New Kitchens - No, no's & yes, yes's ?

[lovingthesun]

We are having an extension which will house part of our new kitchen.

Our budget is around £10k, plus appliances, worktops, flooring.

Where are the good places to start ? Had a quote for £11k from Wickes, currently waiting for a quote from Howdens & Magnet.

Nothing fits the bill in B&Q, but thinking of having look at Homebase.

Any recommendations ? Am after painted wood, shaker & granite worksurfaces.

Have you tried Second Nature?

Top tip is to source everything separately rather than getting the kitchen company to supply sink, appliances & worktops and get your builder to install the kitchen.

Doing this I have saved a bomb - at least £1k on appliances - wickes are about £200 more for each appliance than the cheapest, maybe more - even the inserts - things like cutlery inserts recycling bins can be sourced online at a fraction of the price - so unless your kitchen company is going to beat internet prices go elsewhere!

And get your builder to put your floor in too - flooring companies charge an eyewatering sum as they add commission to the company they contract to.

Had an awful experience with Magnet - absolutely awful and comparing the quality of their kitchen to the german one we are installing there is no comparison and the german one is cheaper! Magnets prices are ridiculous - especially for solid worktops - loads of companies offer these at competitive prices - google a few and get some quotes.

By shopping around I have shaved £7k off the cost of my kitchen which otherwise would have gone to my kitchen supplier for doing very little work!

thanks that's interesting, do second nature do a kitchen design for you & do you get to see the units ?

Wickes are including the cost of the appliances apart from american fridge freezer. They also charge about £1100- £1500 to fit.

About the flooring, we are thinking of having Karndean (or similar) & I don't think our builder fit's this. The builder will lay the underfloor heating though.

I'd better get googling !

All kitchen designs will be roughly the same. Work out what you want in yor kitchen. Most appliances are 600mm, then it's a case of fitting in the units around a tight work triangle - fridge, cupboard, sink.

In my experience kitchen designers have very little artistic flare - they are sales people who know how to use a computer package.
Measure up your room and design it yourself - you really do know best - have a look at lots of mags to seee what you do and don't like about kitchens.

Go see loads of kitchen showrooms - listen tto their sales patter - 90% of it is bull and alarmist nonsense designed to make you believe that they are the only ones to guide you through the terrifying process safely about 10% is worth hearing - think double glazing salesman.

Ask about the weight drawers will take - the guarantees they'll provide etc, who makes their hinges, drawer runners - it's how you figure out whether you're paying for something that will last 5 or 15 years. When they ask for budget tell them as little as possible - otherwise they'll spec up to the max.

There are I'm sure lots of smaller companies who sell shaker style units - certainly all the ones I visited had something similar - although I was after something more modern so can't recommend through personal experience.

Don't be in a rush and don't assume you can't afford something of better quality given the money you are spending. Shop smarter - understand where to spend the money and where to save it.

Ask our builder about fitting costs. Wickes would have charged me £2.5K to fit my kitchen and my builder will do it for £1.5K, you can still shop around....buy your flooring online. Good luck with it - buying a kitchen has been a steep learning curve but once you've gained the knowledge you'll feel confident in making the right purchase.

supplyonlykitchens is an online company for second nature.

In the end I bought mine from Benchmarx,t the trade arm of Wickes.

Try Travis Perkins too.

I got loads of companies to do a design and then took the best of them all to do a final design. I then went between Wickes and Benchmarx till I got the best price I could.

Worktops, sink, tap and appliances I got separately to save money.

Builder fitted it all.

Oh and I have Amtico flooring which I am told is a bit better than Karndean (by the guy who fitted it)

Get your builder or architect to buy the kitchen and flooring too as they will usually get 10-20% trade discount.

We are planning new kitchen and chatting to a friendly builder who told us that benchmarx will throw in appliances free at the moment. If going for granite tops go direct to supplier, not through kitchen co which will add commission.

i did howdens units, who did a really good design. bought all the appliances ( neff) from John Lewis, who held them until we were ready for them. Builder fitted it. Rough breakdown- howdens- around £3.5k, appliances £3.5k, fitting probably about £2K. Builder actually recommended getting appliances from jl as he has had a few probs with getting Howdens appliances repaired/replaced.

if i was doing it again, i would go and look at John Lewis, some friends found that their lower end range actually compared very favourably with mid to top end stuff in Wickes etc. They were very happy indeed with their kitchen (they are very risk averse)

Genius !! I've just googled benchmark & they have the kitchen I want

DH was asking me to find out if Wickes had trade, so thanks for saving me finding out.

This is the kitchen I like

How do I find out what are good appliances ? At the moment we have about 20 year old Bosch stuff, which, although the label is wearing out, are working fine. Are Bosch what they used to be ? What sort of spec should I be looking out for ? I'm a regular mum sort of cook, rather than Gordon Ramseyesque.

