SOLID WOOD KITCHEN CABINETS BLOG

With frost still on the ground, we aren’t trying to get too ahead of ourselves, however now is the perfect time to prepare your kitchen if you are thinking of brightening it up with a new splash of colour this spring (the new season starts in March, after all!)

Having already featured every one of Farrow & Ball’s colours that feature in our standard ranges, this month we are looking at a combination of colours which would be ideal for solid oak kitchens, especially oak kitchen doors and drawer fronts.

The combination of creamy White Tie, the soft blue-green Mizzle and warm tones of Smoked Trout complement each other beautifully, and are fitting shades to choose for reflecting natural light. Consider them alongside one of our light wooden kitchen worktops to create an airy kitchen that looks beautiful at any time of year.

From our standard ‘Pastels’ collection, we have White Tie and Mizzle. White Tie is one of more than 15 shades of white in Farrow & Ball’s collection, but has creamier tones than some, sitting comfortably between New White and All White. It’s one of the shades that has proved most popular with our customers, and is a perfect colour for our oak kitchen frontals.

Mizzle was our first Colour of the Month in 2014, and features minty undertones of green, blue and grey that – according to Farrow & Ball – is reminiscent of “a west country evening mist”. In cold morning light, Mizzle takes on more blue tones, whilst in warmer evening light, it looks considerably more like an olive green.

Finally Smoked Trout – one of our bespoke colour options – echoes the mushroom pink tones of its namesake. It’s a lighter version of Farrow & Ball’s Dead Salmon, which looks considerably redder in all but very white light. Expect Smoked Trout to look grey in bright lighting, and take on deeper pink hues in areas with warm lighting.

To see samples of these colours yourself, why not order one of our miniature painted cabinet door kitchen samples? They are perfect replicas of our full-size kitchen cabinet frontals, and can be hand-finished in any Farrow & Ball shade you desire – whether from our existing range, or a bespoke colour of your own choice. Otherwise, visit one of our kitchen showrooms to see a variety of painted kitchens, our full range of our painted cabinet door samples, or to discuss available options further with our friendly advisers.

At Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets we are always looking to improve our products and service wherever possible.

With this in mind we have recently introduced a new collection, which we recommend purchasing as standard with all solid wood kitchens. Our new Tandembox Antaro drawers are available at no additional cost (when compared with our previous ‘standard’ range, the Tandembox Plus collection), and feature metal sides and – on the deeper pan drawers – lacquered solid oak inlays. They also feature solid oak panels on the bottom and rear of the drawer, and are faced by an 18mm thick solid oak frontal: a stunning celebration of oak and a sleek drawer box for any kitchen.

Alternatively, our Intivo drawers in white provide an excellent, sophisticated alternative. Both ranges feature lacquered oak inserts on the bottom and rear of the drawer, with the deeper pan drawers also featuring partial oak side panels, too.

All of our drawers still have soft-close Blum drawer mechanisms, and feature a solid oak frontal that is available in both Shaker and Traditional styles. These frontals can be left in a sanded finish, lacquered, or painted in any one of Farrow & Ball’s beautiful paint shades.

In line with the introduction of this new range, we have now discontinued our standard Tandembox Plus Grey range. This includes the single drawer size and deeper pan drawer option with guide rails. The stainless steel option is still available, so please do consider this if you are looking for a drawer box with a stylish, modern finish.

To find out more about our drawers, please do visit our solid oak drawer page, or pay a visit to one of our kitchen showrooms. We have the full range of drawer types on display with an assortment of finishes for you to view up-close, and we’d be more than happy to discuss the range in full with you in person.

Please Note: As of June 2015, our Tandembox stainless steel option has now been entirely discontinued, and replaced with a stainless steel variant of the Antaro drawers.

Since Boxing Day and throughout January, we have been offering a generous 10% discount on our entire range of solid oak kitchen cabinets and all related accessories.

This fantastic saving means that building your dream solid oak kitchens are even better value than usual!

The sale comes to an end at 23:59 on Saturday January 31st, so there are less than four days remaining in which to take advantage of this great offer. Making the saving is easy: simply enter the code TERRIFIC10 at the online checkout, or be sure to mention it to one of our friendly advisers when placing an order via telephone or email.

The offer applies to all of our oak base and kitchen wall cabinets, solid oak kitchen doors and drawer fronts and our full range of finishing touches, such as handles and kitchen wirework. The only exclusions from this sale are our wooden worktops, worktop accessories and samples.

We are very proud of very competitive pricing, sale or no sale; please head to our ’Price & Quality Comparison’ page to see how we measure up for yourself – you won’t be disappointed!

January is firmly in full swing, and having posted an entire year of colours from Farrow & Ball throughout 2014, we’re now publishing the final ‘Colour of the Month’ from our standard range.

