Anyone suggest a free 3D kitchen design package (or Android app)? I have sketchup so may use that but wondered if there was a better option.

Im having my kitchen built by a local cabinet maker, cost is good but I'm doing the design legwork to produce pretty pictures which SWMBO can approve!

Cheers

I used the Ikea website to get a close lookalike for mine. The app works quite well.

I believe other kitchen places do similar - B&Q?

Ferdinand

Posted By: Chris P BaconThe only thing it wouldn't let me do was to place wall units on the floor. I made an island unit with a raised breakfast bar at one side by placing a row of wall and floor units back to back with the standard counter top over hanging the wall units to give leg room.

That's odd because I designed the same thing - a peninsular using wall units and I'm pretty sure I was able to coax the wall units into being on the ground. I thought, also, that IKEA had pre-configured islands made of wall units that you could place on the floor in their tool? It's been quite a few years since I used the tool and I'm sure the current version is not the same as the one I used. I do recall having to trick it somewhat into getting the units on the floor though.

Paul in Montreal.

Sounds like there are some good dedictaed kitchen design software

Wall units are ideal for under-counter usage for an island/peninsular as they are only 12" deep - we combined floor units back-2-back with wall units, or you could use back-2-back wall units for a narrower profile. You can even do clever tricks like mix the taller and shorter wall units to give a counter area with a higher shelf. Though the wall units don't have mountings for feet, you can still use the IKEA feet for these.

Paul in Montreal.

Posted By: Cerisyjust never considered using wall units under the island. What made you go for them Crispy?

The idea was two-fold, one to get a higher level surface for the breakfast bar, the wall units are 225mm taller than the normal floor units so give a surface at just the right height for bar stools and as they are also narrower you get a nice overhang on the worktop for knee room. Those cupboards we use for all the little used electrical gadgets that don't come out too often.

The second reason was that it creates a nice visual barrier to the kitchen from the dining table so all the dirty dishes, pot and pans are out of sight when you are eating and you don't have to feel guilty about the mess when you have guests.

I'd take a photo but it's still not finished! I got a bit carried away with customising it and giving it a painted finish, so ran out of steam three quarters way through. Started into it again last week and hope to get it finished over the next few weekends.

One thing I am not very happy with is the action on the Ikea drawers. Not sure if they have improved them with the new Metod range or not, ours are Faktum, but the self closing dampers only kick in at the very end of the drawer travel maybe 2 inches or so. You really have to give them a good old whack from fully open to be sure that they will close fully otherwise they can stop before they get to the self closing mechanism.

I'm sure that the previous non-ikea kitchen was much better in this regard. Does anyone know if there is a way to retro-fit a better mechanism?

"You really have to give them a good old whack from fully open to be sure that they will close fully otherwise they can stop before they get to the self closing mechanism."

Wow! nothing personal Cris P but lots of us can remember cupboard drawers that jammed, stuck on opening, fell out when you gave them a real good tug and so on. Today's kitchen drawers are fantastic (Faktum), a quick movement with your bum gets 'em to the closer and then home they go, as quiet as a mouse and as smooth as silk. And nested drawers the same, closing the outer closes the inner without the need to do two closings.

Now let's talk about dirty pots and pans, etc. Our counter top connects directly with our lounge/social area so kitchen debris is a no-no. So, no draining board, everything into the dishwasher as it finishes its use and nothing out on the counter top except a bowl of fruit. No guilt, no mess.

In Canada at least, IKEA do wooden countertops that are 39 3/8" wide - we used 24" and 12" cupboards back-to-back with a 2x4 frame inbetween and there was just enough overhang. We used something similar to this, but in oak:

http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/40057853/

Paul in Montreal.

I do hate it how you can't quote and post links in the same post on this board!

So here it is again in a clickable version.

http://www.haecker-kuechen.de/en/

I just "framed" the IKEA carcasses with a bead of 25mm MDF. And hand painted the original IKEA doors which are a wooden shaker style. It means that there is no horizontal framing between drawer fronts which I know is a bit of a copout but the thought of resizing all those drawer fronts was one step too far for me.

I and more importantly swmbo are very happy with the result (so far).

I do still need to resize some carcasses and door fronts for overhead our fridge freezer. There are instructions on the IKEA hackers website for taking apart the skaker doors which looks pretty straightforward but I haven't done it yet.

Preparing and painting all the doors has been a bit tedious as I don't have a workshop, but it will be worth it in the end.

There are a number of guys on eBay offering handmade unpainted in frame units at decent money. It was just the cost of shipping here to Sweden that killed that option for me.

Very hard to get a reasonably priced kitchen here in Sweden as IKEA has killed the competition at that end of the market.

I spent about £3,000 on the units and another £500 or so to frame them. The quote I had for an identical design from another manufacturer was £22K + fitting. But then of course the wife went and blew £5K of the saving on a granite worktop.

Here are some photos to give you an idea.

The first is the style that we were quoted £22K for and the second is my reworking of Ikea units.

You can see that I still need to do some adjustments and fit the frame at the bottom of the units and the kick board.

Sorry I have no way to get photos off my decent camera at the moment so had to use the camera phone so the picture quality is not the best. The paint colour is a greeny grey.

Posted By: hairydudeDid you have to do a lot of prep on the doors before painting to get a key or was it just a primer and normal sanding?

Gave them a sanding with a mouse with 240 grit paper and then a couple of coats of primer and a couple or three of finish coat. I used a small roller with a fine bristle. In hind sight I probably should have had them sprayed professionally as the finish isn't top notch but fair enough I think. After a few months wear the difference will probably not be noticeable (I hope).

The end grain of the MDF I treated with neat wood glue but it hasn't been a great success and the paint finish has very noticeable "orange peel". Once I finish the bottom frame I will take away the doors and sand the MDF again and give it a slight smear of Isopon body filler and re-paint.