost like a skirting board.
rosemonde
last year
Thank you, that’s really helpful! Beautiful job by the way.
ejc2000
last year
Please could you tell me if DIY kitchens supplied the plinth for your island or has a joiner made it?
Nathan B
Original Author
last year
Ejc2000 - carpenter sorted it - pretty sure we bought taller skirting boards that matched the rest of the room from skirtinguk.com and then he put clips on it!

I wanted to do it for the rest of the kitchen but he advised against it (he also said to curve the skirting would be a ball ache for the corner unit 😂)
ejc2000
last year
Thanks for the reply Nathan - it looks great!
HU-805216492
last year
This is utterly beautiful!
Can I ask if you didn’t need to use a hob extractor fan because you have mechanical extraction?
Nathan B
Original Author
last year
We have a downdraft extractor just behind the hob. It’s motorised and pops up when we’re cooking (with a light which is also helpful) and also acts as a splashback. Pretty happy with it to be honest.

We ran a vent pipe underneath the floor to the outside wall of the house. We couldn’t actually have a ceiling extractor even if we wanted due to how the joists ran and big steel RSJs getting in the way!
moogirl
last year
This looks great! May I ask what you spent in total on hour kitchen?
Nathan B
Original Author
last year
Sure, I won’t include the renovation cost (I can’t easily split it) just the cost of the kitchen and fitting it

Units from DIY kitchens: £13k
Worktop: £4.7k
Appliances (tall fridge, tall freezer, two ovens, two warming drawers, boiling tap, hob, wine cooler): £6.5k
Labour to fit: £2.3k

All in around 27k. We had quotes from Tom Howley and other bespoke kitchen companies, all in the region of 45-65k for a similar design!
Diane Macfaden
last year
Lovely kitchen. What colour did you paint the walls? I need a light colour to work with my new pale grey kitchen too, that isn’t just plain white. You seem to have chosen what looks like a green shade?
Nathan B
Original Author
last year
Thanks - 99% sure it’s green blue from F&B. We ended up taking samples of our worktop, kitchen and floor + lots of photos into F&B and they helped us pull together a colour scheme.
moogirl
last year
Thanks Nathan, appreciate your cost breakdown!
Andy C
last year
Insanely beautiful. May I ask what direction is your kitchen facing?
Nathan B
Original Author
last year
Hi Andy - it’s south facing! Even with special reflective roof lanterns, highly insulated bi folds and a warm roof (PIR insulation on the outside and not between the rafters) there’s still a significant amount of solar gain. We have had the bi folds wide open on sunny days in Jan/feb, which is nice as it keeps the room airy but will be interesting to see how it copes with summer!
Eileen Nixon
last year
How effective is the pop up extractor, I love curries and fish?
Nathan B
Original Author
last year
I find it very effective, if you have a steaming pot of boiling water, you can see how well it sucks the air in (we made sure to use rigid manrose with as few angles as possible to ensure high extraction m3 rate). If I’m searing a steak at high temp, there’s no smoke in the kitchen however I wouldn’t say it’s completely “odour free”, but I don’t think any extractor is!
Eileen Nixon
last year
Thank you for reply Nathan. Lovely transformation.
Nathan B
Original Author
last year
Thanks Eileen!
morsenet
last year
Hi. Please can you say what the unit range was you got from DIY Kitchens? Was it a foil wrap, painted mdf or wood? Your fitting cost appeared to be very cheap, how did you manage that?
Nathan B
Original Author
last year
It was the in-frame Helmsley range which is painted wood - a solid timber frame (but veneer Center panel which you can’t tell). Quality is great.

Fitting was done by one of the builder/carpenter who I was paying a day rate of £140 (secured early on as the project was 12 months work), so fortunate my labour was lower than the usual going rate at the moment.
morsenet
last year
Thanks for the speedy response. we paid over £200 a day, four years ago for fitting a bathroom.. You were lucky. i looked at DIY kitchens but did not see any butlers pantys. Looks lke you made one?
Nathan B
Original Author
last year
I was definitely lucky - I’ve given work to these guys for 4-5 years and they were happy for the work - it was still the uncertain part of the pandemic. The project still over ran and went way over budget (mostly due to material and expensive missus who liked the expensive options!), so I can only imagine what it would have been had we paid more on our labour 😂. They definitely do a pantry unit - from memory they do an 800 wide or a 1000 wide unit, we went for the widest.

You have to dig deep - they’re planner is pretty good too actually. Here’s a link: https://www.diy-kitchens.com/showproducts.asp?productsearch=2090811&q=1000mm
Nathan B
Original Author
last year
They call them double dresser units, you can change internals to make them more pantry like (different depth shelves, organisers etc)
PRO
OnePlan
last year
So lovely to see this pop up again - I never get tired of seeing it !!
morsenet
last year
Nathan… thank you for the link. We will have a look. We change our plans almost daily! We had a professional designer: her design looks stunning but cluttered. So, not wanting to pay for more designs… we are engaged in a constant process of fiddling. We have a tricky space. You had a great canvass and the result is fabulous.
Nathan B
Original Author
last year
Hi Morsenet - in that case I would highly recommend Karen from OnePlan. I was in the exact same position as you, had tried what I thought was every version possible but deep down I wasn’t happy. Spending the money (small amount in context) with Karen made me and my partner confident and happy with the design. She respected what we’d done already and gave us a fresh perspective combined with her years of knowledge, it was a easy process.
I’d already massively overspent on the budget by this point so spending additional money was a hard pill to swallow but actually it was invaluable and saved us money down the line from mistakes we would have made (or worse ripping this kitchen out and doing it again!).

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