A kitchen in a hillside villa does more than one in a holiday flat. It feeds a family, hosts weekend lunches and often opens onto a utility room, a terrace or a garage. In many La Nucía urbanisations the houses were built to a similar plan, and the original kitchen is now the room that feels most dated. This guide covers what to settle before work begins.
Start with who cooks
We ask who cooks, how often and for how many. A couple who eat out regularly need a different room from a family with children. The answer shapes aisle widths, the number of drawers and whether a breakfast bar or peninsula earns its space. We set out the working triangle between sink, hob and fridge on the drawing, then test it against how you actually move.
Storage before style
Pull-out larders, deep drawers and a tall bank of storage usually suit a villa kitchen better than extra wall cabinets. They keep surfaces clear and cut down on stretching. If there is a utility room alongside, think about which jobs move there.
Choosing worktops
Granite, quartz, laminate and timber all behave differently around heat, water and knives. We explain the differences and let you handle samples. Worktops are templated on site once the base units are in, so the sink and hob cut-outs follow the real cabinet positions, not a drawing.
What you will not see afterwards
- Electrics: older villas may not have enough sockets, and the oven circuit may have grown by accident.
- Plumbing: tired pipework is renewed, and moved where the layout asks.
- Floor and wall tiling, including a splashback matched to the units.
- Extraction and lighting positions, which are easiest to set before plastering.
Planning around the rest of the house
Because villa kitchens often connect to a terrace, utility room or garage, it is worth deciding what happens at those edges. Do you want the floor tiling to run through to the next room? Should the door to the terrace be replaced at the same time? Settling these questions together avoids a new kitchen sitting beside a tired door or a floor that stops at a threshold.
A like-for-like swap is usually quick. Moving services, taking out a wall or retiling lengthens the job, and the programme in your quotation will say so. If you spend part of the year elsewhere, the schedule can be timed for when the house is empty.
Lighting is the detail most often left too late. Under-cabinet light over the worktop, a decent fitting over the dining end and switches placed where you reach for them all depend on cable positions fixed before the plaster goes on. A short conversation at design stage saves chasing walls later.
How it runs
- A measured visit and a conversation about how you use the room.
- A plan, choice of finishes and a free written quotation. Visits to our suppliers let you compare units, worktops and tiles in person.
- Strip-out and services, then plastering and tiling.
- Units, worktop and appliances fitted and tested, then the room is cleaned and handed back.
Our own plumbers, electricians, tilers and painters work to one programme with one contact. Keys can be held with us, so you do not need to be in La Nucía, and you receive photographs as it progresses. The work is guaranteed within the scope set out in the quotation. Moving services, retiling the floor or taking out a wall adds to the programme, and the quotation sets that out.
Ready to get a free quote for your La Nucía renovation project?
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Property Renovations Across the Costa Blanca
Dragon Reforms provides property renovation advice for homeowners throughout La Nucía, Finestrat, Villajoyosa, Calpe and Alfaz del Pi / Albir and towns right across the Costa Blanca.