The client's existing kitchen still looked serviceable at a glance, but it had started to come apart. Doors and carcasses were reaching the end of their life, and the layout gave the household far less storage than it needed day to day. The appliances were also old and no longer suited the way the family cooked.
At the survey stage the brief was specific. The client wanted a new kitchen in blue, with light worktops to balance the darker doors, handleless fronts for a cleaner look, and lighting under the wall units. New appliances were part of the plan from the outset rather than an afterthought.
The house itself set some of the constraints. A narrow hallway limited what could be carried through in one piece, and there was little room inside to store a fully built kitchen while work went on. Those two facts shaped how the project was ordered and delivered.
The kitchen design stage settled the layout, the Varano Vero range in a matt finish, and the lighting the client had asked for — LED strips under the wall units and along the rails. The quotation covered supply of the kitchen, the lighting, and every trade needed to complete the work, so the client had one point of contact rather than several.
Because the hallway was tight and there was limited space to store units indoors, the kitchen was ordered as flatpack and built on site as it was needed. The old kitchen came out first, then the electrician carried out the work on new sockets and lighting circuits and replaced the fuseboard. The plumber reworked the waste and pipework so the runs sat neatly behind the new sink unit, returning later to fit the new flexi tap and ceramic sink. The kitchen fitters installed the units and worktops and managed the other trades around their own programme.
A few things had to be worked through. Old metal pipework sat exactly where new sockets needed to go, so it was moved slightly and removed where necessary. Behind the dishwasher and washing machine, the brickwork was cut back so the sockets could sit flat and the appliances could push fully home into their units. During testing, a small hole was found in the washing machine hose — a manufacturing fault rather than an installation one. The Hotpoint warranty team was contacted, an engineer replaced the hose within the week, and the job was signed off complete. Start to finish, the installation ran to 3 weeks.
The finished kitchen keeps the original U-shaped footprint but works far harder than the one it replaced. Dark blue matt handleless doors are set against a marble-effect laminate worktop and a full-height splashback, with LED strip lighting washing down over the work surface. The result is a kitchen with noticeably more storage and a second, softer lighting level that does not depend on the ceiling spotlights.
You can see more finished projects in the project gallery, or get in touch to talk through a similar project.
“Can’t recommend SGM kitchens enough!! Excellent work from start to finish.”
The services we provided during this project
