Saturday 25 February 2023

KITCHEN DESIGN! Planning Benchmarx galley layout... Driftwood Blue Cambridge design



We try new things to help make our family happy. 
Today it's a tour of my Sister's new kitchen! 
It's a galley style for some kitchen inspo from Benchmarx who also supply Wickes here in the UK. If you are planning a kitchen design, this might help with some ideas for layout.
It includes soft close pan drawers, AEG gas hob, AEG microwave combi oven, Franke tap (faucet) and Abode stainless steel sink. 
The kitchen cupboards and cabinets are Cambridge style in Driftwood blue, and my sister kindly wanted to offer this because there aren't many videos about the Benchmarx driftwood blue.

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KITCHEN TOUR! Planning a galley layout... Driftwood Blue Cambridge - Benchmarx UK



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

Hello, this is the Dad Delivers vlog where we try new things to make your family happy and the new thing today is this.  It's a Benchmarx kitchen.  I'm in my sister's house. You said that it's quite difficult to find Benchmarx kitchens.
This one, because it's a new colour, Driftwood Blue.  And on their site it looks really blue but it's come out more grey here, which is what we were after.  The cupboards are called Cambridge and the colour is Driftwood Blue. Oh Driftwood Blue: You said it's really difficult to find things online for Driftwood Blue.
Now it looks like I'm really hogging the camera because you're not that keen to actually be  on camera.  I don't want to be on camera.  
Yeah, you don't want to be on camera.  
So I'll just do all the talking.  
And look, I'll show you some photos before.  
My sister's given me these pictures. 
This is how the kitchen looked before.
So this is what it looks like now.  It's like a through way from the door, whereas before there was an island that kind of obstructed the door, didn't it?  
You sort of walked in and it was there already. Let me show you the other side.
And you've kept the layout the same.  
We moved, yeah, pretty much.  We moved the doorway, I mean we, our brilliant builders, moved the doorway to the left a  bit.  
Oh, okay.  
The back bit hasn't been done yet. That'll be made into a utility room next month.
This is a bit of kitchen, a bit of kitchen inspo.  
So obviously it's not finished yet, but you're going to have a different floor?  
Yeah, probably some sort of oak vinyl.  Kind of similar to this colour?  
Yeah, a bit darker. 
Okay.
And you were telling me about the sink.  I like your organizer there.  
But the sink, you've got...  
Amazon.  
Is it?  Franke tap.  
That's from Amazon.  
I'll put a link in the description. 
So we don't know how to pronounce it, Franke or Franke, do you remember me?
Tap. I love this tap, Baz, because...  
It's really nice and sturdy.  
I hate our new kitchen tap.  
It's like this but smaller, and we thought smaller would be nicer, but it just means you've got to constantly lean over to get to the tap.
Whereas this one, if you're planning a kitchen, make sure that the tap comes at least half...  halfway, otherwise you're going to get a bad back stretching over, trust me.  And you'll also end up splashing the back as well. This is a nice sink?
Your builder said not many people go for the Franke taps.  
No, he said Frankie used to just be really... the price was so ridiculously high that you  wouldn't get them in normal kitchens, but they've obviously brought the prices down a bit now to make them...  I think that was 200 quid from Screwfix.  
Okay, so I like that. It's got hot and cold...
And the sink is Benchmarx, and it's abode? Abode brand. Benchmarks supply a lot of stuff to Wickes, so almost everything you see in here you'll see similar in Wickes.  
Both Benchmarx and Wickes do this sort of worktop. It's acrylic.  
Let's talk about the counter.  So acrylic counter worktop. 
So it's a similar price to stone, but you're more guaranteed a smoother colour.
Like we chose white and it's consistently white all the way through.  
And you can cut on it, spill bolognese on it, all that sort of thing, and it wipes down fine.  
So you're worried with stone that the colour would be really super inconsistent, at least with this, you know what you're getting.
Interesting. Yeah, we went the opposite. We went for this design that we didn't know how it was going to look in the end. So I guess that's one of your choices.  
The other design choice that you have, again, is the thickness. You've gone for a really elegant...  
That's the acrylic ones. They're all like this. They're really thin.
And then your builder, it comes very straight, and then your builder can use his special  machine to cut it at whatever angle you want, like rounded or a bit more shapely.  
I love, I love her injured hand as well. That's really good.
That should be the thumbnail.  
And the... And the handles... The handles here, if I could go up here, it'd be a lot easier, wouldn't it? The handles, these are the ones you've chosen.  
Everything you see here, you can get from Benchmarx or Wickes.  
So Benchmarx, is Benchmarx the same as Wickes, do you think?  
Similar, so... Well, actually, no, not the same, because that came from Screwfix, but actually, they might not have this particular style of cupboard in Wickes.  
This might be specific to Benchmarks. So, a lot of things like the handles and the worktop... 
Yeah.  And sorry for the noise in the background, we've got a tumble dryer going nuts.  And the oven, how are you finding the oven?  We've got an AEG top oven and a bottom oven and you've got...  
We're not sure what we've got.  
It's not a second oven, it's a microwave and a grill.  
Yeah. 
And I haven't read the instructions yet so I don't know if it's an oven as well
oh it's a microwave combi oven okay so I think it might be a microwave and an oven and a grill  
And will you... will you use this as your main microwave? 
Yes. Do you think okay and then you've gone for the oven down here main oven now that's not fair! 
That's not fair because with our AEG oven - they gave us like one of these 
oh did this come with all three? 
We got all... that's ours...  yeah it came with the probe, the three drawers, no two metal drawers, and the roasting slash grill. 
