Kitchen & Laundry Install

There was zero input required from us during the manufacturing process. The manufacturing process involved taking the plans we’d signed off on and creating the kitchen and laundry from those plans.

That is why the design and measure stage is so critical, to ensure the completed kitchen & laundry fitted perfectly.

The kitchen and laundry were delivered on-site in their various parts. The parts were made up of:

• Cabinets
• Drawers
• Shelves
• Benchtops
• Doors
• Appliances (dishwasher, oven, hobs and extractor unit)
• Sinks
• Faucets
• Trims and Toe Kicks
• Fixings and Hardware

Specialist installers were to assemble the parts not only into a working kitchen and laundry, but had the task of making them seamlessly fit the imperfect spaces they were being installed into.

Working with a nearly 50-year-old house means things have settled. Even in brand new homes, the tolerances aren’t nearly as tight as they are with kitchen/laundry joinery. The walls aren’t perfectly plumb, and the floor isn’t perfectly level. Even only a few millimetres out means the precision manufactured joinery isn’t going to sit flush up against walls, with level benchtops.

Joinery manufacturers know this, and both Kitchen Concepts’ designers and specialist installers ensured that an imperfect space wasn’t going to impact on a perfect finish.

Firstly, there are hidden, adjustable feet built into the base of all of the basic cabinets. This allows the installer to set a precise height, and tune the surface of the cabinet level.

The cabinets are typically clamped and fixed together to form the final set of cabinets and adjusted from there.

Various edges of the separate cabinet faces are trimmed using an electric planer and other hand tools to achieve a flush finish against the surfaces they sit against, before fixing to the cabinet carcases.

Benchtops are trimmed, so they are flush against the walls they sit against.

Toe kicks are also trimmed, to sit flush against the floor. As we were going to be installing vinyl plank flooring after the kitchen was installed, there was a bit of tolerance there.

In some cases, several millimetres of material is removed to achieve a perfect result.

The kitchen installer did a faultless job installing the various cabinetry and associated panels. Now things were ready for our plumber and electrician to come back and connect up the appliances, sinks and faucets.

First up was Justin, our electrician. He would install the oven, hobs and extractor unit. While he was on site, he’d also take the opportunity to wire up and install the new sockets, switches and lighting around the rest of the house. This was a relatively quick job, as all the planning and wiring had already been completed, covered in Chapter 7.

Nick our plumber, would then return to plumb in the dishwasher, washing machine, sinks and faucets. This was also a relatively simple job, as the pipework was already installed and ready as previously covered in Chapter 6.

It’s interesting how, with all the imagination, thought and design that was put into our kitchen and laundry – only once it actually manifested in real life could we truly appreciate what we’d created.

The result was incredible. The space was so easy to move around, so spacious and interconnected with the living area. The kitchen we’d created wasn’t just functional – it was a joy to be in, and we were still a couple of weeks from moving in!

The laundry was a real bonus. We’d treated it as a bit of a tag-on, however, it stood strong in its own right. With floor to ceiling pantries along the whole rear wall and an ultra-functional benchtop and built-in tub, it housed a little larder as well and providing a space for washing to be stored and done.

Kitchen Concept’s experience, investment of thought and care in the design phase meant what we achieved was “just right”. There wasn’t a single element which appeared out of place, or anywhere we felt should have been done differently.

Full photos available in the reveal, to be published 19th November.