Is it worth spending lots of money on a kitchen?

[amysaidno]

We're still a bit of time away from putting in a new kitchen (we need some structural work done first) but looking at kitchen designs and ideas and it would be very very easy to spend an absolute fortune on a new kitchen and I keep wondering whether it is worth it. I'm a bit more comfortable spending a bit on appliances but does it matter how much you spend on cabinets/doors etc? Is it just that they last longer? Presumably if you buy standard cabinets, you could always replace the doors to "refresh" the kitchen if it is looking worn in the future? I'd love to hear your views.

Grendel we will be going to showrooms, they arent a huge number of decent ones in Norwich as far as I can tell though...

Pacific can I ask who supplied your kitchen, is it a national chain? Would you recommend the units, if not the customer service?

We've just had our kitchen done and I have to say that it is 5000% better than it was and worth every single penny.

I now have a kitchen designed to my needs not someone else's.

I now have a floor that is easy to keep clean. Units that are much more modern and have much less wasted space. Proper lighting means that I can actually see what I am doing. Properly vented extractor that is much much quieter than the previous one. A sink that won't scratch or stain. A work surface that I can actually keep clean! I now have a beakfast bar and DD can sit and chat to me whilst I am cooking.

We spend a lot of money, but I honestly believe that it was money well spent. Just replacing the fronts on the units would not have worked for me as I had such a badly designed kitchen before.

I'd go German - the difference in quality is plain to see and feel! It's mid range in terms of price but you get what you pay for.

Ask about the amount of weight the pan drawers can take when they start squirming and saying you can upgrade to something more robust it really says it all!

Disparity any suggestions re German suppliers?
I love my german washing machine/drier/vauum cleaner etc, the Germans really do seem to have got form and function sorted out.

We went for a Bulthaup kitchen - here is their website which shows quite nicely their poncy aspirations . Believe you me, with 4 boys under 8, my kitchen and indeed my house, look nothing like anything you see on those pictures . We went for them because of their reputation to be bullet-proof and rock-solidly built and designed to last a lifetime and longer. Apparently .

Totally agree with asking for the quality of the hinges/drawer mechanisms etc. We have mostly drawers; one of the deep ones takes crockery for 12 which must weigh a ton and the soft close mechanism still works like a dream (inspite of an almost 3 year old who takes it as his challenge in life to try and bang it shut!).
I am very happy with our choice. The supplier/fitter was a local Glasgow company and they were a bit disappointing TBH.

German kitchens are great (disclaimer: I am German but not related to/do not own shares/have no vested interest in any German kitchen manufacturer); we seriously looked into importing a Nolte kitchen and then chickened out because of the logistics/risk with guarantee etc.

Well-known brand kitchens are: Leicht, Allmimo, the aforementioned Poggenpohl, Siemens, Miele (my dream kitchen, but makes Poggenpohl/Bulthaup look cheap ). I am sure there are many many more but my mind's gone blank.

Interestingly, because houses in Germany are sold without kitchens (yes, people who move take their kitchens with them!), there is a thriving market in second hand kitchens. My brother has a fabulous Siemens kitchen for about 2k which he bought as an L-shaped design and simply added a new corner unit to make fit into his U-shaped room. Not sure used kitchens will ever take off in the UK market though....

Putting in a word for Wickes kitchens here.
We fitted one from there about 8 years ago having heard that they were well respected by those in the know.
The units still look great and we've had no problems at all with drawer mechanisms, hinges etc. We used an independent fitter we found via the helpful wickes staff and I think did the whole kitchen (middle sized) for about 5K.
Wickes stuff isn't the most cutting edge design but they have the basic styles in.

We gave a pan drawer a good wiggle in Wickes and it fell off its runner and that's when we decided it wouldn't do - no matter how cheap it was.

Lots of German manufacturers - Schuller, Hacker, ProNorm (same company as Poggenpohl), Leicht, Nolte...none as cheap as the DIY sheds but solidly built.
I would avoid Italian - style most definitely but the quality is dubious.

Thanks for all the tips.
I have to admit that having had a quick look on google, the German designs look pretty modern.
Our kitchen is quite quirky (as is our house) and I really dont think a sleek, modern kitchen would work, though we do need something tough with 2 young DSs...

More Germans - Rational, RWK (? something like that anyway), Alno, something else beginning with 'B' that isn't Bulthaup...

You can find the 2nd hand kitchens in the UK on a special website, but it only works if you've got an easy shaped kitchen to fit.

There are quite a few kitchen showrooms in Cambridge, for some reason...

We had a B&Q kitchen fitted a few years ago when we were trying to sell the house - our old kitchen was literally falling apart. It cost about £4.5K and is already looking tired. The sink and taps are pretty poor and as we were really doing it for ourselves we went for a fairly basic hob and oven which are dreadful. I wouldn't recommend it, go for the best quality you can afford.

Grendel I think Cambridge is much better shopping for both home and clothes.
Norfolk is a bit cheap and cheerful.
Will check out your suggestion, thanks.

About 10% of the purchase price of the house sounds about right [eeek] - as someone else said, that did leave no money for the work which needed doing to the rest of the house, but I don't regret it.

try these people

(sorry, to clarify, try those people for build quality without the ultra-modern tendency of most German brands)

I also agree that the fitter makes at least as much difference as the units - in our kitchen where there really are no straight lines, it is down to the skill of all the people who worked on it that we have a gorgeous and durable kitchen. So, whatever you go for, go for a local fitter with a good reputation and check references.

