Kitchens - what finish should I go for?

[alwaysthepessimist]

After 20 years of waiting I can finally plan a new kitchen - the budget isn't huge but I have been looking at different cabinets and work surfaces - I have a choice of gloss or Matt cabinets- I like gloss but feel they may show every mark and drive me mad? Also work surfaces - I love the quartz ones but are they hard work?

Also the man hasn't been yet so I have no idea if all of this is in the budget we have!!

Any advice? Budget will be max £10k to include appliances, flooring and tiling

We got a wren kitchen which is amazing. Quote was initially £17,000!!!!! Told them we had £5,000 to spend and left. Before we'd even got to the car he was phoning with a 'I've spoke to my manager and can offer blah blah blah' still way high. After a few more days of phone calls from them and saying it's the best they could possibly offer I paid £6,000. Shameless on their part. I only knew cause my friend had been the week before!!!! Love my kitchen but wish it was a more honest trade.

Matte by the wine. Shiny would drive me mad with finger marks etc.

Depending on the size of the kitchen 10k will be tight if you want quartz worktops! We have the same budget as you and we are sourcing all items ourselves and for a small kitchen including some appliances (we are keeping our washing machine and fridge freezer that we currently have). Just for the units, laminate worktops and other appliances that is coming to 5,200 and we still need to price up fitting, plastering, new electrics etc... quartz worktops you are looking at 2-3k approx for an average kitchen.

£10k will be tight! Ours was solid wood painted with quartz. No appliances and flooring separate-£11k once the floor and dishwasher/fridge freezer added in it was £12.5k and that’s just for 10 units. Thos was a year ago- I suspect things are more expensive now

Matt unless you a particular penchant for more or less polishing your kitchen units every day. We've recently installed a kitchen from better kitchens with appliances from Curry's and it was very competitive price wise.

We've got Wren visiting us on Saturday to plan and quote - will be interesting to see what they say - good to know they'll barter though!!!

I did think that but then I was only looking on their website and clicking stuff - knowing me I probably picked the most expensive of everything!! Will see what's said, we do have a little wiggle room but I'm trying to be very conscious of our budget - I've waited 20 years for this so it's got to happen!

DSis has glossy black units but they are fine until they get direct sun - then every fingerprint shows.

I read this as “kittens” and thought “fluffy”? 😂

See, I don’t understand this. We have navy blue gloss top cupboards and they just need a quick going over with a microfibre cloth. The matte ones are no less trouble than the gloss.

Price it up on diy kitchens. That's who we are going with and it's saved us a fortune over wickes, howdens and wren. Howdens would haggle but the quality of the door is lesser than diy kitchens so we are sticking with them.

If you want quartz, go with an independent. We halved the price given to us by wren!

We went gloss in the old house, Matt in this. With small kids and pets they both need wiping down, but the gloss ones did need it weekly (and again if you've got people round to impress!) - but as PP said, it's just a micro fibre cloth and it's done.

Our quartz worktop was fitted by Elliott Stoneworks and was £3.5k, compared to £7k quote from Howdens. Our units were from DIY Kitchens and were 30% cheaper than Howdens for better quality doors. We got our appliances from AO and used vouchers I found online to get £60 off each of them.

Labour is going to be a few thousand - we had quotes from £1800 to £14,000 (!) and used a guy who charged around £3k. You can get away with a cheaper kitchen if it's fitted well, while a poor fitter will wreck an expensive one.

Good luck!