Kitchen Door Knobs Add A Fresh New Look...

New Kitchen door knobs are one of the simplest ways to give your kitchen a bit of a makeover and a fresh look - and the choice available is quite staggering.

Far from the basic wood and chrome door knobs you will typically find in your B&Q, there are a mass of beautifully designed ceramic, metal and chic moulded materials that offer a touch of real class to your doors and drawers.

Ranging in size from a mini door pull at just 12mm square to the bold colourful statement of an 80mm
Red square door knob, shown here, there are options at every level of budget and to suit all tastes.


Contemporary designs include hammered pewter knobs, patterned ceramic knobs and moulded knobs in designer finishes like Wenge wood.

You’ll find our prices are exceptionally competitive - and we don’t package to force you to buy more than you need - you can purchase to your exact requirements matching the number of kitchen doors and drawers you have.

So get a handle on a new look for your kitchen by taking a look though our great range of contemporary, traditional and classic kitchen door knobs - you can freshen you kitchen look without forking out a fortune.


Visit http://www.mykitchenstore.co.uk/ for more information

Kitchen Corner Unit Storage - Maximise Space with a Magic Corner

Kitchen corner units present us all with a dilemma - how to utilise the space in your corner cabinet without dislocating your shoulder trying to grab the items in the farthest darkest part? Well that’s where a ‘Magic Corner’ storage unit will definitely do the trick!

You would be amazed what these clever pull out units can do to improve your corner storage - both in terms of practical access and cleanliness.

The two-tier tray style shelves shown here have a pivot and slide mechanism that means thay slide in and then sideways to fit neatly into the corner section of the cupboard you can’t normally get to. What that means, is that you can grab the front of the tray and then pull and slide it forward to get easy access to everything you have stored. They are available in gloss white, gloss black and gloss grey and for right hand or left hand cupboards.

The units make a great storage mechanism for groceries, pots and pan, cleaning materials, pretty much any household item you would normally store on a kitchen cabinet shelf - but knowing that access will be quick and easy.

There are a number of options available - the chrome wire basket style shown here offers great value and has two carousel style baskets on a central spindle to pivot the trays into the corner storage area.

What’s more, youll be surprised how easy these units are to fit - definitely a DIY task that most people can take on.

The sets all come with the appropriate fittings and instructions to make the job as straigtforward as possible.

So, if you want clean, easy access corner storage, these magic little number could be the best solution for you - at least in future you’ll be able to easily find that elusive can of baked beans you were sure you had bought!

For more information about these and other great kitchen storage solutions, visit

www.mykitchenstore.co.uk.

Cutlery Trays - Should You Fork Out On a New One?

... crumbs yes! And therein lies one of the reasons why! If your cutlery drawer is anything like mine, then the cutlery tray would be enough to make Kim and Aggy recoil and reach for the marigolds! Crumbs are only the start of it when it comes to kitchen dirt finding its way into my drawers!

Buying a new, fresh and clean cutlery tray is probably much easier than you think - we have a wide range of white, cream and frosted green inserts that can be fitted quickly and easily into your kitchen drawer - and you won’t have to fork out a fortune to do it with prices starting as low as £5.58.

Though when it comes to cutlery trays, you should know that silver is the new white and we have a fabulous range including the new ‘wave’ cutlery inserts that come with spacers so that you can set the widths of the sections to suit your needs. All our trays are designed to fit standard kitchen drawer widths - the majority are suitable for 500 and 600mm widths, but we have some designs as wide as 1000mm to suit today’s trend for wide drawer designs.

And if you want to push the boat out and treat yourself to something really special, then you could consider our beautifully crafted Beech cutlery trays, formed in steamed and oiled beech wood especially for this purpose.

So now that we’ve spoon fed you all the choices, there’s no excuse for not replacing your old and tired cutlery tray - get to it, sharpish!

Glass Splashbacks - A Guide to Buying

Glass splashbacks are the latest must have item - and we have many enquiries both for our standard sized splashbacks and upstands plus custom made versions, so I thought I’d give a quick guideline to answer most of the questions we get asked.

I will concentrate here on the options available to purchase – and in a subsequent blog, how to fit and maintain them.

