to build a straight kitchen

To build a straight kitchen



This type of kitchen is called a straight kitchen because it lines up straight against one wall
with out an island or breakfast counter.This kitchen has everything you need for it to function properly and still look good.Now what would it need to make it a functional kitchen?Well you need to place your broom somewhere ,you need to wash your dishes,you need to kook,you need to throw your rubbish away,you need to wash your clothes and you need to grab a cold coke out the fridge.That is pretty much the most important things needed in a kitchen to make it a fully functional kitchen.

Now that you've gained that bit of valuable yet common sense knowledge lets look at an over view of the kitchen we are going to build.(This kitchen was designed using a program called kitchen draw and I design all my kitchens with this program).

I'm first going to show you have to build a kitchen then when you've got "the thirst" for it I'll teach you how to make up and assemble units giving you all the sizes you would need to build

base units with doors on ,drawers units(very easy) and even spice drawers.Am I a nice guy or what(wink wink).


Stage 1.

Check the level of the ground.

This is to see which side the floor slopes down to.
It's quite important because most adjustable legs(150mm high) can only adjust longer not shorter.
Place a straight edge(the silver long object) on the floor first.This is because you very rearly get a level that is 2m long.Then place your level on top of the straight edge. Lets say that this kitchen is 150mm away from the floor on the right but on the left side of the kitchen it slopes down to 160mm.
Look in the next picture to see what i mean.





Floor sloping to the left down by 10mm.

As you can see I placed a cleat(the white long thin plank running along the wall)under 150mm
against the wall.this will be to place the cupboards on and will also line them up perfectly.The side where it says 160mm is where the floor is sloping down 10mm.The reason why the cleat covers a length of 3200mm is because of the length the floor units will cover in between the fridge and washing machine.Look at the picture below and add up the totals of the floor units to get 3200mm.Note:Remember chip board comes in a length of 2750mmx1830mm. This means you
will have to add two pieces together to cover
that length against the wall.

Remember to leave a space of 650mm for the fridge.Although the width of a fridge is 600mm you always have to leave a space so that you can get it in and out of that gap as well as for ventilation. Also in the picture the broom cupboard is on the end of the row units.Well it would look kinda funny if the broom cupboard was in the middle of the wall...don't you think.In the next figure you can see the cleat in a 3d view just so that you and I are on the same page.

The yellow thing on the cleat is my "home drawn
level".Always check that the cleat is 100% level.
This is probably the most important thing you will do in a kitchen.Always make sure your cleats
are level.If not, your doors and drawers won't be level.

Ok,let's put our first unit in place.The is a 2 drawer pot drawer.Pot drawers always have to have a solid drawer bottom so that the weight of the pots and pens don't make the bottom warp down.Making your pot drawer with a hardboard bottom is the worst thing you can do.Also don't fit a wheel runner on the pot drawer.Use a ballbearing runner or also known as a extention runner.These runners carry alot more weight and don't slip of the track like a wheel runner.You can use a 500mm runner for your drawer units(drawer units and base units are all 560mm deep x 720mm high).

After you placed the 2 pot drawer on the cleat line up the other base units next to that unit.Make sure that all the units are flush with one another at the top ,bottom and front.Oh yes!In the pictures I use units with doors on when building the kitchen.This is because if you have your door on the unit and you try to level it you will immediatly see if the unit is out of square or not level.You will pick it up because the door will be skew on the unit.Try it out and see.The cleat at the back cuts your work of leveling the kitchen in half because now you dont have to level the back legs.You just have to adjust them down untill they touch the ground.

diy cupboards

Diy cupboards is the best and easiest way to build a kitchen if you are a newbie at doing cupboards.the reason why is because all the work gets done for you when it comes to the assembly part of the units.All the holes are drilled to fix the units together,to put the drawer runners in place,the hinges as well as the shelves.A kitchen fitter normaly makes his own templates or jigs to mark out where these messurements would come.Also the base units of the diy cupboards come with a 150mm adjustable leg.This is used to adjust the cupboard so as to level it.The cost of a diy kitchen unit is abit more than cutting up a melamine board and making it yourself but you save yourself so much more troubles and efford.Besides,if you realy want to impress the "wife",you want to do it effordlessly.....like a true handy man(wink wink).Using the diy system is'nt only for beginners but also for professional fitters.If you as a proffesional fitter fit four kitchens a month think how many kitchens you could build if you used a diy cupboard system.You could cover more than twice the work with half the efford.Check out this link companies website www.bkdesigns.co.za and see how easy they make it to assemble a diy cupboard. Remmeber...you dont have to be a good fitter to build a nice kitchen but you have to build a nice kitchen to show you're a good fitter.

kitchen design

if you want to design a kitchen and you are good with drawing you could probably use a pen and paper or use some of the drawing software windows uses.but there is a much easier and more accurate way of doing a kitchen design. there is a product on the market that is free to use and great for drawing.i use it to do all my kitchen designs.(by the way...im the designer of a big kitchen company in capetown south africa).the software we use is called kitchendraw and the first 30 hours are free.afer that you have to pay if you want more hours.but 30hours is more than ample to designs a kitchen for your own personal use.the design program gives you a top plan view with messuremets of all your kitchen unit you designed and whats more it gives you a 3d photorealistic view of the kitche when it is done.it looks like the real deal when the kitchen is done.the site also has pictures of kitchen's they've already done to show you what they can do.
check out www.kitchendraw.com and tell me what you think of the program.i.ve been using kitchendraw for 4 years now and know tons about it.if you have any questions on the design software drop me a line at bkdesigns@fastmail.fm. i would love to assist you.

leveling a kitchen unit

you have to start with the corner unit and work your way down to the end tall unit.
most kitchen units have a 150mm plastic leg which the unit rest on so if you want all your units to line up perfectly with one another you must fix a kleet(plank) of 70mm wide by 2000mm in length under 150mm from the floor.make sure the plank is level then place your corner unit
on the plank first.once that unit is in place you can place the other units next to that one on top of the kleet.if you leveled the kleet properly and and the kitchen units will line up properly and the kitchen unit door will also be level.

to build a kitchen

how do i level a kitchen?do i start by the corner base unit or by the tall unit at the end of the
row of kitchen units.