A family kitchen rebuild on a substantial 1920s semi in Edgbaston, Birmingham — bespoke painted in-frame Shaker cabinetry, a double island layout separating prep from social, walk-in pantry with appliance garage, a 110cm dual-fuel range cooker, and seamless solid-surface worktops with integrated drainer grooves. Six weeks fixed price, family-of-five staying in the property, briefed for a hosting-scale household.
A family of five in a substantial four-bedroom 1920s semi-detached on a leafy Edgbaston road. Twelve years in the property, eldest at university and bringing flatmates home for weekends, second teenager at a sixth-form college, youngest still at primary. The household runs on hosting — Sunday lunches for ten, exam revision sessions for half a school year group, two regular book clubs, and a kitchen that gets used as the de facto family office between meals.
The previous kitchen was a 2010-era refurb with a single small island, a four-burner electric hob, no pantry, and worktops that had taken twelve years of family life on the chin. The brief was simple to state and exacting to deliver: rebuild the room around hosting. Two islands — one for the cook, one for everyone else. A range cooker substantial enough to feed twelve. A walk-in pantry to clear the worktop clutter that had been building up for a decade. Worktops with seamless integrated drainage so dirty cookware didn't stack on tea towels.
We were one of three contractors quoting. Two competitors offered roughly comparable kitchen designs at noticeably lower prices. We won the work because our methodology document was the only one to (a) commit to seamless solid-surface fabrication on site rather than supplying pre-cut quartz, and (b) include the walk-in pantry partition build, plaster finish and full appliance schedule inside the fixed-price total, with no "pantry fit-out by others" exclusion. Six weeks on site, family staying in the property throughout.
The brief came from both homeowners over three design meetings, with input from the older two children on island seating heights and the youngest's request that the breakfast cereal cupboard be reachable without help. Priorities, in their stated order:
A 6-week kitchen of this scale and spec is achievable but tight. Six interrelated constraints had to be locked down before any cabinet was ordered.
110cm canopy extraction above a serious range cooker has to vent to outside — recirculation can't keep up. The route went through a 350mm cavity wall on the north elevation, with original lath-and-plaster on the inside face. We core-drilled cleanly, sleeved through with insulated rigid duct, terminated with a brick-faced cowl that matches existing brickwork. No internal patching visible.
The pantry isn't a cupboard — it's a 3.2m² full-height room with its own door, joinery on three walls, ventilation, dedicated power circuits and lighting. We built a new metal-stud partition wall in week 2, plastered both faces, fitted a glazed-pane internal door, ran the dedicated 32A appliance circuit, and built the joinery as a fitted set in week 5. Not a "pantry cabinet from the kitchen company" — an actual room.
Solid-surface (Corian-equivalent) is fabricated, not cut. Sheets are joined with chemical bonding agents that cure invisibly, then sanded and polished to a single continuous surface. Drainer grooves are routed in-place. We used a specialist fabricator for two days on site at the end of week 5; their work delivered three island and run worktops as a single visually continuous surface with no joint lines.
A 110cm dual-fuel range needs a 7kW gas supply, a dedicated 32A electric circuit, a heat-resistant rear plinth, and a non-combustible 100mm clearance to adjacent cabinetry. We pulled a new gas line from the existing supply position in week 2, upgraded the consumer unit with a dedicated MCB, and specified heat-resistant solid-surface backing rather than the standard 18mm carcass MDF.
Five people in the property — two adults working from home, one teenager mid-A-levels, two younger kids. We set up a temporary kitchen in the utility (kettle, microwave, full-size fridge moved in for the duration), sealed dust separation at the upstairs landing, and held strict 7.30am-to-5pm working hours. Saturday working agreed for one weekend only (range cooker electric and gas commissioning, where downtime would have lost two working days mid-week).
Double-island layouts work or fail on circulation. We modelled the room in 3D with the cook standing at the prep island, walked through to the social island, the pantry and the breakfast bar — all within reach without unnecessary steps. Final positions were locked after a 1:1 floor-tape mockup with the client present, and only then did the cabinetry order go in.