So first of all, when is it a splashback and when is it an upstand? Well they are really the same thing in terms of functionality - they are glass panels fitted against the wall to protect it from the splashes and general mess created from preparation of food and cooking - the two terms are simply used to distinguish between a panel that goes directly behind the hob (splashback) and a panel that fits against the wall above a work surface or other part of the kitchen (upstand). If you want to use a single term, then call it all splashback.

Do I Buy Standard Or Bespoke?

1. Standard Splashbacks and Upstands

As the term implies,

standard splashbacks come in fixed size and colour variations. The splashbacks are varying widths that conform to the standard sizes of hobs and cookers, 600mm, 800mm, 900mm, 1000mm and 1100mm. Our standard glass splashbacks are 750mm in height.
Upstands (which come in matching colours so that you can create a continuous wall of glass) are in fixed lengths of 1m and heights of either 450mm or 140mm.

The colours vary from vibrant lime, fuschia, Vermeer (stunning! Zest green is shown in the pic above), to more subtle blues, browns and blacks and mid range colours between

Key Question: Can I Cut Them?

If the splashback is made of standard float glass, then technically yes. But the reality is that you will be taking a risk. You should not cut them yourself, but take them to a glazier who can also smooth and polish the edges – but beware; the glazier will not guarantee that the panel won’t fracture or that the cutting won’t weaken the glass. If you need to conform to a particular size or shape, you could save yourself some stress and possibly money by having a bespoke one made.

If the panel is in toughened float glass, then they cannot be cut.

2. Bespoke Splashback panels

Bespoke panels offer you great flexibility in having anything from a simple made to measure back panel for the hob, to creating a fabulous made to measure wall of glass. We recommend that panels be a maximum of 2m for handling, but corner cut-outs, curvature shaping and socket holes can all be accommodated to ensure the panels fit snugly under cabinets, around window sills and so on. There are some minor limitations, (you can’t for example, have an exact square cut out of the corner of panel as it will break), but apart from this, most designs will be workable.

Another major advantage of bespoke panels is that you can have virtually any colour – select from a

standard RAL chart or provide a paint colour that can be matched to suit your décor.

Types of Glass – What to Choose

There are essentially three types of glass, which can come in varying thicknesses. Our splashbacks and upstands are all formed in 6mm glass, which is standard (work surfaces, window sills and so on tend to be thicker).

1. Stand 6mm float glass

Formed in extra strong glass but not toughened. This technically means the glass can still be cut, but please beware the points made above. Our standard splashbacks and upstands come in this option, but not bespoke.

2. Toughened 6mm float glass
This is one of the options we use for our bespoke splashbacks. This glass conforms to all required EN and BS standards. The difference between it and the Low Iron variation (see details below) is in colour purity and consequently, cost. Float glass has a slight natural green tinge which may show though to varying degrees in the final colour of your splashback. For pale and some mid range colours (blue for example), the green tinge will be noticeable to a small degree (and some people prefer it), whereas for dark colours and heavier mid range colours (re, pink etc) the tinge is barely noticeable. This is the lower cost option.

3. Toughened 6mm Low Iron Glass
Manufactured by Pilkington and branded Optiwhite, the glass is purer and offers a more accurate representation of colour. For paler colours and where you are specifically aiming to colour match, this may be the best option. It is a little more expensive than the float glass.

So that’s an overview of the options available.

In the next blog, information about measuring for, fitting and maintaining your splashbacks. If you have any questions in the meantime, then email

enquiries@mykitchenstore.co.uk and we’ll be delighted to help!

Glass Splashbacks - A Guide To Buying

Glass splashbacks are the latest must have item - and we have many enquiries both for our standard sized splashbacks and upstands plus custom made versions, so I thought I'd give a quick guideline to answer most of the questions we get asked.

I will concentrate here on the options available to purchase – and in a subsequent blog, how to fit and maintain them.

So first of all, when is it a splashback and when is it an upstand? Well they are really the same thing in terms of functionality - they are glass panels fitted against the wall to protect it from the splashes and general mess created from preparation of food and cooking - the two terms are simply used to distinguish between a panel that goes directly behind the hob (splashback) and a panel that fits against the wall above a work surface or other part of the kitchen (upstand). If you want to use a single term, then call it all splashback.

Do I Buy Standard Or Bespoke?

