KitchenDevelopment

Every problem that shows up on installation day was already present on the survey sheet. We measure the room after plaster and screed, laser-check wall plumb and floor level across the full run, and record the exact position of every water, waste, gas, ventilation and power point. Where the shell is not finished yet, we work to a builder's drawing and re-measure before cutting — never before.

Walls in Greek apartments and older houses are rarely square, and floors commonly fall 8–15 mm across a four-metre run. Those numbers decide filler widths, plinth heights, whether an island can be levelled without visible shims, and whether a tall unit will bind against the ceiling. Capturing them first is what makes the difference between a kitchen that closes flush for a decade and one that needs adjusting every season.

Nothing is cut until the room has been measured after plaster, screed and services are in place.

Buyers judge a kitchen by its doors; it survives or fails on its carcase. We build in 18 mm boards with edge banding on every visible and hidden edge, moisture-resistant panels under sinks and around dishwashers, and a back panel that is rebated rather than pinned to the rear. Shelves are 18 mm, not 16, so a run of plates does not bow them over time.

For Handmade Kitchen, doors and frames are solid timber or hand-lacquered MDF with a multi-coat finish, sanded between coats, in bespoke dimensions with no filler panels pretending to be cabinetry. For Projects Kitchen we hold a fixed engineered specification in melamine or lacquer so a developer can price fifty identical units confidently and get the fifty-first the same.

Hardware is where most cheap kitchens hide their savings, because it is the part nobody looks at in a showroom and the only part that moves ten thousand times a year. We fit branded, first-hand hinges, full-extension soft-close runners and lift mechanisms with documented cycle testing and available spare parts. No unbranded copies, no mixed sets, no parts you cannot replace in five years.

That choice shows up in daily use: drawers that close silently under full load, doors that stay aligned after the first summer, corner and tall-unit mechanisms that carry weight without dropping. It also shows up in the guarantee — we can stand behind moving parts because they are traceable to a manufacturer, with adjustment and replacement available rather than a whole door front being scrapped.

Every hinge, runner and lift system is branded and first-hand, with spare parts available years later.

Worktop choice drives both cost and daily behaviour. Quartz and sintered stone give a consistent surface with tight tolerances; granite and marble bring natural variation and need sealing and realistic expectations about etching; solid surface allows seamless joints and integrated bowls; compact laminate and HPL cover project budgets; stainless steel and solid timber suit specific looks and uses. We template the worktop on the fitted carcases, never from the original drawing, so joints land where they were agreed.

The details that matter are undermount versus flush-mount bowls, the cutout radius at the hob, drainage grooves, upstand or full-height splashback, and whether the front edge is square, chamfered or mitred to a thicker profile. We set each of those in writing with the worktop supplier before templating, so nothing is decided by a fabricator on the day.

Handmade kitchens are produced to order, so the programme runs from signed drawings through production to a delivery window agreed with your site. Projects kitchens are produced in batches, which means units can be phased floor by floor rather than stored on site absorbing damage. In both cases we sequence the kitchen against plaster, tiling, flooring and electrical first fix, because installing before the wet trades finish is the most common cause of damage and delay.

On installation day the run is dry-fitted and levelled, then fixed, then measured for worktop templating — with the worktop typically arriving after a short interval and appliances and plumbing connected once it is in. Handover includes hardware adjustment, a check of every door and drawer alignment, care guidance for the finishes and worktop, and a written record of the specification so any future part can be matched exactly.

The kitchen is scheduled around the wet trades, not before them — the single biggest cause of damaged fronts.