ANSWER:

Hi Tristan,

Thank you for getting in touch with us – it sounds like you made a good start by asking friends and colleagues, and hopefully our tips will help you to secure somebody that can install your new kitchen.

Whilst there are a number of qualities that make a good kitchen fitter, it is important that you find somebody who is capable of meeting your needs when you consider the options available. If you are having solid wood worktops, you will not need to hire someone who specialises in granite installations, and similarly, it is important to establish what your fitter will and will not be capable of doing before you make a decision.

As you have mentioned, you have not yet been successful in finding a kitchen fitter recommended by a friend or colleague, so the next best thing would be to find a fitter who has received positive reviews and testimonials online. There are a number of different review websites, such as Trustpilot, Yell and more trade-specific sites like Checkatrade.com.

Our guide on choosing the right kitchen fitter provides a little more information if you would like further advice on finding a good kitchen fitter.

We would love to see your kitchen once it is fitted, so please feel free to share pictures with us on Facebook and Instagram. In the meantime, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

The Team @ Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets

ANSWER:

Hello Gwyneth,

Thank you for getting in touch – it sounds like you have a big project ahead of you! We regularly feature news about current kitchen trends but we have not yet done any features on future trend predictions.

Last year, the Scandinavian trend of Hygge took over and the main takeaway for many was the recreation of a cosy feeling evoked by the movement. This year, we have seen a number of different colours, materials and patterns become popular – from jungle prints to rose gold – and as these trends develop, we see a variety of evolutions that are pegged to be the next big thing.

Copper and rose gold have been in high demand, but brass is set to be the go-to metallic for winter 2017. The popularity of dark colours is not going anywhere, but navy blue may be replaced with a different hue. Pantone’s analysis of London and New York Fashion Week suggests that deep green shades will be a hit this winter alongside warmer hues like burgundy red. ‘Millennial pink’ is also here to stay, which is great news if you are thinking of a blush toned kitchen.

Houseplants are an accessory that will be forever popular, and whilst indoor greenery may not seem like it immediately fits with kitchen trends for winter, they have a number of associated benefits including air purification and reducing air temperatures. If you are not fitting full height cabinets, they can be used to add some personality to space on top of your wall units that would otherwise be unused.

We hope this has given you some idea of the predicted kitchen trends for winter 2017 – we would love to see your kitchen when the redesign is finished, so please feel free to tag us in photos on Facebook or Instagram.

Kind regards,

The Team @ Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets

ANSWER:

Hello Lewis,

This is a great question – thank you for getting in touch to ask us! Our solid oak kitchen cabinets are available in a number of different sizes and shapes, designed to suit a wide range of kitchens with varying layouts and spaces. We do offer bespoke options but these are bespoke in colour only, and we are not currently able to provide made to measure kitchen cabinets.

You did not mention the sizes you required in your email to us, so we do not have any indication of what size you require. Pilasters or wine bottle holders are a fantastic way to fill small gaps between cabinets – using these and selecting the closest possible cabinet size from those readily available may be a more cost effective option than sourcing fully bespoke kitchen units.

We would also like to point out that, as our cabinets are made from solid oak, the panels can be cut and customised by an experienced kitchen fitter to accommodate your requirements. After any bespoke amendments have been made, the cabinet panels may need to be treated with a fresh coating of lacquer.

In order to help create any bespoke alterations in your new kitchen, we also sell a 3m x 600mm x 18mm lacquered cabinet panel that can be used to cater for a variety of kitchen cabinet customisations.

Though we appreciate this may not have been the answer you were looking, we hope this has given you some additional options to consider before making your purchase. If you do have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. We would love to see your kitchen when it has been completed, so feel free to tag us in photos you upload on Facebook or Instagram.

Kind regards,

The Team @ Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets

ANSWER:

Hello Letitia,

Thank you for getting in touch – it is definitely worth heading to your first kitchen design appointment armed with a rough vision, and luckily you have come to the right place if you are looking for some new kitchen design ideas!