1. Standard Splashbacks and Upstands

As the term implies,

standard splashbacks come in fixed size and colour variations. The splashbacks are varying widths that conform to the standard sizes of hobs and cookers, 600mm, 800mm, 900mm, 1000mm and 1100mm. Our standard glass splashbacks are 750mm in height.
Upstands (which come in matching colours so that you can create a continuous wall of glass) are in fixed lengths of 1m and heights of either 450mm or 140mm.

The colours vary from vibrant lime, fuschia, Vermeer (stunning! Zest green is shown in the pic above), to more subtle blues, browns and blacks and mid range colours between

Key Question: Can I Cut Them?

If the splashback is made of standard float glass, then technically yes. But the reality is that you will be taking a risk. You should not cut them yourself, but take them to a glazier who can also smooth and polish the edges – but beware; the glazier will not guarantee that the panel won’t fracture or that the cutting won’t weaken the glass. If you need to conform to a particular size or shape, you could save yourself some stress and possibly money by having a bespoke one made.
If the panel is in toughened float glass, then they cannot be cut.

2. Bespoke Splashback panels

Bespoke panels offer you great flexibility in having anything from a simple made to measure back panel for the hob, to creating a fabulous made to measure wall of glass. We recommend that panels be a maximum of 2m for handling, but corner cut-outs, curvature shaping and socket holes can all be accommodated to ensure the panels fit snugly under cabinets, around window sills and so on. There are some minor limitations, (you can’t for example, have an exact square cut out of the corner of panel as it will break), but apart from this, most designs will be workable.

Another major advantage of bespoke panels is that you can have virtually any colour – select from a

standard RAL chart or provide a paint colour that can be matched to suit your décor.

Types of Glass – What to Choose

There are essentially three types of glass, which can come in varying thicknesses. Our splashbacks and upstands are all formed in 6mm glass, which is standard (work surfaces, window sills and so on tend to be thicker).

1. Stand 6mm float glass

Formed in extra strong glass but not toughened. This technically means the glass can still be cut, but please beware the points made above. Our standard splashbacks and upstands come in this option, but not bespoke.

2. Toughened 6mm float glass

This is one of the options we use for our bespoke splashbacks. This glass conforms to all required EN and BS standards. The difference between it and the Low Iron variation (see details below) is in colour purity and consequently, cost. Float glass has a slight natural green tinge which may show though to varying degrees in the final colour of your splashback. For pale and some mid range colours (blue for example), the green tinge will be noticeable to a small degree (and some people prefer it), whereas for dark colours and heavier mid range colours (re, pink etc) the tinge is barely noticeable. This is the lower cost option.

3. Toughened 6mm Low Iron Glass

Manufactured by Pilkington and branded Optiwhite, the glass is purer and offers a more accurate representation of colour. For paler colours and where you are specifically aiming to colour match, this may be the best option. It is a little more expensive than the float glass.

So that’s an overview of the options available.

In the next blog, information about measuring for, fitting and maintaining your splashbacks. If you have any questions in the meantime, then email

enquiries@mykitchenstore.co.uk and we’ll be delighted to help!

Cabinet Hinges - a DIY Guide to Blum Hinges!

I thought I would just clarify a few little details about the wonder that is the cabinet hinge.

If you’re a kitchen fitter or carpenter/joiner, you can switch off now, but if you are a mere mortal, listen up because you might learn a thing or two about a fascinating subject.

If you’re still reading, I just lied. It probably won’t be fascinating - but at least it might be useful!

Anyway, here we go. You may recognise this picture as being the same (or similar) to the hinges that are inside your kitchen cabinets. For many they are a mystery - and seem like they might be the most difficult DIY thingy to fix or replace. So here a a few things that might help to demystify them.

First. What are they called? Well apart from cabinet hinge, they might be referred to as a concealed hinge, or more commonly, a Blum Hinge. Blum is actually a reference to the most famous brand of cabinet hinges (rather like a cleaner being referred to as a Hoover). They are all the same thing.

