I am looking to replace our kitchen in the near future and was wondering if anyone has any experience with or advise about using secondhand kitchens?
Our kitchen is an odd shape (mix of galley and U-shaped design, and very small!) and I was looking to extend the kitchen into the adjoining rumpus room (by knocking down some walls), thereby rendering it essentially a longer U-shape (one wall) and a wall of cabinets ending in a breakfast bar (opposite wall).
My question is this: how customisable are kitchens? I am aware that you can rearrange most cupboards but what about benchtops and corner units? What about sourcing benchtop materials myself (ie if I were to go with wood or granite) and getting a professional to cut and fit them? I am guessing that I will really have to know what cabinets/measurements I want and look for secondhand kitchens that suit them the closest as getting a design exactly to my liking will be impossible, yes?
Also, this is a silly question, but is it worthwhile putting in space for a double door fridge even though we have a single door fridge currently?
If it is a rental property, and you have around $5k to spend (or even less) you can get a perfectly ok brand-new kitchen from IKEA or Bunnings.
It is a deprecaible item and they look great, and are very customised.L.A Aussie wrote:If it is a rental property, and you have around $5k to spend (or even less) you can get a perfectly ok brand-new kitchen from IKEA or Bunnings.
It is a deprecaible item and they look great, and are very customised.How hard are these to install? Can an 'average' handyperson manage the job or is it best left to professional installers? Appliances would not be replaced, only cupboards & benchtops.
Cheers
StellaI would like to know this also.. Does anyone have any insights?
How close does the second hand kitchen need to be in terms of design or is it easy to mix and match etc……have installed both Bunnings and Ikea kitchens
Ikea tends to be more expensive but installation is FAR quicker. like 4x less time.
I often buy kitchen cabinets from Ikea’s “as-is” department. usually they are half price.
Bunnings doors are much cheaper than Ikeas, trouble is Bunnings doors dont fit on Ikea units……..if they did it would be perfect.
I would NEVER buy a second hand kitchen (unless it was a standard Ikea model) regardless of cost. It just wont fit properly and extra units may be impossible to source (especially matching doors)
Firstly, I must say I havent relocated a second hand kitchen..however Ive been on the prowl (low budget) for info and kitchens and have a few ideas for you.
Firslty get an idea of what you want idealy in your kitchen.
Then have a look on Ebay and trading post online for whats on the market.
Look for a good 3 weeks if you have a certain design in mind…all sorts of random kitchens come on the market. Ask them questions regarding measurements, dimensions, quality etc.
Size wise, in regard to U shape kitchens, you are likely going to have to modify the kitchen you buy. This isnt to hard if you have played with wood before and a new bench top could be sourced for around $500 installed. Melamine is easy to cut and screw. Plus your doors and edging can hide minor mistakes.
A reasonable kitchen can be sourced from $1000 to $1500. Just figure in new bench top if needed and screws and you should be right……oh…also the kick panel is sometimes in need of replacement…(cheap).Living in Sydney, I recently bought 2 ikea kitchens (cabinets only) and installed one kitchen in one of the flats in my duplex rental in Brisbane last weekend.
Order of events went as follows:
At final inspection before settlement of the property, I measured up my kitchen area and sketched a rough plan with location of doors, windows and services.
At Ikea in Rhodes, Sydney, I generated a 3d design based on the dimensions of my kitchen, complete with location of doors and windows and services. The Ikea staff are very helpful with design ideas. There are about 8 computer terminals to use. Finalising the model after about an hour, I printed off the 3d view and the parts list with final price. Then I saved my model on the Ikea website so I could have access to it anywhere. Actually saved 6 models each with variations to check on price and savings with differing concepts.
Last Thursday, I phoned Ikea Logan (Brisbane) to verify that all the parts required for my kitchen were in stock.
First potential obstacle, is that Ikea are "cash and carry only" meaning stock can not be reserved, you take your chances when you walk into the store with regard to availability of any item in store. Ikea do have an excellent call centre that can tell you availability of stock at the time of your call. If there are 5 or more items then you will be told the item is available without being told exact numbers. Shipment time of out of stock items is 2-3 weeks I was told, since it comes in from overseas.
