New kitchen help!

[Leonberger]

Please help the clueless
We desperately need a new kitchen but have never purchased one before!

Firstly where’s best to look? We are on a budget. Am I better off going to somewhere like wren that does it all or sourcing the tops/units separately? Do I use a carpenter or the company fitters?

What sort of colours and styles won’t date. Ideally I would like light and airy with a butchers sink. Will sage greens etc date quickly? Matt or gloss?!
Wood tops or quartz/laminate?

Finally what is a basic L shape style likely to set us back? Can I do it for say 5k or am I dreaming

You're not dreaming at all. It may not get you your dream kitchen but I reckon it's doable. I don't think you'd have much luck with wren, but rather buying the bits from IKEA or B&Q for example. I'd say start there!

No amazing insights I'm afraid, only to say don't be tempted by dark floor tiles with white grout (unless you enjoy scrubbing grout with bleach and a toothbrush of course)

I would say avoid Wren, colours do look dated quicker than something basic like white. It depends what you want for your 5k, that will pay for units, new sink/taps etc. plus fitting but not major electrical/plumbing works or lots of tiling, high end appliances.
The hardest thing at the moment is likely to be finding a good kitchen fitter to do it as they are all so busy they can pick and choose which jobs to do, depending where in the country you are.

We are about to embark on a new kitchen too, so reading with interest. Having seen threads on there, I've read that ex-display models can save a great deal. Do you already have all the appliances, or do you need those too for £5,000?

Another option if the layout and carcusses are ok, is just to replace the doors. We did this. Changed from shaker style to smooth and went handless. People assumed we'd had a whole new kitchen done.

At the moment we have black appliances and tops with cream gloss units but they are falling apart and look very dated.
Sadly the sides of the kitchen are visible and a mahogany colour so we couldn’t just change the doors. Plus it’s a horrible layout!

Ideally I would like white shaker style units with white appliances and some sort of marble type top (can’t afford granite!) with a butchers sink!
Will white date and/or drive me mad? I have dogs, cats and small children.

Not much then

Hi op, I'm reaching out to hold your hand
I spent two hours in ikea today with the design person, the clever drawers are amazing.

But I'm not so keen on the colours!! Very limited.

I've been to four places now and had a price up from DIY kitchen, each place has plus and minus but ikea price is extremely competitive and the fitter quote also.

Magnet has been the rolls Royce experience so far in terms of detail, asking us what we wanted, explaining doors, wraps, hinges!

Homebase Whitstable looks nice and you can choose interior colours for no extra cost.

B and q... Very strange experience, didn't ask at all what we want, clashed with us over colour choices 😂... Eg on a splash back, I said any colour because I had an idea of what I wanted! She started to get ansgty about it.

Anyway... I'm so tempted to just go for white ikea... Even though I had liked other colours.

We are having a new kitchen fitted in September, had to wait 6mths for the fitter to be be available! We went with Howdens in the end, we had quotes from quite a few places but they were the best for us. We have a carpenter fitting it, he is bringing in a plumber, electrician etc.. ours is costing around 5.5k ( no wall units, corner larder laminate worktop- couldn't stretch to granite! But hopefully will upgrade in a year or two). Appliances will be around 5k - double oven, built in microwave, big fridge freezer) fitting 3.5k electrician 1k....

We have gone with plain white, I loved the sage and dark navy but worried about it dating tbh..

Plain white IKEA is not expensive and pretty classic and won't date. Add colour in walls or splash back if you want.

Have a read of this thread. 🙂

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4233274-Has-anyone-regretted-getting-a-white-kitchen-floor-Has-anyone-regretted-anything-they-chose-for-their-kitchen-actually

Thanks @Horsemad going to take me a while to get through that!!

What sort of price am I looking at for fitting? I’ve priced up a reasonable b&q number for about £2k but then am I looking at another £3k to fit it
We also need new flooring etc…what comes first the kitchen and walls or the floors?

Ive been quoted between 2 grand a 6 grand to fit.

I haven't got a price for fitting yet.

From memory, when our last kitchen was done (many years ago!) the units were put in and then the floor was tiled afterwards which meant the legs on the units had to be adjusted, to accommodate sliding the tiles under but it was all good.

We went for the cheap and cheerful option - a local fitter who has an account with Howdens got it all for us and the entire job including ripping the old kitchen out and fitting the new one was just under 2k (for a fairly small galley kitchen). We have cream gloss units with grey oak worktops, chosen on the basis that they were in the sale and the fitter said they'd look good, and we love them. Absolutely no idea whether they'll date or not and don't really care!

One thing I wish I'd known about beforehand is plinth drawers, which would have given us loads more storage - might get them added eventually, but it would involve taking the units out, so I can't face it yet!

I have an ivory utility room and regret the colour choice, it means you end painting a colour on the walls, whereas it keeps the room bigger to have the colour on the units and the walls pale. So if you happen to want, for example, blue or green walls, then consider reversing the colour scheme.