From a stripped shell with bare walls and exposed pipework to a finished kitchen with Plykea sage green fronts, a 29mm laminate worktop, and engineered oak flooring — a complete kitchen renovation in Wandsworth, London.

Full Kitchen Renovation in Wandsworth: IKEA Carcasses, Plykea Fronts, and a Complete Strip-Out

Some kitchen jobs are a case of swapping units and updating a worktop. This one in Wandsworth was different. The client wanted the room completely emptied — old kitchen out, walls stripped back, flooring removed — and then rebuilt properly from scratch. It was the kind of project that demands patience and sequencing, because each stage has to be right before the next one can begin. This is what a full kitchen renovation in South London actually looks like.

Starting From Zero — the Strip-Out

When I arrived to survey the kitchen in Wandsworth, the old units were still in place, but it was clear they were coming out. Old wall tiles, an original floor, an exposed boiler on the wall, gas and water pipework running openly along the lower walls. The brief was straightforward: remove everything, make good, and build a kitchen that would last another twenty years. I stripped the room back to bare walls and the concrete subfloor. The boiler stayed — it had to — but everything else came out. Once the room was empty, the scale of the work became clear: the walls needed patching in places, the floor needed attention in one corner, and the gas and water services needed rerouting to accommodate the new kitchen layout. This stage is unglamorous but it is not optional. A kitchen renovation in South London built on a poor base will show its problems within a few years. Getting it right at the start is what separates a kitchen that lasts from one that does not.

Floor Before Cabinets — the Right Order

With the room stripped and services repositioned, I laid the new floor before touching a single cabinet. This is a decision that surprises some clients. The instinct is often to fit the units first and floor around them afterwards. In my experience, that is the wrong order — at least when the floor is engineered oak. Laying the floor as a continuous surface first means the kitchen looks right once the units are in: no awkward cut edges visible at the base of units, no gaps where the cabinet sits slightly above a changing floor level. It also means that if a future owner removes the units, the floor beneath is intact. We ran engineered oak boards across the full kitchen, including beneath the base unit footprint. The boards are a warm, natural oak — a deliberate contrast to the dark worktop and sage green fronts that were still to come.

Fitting the IKEA Carcasses

The client had chosen IKEA carcasses — a sensible choice. IKEA's internal kitchen system is well-engineered, modular, and gives access to a wide range of internal fittings and accessories that bespoke cabinet makers cannot always match at the same price. The structural weakness of IKEA kitchens is not the carcasses — it is the standard doors and worktops, which look exactly like what they are. The plan here was to use IKEA as the backbone and dress it properly. Fitting IKEA carcasses in an older Wandsworth property is more involved than it looks. Floors in London terraces from the sixties and seventies are rarely perfectly flat; walls are rarely perfectly plumb. I set each carcass level and plumb using adjustable legs beneath the base units, shimmed and checked at every point. The U-shape layout — base units and tall units running along three walls — was planned and marked out before a single unit went in, to make sure everything would clear the window recess and sit flush around the appliances.

Plykea Fronts — the Detail That Changes Everything

Plykea Ltd — www.plykea.com — make fronts and worktops designed specifically for IKEA kitchen carcasses. The client had found them independently and arrived at the survey knowing exactly what they wanted: sage green fronts and the Plykea laminate worktop. Once the Plykea fronts are on, the IKEA origin of the carcasses disappears entirely. The sage green finish is subtle — it reads as green in strong light, closer to grey-green in shadow, which means it works as the light through the window changes across the day. What makes the Plykea system distinctive is the exposed plywood edge banding at every cabinet joint. Each door and drawer front has a thin band of visible birch ply at the edge — the detail that stops the kitchen reading as a plain painted surface. The worktop is 29 mm plywood with a laminate facing in a near-black colour. Thicker than a standard worktop, it sits with a weight and presence that a 20 mm board never quite achieves. I fitted the fronts and worktop once all carcasses were fully level and fixed — any movement in the carcasses at this stage shows immediately in the front alignment.

Appliances and Finishing Details

Every hardware decision in this kitchen was black: the undermount sink, the mixer tap, the induction hob set into the worktop, and the integrated oven. Against sage green fronts and a near-black laminate worktop, black hardware recedes — it stops drawing the eye to itself and lets the overall palette do the work. The open shelf above the window was one of the last things to go in. It sits in the upper corner of the U-shape, using space that a wall cabinet would have made feel heavy. Open shelving directly above a window is easy to get wrong: the shelf has to be deep enough to be useful but light enough not to read as a bulky cabinet. We ran it in matching Plykea material to tie the upper zone back to the lower one without adding more colour.

