Before & After
Ruth and her family are certainly not strangers to a renovation project, and their most recent kitchen reno just goes to show this. Having bought her home back in 2019 after renting it for a couple of years, she and her family knew it needed work from the very beginning.
They had already weathered some major challenges in their renovation, including multiple floods. The biggest one coming weeks after installing a brand-new kitchen that they had spent thousands on from a high street retailer.
Ruth notes how “After several floods over the years, each time we undertook remedial and preventative work to make the house more flood resilient but kept replacing the kitchen like for like.”
Solid Wood Kitchen - Much More Resilient
The previous kitchens were beautiful shaker styles that Ruth had liked, but with them being made from MDF this meant that they swelled and were easily damaged during flooding and as a result needed replacing. After the latest flood in 2024, Ruth and her family made the decision to try something different, with the realisation that replacing the kitchen so often was unsustainable, costly and massively inconvenient for them. “We decided that a solid wood kitchen would be a much more resilient option. We have neighbours who have done this and have not needed to replace their kitchens.” and so with the goal of finding a high-quality solid wood kitchen, the next question was how they were to afford it…
“I saw Rehome on Instagram and started following them, knowing that with our past flood history we’d probably be in the market for another kitchen before long!”
And sure enough, when the time came to actively look, she didn’t have to wait long. 6 months after hearing about us, she began actively looking for kitchens, and found ‘the one’ pretty much instantly- among the many listings, one kitchen stood out.
The display was a stunning shaker kitchen with curved cabinetry, a generous central island complete with a breakfast bar as well as a butcher’s block to maximise prep space and offering all of the things that appeal to a host like Ruth. In fact, the integrated bar was what first attracted her to the kitchen…
A Smooth and Enjoyable Reconfiguration Process
Originally worth £45,000, this ex-display kitchen was available on Rehome for just £10,999. An incredible price for such a high-quality solid wood kitchen, and one that Ruth and her family knew would last a lot longer than anything that high street retailers could offer her for that price…
The reconfiguration process was smooth and enjoyable for Ruth-
“We did a really basic drawing of the bare room using computer software, making sure we had all measurements and openings included. We then took the sizes of the units on the kitchen we had seen and worked out how to fit them into the existing space.”
A lot of Rehome customers choose to draw or create mock ups in many different ways. It is a great way of visualising how the kitchen can fit in your space, and how you can reconfigure or rearrange certain units to tailor the kitchen to suit your needs. You can do this using online software, or simply by using graph paper and cut outs of the units…
The kitchen Ruth bought had originally been fitted in a showroom, and arrived at her house in excellent condition. Ruth opted to keep the original colour. “We kept the existing colour as it was in excellent condition after being in the showroom. We did need to get two new parts colour matched, so we took a couple of pieces to B&Q, and they did that for us - you would never know they weren’t original!”
Ruth had brought in a skilled joiner to help fit the kitchen and make a few additional pieces such as pilasters, end panels and cornice. “We built the plan ourselves but had a joiner come to fit it for us and make a couple of additional pieces.”
Whilst a kitchen renovation and reconfiguration can absolutely be done yourself, we do recommend having the help of a skilled joiner, builder or kitchen installer. You can find a link to skilled installers in your area here.
Kitchen Installation Challenges
The only challenge they faced during installation came with the tall units. “The only real challenge was the full height units as our ceilings were really low and have beams running through. We had originally planned to add the tall units to a different wall but then worked through with our joiner how we could make them fit.” Despite the slight hurdle, the kitchen came together quickly. Within 3 weeks from first seeing the kitchen on Rehome, the kitchen was finished and looked like this.
Ruth’s Advice
Ruth’s experience is proof that you don’t need a huge budget to achieve a high-end look, she says.
“Finally, you absolutely don’t need to have a huge budget to have the best quality in your house - just look around and think outside of the box before taking action. Exactly like we did with our kitchen!”
Her advice for anyone thinking about buying a pre-owned or ex-display kitchen?
“Ours was ex-display rather than pre-owned but after our experience I would definitely look at pre-owned too. I would say, make sure you measure everything and use a really good joiner to help if you have any extra parts you might need making.”
Sustainable Choices
Now with a kitchen that not only looks stunning but also suits the practical needs of her home, Ruth and her family are enjoying the benefits of their smart, sustainable choices.
“We’ve finally got it right with this kitchen and I absolutely love it!”.
Ruth has already recommended Rehome to friends and to her builders. With a utility room still to complete, Ruth is keeping her eye out for her next Rehome find, and we can’t wait to see what else she creates…
