Kitchens in Fife

Fife is one of the areas we work in most, and it splits into two quite different jobs. Along the coast - St Andrews, Crail, Anstruther, Elie, Falkland - the housing is stone built, often listed or in a conservation area, with thick walls, deep window reveals and floors that fall away across the room. Nothing about those kitchens is a standard size, which is why most East Neuk projects end up with our handmade cabinetry, scribed and hand-painted to the room.

Inland and west, around Dunfermline, Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy and the new housing off the M90, the rooms are squarer and the win is usually specification rather than joinery: better internal fittings, a proper larder, a worktop that survives family life, and a layout that stops the room being a corridor. Impuls German cabinetry does that job well and lands at a sensible price group.

The showroom at 24 Dalziel Place is about 40 minutes from Dunfermline and just over an hour from St Andrews, and we cross the Forth constantly. Survey visits, deliveries and installation are all handled by our own team - there is no travel surcharge on Fife work and no local fitters taken on for the week.

For coastal and village properties we plan delivery around access: narrow wynds, cobbles, shared pends and single-track approaches all get checked at survey so a lorry does not turn up somewhere it cannot unload. Installation is scheduled as one continuous visit rather than a fitter appearing two days a week.

A good number of St Andrews and East Neuk properties are listed or sit inside a conservation area. That rarely stops a kitchen, but it changes how you plan one: extract routes through a stone gable, replacing sash windows, moving services within a lime-plastered wall and altering internal joinery can all need consent from Fife Council.

We will flag anything that looks like it needs consent at design stage rather than after the order goes in, and we work to what the building can take - freestanding dresser units, ventilated larders and traditional in-frame cabinetry usually sit better in an old Fife house than a wall of full-height gloss.