Hosting-scale residential kitchens succeed or fail on three fronts: layout discipline before cabinetry is ordered, specialist trade scheduling, and worktop fabrication done properly. Our approach was structured around these from first survey to handover.
3D modelling and 1:1 floor-tape mockup before any cabinet ordered. Double-island layouts have a million wrong answers and a small number of right ones. We modelled the room in CAD with proper circulation modelling (typical adult shoulders 600mm, hot-zone clearance 1200mm, walking lane 900mm), then put masking tape on the existing floor to mark the new island positions, range cooker, pantry door swing and seating. The clients walked it. We adjusted twice. Only then did the bespoke cabinetry order go in.
Specialist trades scheduled as workstreams, not piecework. Solid-surface fabrication, range cooker commissioning, brick-cowl extraction install, and walk-in pantry joinery are four genuinely specialist trades that none of the generalist crew touches. Each one was scheduled as a discrete two-or-three-day workstream with its own foreman, briefed in advance, with a single person on our team owning the interface with the rest of the build.
Pantry built as a room, not as a cabinet. The biggest scope distinction between us and the competing tenders. Our quote included new partition framing, plastering, internal door, dedicated electric circuit, ventilation grille, paintwork, and bespoke fitted joinery on three walls. The competing quotes treated the pantry as a tall larder cabinet. The brief was for a room, and a room is what we costed.
Six-week working window held in 7.30am-to-5pm. One weekend day used (range cooker commissioning), no other Saturday work, no evenings, daily 4.30pm tidy and dust-down. The teenager's exam revision wasn't disrupted. The eight-year-old's bedtime routine wasn't disrupted. The clients made it through without wanting to evict the build, which on a hosting-led brief is a higher bar than it sounds.
Thirty working days from strip-out to handover. Six discrete weeks, each with a defined deliverable, no overlap that could create dependency stress.
Existing kitchen stripped to brick and floorboards. Original ceiling rose and picture rail in the dining end protected and retained. Cavity wall surveyed for extraction core route. 1:1 floor-tape mockup completed and signed off. Bespoke cabinetry order placed (8-week lead, with manufacturer scheduled into a 5-week slot). Solid-surface fabricator booked for week 6. Range cooker delivery scheduled for week 5.
New metal-stud partition wall framed for the walk-in pantry. First-fix electrics: dedicated 32A range circuit, dedicated 32A pantry appliance circuit, ring main extension to two island positions with eight new sockets. First-fix plumbing: drainage routed to social-island sink position (the cook keeps the sink-free prep island), hot/cold to social island. Gas line pulled to new range position. Cavity wall core-drilled for the 250mm extraction duct, sleeve installed, brick-faced cowl fitted externally.
Wet UFH manifold positioned in utility. UFH pipework laid across both rooms at 200mm centres. 60mm screed cover poured Monday, allowed to cure through the week. Plastering throughout: pantry partition both faces, walls made good after extraction core, dining-end walls repaired around retained picture rail. Two coats mist coat plus first topcoats — deep heritage navy to perimeter, warm cream to pantry interior, neutral chalk-white to dining end walls.
Bespoke cabinetry delivered Monday morning. Carcasses installed Monday-Tuesday in perimeter run, prep island Wednesday, social island Thursday. Engineered oak board flooring laid across both rooms Friday, click-fit, no transition strip at the old wall position. Pantry tall units fitted to three walls Friday afternoon ready for joinery detail in week 5.
Solid-surface fabricator on site Tuesday-Wednesday for templating. Range cooker delivered Wednesday and positioned. Saturday: gas commissioning, electric commissioning, range pulled forward and tested live. Pantry joinery built and fitted: appliance garage with three integrated sockets, drinks fridge install, breakfast cereal station with pull-down access at child height, full-height shelving system on the third wall.
Solid-surface worktops fabricated and joined on site Monday-Tuesday: prep island, social island, perimeter run including drainer grooves — all chemically joined with seamless transitions, sanded and polished. Hood canopy hung over range Wednesday and ducted to external cowl. Final fix electrics: pendants, undercabinet LEDs, in-cabinet accent strips, brass switchplates. Snag walkthrough Friday morning. Handover Friday afternoon. First Sunday lunch hosted on day 32.