Looking online is a great place to find different styles and colour schemes – we regularly feature current trends and styles on our blog, and we publish weekly information guides to help you achieve different looks for your kitchen. There are a host of other blogs available, as well as online versions of home décor magazines to peruse. Printed magazines are also a fantastic place to look for inspiration, as are brochures of any local kitchen companies. Many kitchen showrooms you visit may have brochures available for you to take home, but you might also get great ideas from the showroom itself. We have a number of kitchen showrooms across the country offering inspirational demonstration kitchens for you to take a closer look at.

Pinterest is a fantastic way to start collating your new kitchen design ideas and our pinterest boards may be a great source of inspiration for you, as they feature a number of themes that are achievable using our kitchen cabinets and work surfaces.

Looking at other people’s kitchens can also be a great way to get ideas together – is there a friend or family member who has a specific worktop you love? Perhaps somebody you know uses an unusual colour in their kitchen that looks great. We aren’t suggesting you copy them, but picking and choosing the parts of other people’s kitchens that you love is a good way to get an idea of the functionalities of a kitchen too.

We hope this has given you a good place to start Letitia, thanks for getting in touch with us and we would love to see your kitchen when it is all finished so please do not hesitate to send us some pictures on Facebook or Twitter.

Kind regards,

The Team @ Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets

ANSWER:

Hello Alicia,

Thank you for getting in touch – designing your own kitchen can seem like a daunting task, especially if you have decided not to enlist the assistance of a professional. Thankfully, we have a number of resources including a wealth of kitchen design tips to get you started!

You have not mentioned what stage you are at, so we will start right at the beginning. The first and most important thing you need to do is take accurate measurements of the space you have available. If you are replacing your existing kitchen it is advisable to measure the cabinets you have in place and purchase items that can be swapped over – leaving you to focus on the finer details, like colour and style! We recently shared a guide on creating kitchen plans with graph paper, and this method makes it easier to work to scale but also to play around with your designs. If you are starting from scratch and designing a completely new layout, the kitchen triangle principle is something that many designers use, or alternatively the kitchen zones are a good way to ensure your kitchen is as practical as it is stylish.

When you are ready to start thinking about the look of your kitchen, our information guides and blogs contain a wealth of kitchen design tips that may be useful to you – from small kitchen design tips to style advice.

We hope this information has given you the confidence to start designing your kitchen. Our kitchen style tool is a great way to get a better idea how certain combinations will look together. If you do have any further questions regarding more specific aspects of kitchen designing and planning, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

The Team @ Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets

ANSWER:

Hello Miss Xu,

Thank you for getting in touch with us regarding your order. Unfortunately, we do not provide a measurement or design service, as we are a supply-only retailer.

Measuring and designing your kitchen can be done without any specialist equipment or knowledge; the first thing you need to do is measure the available space. You have not mentioned what kind of position you are currently in – if you are replacing existing cabinets, rearranging the layout of a kitchen or building a completely new kitchen (perhaps as part of an extension or extensive renovation). Replacing existing cabinets is usually the most straight-forward situation to be in, as you can measure the room and then measure the existing cabinets to find out what size you will need.

You have stated you are looking at our Shaker frontals for your cupboards and drawers, and as the layout is staying the same this is all the information you will need. You may want to read our dedicated information guide, which provides step-by-step instructions on how to measure solid oak kitchen cabinets and doors – a useful reference if this is what you need help with.

If you are adding a kitchen into a room where there has not previously been one, it is still easy to do yourself. Using a tape measure to measure the entire room, you will be able to start working out how to fit the cabinetry your new kitchen requires once you know what space you have. Graph paper may be helpful in choosing the right positioning, and when it comes to designing you may want to bear in mind the kitchen triangle principle.

We have also published guides on planning a solid oak kitchen and ensuring your measurements and positioning are correct. Our cabinets are delivered fully assembled, which means that when they arrive, all you need to do is decide where to put them.

A kitchen fitter may be able to assist in the measurement and design of your kitchen, and we have also written a guide for choosing the right kitchen fitter for you, should you require any assistance with this.

We hope that this is enough information for you to decide how best to measure and design your own kitchen. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any further questions or queries.

