Kitchen units

The fitted kitchen is an invention of the late 20th century In the Sixties, a kitchen cabinet was thought of as something to do with Harold Wilson's unique government style. But shortly thereafter, the fitted kitchen arrived in the home in a big way. And, bit—by—bit, we have learned to spend more and more money on our kitchens. There are several procurement routes, each with its own pitfalls. Whilst the bulk of the new kitchen market now goes into replacing existing kitchens, a significant chunk gets accounted for by the 150,000-odd new homes built each year. And whilst a penny pinching spec house builder may spend as little as £2,000 on fitting a kitchen on a starter home, you only have to open a Sunday newspaper to realise that some people are happy to spend over £l 00,000 on a fitted (or perhaps an unfitted) kitchen. Bigger of course, better undoubtedly, but not fifty times bigger or better.

Just shelves with fancy doors.

When we think of fitted kitchens, we think of how the door fronts look. The kitchen dream sellers are well aware of this and, although the actual units may make up only 25 per cent of the final bill, these are how kitchens are sold to us. New fashions have come but they’ve never really gone so kitchen design continually expands to incorporate new ideas whilst simultaneously recycling the old ones. The basic manufacturing process is relatively simple and cheap so that no new idea can ever be free from imitators for more than a few months.

The kitchen business is fully metricated and works in modular units which increase in 100mm intervals. Thus any given range of floor units or wall cupboards will be available in widths of typically 300mm, 400mm, 500mm and 600mm; 600mm is the key one, this is the building block of the fitted kitchen — appliances are conventionally made to fit into 600mmgaps. The other sizes tend to get used to fill awkward gaps between the 600mm units. By twiddling the plan about a bit, you can fill any space on any wall to the nearest 100mm — and they sell blanking—off pieces to cover any little gaps left over. So give a kitchen designer a space that's 3600x2400mm and they will tend to think of it as six units long and four across.

All but the most expensive kitchen unit carcasses are made from a wood pulp board like chipboard or MDF usually covered with a melamine veneer which serves both to make them stronger and moisture resistant. The cheaper doors, which are hung over these carcasses, are made of similar materials, though here the melamine covering is usually decorated with some trim. Solid timber is a more upmarket door option and there are more adventurous designs using materials such as stainless steel and plastic.