Image credit: Koivu
Best plywood kitchens 2024
Following our deep dive into the design ethos of plywood, here’s our round-up of the best companies to turn to if you want to create your own gorgeous ply kitchen.
Most of the companies below make kitchens with both natural veneer and colourful laminate finishes.
Made Ply Hand
Based in Cornwall, Made Ply Hand make beautiful ply furniture, accessories, and made-to-measure plywood kitchens. They will fit their bespoke ply kitchens in Cornwall or provide full instructions for a fitter near you to install a kitchen made to measurements you provide.
Their kitchens are available in a range of different FSC-certified plywoods and coloured Formica laminates.
Sustainable Kitchens
Sustainable Kitchens offer three levels of kitchen: standardised painted cabinets – their modern take on Shaker; a bespoke service; and an ‘all bets are off’ Concept service.
Innovative aspects of their approach include the fact they have replaced the plastic feet on their cabinets with an adjustable wooden plinth made from offcuts. They also offer to return to your kitchen after 10 years to give it a service and fresh lick of paint.
Pluck kitchens
Pluck kitchens make beautiful kitchens with a focus on sustainability from their base in south London. They make a small range of standalone pieces like larders and dressers, as well as offering a full bespoke making service for installation by local fitters.
They offer the sustainable eco laminate Fenix, as well as Formica.
Wood and Wire
Wood and Wire are based in Hebden Bridge and make gorgeous mid-century-inspired ply furniture and kitchens in ply and Valchromat, a coloured, MDF-like engineered wood. They have their own team of installers.
Koivu
Koivu in Kent make custom kitchens from sustainable low-VOC Finnish ply with Formica or Fenix laminate, for installation by your local fitters.
Lozi Designs
Lozi Designs make beautiful ultra-bespoke plywood kitchens and other furniture in East London. Their priorities are sustainability and personalisation: every kitchen they make is unique, customised to their client’s specific tastes.
Uncommon Projects
Uncommon Projects based in south London use colour with mastery. They make a range of individual furniture pieces as well as offering bespoke plywood kitchens and cabinetry across the country.
Made in Ply
Made in Ply, based in Devon, sell a whole range of furniture including desks, cabinets, dressers, shelves and tables. Their colourful Formica-covered pieces are stunning, and each one is available in 10 different colours (or natural) and a range of different sizes.
You could put yourself a kitchen together from some of these pieces if you don’t want to go built-in.
But they also have a ‘pimp my Ikea kitchen’ option to upgrade your existing Ikea – or Howdens – carcasses with new ply doors and worktops.
Plykea
Another company supplying ply and Formica or Fenix laminated ply doors for Ikea Metod cabinets is the brilliantly named Plykea, based in East London.
Husk
Husk in Bristol also offers ply fronts and worktops for Ikea, Howdens and Another Country kitchen carcasses.
Plywood kitchen costs
Despite plywood being a relatively cheap material, plywood kitchens aren’t cheap. Because the main cost in a handmade kitchen is the skilled labour, it costs a lot to have a custom plywood kitchen built.
A few small companies have cornered the market in bespoke plywood kitchens, but the big kitchen companies have cottoned on and are starting to sell kitchens that have a ply-look, even if they aren’t actually made from ply.
There’s also a half-way-house option that involves putting ply doors on existing cabinets, which is obviously a cheaper way of getting the look.
Look at the websites of the companies above for more detailed costs.
Cleaning
Ply should be wiped with a damp cloth and warm water. Don’t use bleach or abrasive cleaners on it.
Accessories
There are lots of beautiful chairs and kitchen accessories made of ply that you could get to bring a touch of the ply aesthetic into your home without buying a whole new kitchen. For example, Made Ply Hand sell some lovely handmade trays, shelves and side tables, as well as larger items of furniture. Pluck Kitchens sell a neat little step stool that is a thing of beauty.
Kreis Design sell cool ply storage pegboards like the one below.
Luxply have all kinds of gorgeous ply bits and bobs, such as these handles below.
Anything from Made in Ply would be enough to bring a room right up to date on its own, be it one of the gorgeous bar stools or a brightly coloured shelf.
As would one of these lovely stools from Lozi Designs, featuring their signature wave joint.