An open-plan kitchen refit on a Victorian semi-detached in Roundhay, Leeds — non-structural opening between original kitchen and dining room, 3.2m central island, painted in-frame Shaker cabinetry, fully integrated appliances and engineered herringbone parquet flowing through both rooms. Delivered in five weeks, fixed price, family staying in the property throughout.
A young family with two children in a four-bedroom Victorian semi-detached on one of Roundhay's tree-lined streets. They moved into the property four years ago and inherited a tired 1990s galley kitchen with a separate, north-facing dining room. The wall between the two rooms was non-structural but had been there since the house was built. They wanted both rooms working as one open-plan family hub — cooking, eating, homework, work-from-home, all happening in the same space.
We were one of two contractors quoting for the work, alongside a high-street kitchen retailer who would have subcontracted the building work to a separate trade. We won the tender on the strength of a single fixed-price design-and-build proposal: one contract, one project manager, one programme. No client coordination between a designer in one office, a builder in another, and a fitter who turns up at the end with a kitchen on the back of a van.
We surveyed on a Tuesday, presented design and fixed-price quote on the following Monday, signed contract two weeks later, and started on site three weeks after that. Five weeks of build. Family stayed in the property throughout, eating out of a microwave in the utility room. Day 25 they cooked their first proper Sunday dinner on the new induction hob.
The brief was developed jointly with both homeowners over two design meetings. Priorities, in their stated order:
A 5-week kitchen refit at this scale is achievable but unforgiving. Every constraint had a workaround that needed locking down before strip-out began.
The wall between kitchen and dining was non-load-bearing per our structural engineer's site survey, but the ceiling above had a small step where the original lath-and-plaster met later plasterboard. We specified a flush 75mm steel section bedded in the ceiling void to give a clean continuous reveal, no exposed lintel, no awkward ceiling junction.
Two parents working from home, two primary-school children. We set up a temporary kitchen in the utility room (kettle, microwave, fridge), sealed plastic dust sheeting at the upstairs landing, and held to a strict 8.00am to 5.00pm working window with no Saturdays. Daily 4.30pm tidy and dust-down before the family came back into the lower floor.
Hand-painted in-frame Shaker cabinetry has an 8-week manufacturing lead time. We placed the order in week 1 of strip-out, with hardware and worktop selections finalised before contract signing. By the time the cabinets shipped, every other element on site was ready to receive them.
The original kitchen floor sat 12mm above the dining room floor — an old quarry tile bed at some point in the property's history. Continuous herringbone parquet across both rooms was a hero design feature, so the lower kitchen floor was screeded up to match the dining floor exactly, plus a 60mm UFH layer on top of that. Result: a single flat plane, one parquet pattern, no transition strip.
The original sink position sat against the rear external wall and dictated the previous galley layout entirely. The new island sink sits 2.4m into the room. We pulled up the kitchen floor in week 1, rerouted soil and waste through the void to the new island position, pressure-tested the new run, and screeded over before any cabinet went near it.
The old dining room had a south-facing bay window with a column radiator beneath that the homeowners wanted to keep — both for the natural light and for the period detail. Cabinet runs and the island layout were designed around the bay so the window remained the visual anchor of the dining end. The radiator stayed; the UFH supplements it on cold mornings.
Residential kitchen refits succeed or fail on procurement timing, design discipline and household-life logistics. Our approach was built around four principles applied from first survey to final handover.
Design and build under one contract. The single biggest cause of overrun on residential kitchens is the gap between the designer who drew it, the contractor who builds it, and the fitter who installs it. On this project all three were us — one project manager, one programme, one accountable person if anything went wrong. The homeowners had a single mobile number, not three.
Procurement timing baked into the programme. Bespoke painted cabinetry, quartz worktop templating, the Bora Pure hob and the Quooker tap all have lead times measured in weeks, not days. Every long-lead item was ordered in week 1, with selections finalised before contract signing. By the time strip-out finished on day 4, every component was either on site or scheduled to land on the day it was needed.
Living-through-it discipline. The family was in the property the whole way through. Sealed plastic separation to upstairs, daily 4.30pm tidy, hard 8am-to-5pm working hours, no Saturdays, dust extraction on every cutting tool. The kids' bedtime routine was never disrupted. One of the smaller but harder-earned details on the project.
The floor as the spine. Continuous herringbone parquet across both rooms was the design move that made the open plan feel deliberate rather than knocked-through. We treated the floor as the project's spine: levelling, UFH layout, and parquet direction were locked down before the steel went in, so cabinet positions and the island had to work with the floor pattern, not the other way round.
Twenty-five working days from strip-out to handover. Every workstream sequenced against a Monday-of-week-six occupancy target.
Existing kitchen stripped to brick and floorboards. Structural engineer site visit confirmed wall as non-load-bearing. Floors lifted to expose joists and existing drainage routes. Bespoke cabinetry order placed with deposit, 8-week lead time confirmed. Quartz worktop selection signed off. Bora hob, Quooker tap and integrated appliance schedule all ordered.
