Kitchen Corner

[happybubblebrain]

My kitchen has given up on life and fallen apart. It must be older than me anyway, and I'm not young. So, I'm now attempting to buy my first ever kitchen and I don't know where to start. I'll be visiting showrooms in the next week or so, but my question is how do I cut corners cost wise? What do I need to spend ££££ on and what can I get away with spending £ on? Where will I find the best value for money kitchens?

Now for the how long is a piece of string question. I have a small galley kitchen. Are we talking £2,000, £4,000, £6000 or £8,000 for a reasonable quality, no frills kitchen (not included appliances, as I have those). How much should installation cost me?

How do I start deciding which kitchen will look best? One which won't date too fast? Do I just take kitchen measurements and they do the rest for me? I haven't got a clue.

Any advice or top tips will be very much appreciated.

Please share your kitchen installation experiences with me.
Thanks

Warren - that sounds great. I'm looking forward to the day when it's all done like you. Today I ordered everything. It's going to be installed in three weeks. It's costing me £3,600 for everything - oven, hob, solid oak white painted doors, solid oak worktops, belfast sink, installation etc. I'm getting the shelves installed by a different carpenter, costing around £400. Then I have to get the tiling done and I'll paint it myself. I think its going to be a very pale turquoise colour, or maybe white. Then I'm going to order a pink smeg fridge, because I've wanted one for a long time. If anyone knows where I can get one a bit cheaper that £1150 please let me know. I'm hoping 5 weeks from today it will be finished.

Does anyone know why installation costs roughly the same as the price of a new kitchen? I am truely shocked at this. Surely fitting a kitchen should only take a day or so.

I find Kitchen Fitting Companies charge a premium price to do "everything"

However they are notorious for poor-quality and non-compliant electrical and plumbing work, hidden away behind the units, and I find a good local joiner can do a better job of fitting and cost less at his daily rate. Just get a recommended plumber and electrician in to do their bits before the units go in.

We've got a B&Q kitchen and have had nothing but problems with it. Since having it we've come across loads of people that also have problems with B&Q kitchens.

MyName and PigletJohn, thanks for that.

Piglet is right. B&Q quoted me the same price for installation as the cost of the kitchen, £3,800 for each, so I walked out very fast. I'm paying £600 for installation with a local small kitchen business. They estimated about 2 days for fitting. I don't know why the big companies charge so much, other than greed.

And customer service in B&Q is shockingly bad.