I know this subject has been covered loads before, but there are so many options and I was getting confused so thought I'd start one of my own to draw on the collective knowledge and ideas of MN.
We're in the process of renovating the whole house and should be ready to put the new kitchen in by the end of the year. We want a painted in-frame kitchen. I'd like something like Harvey Jones Linear but DP wants a more traditional shaker style. As it's part of a bigger project we potentially have enough money to spend a reasonable amount on the kitchen but this may lead to us having to compromise too much elsewhere so I'm looking at cheaper options. We are already doing a lot of the work ourselves and DP is both good at lots of DIY stuff and enjoys it. The new kitchen will also be in a different location to the existing one so we don't need to make sure it is installed quickly as we won't be without a kitchen while the work goes on.
Anyway, the options I've come up with so far are the following:
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Get a quote from Harvey Jones and see if we can stretch to this. Pros - I can definitely get a linear type kitchen if that is what we decide our first choice is. Cons - probably the most expensive option and we don't need the whole project managed/installation etc. side of things to be taken care of.
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One of the cheaper online kitchen manufacturers. The ones I've looked that have in-frame shaker kitchens are Handmade Kitchens, DIY Kitchens and Pineland. Pros - The process seems relatively straightforward and cabinets come assembled. It looks affordable and there's quite a lot of scope for designing the kitchen to fit exactly. Cons - it seems that styles are more limited and it would probably have to be shaker style. The cabinets themselves seem to have less finesse, eg. with pan drawers having bars between them reducing internal space.
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Find a good local joiner to build a kitchen to our spec. This seems to be recomeended regularly but I have no idea how to find a good joiner nearby (we're in S London) who will be reasonable. I also suspect good ones are very booked up so may take longer.
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One thing I had originally been thinking about was getting Ikea units and fitting them ourselves then trying to get bespoke doors done. I'm not sure if this would be possible to recreate an in-frame look, eg. create both frames and doors to be attached to the units. My parents had new doors put on their old units about 15 years ago and it is in-frame even though the original kitchen was not, but they only have cupboards and no drawers whereas we would want a couple of sets of big pan drawers. This idea has the same issue of finding a good joiner. I'm happy though with Ikea units as I know that if fitted well they are good quality, I just want the final look to be more bespoke and I don't really like any of the Ikea doors. I also like the idea of being more in control of the set up of the units and fittings and just having the joiner do the aesthetic on show aspect.
Anyway, apologies for the long rambling post. I'm kind of trying to get my thoughts in order, but was wondering what others thought. At the moment I think option 2 looks like it may suit our needs best, as the budget would probably fit and it would bethe right level of DIY. I'm just a bit wary about buying something that may still be pretty expensive and prove a bit of a false economy or not quite right, particularly as I doubt we'd be able to get to any of these companies' showrooms. Also, if we go for that option not sure which one to go with.