Bryant Victoria Kitchen Extension – Roll the Credits

Fiona Burness

Chris,

Your kitchen looks fantastic! Dare I ask how much the whole thing cost? I am considering the whole extension, kitchen refurb thing myself and have no idea where to start.

Chris

It’ll vary a lot depending on the size of the extension, etc, of course! I’d budget £20k for the buildings and utilities, and £10-£30k for the kitchen and installation.

Jane

Hi Chris – Stumbled across your kitchen refit saga in an idle moment but it makes an interesting read. I am currently going through the new kitchen process and am considering the same corner unit with the metallic door, wooden top and disco shelves. How would you review it a few months on? While I think it looks great I wonder if in reality I would always be avoiding actually using it in case I scored an expensive, difficult to replace top. Also I would want to move it to a more convenient place to use and therefore it would occupy worktop space that would be better used as a plain surface. What is the official Rand line on this unit?

ChrisRand

Big question mark as to whether we’d have one again, I have to say. The cutting board itself is great quality, we’ve been using it every day for a year, and it looks fine still. However, it has to be unscrewed to remove it, so we never do, just wiping it in place, which isn’t optimal. We also make sure we only cut bread etc on it, not meat or fish. As for the cupboard, it’s slightly awkward to use, so you wouldn’t want it to be full of stuff you use every day. But for irregularly-used stuff, it’s a lot easier to access than getting down on your knees and pulling out all the items from an almost inaccessible corner. So it depends how much you need the space (if you don’t need it much, no need to get the disco unit) and if you do, whether you have a fair bit of only irregularly-used stuff (like occasional baking tins, etc).

Jane

Hi Chris – Thanks for that. I suspected that might be the answer. I am now torn even further because it looks pretty groovy but realistically probably isn’t worth it in ease of use and cost etc.!

DIY Dave

Fantastic design! Great use of space. I am looking for kitchen ideas and this is the best one I have seen yet.

Nigel Stubbins

Love the kitchen, I’m considering doing an extension on my 10 year old Victoria and wonder if you had any trouble matching the external bricks?

Chris

There’s some discussion here.

Donna

Just wondered how big the extension is.

Chris

It doubled the size of the kitchen area from 4m x 3m to 4m x 6m. But note when you do that, the access areas don’t get proportionally bigger, so rather than the worktop and storage space being doubled, it’s probably nearly trebled.

Cella

Hi Chris, nice of you to take the time to share your great project with us. Can you tell me what year your house was built. Secondly, I’ve read alot of negative reports about Bryant plumbing. Have you ever had any problems with yours?

Cella

How long have you been in your house now. How do you rate the quality of build?

Chris

We’re no longer in the house after 14 happy years there. Build quality never gave us any cause for complaint. Plumbing was fine.

Helen

Hi Chris

Love the blog! We’re looking at doing our kitchen. I love the kitchen, it must have been a wrench to leave it having put so much time and effort into it…

We looking at doing a similar size extension to you. Do you remember how much of the “cost” you think you got back in the resale value? ie half, three quarters…

Are you still in area or did you move completely…. don’t think I could have moved on easily having put in such a beautiful extension.

I think Nimbus have gone bust which is a shame as yours is the 2nd lovely kitchen from then I’ve seen….

Chris

Hi Helen

Indeed, Nimbus have gone. I’d say we comfortably got back the cost of the extension and kitchen (see separate post from summer 2011 on the house sale). In addition, it made the property much more saleable.

Reece Campbell

Your extension looks fantastic – I love the design, especially the kitchen worktops. This looks like a very professional kitchen refurbishment in my opinion!

jude l

hi. have followed your info on bryant victoria homes for a while. wondered ho to get to the sale bit from summer 2011 – link doesn’t work. we have taken down the wall between kitchen and diner and moved to double doors from the hall into the 1 big space. and converted rear 2/3 of garage and adding large consevatory now across rear garage and dining room – 6.5 x 4 m adding 24m2 ! we shall see… did enjoy the dormer ideas etc from previous site – ‘cept 1 did look like a shed had just fallen into place on 1!

Elwyn

Love the extension, Chris. Was wondering if you had any difficulty knocking the wall through between the kitchen and dining room. Is that a load-bearing wall? How about the one between the dining room and garage?

Chris

The kitchen and dining room wall you can almost punch your way through. Nothing to worry about there. The dining room to garage wall is similar, but had breeze block in the garage if I recall correctly. However, the one man band who did it for us certainly didn’t have the capability to do anything more than knock through, so that wall must have been fine too.

When we extended the kitchen out though, the architect specified a supporting beam which went right from the back of the kitchen, over the dining room knock-through and out across the extension. So we got a support over the dining room knock-through in the end.

Oliver

Love the skylight and disco cupboard! Looks brilliant =)

Bob

Hi Chris
We are planning to do a similar work. Just wonder when you knock down the external wall of the kitchen to the extension, I believe you had to use a support beam. That means you had to have have box in the ceiling to cover the beam between the old kitchen and new extension.

Chris

I can’t honestly remember, but I think they put in a beam above the ceiling level – take a look at the photo in an earlier stage of construction here.

Alan Eric Waddell

How do I post a video of my upgraded kitchen

Chris

Feel free to post a YouTube link – Chris

Anjali Sood

Hi Chris
My hubby and I are considering extending our Victoria too however taking our dining room out and wide to the width of the garage as unable to take kitchen out
The pictures and information that you have shared has been invaluable
Thank you so much 😊

Daren

Hi All
I’m currently changing kitchen/dining room into one room. Has anybody looked into (or done) removing kitchen and dining room doors and leaving open plan into hallway? There is a concrete lintel spanning both but do not know if RSJ required, or can I open it up by removing wall between doors?