The Finished Kitchen

The transformation from the first day on site to handover is the kind of change that photographs only partially capture. A stripped room with bare walls and exposed pipework became a considered, finished kitchen — one that holds together as a single design rather than a collection of separately chosen parts. The oak floor, the sage green fronts, the near-black worktop, and the black hardware work together because the palette was settled before a single unit was ordered. That is always the right order. I left the client with a kitchen that looks like it has always been there. In Wandsworth, where period properties often have kitchens that feel like an afterthought, that is the outcome worth working for.

Protecting the Work When Other Trades Follow

Kitchen fitting is rarely the last trade on a renovation site. Painters come in, electricians return for second fix, tilers finish adjacent spaces — and any of them can damage work that has just been completed. From the moment the Plykea fronts are hung, they keep their factory protective film in place until the very end of the project. The new oak floor stays covered with hardboard throughout any subsequent site activity. Both measures are visible in the photographs taken during this project: the fronts still carry their protective film, the floor is sheeted under hardboard. These are not dramatic gestures — they are the habits of a tradesperson who understands that a client's investment should be immaculate on the day they receive it, not just on the day the units went in. The kitchen you receive looks exactly as it did the moment the last front was aligned and the last drawer was checked. That care does not end when the fitting is complete.

Why Professional Kitchen Fitting in South London Matters

IKEA kitchens are installed every day by homeowners following the instruction booklet. Some of those kitchens are fine. Many are slightly off — a front that does not quite line up, a drawer that catches on the carcass, a worktop join that shows movement within a year. The difference between a self-installed kitchen and a professionally fitted one is usually invisible until something goes wrong. In a full renovation like this Wandsworth project, sequencing matters as much as the installation itself: strip-out done correctly before services are rerouted, floor laid before units go in, carcasses set perfectly level before fronts go on. Any shortcut in that sequence creates a problem that gets harder to fix with each subsequent stage. Across South London and Surrey, I fit kitchens where the carcasses are IKEA and the result looks bespoke — because fitting is what makes the difference, not the brand on the box.

Frequently Asked Questions — Kitchen Fitting in Wandsworth

What is Plykea and how is it different from standard IKEA fronts?

Plykea Ltd (www.plykea.com) makes kitchen fronts and worktops designed specifically for IKEA carcasses. They are made from birch plywood with a laminate or paint finish and have an exposed plywood edge detail that distinguishes them from standard IKEA doors. The result is a kitchen that fits on IKEA units but looks and feels substantially more considered. The 29 mm worktop is notably thicker and more solid than a standard IKEA worktop.

Can you fit an IKEA kitchen with Plykea fronts in Wandsworth?

Yes. We fit IKEA kitchens across South London and Surrey, including those with Plykea fronts and worktops. This covers measuring and planning the layout, fitting the carcasses level and square, installing worktops, connecting appliances, and all the detail work that the instruction booklet does not cover. Contact us for a free on-site quote in Wandsworth and surrounding areas.

How much does kitchen fitting in South London cost?

Kitchen fitting costs depend on the size of the kitchen, the number of units, whether appliances are being integrated, and whether structural or floor work is included. A straightforward swap-out of an existing kitchen typically costs less than a full strip-out and renovation like this Wandsworth project. Contact us for an accurate on-site quote — we do not quote from dimensions alone.

How long does a full kitchen renovation take?

A full renovation including strip-out, floor laying, and kitchen fitting typically takes between one and two weeks, depending on the scale of preparatory work and the size of the kitchen. A fit-only installation on an existing prepared floor can be completed in two to four days. The Wandsworth kitchen shown here, including strip-out, floor laying, and full kitchen fit, was completed in approximately one week.

Do you supply the IKEA units, or just fit?

We offer both. We can advise on the IKEA layout and help you plan the order, or we can supply and fit a complete kitchen including Plykea fronts. Most clients prefer to order their IKEA units directly so they can make selections in the showroom — we then collect, deliver, and fit. Either way, we manage the full installation from first fix to handover.

See our full range of joinery and carpentry services across South London or read more about bespoke kitchen fitting in Surrey and London.

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