That's great, that's fantastic... maybe they've listened to all the complaints because um some ovens they literally just come with one of these which is really mean 
yeah especially as we had the two ovens! 
You haven't regretted this? 
This is a good oven? 
We haven't worked out... but it seems to be... it's got lots of instructions about baking which I don't do... but if you like cakes it's got some... well at the bottom that you pour a bit of water in and then it's got some special settling... 
It's got a well? 
That adds moisture: it's got a little dip to put water in... put water in! 
It's to create moisture and humidity in your cooking to make very moist cakes I think 
okay 
but I don't bake so I didn't pay much attention to that bit... 
yeah and you've got some Thunderbird style numbering for the shelves - that's handy 
Again we haven't got any of this - that's really good! 
The buttons are really nice as well because usually they're a bit plasticky but they feel... 
What bothers my husband - yeah - he spent ages making sure that we got a top thing and a bottom thing that matched 
yeah? 
And the colour is very slightly different on that clock to that clock which I never would have noticed! It was the first thing he noticed!
AND you've actually got two clocks there which would also be irritating if...  but yeah yeah look! 
They're about 30 seconds out from each other I think. 
Yeah that's a bit strange isn't it because if you're going for a combi or if you're going for two ovens... why why would you duplicate... 
yeah same brand... why duplicate the... so these are all things that you might want to take into consideration when you are designing your kitchen. 
Oh our builder did this nice thing here, against the chimney breast - yeah - because we couldn't knock it out. 
I've got a mini cupboard - yeah - a little larder. Our ketchup cupboard! 
Ketchup cupboard! Ah that's brilliant now you've got an oil cupboard... oh that's really sweet. 
That'd be like having wine bottles but bottles of oil... that's fantastic yeah 
That's an amazing idea can you see the elixir up there
AND my husband had an amazing idea, can you see the Alexa up there? 
There's an Alexa up there? Yeah, look at that! He asked the builder to put a single socket right at the top... so we don't have to drag the wire down the cupboards. 
Yeah because choosing where to put the power sockets is... is horrendous because you don't... you don't know whether you're going to go for too much... too many or too few and what you've done which is nice... 
I'll go to one of these! I don't...  yeah i've not seen these 
I think he got them from B&Q 
Look at that - it's a USB-C - or possibly screwfix - right - I can't remember where they're from - so it's got USB-C built-in, which... you're watching this in the future where this might be normal - but that's a new feature 
Well, you WILL be watching... by definition, you're going to be watching this in the future! Uh so you've gone for two power sockets on this side and two on this side - USB - and one at the top - Alexa port, that's fantastic! 
The first time in 8 years we've now got a hob where we don't need to use a match! 
This... this is the hob that you've gone for: it's AEG and ahhh... 
I've got it straight from their website. 
That looks fantastic and you went for gas rather than induction? 
Yes because... I just like gas where you can go straight from high to low - yeah -
and I've heard people say that although inductions say that they do that, they're not super good at going straight from - yeah - really hot to - yeah - a really slow simmer 
Yeah the other thing we've got with an induction hob is that if your pots aren't completely 100% smooth and clean... you just need like one little scratch or dent and it just... it just really grinds the the induction surface... so ours is all scratched up after a year but this? You can just thonk the... thonk the pots down, turn it on instantly although who knows how long we'll have the gas! 
Well yeah obviously lots of reasons why it might not be a great idea to go for it but right now I'm really happy with our gas hob! 
Oh that's great and the splashbacks aren't up yet. What do you think they're gonna go for? 
No, they're over two weeks. They're gonna be glass, matte, I think they're called white marble and again you can get them from Benchmarx or Wickes.
It's called white Carrara. What's white Carrara?  Sorry it's my kids looting your kitchen. What's it called? AluSplash, that's it. The brand is AluSplash. Alu Splash. White Carrara. White Carrara? It sounds like a car. It does and Benchmarx also call it white Carrara
and Wickes call it white marble. It's all the same thing, it's glass but it's matte... the one we've chosen... so the whole thing will be matte. These drawers look great. Nice soft close drawers underneath. Oh yeah the cupboards and drawers are soft close. 
But you can get it all the way right under the hob which is really good. 
Look at that. I didn't think you'd be able to do that. 
We've got really tall cupboards and we've gone three high with the shelves rather than the two levels we had before.  
Oh let's go for lighting. 
Oh we already had these so just daylight bulbs. 
I think they're from B&Q.  
The shades? 
And you've designed the whole kitchen around these shades. 
Well we did. That was the only bit that we decided to keep and it was just lucky that we chose a kitchen that's the same colour as the light shades! 
Yeah I think it's great. It's a really nice colour, Driftwood Blue because it's the sort of colour where you can't quite decide if it's blue or grey. 
Yeah. 
I quite like that. 
I like that it's come out a lot more grey than blue, and it looks the same sort of shade in the daylight as it does now with the... with the lights on.
Well thank you for showing us around your kitchen because you said that there are no or hardly any Benchmarx...  Not with this colour because it's new. 
Yeah with this colour. 
Yeah. So I hope that's helpful and I hope you've enjoyed this little nose around my sister's kitchen. I am calling this a Dad Delivers SUCCESS!
This is great isn't it? Doing it with... as a vertical video. I've not done this before to this extent. I think down here is where the video is going to appear. Right down there is what YouTube thinks you want to see next!


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