I flew to Brisbane and at 9am turned up at Ikea Logan in my hired Ute from Thrifty who do not have airport pickup for Ute.
With some advice from the well-informed Ikea staff, I had my completed order in hand, luckily all items were available in stock.
Next I went down to the ikea warehouse to collect the parts. This is where it gets a bit difficult because as you can imagine there are a lot of parts to a kitchen. Especially when a typical Ikea cabinet consists of frame, doors, hinges which are all separate items you have to search out for on your own without staff help in the warehouse. Bench tops are different and are a mandatory 2-week order time unless you get standard size solid wood bench tops, which can be picked up in store.
By 11.30 I had 3 trolleys of parts and was lined up at the cash registers where they manually hand scan each part. I had about 100 items on the docket.
After finding where the hell I parked, I drove the Ute to the loading bay area and fulled up the tray with all the parts. Sweaty work,
Anyway by 1pm I had the Ute loaded, had some good cheap food and drove to my property. Lucky I didn't buy that bathroom vanity as hoped as it would not have fit on the Ute. I would recommend getting a Ute with cage rather than with tray with fold down sides.
Actually spent the rest of the day at Bunnings and CTM tile mart shopping for tiles and stuff. Spent sat evening/night preparing shower cubicle for tiling. Sunday morning carting rubbish to tip and Sunday evening/night tiling shower.
Monday morning started on assembly of Ikea Kitchen at 9am By 11am I had assembled 3 x 60mm wide cabinet frames and 1 x 400mm wide pantry frame. Took 1 hour to assemble the first cabinet but after that you get the hang of it and can assemble a cabinet in 20min. Assembly was as simple as any kitset furniture from ikea.
Next were the doors which gave me the most grief. Firstly attaching the hinges to door is easy but got frustrated attaching the two parts which make up a single hinge assembly. After 15mins realised I was trying to putting the parts together back to front, easy to do looking at the instruction picture. Also had difficulty getting the doors to align properly and adjusting the hinges made matters worst, work in progress.
Had no time to attach the bench tops as had to grout the shower at 3pm before leaving for the airport at 7pm.
So that's how I spent my weekend plus one day over. Going back next weekend after the painter has finished the interior.
Will install the kitchen proper with the kitchen painted, buy and install bath vanity and cart another load of rubbish to tip.
One Kitchen order consisted of 3 x 600mm wide bases, 1 x 400mm wide X 211 high pantry, 2x 600mm wide wall cabinets, 2 x 1200x600mm solid wood bench-tops, 1 x fan cabinet, hinges, knobs, stainless steel legs all up costing approx. $1500.
How is the quality of an IKEA kitchen though? In the past I have bought flat-pack furniture items which were always missing something or did not screw together right. I'm loathe to stuff around with bad quality pieces when a kitchen is a job that needs to be done in one hit.
Anyone have any experience with a Bunnings kitchen? I'm fairly certain they can help install it also. How is their quality in comparison?
What about kitchens from auction houses, etc? There are some beautiful kitchen with granite benchtops available, but it seems to me that none of them have a cut-out for the sink or the stove. Would these need to be put in after purchase, and how much would that cost? Generally their styles are very standard so it shouldn't be hard to source extra doors/cabinets/handles if necessary.
Thanks everyone for the comments!
Ikea very good quality. Bunnings less so.
re granite tops, stonemason required to cut out sink, cooktop & join pieces. $200 – $300. also remember theres $500 delivery from auctions to your house.
Ikea stuff never missing any parts………so far
Hi there,
I have had really good experiences with kitchen flat packs from Plyboard Distributors in Dandenong VIC. Not as cheap as Bunnings/Ikea, but the parts are always there, easy to assemble and very durable. One kitchen still looking new after 6 years. Also used Box and Bench (now Kitchen Box, I believe). Good quality, easy to assemble, good price, had difficulty getting a custom-sized unit right, but other than that I'd recommend them. Have used these for middle-of-the-range renos and had very good feedback on both kitchens – it really was the kitchens that sold the properties.
Leila
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
