Kitchen Units

[margie]

Anyone bought their kitchen units (diy) in France and can recommend online sites where I can view please.

[JayJay]

You could have a look at http://www.hygena.fr/ to give you some ideas.

[Viv]

IKEA.FR

They deliver and do freestanding kitchen units too which are useful if you have the type of kitchen which cannot accomodate a fitted one, or want something different.

[suein56]

Hi

We bought our units from Castorama - [sorry 'bout the long link]

http://www.castorama.fr/homepage/index.jhtml;jsessionid=RQOHMWKJPBSPNQFI22KSFF4AVDTROIV1?resolution=0&_requestid=760625&_requestid=760625   ..... then click on 'cuisine' on the LHS of the welcome page.

As we are renting a 'maison vide' we wanted solid kitchen units that looked good and didn't cost an arm and a leg. The proprietor of our house loves the units and we are hoping she might buy them from us when we leave as they look so professional and clean.

We chose 'Country' but our kitchen looks a whole lot better than the Casto one displayed in the link.

Sue

[margie]

Thankyou for the above replies. I know what I am looking for but just find it difficult to get much to view online. I have tried Conforama but cannot access anything to view I am also interested to know whether it is possible to view online products at Brico Depot as all I have been able to see is the address of my nearest store? Castorama was of interest but I would like to see more choice elsewhere. Many thanks.

[Anton Redman]

Bricodepot's website only gives the location of their stores.

[Coco]

We recently got a very good price on self-assembly kitchen (solid oak doors) at http://www.leroy-merlin.fr  Our particular ones were a lot cheaper than a similar range because we chose to have the unvarnished doors so that we could choose our own finish, rather than the pre-varnished range.

[Anton Redman]

Lepeyre also have their catalogue available slowly on line.

[zeb]

I think the only way to choose your kitchen is to drive around to the stores and look properly. Website pictures are never very great and France has been years behind the kitchens on offer in the UK and is only now catching up. (Castorama is related to B&Q so have been quick to latch on, and Ikea kitchens are the same all over).

I last went to Brico Depot about 3 years ago and they had rubbish then , but a friend has recently bought a nice looking white kitchen from there with fitted appliances at a dirt cheap price.

If you drive to Poitiers you'll find Hygena nearly next door to Leroy Merlin, and drive a bit further to find Brico Depot. If you are in South Charente head down to Bordeaux where you can browse around the super kitchens in Ikea (which is next door to Leroy Merlin, Castarama, But etc).

You have to feel the quality, test drawers etc etc.

[Harley]

Ikea have some lovely kitchens and their online kitchen planning tool is simple to use.[:D]

[Tony F Dordogne]

We bought ours from Lapeyre, had it installed by an artisan (UK guy living here, registered as a chippie/cabinet maker) and he says its one of thr best produced set of units he's ever worked with.

Good service there and you can order their catalogue on line but don't have the link.

[mint]

Sorry, JohnKelly, to disagree with your very first post.  Please forgive me for that, but I am sure others will be along soon who will agree with your view.

No, I DON'T think that kitchens must be colourful and full of the latest accessories.  Why?  Because, in my experience, those with the most gadgets and "state of the art" kitchens serve the most unsatisfactory meals.

Might not apply in France.....I don't know because I have not eaten that many meals produced in French kitchens, maybe only a few dozen. 

Certainly, in the UK, the people I know who have the most well-equipped kitchens seem not to know how to cook anything despite all their equipment.[:(]

I have deleted the advert (Quillan)

[cooperlola]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

people I know who have the most well-equipped kitchens seem not to know how to cook anything despite all their equipment.[:(]

[/quote]I've known a few chaps like that in my time.....[Www]

 

(Another of our recent rash of spammers (edit - neatly exterminated by Quillan [:)])I think, Sweet 17.  The same thing happened to me yesterday.)

[Théière]

[quote user="cooperlola"][quote user="sweet 17"]

people I know who have the most well-equipped kitchens seem not to know how to cook anything despite all their equipment.[:(]

[/quote]I've known a few chaps like that in my time.....[Www]

[/quote]

“The woman asked her lover, 'Why is your organ so small?' “He replied, 'I didn't know I'd be playing in a cathedral.'”[;-)]

[idun]

My new kitchen is really simple. No soft close drawers or cupboards. In fact dead plain, nothing fancy at all.