I have a mixture of

Electralux for fridge
Bosch - washing machine and dish washer
Neff - oven and hobb
CDA - chimney hood

I would buy any of those makes again

one thing when i did our kitchen (DH was working of course!!) was to get trade prices for flooring and tiles etc. just get yourself some free business cards saying ".......... property" printed (from here: www.vistaprint.co.uk/business-cards-compared.aspx?ad=exact&mk=free+business+cards&GP=1/9/2011+6:31:36+PM&GPS=1431426531&GNF=0) and then call them up and ask for trade prices. just say you're a property developer doing up a buy-to-let and you get about 30% off the price. .

this is a pretty nice site for anything kitcheny: www.rangecookers.co.uk and they have a SALE!!

we got a cheap secured loan so we could get better equipment and get one of those huge fridges and a touch controlled cooker! just go to imperial blue finance. i spoke to a lovely man called peter....

We just had a kitchen made by Handmade Kitchens of Christchurch Ltd. They have a website. You need to do your own painting, but they make everything to order and it's really solid and well-built. The price was also way cheaper than you'd expect a handmade kitchen to be.

Also Diapol is cheaper for granite worktops and they do a good job.

Don't go down the secured loan route, you could lose your house and many people have. If you can't afford to get an unsecured loan, wait and save a bit more, kitchen bling isn't worth the risk.

I personally wouldnt touch another flat pack ie magnet etc. Really the quality is poor, and forever patching up. Refixing doors back on those ply doors as the screws cant adhere to the material. Edges peeling, it looks rubbish and in this property really would need riping out within the next 5 years (its 3 years old now).

I think its a poor investment. For a few grand more you can get better.

I bought all my appliances seperate - I went to a professional kitchen supplier, you can get ex-display and end of line. I bought a brittania cooker, Lieber fridge, Siemans dishwasher, I went for the better end as I want it to last. You can get some on e-bay - damamges, refurb etc.

I have a very expensive worktop - walnut blocks - bespoke. I would recommend a trip to a prof timber importer merchants.

For granite, try looking on the internet for the best deals locally - buying it from kitchen suppliers is rarely the best deal. If you are anywhere near Surrey/South London I can reccommend a brilliant and inexpensive supplier who supplied us last year.

Also second the suggestion that you get a local joiner to fit rather than use the in-house installation service from the kitchen suppler. Ours did all sorts of clever extras and made a couple of changes to overcome unforeseen problems; an in-house fitter would not do this and would cost more.

Cointreau - we're in London and looking to source our own granite worktop, please could you let me know who you used?

Lighting and electricity bill (or green-ness). You'd think some kitchens were being used for brain surgery or landing 747s the wattage they pile in.

Think about what you actually need and where, and what sort of bulbs you like, because once you've committed to certain fittings that's it till you rip the ceiling out. Low energy bulb technology is improving rapidly, I believe one can even get low-energy halogen now.

Great timing as we are just sourcing a new kitchen too!

DH is keen on Wickes/B&Q. Builder suggested Magnet or Howdens as he can get us discount. And I want hand made.

merrymonsters - we are almost about to order from Handmade Kitchens. We went to see them in October and I liked the feel of it all. Any suggestions? Any regrets? Anything you would change? We will be ordering next week I think.

Interesting about sourcing granite separately. Might do that. I had a look at the Diapol site but nothing grabbed me. Will look again. Am in Somerset so if anyone knows a supplier in that area let me know please.

We are thinking of a new kitchen too - what are the current trends with units and worktops? We are not very style conscious and don't want to end up with something we think is OK but might put buyers off a couple of years down the line.

I do think that most people are looking for quite contemporary kitchens (I see a lot of houses and even those that have period details in all other areas have something very glossy and modern in the kitchen). People seem to be turned off a bit by wall units - not quite sure why, although I do sympathise: possibly they make the design look a bit crowded. Hanging them horizontally seems to be more acceptable. In terms of worktops, my personal feeling is that black granite is a bit over.

HTH

Agree with lala that black granite is a bit over. Gloss kitchens seem to be everywhere but I worry they will be the avocado bathroom suite of the future.

I think if you are going to put a kitchen in a house that you will move from in a few year I would go for something very simple. Every kitchen range has shaker style doors which I think are very simple. You can go for a wood like oak or beech or maple or something darker like walnut. Or a painted effect so that it is white.

we used howdens and are very pleased.the pull out larder cupboardand s are amazing and wish i had another instead of the 300mm cupboards, they are useless.
i had 3 level lighting, 6 spots on ceiling,under wall units and on kick boards. looks lovely at night.

vbus - we used these guys for granite worktops - they did an excellent job for us; our neighbour used them as well. I'm not sure how far into London they travel, but give them a call.

Regarding wall units, we went for horizontal "wide" cupboards with pull-up doors in a contrasting finish to the base units. Regular wall cupboards are definitely a bit old hat imho!

But then our house is fairly contemporary so something traditional wouldn't have worked so well.

Ooh - we have just decided to do an extension and new kitchen (including absolutely everything - units, floor, ceiling, appliances, the lot. Apart from our fridge freezer which is only a year old).

OP - our builder recommends Howdens. Have only just started looking into it all though.

Where is the best place to get cheap but brand name appliances? Our builder suggested Trade Appliances (website appears to have closed down) or Currys Auction site (website appears to have closed down), so I have drawn a bit of a blank. Had a couple of good suggestions on another thread but any other ideas welcome! And hopefully you'd like to know too, OP!

On Howdens kitchens, I'm a bit worried the pull out larders look like they would only hold a small amount of weight. How have people found them?