I put in a kitchen in both the flats I bought. Key learning points were:

• cheap appliances are a false economy. No point in spending 150 quid on an oven that takes 20 mins to get up to temperature. Neff, Bosch or Siemens appliances are all good and not too expensive if you shop around. Go for a Miele dishwasher if you can afford it - my mum has got one and it's miles better than anything I have seen before.
• You could buy the best kitchen in the world, but if the fitter is not top notch your kitchen is going to look like B&Q's regardless.
• At the cheaper end IKEA is fine wrt to cabinets, but go for the pricier doors and buy the appliances and the worktop elsewhere

We had a Magnet kitchen fitted and were very happy with it. We've moved house since, but my parents also had a Magnet kitchen fitted and are still very happy with it (theirs is over 10 years old now). Both fitted by builders we personally knew (and it's also worth bearing in mind that tradesmen get discounted prices). My sister had her kitchen stuff from a very high end place (she's an architect) and although she raved about it I didn't think it was particularly wonderful, although obviously it met her needs, which is the first consideration for any kitchen IMO.

My good friend is a bespoke cabinet maker. He says the carcasses of the Ikea kitchens are very good and even recommended his own mother use those to save some cash so she could have handmade doors.

Oh, and don't get fitted appliances. Should you move you can't take them with you, and also they can be hard to find (I hate using kitchens where I'm having to guess where the fridge, dishwasher etc actually are). My dh dislikes fitted appliances so much we had the absence of them on our criteria for house buying. I'm sure that the reverse is true for other people though.

If you want your kitchen to last, go for a natural material such as wood, like birch. Chips dont show.

I have a painted white kitchen. It was very expensive with "high quality" units, but already after one year, I had to replace all the doors as the paint was chipping. Another year on, 3 doors needs changing. If I had a natural wood kitchen, chips would not show, but as wood is a natural material, would "mend" itself slightly.

My cousin has the most beautiful hardwearing Ikea birch kitchen. You would not know it was Ikea. It is 7 years old now, and look newer than my 2 year old white kitchen. Her kitchen was a fraction of the cost of mine, and Ikea threw in a kitchen island for free (as delivery was longer than estimated) and also a built in cafe style coffee machine.

I have high gloss bath units, and I have to polish nearly daily, due to fingerprints and smudges and smears.

I agree with nooka with regards to the fridge. If the fridge is built in, you have lost valuable "notice board space" as your kitchen magnets will be redundant.....

Cookers and dishwashers look fab built in. Not sure I would want to take them with me if I move though.

What we did is used a builder who had worked for us already. Then on his suggestion we went to Benchmark or it might be Benchmarx who only deal with trade, and they planned the kitchen. Then we ordered it through them and all the bills went to the builder who then billed us. The other company (near to us) who are much the same are called Howdens.

The builders like them as they are well made, and the units come ready assembled.

we got a premium magnet kitchen, but our builder got it trade price (less than half of showroom price) and we sourced our granite worktops ourselves. We got a kitchen with island - all timber cupboards, appliances, granite etc for under £10K but IMO it looks a lot more expensive. We looked at those fancy pull out larders, but they were really expensive, so just got tall cupboards with pull out baskets, which are brilliant. have fun choosing!

I agree on wood being much nicer and wearing well. We had birch and my mother has oak. Also I think it's quite neutral and so doesn't date as much. Fridge magnet space is important I agree although you are obviously wrong about ovens and dishwashers! Kitchen style is very personal :)

Another vote against B&Q here, they had just finished fitting the kitchen in our house when we bought it and the build quality is awful, dh has had to keep putting bits back together since we moved in. But currently we are changing our truly awful, floral bathroom suites, so the kitchen will have to stay for now.

A tip from my mil is that if you decide to get an island or breakfast bar in, make sure you check the layout of your appliances. Currently her main worsurface is on one side of the island and the fridge on the other, which drives her mad!

No one has mentioned howdens. I had never heard of them but our builder suggested them, and they are excellent.

They have small showrooms, attached to their workshops. Someone comes to measure, then sends you designs. They only sell direct to trade so you need to use an approved builder.

For our small kitchen the cost was a bit more than IKEA but the units are superb, and they have fantastic sinks and worktops.

A friend who is a very upscale carpenter recons they are very good value.

planning is very important. think about it, and think some more.... little tips like think about being able to open your dishwasher and load clean dishes straight into a nearby open cupboard for example...without careful planning, you can miss little things that make your kitchen really work for you.....

consider what you have to store, and where you will store them in a kitchen cupboard plan. this will help with knowing whether you need more drawers/cupboard/shelves etc..

if you are doing building work and are having problems visualising what space you will have, take your measurments to showrooms and a tape measure and look at what unit layouts are pleasing to the eye, providing how much space etc...

negotiate. don't be afraid of fluttering your eyelashes to get discounts! i got my ideal kitchen way down to within my budget by being a bit charming....

source things separately...we got our units and worktops from howdens. our appliences were from a local warehouse store, saving THOUSANDS because they were last years models...all brand new with guarantees though.

we fitted it ourselves. took bloody ages, and was hard work, but end result is fab... we bought in a guy to butt and scribe the worktops, plumber friend to connect the cooker up etc... it meant that we could spend money on our kitchen rather than on fitting.

fwiw, our total budget was 5K, that was for kitchen, worktops, all appliances, flooring, curtains etc, and we have a largeish kitchen with solid wood doors, and we came in bang on.

hth. its a really exciting thing to do, and the end result is fab!!!