Wall removed under temporary support, 75mm steel flush lintel installed within the ceiling void, openings made good. First-fix electrics: dedicated circuits for hob, induction, integrated appliances; ring main extended for island socket positions. First-fix plumbing: drainage rerouted to new island sink position, pressure tested. UFH manifold positioned in utility, pipework laid across both rooms.
Floor screeded to level out the 12mm difference between kitchen and dining, UFH bedded in. Plastering throughout both rooms — new ceiling junction, walls made good after wall removal, deep window reveals to the bay. Two coats of mist coat plus first topcoat in heritage green to feature wall, neutral chalk-white to remaining walls. Skirtings refreshed and reinstated.
Cabinetry delivered to site Monday morning. Carcasses installed Monday-Tuesday, frames Wednesday. Quartz templated Wednesday afternoon (10-day lead to fit). Engineered oak herringbone parquet laid across both rooms Thursday-Friday with continuous pattern, no transition strip at old wall position. Skirtings re-fitted to follow the new layout.
Quartz worktops fitted Monday with mitred edge to island and integrated drainer grooves to the prep run. Bora Pure induction hob installed mid-week, plumbed and commissioned. Quooker Fusion Square 4-in-1 boiling tap connected and tested. Integrated appliances installed and tested. Final fix electrics, lighting commissioned (ambient, task, accent layers), pendant lights hung over the island. Snag walkthrough Friday afternoon. Handover Friday at 4.30pm. First family meal cooked on the new hob Sunday lunchtime.
The technical detail behind a kitchen designed for a family of four to actually use, not just look at.
Bespoke hand-painted in-frame Shaker, 22mm carcasses with solid timber frames, painted in Farrow & Ball "Card Room Green" to perimeter and "Pointing" to island. Solid brass cup handles to drawers, bar handles to doors. Soft-close throughout, Blum Antaro 80kg-loaded drawer runners.
20mm honed quartz (Caesarstone Calacatta Nuvo). Mitred 60mm edge to island giving a chunky waterfall feel without a 60mm slab cost. Integrated drainer grooves to the prep run. Double bullnose to wall runs.
Bora Pure induction hob with downdraft extraction. 83cm wide, four zones with bridge function. Recirculation filtration to the room (no external duct required). Removes the visual clutter of an overhead hood across the open plan.
Quooker Fusion Square 4-in-1 (boiling, chilled, sparkling and standard hot/cold) in stainless. 540mm undermount stainless double-bowl sink with prep tray and waste-disposer connection. Integrated bin in adjacent drawer.
NEFF B57CR22N0B oven plus C17MR02N0B combination microwave-oven stacked behind matching cabinet doors. NEFF GI7416CE0G integrated 60/40 fridge-freezer. NEFF S155HCX27G fully integrated dishwasher. Caple WI3115 integrated 30-bottle wine fridge in the island.
Engineered oak herringbone, 600 × 100 × 14mm planks, smoked-and-oiled finish. Click-fit installation across both rooms with no transition strip at the old wall position. Compatible with wet UFH up to 27°C surface temperature.
Wet UFH system across both rooms, 16mm pipe at 200mm centres, 60mm screed cover. Single-zone control via Heatmiser Neo Smart thermostat tied into the existing combi boiler. Existing dining-room column radiator retained as supplemental boost on cold mornings.
Layered scheme on three switched circuits. Ambient: 12 recessed LED downlights at 2700K. Task: undercabinet LED strip plus three brass pendant lights over island. Accent: in-cabinet LED strip in the two glass display cabinets flanking the chimney breast. Fully dimmable.
An open-plan kitchen-dining hub on a Victorian semi-detached, delivered against a 5-week fixed-price contract with no variation orders, no surprise charges, the family in the house throughout, and a snag list of four items all cleared within five working days of handover. The original two-room footprint reads as a single continuous space anchored by a 3.2m central island and a flowing herringbone parquet floor. The bay window in the old dining end remains the visual anchor at one end; the island is the social anchor at the other.
The choice to use induction with downdraft extraction (not an overhead hood) means the sightline across the room is uninterrupted — the homeowners can stand at the island prep zone and see straight through to the bay window. The integrated appliances disappear into the cabinetry. The island's casual seating overhang holds three counter stools where the children eat breakfast and do homework. The Quooker tap pours boiling water on demand. The kitchen is in active use roughly 14 hours a day.
We had two contractors quote and a kitchen retailer who was going to subcontract the building work. Building Group were the only ones who walked the property as one team — designer, project manager and the trades all in the same conversation. They quoted a fixed price, gave us a programme that started week one and ended week five, and never broke either of those numbers. Living through it with two kids was the bit we were dreading, and they made it bearable. The induction hob was Lou's choice. The boiling tap was mine. The herringbone floor was the designer's idea and we love it. Five weeks of mess, eaten out of a microwave for a month, and the result is the room we now spend eighty percent of our home life in. We've already recommended them to two neighbours.
If you're thinking about an open-plan kitchen, a knock-through, or just replacing a tired existing kitchen with something better, 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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