Kind regards,

The Team @ Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets

ANSWER:

Hello Aaliyah,

Thank you for getting in touch – this is a great question and one we do get asked from time to time. We do not sell white kitchen cabinets as all of our units are made from solid oak. Despite this, our cabinet frontals, pilasters, end panels, cornices and pelmets are available in a large selection of different colours from Farrow & Ball, which offers a fantastic way to create a bespoke colour scheme that is perfectly tailored to your kitchen. The reason we do not paint the inside of our cabinets is because they would quickly become scratched or scraped when enduring knocks from dinnerware and other items on a daily basis.

We recently answered a query from Terry in Hereford who wanted to know more about painting kitchen units, which is something you could choose to do yourself, although to ensure the longevity of the paint it would need to be lacquered which would make the finish look slightly different to the cabinet frontal. You mention that you are looking to create a clean aesthetic, so perhaps painting the inside frame and shelf edges would be sufficient to create the look you are going for, with much less chance of showing wear and tear.

We hope this has given you sufficient information about white kitchen cabinets to allow you to make a decision how to proceed. Please do get in touch again if you have any further questions or queries.

Kind regards,

The Team @ Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets

ANSWER:

Hello Aswad,

Thanks for getting in touch – this is an easy one for us to answer since we wrote some step-by-step instructions for our wooden spice rack when we launched them. You can read all about installing your wooden spice rack in our dedicated information guide.

Whether it is easy to do is subjective, but we think it is a relatively straightforward enough job to be manageable by those with the most basic of DIY skills – all you need to do is drill four holes into the solid oak spice rack and then screw it into place on the inside of the cabinet door of your choosing. It is important that you use screws no longer than 15mm to prevent them coming through the cabinet frontal.

Please let us know how you get on with this Aswad, and if you do feel like sending us some photos of your handiwork when you’re done, just upload them to Facebook or Instagram and tag us. If you do need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

The Team @ Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets

ANSWER:

Hello Emma,

Thank you for getting in touch – that’s a very good question. Changing your kitchen cabinet knobs or handles can be a quick and easy way to give your kitchen a quick refresh, but if you are changing knobs for handles or handles for knobs, it may not be so straight-forward.

Removing your existing cabinet hardware can be done simply by unscrewing the bolts holding them in place. There will be a hole (or holes if you have handles) where the knob has been secured in place. You may be able to use this hole for one of the handles that you are replacing your kitchen cabinet knobs with, but this may not look right. For drawers, there will be a single hole in the centre of the frontal, and this will not be suitable for handle placement.

When you have decided where you want to place your handles, any holes that are not being reused can be filled in with wood filler, as they will be small and discreet if done correctly. Holes for the new handles can be drilled, and then your handles can be fitted as usual. Our guide can help you choose and install kitchen cabinet handles if you require any additional information.

If there are any further questions you need answering, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

The Team @ Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets

ANSWER:

Hello Terry,

We are pleased to hear you have made the decision to order a solid oak kitchen from us – our bespoke frontals are a great way to add a personal touch to your design and help you really create the look want to achieve.

Painting kitchen units is not something we would recommend and the main reason for this is the amount of scratches and scrapes that will appear very quickly on cabinets and drawers that have been painted internally. Our units are lacquered before we assemble them, so as to ensure they have a hardwearing finish that will stand the test of time and keep them looking their best.

You could paint your cabinets and then apply a top coat of lacquer, but the finish would be slightly different to that on the doors. If you do decide to paint any of our kitchen units, you will need to first sand them down lightly to remove the lacquer that has been applied.

Ultimately, the interior of a cupboard, cabinet or drawer will only be seen when the unit it open. For a similar effect with less maintenance required, you could paint the outward-facing edge of the unit that sits behind the cabinet or drawer frontal. This will create a more unified aesthetic but will not be damaged as easily through general wear and tear.

If you want to know more about maintaining and painting kitchen units, we recommend reading the following dedicated information guide: ‘Caring for Your Painted Furniture’.

We hope you are happy with your bespoke frontals and kitchen cabinets, whatever decision you make! If you do have any further questions or queries, please do contact us.

Kind regards,

The Team @ Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets