Fallen in love with Harvey jones linear kitchen but not the price tag. Anyone seen similar??

[Staverton]

We need a new kitchen in our (hopefully) new house. Ive had white high gloss before in a previous house but am a bit worried it's going to start to look dated (sorry I have just offended all white gloss kitchen owners). I quite like shaker kitchens but they are a bit too country kitchen looking for my tastes and wouldnt really suit the house.

I love love love the Harvey jones LINEAR range. It's solidwood but clean lines instead of inset bits and looks sort of like a matt version of high gloss IYSWIM so I love it.

The other one I like is the handleless bulthaup as it's more of a Matt finish without looking melamine-y but that is waaaaayy out of price range

Can anyone help/ seen anything similar?

[Staverton]

Oh and a Matt White range by Schuller from westlondonkitchens was about £6000 minus vat and appliances

[amazonianwoman]

Yes I'm only about an hour away from the joiner up north, I don't have a problem with painted MDF. Am waiting for kitchen plan from local (expensive) showroom so I can steal the ideas!

[Staverton]

I totally am with you re:ikea. I so wanted to love them. But no!

[Staverton]

I think painted mdf units actually look better than real wood as somehow the grain makes them look fake.
MArk wilkinson / cottesloe use mdf

[amazonianwoman]

Yes I'm not keen on the grain been visible in eg Second Nature/Howdens doors.

Also, the more I can save on the kitchen, the more I can spend on a range cooker!

I love the "Rogers" kitchen in the projects section on the Roundhouse website

[Pannacotta]

Staverton that is a pretty good price given it includes painted finish, handles and fitting. How did you get them down so much re price?
Did you find them good at the design?

amazonian Isypathise! I am also going round in cicrcles -have yet to have a design done which I like and think looks usuable, though I do admit we have a difficult shaped room.

DH (lawyer but real number cruncher) also not keen to spend too much, esp since we had some recent house valuations which were not great.

I think I may have pointed you in the direction of Roundhouse, so my apologies on that front! I know they are quite £££.

[Pannacotta]

ps which range cooker are you after? We will also get a range and am researching what is out there. I liek Britannia but they dont come cheap.

[amazonianwoman]

Oh I'm definitely going for the Roundhouse Look rather than the Reality I have high hopes for the recommended joiner...

In my fantasy world I'd have a large Everhot. Or a Lacanche. Or a Falcon. In reality I might have to settle for a Britannia or Rangemaster. Chances of one of the first batch are greatly increased if we ditch the extension

[Pannacotta]

We were going to extend too until figures like 20-30k just for the building work started being bandied about and we quickly decided to make do with the space we have and just get a good design to make the best use of space (cue hollow laugh)...

I like the look of the Falcon ranges, are they supposed to be good? How do you research this kind of thing? I dont know anyone with a fancy cooker in RL...

[amazonianwoman]

oh I'm sure my fingers are arthritic! The extension is only to make the house flow better (+ give it the wow factor) so if we don't do that (we bought at the top of the market, not sure we'd even sell it for what we paid for it) I might just get a fabulous range. I love cooking!

I really should get round to putting our house layout onto Mumsnet for some sound advice... Right now our current kitchen is isolated, our dining room (rarely used) is a corridor to the living room which is too big and not cosy, but does have nice garden views. We could knock through the kitchen into the playroom to make a nice kitchen diner, but then the current corridor dining room would have to be a playroom and I don't fancy walking through plastic tat and Lego to get to the living room!

One day we'll sort it...

[Staverton]

Pannacotta- we had the design done to get an idea of price and it was (and still is till end of feb) 25% off. We just kept ugh if and ahhig and looking at different places until we they came back with 40%

The design was great but to be honest I knew exactly why I wanted and had very clear ideas. I basically copied the layout of the Forbes project in roundhouse for the design.

[Staverton]

What not why! iPhone...

[amazonianwoman]

A good friend who is a food scientist has a Falcon, it's beautiful. She researches stuff as much as we do. You can't programme it though. Another friend has a Rangemaster, Élan I think it is? She loves that too but it's a bit bulky for my liking and it has 6 burners which is just overkill.

I have a very very old inherited Stoves range with just 4 burners which is more than enough, even on Christmas Day cooking for 17.

[amazonianwoman]

Nice! Are you going to have a floating shelf? I love the contrast of the big wooden table too.

[Staverton]

Yep I think so! We need to get an extractor in too though as job will be on that wall. Really like the grey wall as well and light floorboards
Love the rogers too!

I reckon roundhouse will be dead easy to copy as they are lay on door rather than inframe and look like spray painted mdf.
You could get DIY kitchens ( near pontefract) to supply carcasses an then have doors made eg Cjf trading.
Currently trying to decide between concrete or quartz worktop. Oh and whether to have stainless steel or white plug sockets etc
Good luck!

[Sushiqueen]

amazonian if you hadn't said your DH was an accountant, I would have thought we are married to the same guy :)

My DH is after the same thing including the bifold doors. Mind you I want the range cooker !

We are also looking at kitchens for an extension. We have ended up printing out pictures from houses we previously viewed if we loved the kitchen.

[Queenmarigold]

Have you tried Howdens? If you have a carpenter near you they can get a good kitchen at trade prices (£5-6K inc appliances) for solid wood worktops and high gloss units in my case.

[amazonianwoman]

I'm not that bothered about bifolds - the weather is rarely warm enough, and if it is we're usually away. French doors are good enough for me! A range cooker, on the other hand, is an everyday essential item

Yes tried Howdens thanks but wasn't keen on the wooden ones because you can see the grain, and DH doesn't like the gloss ones.

I'll be happy with a bobby dazzler range and packing boxes for cupboards at this rate.

[Pannacotta]

amazonian we have similar problems with our layout, also have a kitchen which is very cut off from the rest of the house, as is common with victorian homes.
We also bought at the top of the market and have spent lots on essential things like wiring/boiler/roof etc and had it valued at little more than we paid for it.

WHy dont you post a floorplan up (not tha I am nosey or anything)?
I've still got on on my profile so you can see our silly layout (though pics are abit small).

Staverton do you think they could come up with a decent design even if I was a bit vague? I know roughly what I want but its hard to fit it in as the kitchen is an odd shape with a small bay area and a cupboard which juts into the room.

FWIW I prefer quartz to concrete, think it is more of a classic look.

[amazonianwoman]

I only have large architect's drawings which are too big to photocopy at home, so I'll have a go at drawing it myself and post it on my profile.

I'll do it tomorrow after my trip to Harvey Jones .

[Pannacotta]

You could take a digital photo of the drawings and load that on here, I did that before (those drawings no longer on my profile) but it worked ok.

Good lick and do report back on Harvey Jones, think I may try and persuade DH to come with me to the Cambridge branch (over an hour away unfortunately)...

[amazonianwoman]

Good plan, will do tomorrow, just going out now and out tonight.

I can never get my DH to any showroom of any kind Perhaps if he did, he'd realise things actually cost money these days

[Pannacotta]

Funny you should say that, its the same for me, I have to trawl around doing all the research and is very hard to get DH to come with me...

Thanks Staverton for updating us, feel quite tempted by a Harvey Jones kitchen at a Wickes price!

[Staverton]

Yes I reckon they would do a good design. They def do think about it properly and about what would work, as opposed to howdens who just tried to shove anything anywhere.
They don't give you the design though so try and remember it and jot down straight away afterwards in a coffee shop/ the car. The phone calls will then start about price which is when I haggled and held out for a while. Def do it before end of feb though when 25% off ends.
The linear range is cheaper than the shaker style

[Pannacotta]

Thanks, that is helpful.
I have gone to Benchmarx, Wickes and local place so far but no one has come up with a workable design, which is a bit disappointing.
Presume they do a survey before the design? We are an hour away from local showroom so hope they will be ok with that. Will give them a call I think.

How did you get them down from 25% to 40% discount? That is good going!