This particular shade, Hardwick White, comes from the ‘Accents’ range: a collection of prominent colours that contrast kindly with solid oak kitchen cabinets – bright enough to stand out alone, as well as working alongside many lighter colours.

Hardwick White is not – as the name might suggest – a shade of white; in fact it’s more of a light grey, with attractive green hues. It takes its name from the limewash used to paint the interior of Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire.

Depending how much natural light your kitchen gets, Hardwick White can be a rather changeable colour, shifting between light shades of green, blue, brown and grey. In cold winter light, blue and grey accents will be exposed, whilst in warmer evening and summer light from the south, it shifts towards greens and browns.

In dark and smaller rooms, Hardwick White can look particularly intensive, and becomes quite dusky, particularly when plenty of layers are applied, and so is often best combined with a bright white such as Farrow & Ball’s All White. Equally, it holds its own alongside stronger colours such as Red Earth or Terre D’Egypte.

If you would like an easy way of seeing how Hardwick White will appear in your kitchen, then why not order one of our pre-painted kitchen door samples? These miniature versions of our oak cabinet frontals measure 355mm x 296mm and are available in any of Farrow & Ball’s shades for just £20 including delivery. To make them even more enticing, if you go on to place an order for your wooden kitchen components with us, the cost will be refunded – even more reason to try out a myriad of colours within your home!

Whilst you may be well aware of the beautiful solid oak cabinets and hardwood worktops that make up one of our solid wood kitchens, there are plenty of hidden details that you may not notice at first glance.

Chief amongst these details is an important feature that can really set your kitchen apart and make it truly usable (whilst also looking good): our selection of wirework for cabinets.

Whatever type of cabinet you would like to kit out with our wirework, we have a solution to fit.

From simple 3-Tier Spice Rack storage that easily screws onto a cabinet door, to more complex solutions such as our Magic Basket Corner Solution (as shown in the photo above), or our Pull & Swing Pantry wirework that is ideal for full-height cabinets, our selection of wirework is designed to make storage in your kitchen more effective, easier to access and also more hygienic.

Many of our wirework options are made in the United Kingdom, and come in a variety of widths to suit our full range of cabinetry up to 1200mm wide. All are supplied with full assembly instructions and can easily be installed without any specialist knowledge or tools.

No matter your requirements, we highly recommend that you consider some of our innovative wirework – it will make your cabinet storage as brilliant on the inside as it appears from the outside.

Looking to find out more about our wirework? Why not visit one of our kitchen showrooms? Each showroom has many of the wirework products we offer on display in a variety of kitchen settings, and can be fully demonstrated by our knowledgeable showroom managers.

At this time of year, many new gadgets are being announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, with manufacturers hoping to wow people for the next 12 months.

In the last year, one kitchen gadget that has had a great revival in popularity is the slow cooker. The great thing about them is that they can be filled up in the morning with the timer set, so that when you arrive home from work there’s a lovely hot meal waiting for you. However, they’re not just for cooking stews or casseroles anymore.

A modern slow cooker such as Tefal’s RK302E15 8-in-1 Multi Cooker is capable of cooking rice, porridge, steaming, and even cooking deserts.

If your meal is ready before you return home, Tefal’s Multi Cooker will also automatically keep your food warmed until you are ready to serve it. You can tell it to have your meal ready in anything from 2 to 15 hours, with 1 hour incremental adjustment.

On the front there’s a set of controls which make setting up the Multi Cooker really straightforward – even without reading the manual in full. You can easily select from three different rice cooking options, slow cooking, steaming, porridge or a desert setting, and then easily adjust the cooking time using the buttons and easy-to-read display.

As well as this wide range of features, the Tefal Multi Cooker looks pretty good in oak kitchens too. The stainless steel finish and matt plastic top are stylish yet functional and the non-stick slow cooker insert can be easily removed for cleaning.

For £49.99, this versatile cooker replaces a multitude of other kitchen gadgets, meaning you won’t need to use a standalone rice cooker or a variety of pans in order to create a fantastic meal.

Have you got your own slow cooker? Let us know how you make use of it over on one of our social media pages. We’re on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Google+. As ever, if you have found a gadget that you think we should feature on our next ‘Gadget of the Month’ post, then do get in touch – we’d love to hear from you!

Are you thinking of splashing out on a kitchen so that you’ll be ready to impress this Christmas? If you are planning on ordering one of our solid wood kitchens, but are still undecided about which worktop would work best, or which fabulous Farrow & Ball colour to choose for your cabinet doors, then now is the time to place an order for a kitchen sample or two.

To get your kitchen order in time for Christmas, you’ll need to place your order by Friday the 12th of December (depending on which components you require). To view all of our Christmas delivery cut-off dates, please read our Delivery Details Page. Because of this necessary delivery date cut-off, we recommend ordering samples this week to avoid disappointment.

At Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets we offer a full online sample service , featuring solid oak 18mm thick base cabinet panels, miniature oak cabinet door samples available in a natural or painted finish, and a full range of solid wood worktop samples.

Cabinet samples are supplied as a 160mm x 80mm x 18mm piece of solid oak, lacquered using the same process as our full-size cabinet panels. These samples cost just £5 each, including VAT and next-day delivery.

Our worktop samples measure approximately 200mm x 150mm x 40mm (or 27mm – depending on the timber species), and are oiled on one face and the edges, in order to represent the finished product. Again, the cost is just £5 including next-day delivery (if you order before 11am).

Our 355mm x 296mm cabinet door samples are available in either traditional or shaker designs in a natural finish – either sanded or lacquered, in order for you to visualise the finished product and the inherent beauty of solid oak’s grain. Alternatively, you can order our miniature doors in one of 21 bespoke Farrow & Ball colours. These items are priced very keenly at only £20 including 48-hour delivery.

The best part? If you go on to order your kitchen from us, we’ll refund you the cost of the samples. For further information, visit our samples page to learn more – and ‘try before you buy’ with minimal cost or fuss!

Kitchen gadgets seem to get more exciting with every passing month, and this month’s featured foody device is no exception.

The Rollie Eggmaster has already been a big hit across the pond in America, and it’s now caught on in the British Isles, too; making it easier than ever to whip up starters, canapés and much more.

Don’t be fooled by the Rollie’s simple appearance; it’s actually a vertical non-stick grill that can whip up salmon pinwheels, egg and bacon bites or mini tortilla wraps in mere minutes.

You don’t have to be some kind of culinary expert, either. The Rollie makes it easy to create quick yet satisfying meals and desserts, and its configuration means that the presentation is likely to be dainty and precise – meaning that your food will look as though it’s been cooked up by a real pro! It also comes with a ‘packing rod’ that enables you to cook meat or batter, thus further expanding this unique grill’s capabilities.

If this sounds like a perfect addition to your oak kitchens, you can pick up the Rollie in the UK for only £29.99 from Lakeland. We’re certainly pondering putting it on our Christmas list!

If you’ve tried the Rollie Eggmaster, or know of another gadget we should feature on a future Gadget of the Month blog, then do get in touch! We’re always keen for a chat over on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Google+.

With the nights getting so cold and the rain lashing down on your window, you’d be forgiven for thinking that grey might not be the most comforting hue for your interiors. On the contrary, grey is fast becoming one of the most fashionable colours to use in solid oak kitchens and many other living spaces. It can be a soothing, warm alternative to many of the more traditional ‘neutral’ shades.

Pavilion Gray sits somewhere in the mid-range of Farrow & Ball’s wide selection of greys, right between Elephant’s Breath (our Colour of the Month back in June) and their darker Lamp Room Gray.

Alongside crisp white accents, Pavilion Gray brings warmth to a room, peaking with a red tincture in warm winter light, and blue tones in bright summer sun. Besides its obvious companionship with New White, it sits beautifully alongside dark blues such as Farrow & Ball’s Pitch Blue, as well as dark blacks and greys.

It was reportedly Gustav III of Sweden’s favoured interior shade of grey, used widely throughout his pavilions at Haga castle during his 18th century rule, and was commonly found alongside paints mixed using natural pigments of blue and white.

Would you like to see what Pavilion Gray would look like in your home? Why not order one of our pre-painted door samples? These solid oak miniature doors are just £20 including delivery; an ideal choice if you’d like to get to know what a colour will look like in different lights and at different times of the day.

Throughout much of October and the start of November, we have been running our Amazing Autumn Sale that offers all customers of Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets an extra 10% off our entire range of solid oak kitchen cabinets, doors and cabinet accessories.

There’s now less than a week remaining in which to take advantage of this offer, so if you’re thinking of placing an order with us, then act fast to get your oak kitchen components at a truly unbeatable price. To make the saving, just enter the code AUTUMN10 when placing an order on the online checkout, or mention it to one our advisers if ordering over the phone or via email.

As well as cabinets, we offer a wide range of wirework, splashbacks, knobs and handles and many more accessories – perfect for installing a truly sublime solid wood kitchen. The only products not included in this fantastic sale are our high-quality wooden worktops, worktop accessories and samples, which we think you’ll agree are already great value for money.

The sale is over at 11:59pm on Sunday, November 9th, so don’t delay in ordering components for the wooden kitchen you’ve always wanted! Please feel free to contact us if you’d like any more information on our products; our sales lines and showroom are open between 9am-5pm, Monday – Friday, and 10am – 2pm on Saturdays.