First world problem - new kitchen

[WestwardHo1]

I have decided to finally seize the bull by the horns and getting myself a new kitchen, after a decade of an unspeakably ugly ice box since I moved in in 2014. Budget is pretty limited compared to what people spend - am aiming for a max of £6000 including fitting, flooring and an electric radiator (there's no heating in there currently). I'm told this is doable. Am in the process of trying out ideas at Howdens and Wickes with their design service. The fitter has already given me an idea of fit cost.

My issue is my indecisiveness and total lack of trust in my own taste! There's only me so I have no one to bounce ideas off and I lurch from one idea to the next. I want fairly traditional, as it's an old house, and I want something which won't scream "mid 2020s" in a few years, but I also want to incorporate some colour and quirks.

What do you think will date really quickly, and what do you think will stand the test of time? What is worth spending on, and what can you make do with. Splashbacks or tiles? Etc? I think I am decided on navy units, but can't decide on a marble or wood worktop. I have decided on a white composite sink - I think! I like "warm" rather than cool and clinical. It's a small galley kitchen with no room for an island or breakfast bar or anything - it honestly should be the simplest of kitchens to choose and design.

Sorry for sounding rather pathetic. I have been through a torrid time lately and it seems to have affected my decision making ability and confidence.

Yes I have heard that people have had issues. I have an independent fitter though. Did he use Wickes fitters?

Not ur style but I got the gloss white B&Q kitchen with no handles but a rim at the top. It honeslty
looks great but that rim is theee worst idea ever, the first and dust that they hold. Awful design flaw.

These practical tips are really important so thanks @crazeekat .

I have just spent an hour with my NBF advising me how to proceed. He's called ChatGPT. Anyone know him?

Chatgpt will be able to give you suggestions on placement of things. Ie. Dont install the oven next to the fridge (or it will constantly freeze itself) and can visually show you different ideas with a pic of your current kitchen

The DIY Kitchens website allows you to design your own kitchen - draw out the room using accurate measurements and add in whatever units you’d like and then see what it looks like in 3d - basically real life The Sims!

DIY Kitchens are great. We felt the same as you so drove a very long way to their showroom in Yorkshire to see them before committing. This was a mistake, as it’s only a small showroom and it seemed like a wasted trip. Everything was very nice though - we bought from them and I highly recommend!

Yes I know, but stupidly the thought of this is making me really anxious about getting something wrong. I don't have anyone to check over what I've done and think I'll make a stupid mistake and end up with units that don't fit or something.

We did actually somehow make a mistake with ours, which was extremely annoying 🤦🏻‍♀️ We had to order one replacement unit and had a spare one (wrong size) to get rid of. But even with our (avoidable! We should have checked more carefully) mistake it was loads cheaper than alternatives of similar quality.

Bristol?

Ive recently done my kitchen - ive loved shaker for 35 years so i dont think it will date and works in older properties. This time ive gone for yellow and green with wallpaper on the walls and oak worktops as i have a lot of oak in the house.

mine was handmade by a local chap but adding photo so you can see the colours.

Actually I had that totally wrong. There's one in Exeter. Someone told me the "nearest IKEA is at Brest" fact and I believed them 🤔

Still not driving to it though! They're flat pack aren't they.

Oh that's lovely. Really country cottage.

• I personally think you can't go wrong with cream units and oak worktop. It works with navy and sage walls - or whatever you want to change to in the future. Gloss shaker is more forgiving for wiping /dusting. If you have a freestanding fridge and want it to match, it's pretty easy to find vinyl wrap in cream.
• Get pan drawers. Mine are 90cm wide. My DP are 120cm and the weight of the crockery they have in there scares me.
• As above, don't get handleless. I broke a fingernail and bruised the top of my fingers trying them out in the show room.
• For the love of all that is holy, don't have a horizontal handle on your dishwasher and a vertical one on the same run of base units. It massively spoils the athetic.
• if you are going integrated, order a spare appliance door and handles. You can just hide these under the kickboard incase they are ever needed.
• Factor in the cost for under unit lights.
• Don't forget to work out where you bin / recycling storage is going.
• AO is pretty good for appliances.

I had a sage green kitchen in 2003 and loved it. Didn't realise it had come back again... Ultimately, sage green is a million times less harsh than navy so will never be an eye sore even if it goes out of fashion again. And it will come back in again anyway 😅

I’d get the navy if you love it. If you feel its dated in a few years you could always paint the doors. You’ve got to love it. Fashion doesn’t matter.

Yes, but Wickes were also at fault themselves (they supplied drawers in a different colour to the units to the fitter, so the initial pause was their fault).

Ah ok.

Well. I have been to Wickes this morning to look at the images and I wasn't impressed tbh. Howdens were much better. The design was boring, and he didn't seem open to suggestions.

And I looked at the prices as he costed it all up. Up and up it went nearly to ten grand. And then he applied a load of "discounts". And I asked myself, who the hell pays "full price"? I'm betting the answer is no one at all.

DIY kitchens have a design service now which costs £30. There's also a company called Beau Bijou who will design your DIY kitchens for an upfront fee of £300 but this then gets taken off the final price of the kitchen, so is effectively free. You can have a free initial phone call to discuss what you're looking for, budget etc. I think they will also give you 10% off appliances at AO.com. We've not ordered our kitchen yet but we've been pretty impressed so far. They send you high quality renders so you can see how it's going to look better than the online planner. Our builder highly rates DIY kitchens, says they're fantastic quality.

I'm personally not convinced by dark blue for the entire kitchen, I think it will date more quickly than other colours, although you could always repaint it in future.

I’ll be replacing ours early in the N Year - dreading all the upheaval, though. Ours was installed in about 1989!!
I’ll probably go for a classic Shaker style in cream - it’ll never date. Will probably look at Howdens first. We had one of their installed in a rental flat around 12 years ago, and probably partly because we’ve always had very good tenants, it still pretty much looks like new.

If you have neutral units, you could have blue or sage walls. Easier to change the paint colour than the units.

A few houses ago, we had a B&Q kitchen. It was their higher end Cooke and Lewis. Don’t know whether they still have that. The fitters were two profoundly deaf guys, who communicated by signing and text message. They were so good, we had them back to fit flooring elsewhere.

Id have upstands and splashback rather than tiles. Much easier to keep clean.

There was an IKEA kitchen i really liked and what put me off was the measurements . They don't have standard measurements which worried me re pipe and tap fitting

We went to Howdens and yes the price went up up and then discounted. We then went to an independant when we had a better of what we wanted. We created it in the showroom....it actually came from Magnet which id always discounted from the reviews but have been impressed 3yrs in. We installed ourselves but units came made.

Our ovens, microwave, coffee machine, induction hub and dishwasher came with the price but the ovens (2) and coffee maker are Neff and I love them.

Oh this looks really interesting! Thanks so much for the tip.