The technical detail behind a kitchen built around a hosting-scale household and a cook who actually cooks.
Bespoke hand-painted in-frame Shaker, 22mm carcasses with solid timber frames. Perimeter painted in Farrow & Ball "Hague Blue", islands in "School House White". Solid hand-aged brass cup handles to drawers, bar handles to doors. Soft-close throughout, Blum Antaro 80kg-loaded drawer runners.
Solid-surface (Corian-equivalent), 38mm thick to islands with shadow-gap detail, 25mm to perimeter run. Fabricated and chemically joined on site, sanded and polished to a continuous surface. Integrated drainer grooves routed into the prep run beside the social-island sink. Thermoformed upstands.
110cm dual-fuel range cooker (Lacanche or equivalent): six gas burners plus dedicated wok ring, twin electric ovens (one fan-assisted, one pyrolytic), warming drawer, integrated griddle plate. Cast-iron pan supports. Dedicated 32A electric, 7kW gas supply.
110cm canopy hood, externally ducted through 250mm rigid insulated duct to a brick-faced external cowl matching the existing wall. Three-speed extraction with boost, ambient and task downlight built into the canopy. Fully sealed at penetration to maintain wall thermal performance.
3.2m² full-height room with new partition wall, glazed-pane internal door, 32A dedicated appliance circuit, ventilation grille. Bespoke fitted joinery on three walls: appliance garage with three sockets at worktop height, integrated steam oven, undercounter drinks fridge, child-height pull-down breakfast station, full-height adjustable shelving.
Single thermoformed solid-surface sink moulded as part of the social-island worktop — one continuous piece, no underseal join. Quooker Flex (boiling, chilled, sparkling, plus pull-out spray) in brushed brass. Integrated bin and recycling drawer in adjacent island position.
Engineered oak board, 220 × 18mm planks, brushed and oiled finish. Glue-down installation across both rooms with no transition strip at the old wall position. Compatible with wet UFH, surface temperature limit 27°C.
Wet UFH system across both rooms, 16mm pipe at 200mm centres, 60mm screed cover. Two-zone control (kitchen end and dining end) via Heatmiser Neo Smart thermostat tied into existing combi boiler. Existing dining-end column radiator retained as visual feature and supplemental boost.
A hosting-scale family kitchen on a 1920s Edgbaston semi, delivered against a 6-week fixed-price contract with no variation orders, no surprise charges, the family of five staying in the house throughout. Two distinct islands give the cook their own prep zone facing the range and let everyone else gather at the social island without crossing the cooking line. The walk-in pantry has cleared a decade of worktop clutter. The seamless solid-surface worktop reads as one continuous flowing surface from prep island, across the perimeter run, into the social island.
Sunday lunch on day 32 hosted seven adults and five children. The 110cm range was cooking three pots, a roast and a tray of vegetables simultaneously. The external-ducted extraction took the steam and odour out cleanly. The eight-year-old fetched her own breakfast cereal from the pantry's pull-down station the next morning without help, which was the small specific outcome the brief had asked for and which the room delivered on.
We had a kitchen that worked when the kids were small. We needed one that worked when they bring six friends home from university for the weekend. The two-island idea came from us. The pantry-as-a-room idea came from us. Both of those got dismissed by other contractors as "we don't really do that" or quietly priced out of their bids. Building Group came back with a methodology that explained how the pantry would be built as a proper room and how the solid-surface worktop would be fabricated on site as a single continuous surface, not assembled on Tuesday from pieces cut on Monday. The fixed price held. Six weeks held. And on the Sunday after handover I cooked roast lamb for twelve people on a range cooker that had been commissioned the previous Saturday. Nothing about the build felt experimental. We'd recommend them without reservation.
If you're thinking about a hosting-scale kitchen rebuild, a double island, a walk-in pantry or a serious range cooker install, we'll come out for a free design consultation, walk the property with you, and put a fixed-price design-and-build proposal on your kitchen table within ten working days — one contract, one project manager, one programme.
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