I have had some fancy stuff in the past and then those super pully out shelves won't. A grain of rice or tiny bit of pasta blocks the slide working and is very hard to get out and somehow the darned thing then 'sticks' for ever more.

I know people with really fancy kitchens and very expensive too, they don't cook, or not much.

[mint]

I remember an occasion in the UK where the owner of a spanking new, complete with Aga, kitchen threw a party for everyone involved with the house conversion.  It was to be a housewarming plus thank you to all the workers affair....

It was obviously a very expensive kitchen (probably cost more than a small house in France in those days) and, moreover, the "lady of the house" had even had some fancy lessons on how to use her Aga.

Talk about the proof of the pudding being in the eating!  We'd not even got to the pudding (which was, of course, bought in a shop), she couldn't manage the boil-in-the-bag rice.

I promise I am not exaggerating as, in my great capacity for compassion (long since exhausted), I cooked the rice, tweaked the packets of curry and got the meal served when everyone'd already had a skinful and the hostess received loads of compliments!

This is only one of several stories along the same theme that I could tell.  You don't need all the latest gadgets to produce a near decent meal and you also don't need to spend lots of dosh to serve up something all your guests will enjoy.

[Department71]

[quote user="Anton Redman"]Bricodepot's website only gives the location of their stores.[/quote]

If you go to their site, click on cuisine, it will ask for store location, give this, it will then return to the main page, click on cuisine again and it will open pages of kitchen units etc.

Steve

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Department71"][quote user="Anton Redman"]Bricodepot's website only gives the location of their stores.[/quote]

If you go to their site, click on cuisine, it will ask for store location, give this, it will then return to the main page, click on cuisine again and it will open pages of kitchen units etc.

Steve
[/quote]Their website might have improved since 2006.[:D]

[Doodle]

We decided early on that we wanted a rustic-ish practical kitchen, not that I really knew what that was but I knew I did not want a fitted kitchen as previously in the UK and I definately did not want wall units as most of the time I couldn't reach the top shelves so a total waste of space as far as I was concerned (difficult as we left behind modern minimilist which we loved at the time). So we bought a couple of units and a porcelaine sink from Habitat in the UK and brought them over in a hired van and once we'd moved in permanently we bought a free standing armoire with a pull out storage section (which I absolutely love) and a butchers block from Habitat in Rennes. We re-used the previous owners melamine work tops by turning them upside down and covering them with marble tiles (veined and pitted) which we bought as seconds and used the same tiles for a splashback to complete the rustic-ish look. I knocked up a curtain from some chicken printed fabric I found on-line in a sale to cover a space where the under the counter fridge had once been before realising we needed something much larger and which now houses pans and casseroles and then made a matching tablecloth. All in all I think we've achieved something that resembles rustic and as the saying goes 'the beauty is in the imperfection'.

[idun]

Well knee gel if you wanted typical french rustic, sounds like you have got it just right. Me,I truly hate curtains instead of cupboard doors, but I am so happy that we are all different, so if you like what you have, well good for you.

A friend of mine has individual units in her kitchen, but I bake to much for such things, I have managed in the past, but I need/prefer good long works spaces now.

[mint]

I don't like fitted kitchens but needs must.  In my previous 2 houses, we did not have fitted kitchens.  I, too, cannot reach wall cupboards without a kick-step or similar.

But now, we have a tiny kitchen and the fitted units make room for everything.

So, it does depend on what you have as well as what you need.

[idun]

I really wanted a very big kitchen, I have never had one, kitchen size like lots of things is a compromise. My new kitchen isn't small though, sort of medium, and instead of having it all unit-ed out, we put a kitchen table and chairs in, AND one thing I didn't compromise on was getting a pantry. I have always wanted a pantry and now I have one, brilliant thing it is too.

 

[mint]

YES, nothing like a large walk-in pantry.  Don't have that here but I do have a ginormous cupboard with sliding doors which holds even more stuff than my previous walk-in pantry so this is even better.

[Nelson]

Hi...,Nice post.Here is the online site name where you can see nice and modern kitchen cabinet designs and buying nice stuff in kitchen furniture...Must visit there..they really have great stuff..

[Sprogster]

http://www.mobalpa.com/kitchens/

Mobalpa was recommended to me and are one of the largest French kitchen suppliers.