Help! kitchens.....my brain is hurting

[raisinbran]

So confused and unsure. Once the walls knocked through we will end up with a big kitchen diner totaling 40 sqm.

Fancied Ivory high gloss units, big island and quartz work tops. Quotes i have had

John Lewis 25k Alno range Maia work tops
Local company 20k Maia work tops
Kitchens Direct 14k Maia
Ikea 5k ex work tops ivory not available so would have to be grey or white high gloss. However could have great worktop.

Your opinions please should I opt for Ikea and then could afford Silestone and tile floors or play safe with JL and have vinyl flooring.This will be the for ever house.

The whole house is being renovated before we move in so any savings would really help to fund other rooms.

I completely agree with orangina.

The advantage with Ikea units is that if you do fancy a change a few years down the line, you can keep the cupboards and swap the doors without much bother.

A really lovely worktop, floor and sink is what makes a great kitchen imo.

DH makes bespoke kitchens for a living - so rips out lots of old ones. He has always said that the more expensive Ikea ones stand the test of time really well, whereas the cheapo ones don't at all.

I also think it's worth getting a couple of quotes for bespoke work - people always assume it is massively more expensive and it often isn't.

Habitat also now do fitted kitchens, they are lovely, very strong (the sales lady opened a drawer and stood in it to demonstrate).

We also had a quote from John Lewis for a similar kitchen and the Habitat one was lower and a couple of weeks later they offered us a 20% discount.

But we have decided to go with a (cheaper) Magnet kitchen this one and get the flooring we really want plus a silestone worktop.

In response to this comment.

Builders don't like Ikea ( because they are too lazy to cut any holes to run pipes ) as Ikea units go flat against the wall as no pipe chase at back ( but therefore bigger inside)

First things first a carpenter should be fitting your new kitchen and not a builder, and secondly im a carpenter and would never fit or recommend ikea units due to the fact that they do not have a 70mm void space for pipeworks, not because im lazy but because if you are paying a premium price like ikeas then you should not be opening your base unit doors and seeing every bit of pipework that should really be in the pipe void space that other kitchen manufacturers provide with their base units also the back of the unit provides a lot of the strength within the unit so removing some of this to enable fitment of the unit does it no favours at all, i cant see you gaining much space by choosing ikea units as the pipe is now inside the unit and not behind it.

Howdens would be my recomendation for kitchen unit supplier, they provide a good solid unit that when fitted correctly will last for years and years plus the carcasses come ready assembled so you will save money from not having to pay your installer to assemble the carcasses.

If you can, speak with local building firm & see if they have a small local firm who works with them on kitchen refits & provides stone work tops, we saved a small fortune by doing that with our granite tops. the firm we used were recommended by MFI, (who had the Schrieber units I liked) but MFI quoted more than double for the actual worktops - & they weren't even exactly what I wanted

I gave up with the various store designers, as none of them came up with anything I was really happy with, so I set about drawing it up myself & the building firm came out to price up & look at whether it was possible or not - Magnet & several others had insisted that it wasn't - but it was & looks & works great -

they knew a guy who imported the granite in directly from Italy, & they worked with him on scheduling etc, it all fell into place very well & I love the end product, quality of fit is excellent, even 4 years later :) & at a fraction of the price of any of the store based quotes :)

Do your research on Silestone, find out what else it may be used for, you might also find someone that way - I also had quotes from a stone mason who usually works with grave stones - stores didn't have the colour I wanted - they too would do it & at a much cheaper price, but the builders guy worked out better, & they had worked with him before, so it all ran pretty smoothly - I also sourced the tiles myself & the builders had people to that too :)

Howdens, not MFI - I Think [confued]

Many thanks for all your suggestions I have made a decision, wahoo!

A different local kitchen business has come in on budget with silestone worktops and neff appliances and laquered high gloss and solid units ( ie no holes inside the cupboard doors) for 20k, which includes fitting. His cad drawings were spot on and references were good.

I think I am going for the alpina white mountain range silestone with a red wine colour splash back and grey tiles do you think this would all work with cream high gloss. Would this be a mistake colour wise?

It all sounds lovely, but if you are going for a contemporary look (which it sounds as though you are), you might want to think about having a silestone worktop AND splashback. It looks very slick. Same colour. Love the whitey white one.

I did a project where the kitchen base units were grey oak (handle less, v slick), white matt wall units and white silestone worktop and backsplash and it looked LOVELY.

Will see if I can find image to illustrate.....

Ok, have posted photo under my profile......