Next. The component parts. They come in two pieces. The hinge itself and the backplate. There are different types of backplate to match the hinge you are buying - if you know your stuff, you will recognise which backplate goes with which hinge, but on mykitchenstore, we have grouped the most commonly used to create a full hinge and backplate set in either a slide on cabinet hinge, or a clip on cabinet hinge. More of which later. The hinge part consists of a round ‘cup’ (item 2 in the diagram above) and a hinge arm (item 1). The cup will generally be a standard 35mm diameter and is the part that is fixed to the kitchen door. A corresponding 35mm hole is drilled into the door to accommodate the cup, which is then screwed into place with two tiny screws supplied with the hinges. If you are wondering how to do this yourself, the best way would be to use a 35mm hole boring bit (often refered to as a forstner bit, shown here to the right). These fit onto any standard drill. You will find a precision drill bit at this link on our site

The backplate is the other separate component (item 3 in the diagram). This is attached to the inside of the kitchen unit using the screws provided. Then, if you have a slide on hinge, the hinge ’slides’ (funnily enough) onto the backplate and is secured with screws. If you have a clip-on hinge then you can simply ’snap’ the arm onto the back plate. Simple as that.

If you are replacing existing hinges, fitting them really is a very simple process as all the positions are marked and the holes already pre-drilled. If you are replacing a kitchen door, if the door has not been pre-drilled by the manufacturer, then simply use the old door as a template to mark where the hole needs to be drilled and then use the hole boring bit. Take care not to drill down too far!
So that’s all relatively straight forward, what else do you need to know? Well the hinges come in a variety of types, which are differentiated by the angle and crank level of the hinge. Want that explained? read on….

Angles. You will see reference to angles attached to these hinges - and what that refers to is the maximum angle that the door will open to when the hinge is fully extended. In the vast majority of instances, you will not be concerned about opening the door much beyond 95 to 110 degrees, but you can purchase them at up to 170 degree angle.

Then there’s Crank. You can buy the hinges at certain Crank amounts. What this refers to is the level to which the door will overlap the edge of the cupboard when it is closed. For example, if you purchase a hinge with 0 (zero) crank, the edge of the door will completely overlap the edge of the cabinet when it is closed (and this is how the majority of kitchen units are designed, so that the door fully overlaps the frame of the kitchen cupboard). If you buy a hinge with 7 or 8 crank, when the cupboard door is closed, you will be able to see part of the edge of the cabinet. In other words, it only partly overlaps the edge of the cabinet. Then if you want what is called an ‘inset’ door, that is that the door sits just inside the edge of the cupbard when the door is closed, then dependant on the thickness of the edging of the cupboard, you will need to buy a hinge with 15 (for cabinets with wall thickness of 16mm) or 17 (for cabinets with wall thickness of 18mm) crank. Has that helped? Or just made you cranky? Hope not! Image below to help if it has though:

As mentioned before, we have made the process relatively simple for purchasing what is by far the most used variation of the cabinet hinge (or blum hinge). For most situations you would be looking for a 95 or 110 degree hinge with 0 crank. We have an easy-to-buy set of these in both economy (suitable for light doors) and premium options (more robust and suitable for heavier doors). We have them in both Clip On and Slide On variation and the links are below for you to get straight through to them:

1. Slide On Cabinet Hinge and Backplate set, economy
2. Slide On Cabinet Hinge and Backplate set, premium
3. Clip On Cabinet Hinge and Backplate set, economy
4. Clip On Cabinet Hinge and Backplate set, premium

And what if you don’t fit them absolutely accurately? Well you will be pleased to know there is a little margin for error. The hinges are designed to allow for adjustment both vertically and horizontally. A minor adjustment with your screwdriver and a little repositioning should resolve most minor door hanging issues.

So I hope this helps to clarify a little further for you the intracacies of kitchen unit hinges - I’m sure it’s not comprehensive, but it covers most of the bases. If you need further information, then you can always email us at enquiries@mykitchenstore.co.uk to see if we can answer your specific questions. Don’t become unhinged - just ask!

Glass Splashbacks - Colour Your Kitchen Beautiful

Our standard glass splashback range creates a stunning splash of colour in the kitchen - as you can see here from one of our beautiful colours, fuschia pink.

But we’ve had many enquiries from people who want to colour match or order a size to fit their particular needs - so we are now offering a bespoke service, meaning you can order a beautiful glass splashback in any colour and in any size. (well, within reason!)

And you don’t need to restrict yourselves to the splashback area, glass panels can be fitted to the wall under your kitchen cabinets and pretty much colour match to any standard reference. We can also accommodate those awkward plug sockets and switches.

Just email us at enquiries@mykitchenstore.co.uk and we’ll help you with a bespoke glass splashback to meet your needs.

So go on, pick a colour, any colour…