Mid-High end kitchens?

[jugglingmonkey]

Hi all,

Thinking about kitchen extension which will require a new kitchen/units etc.

Will want to customise elements of it, such as a marble splash back, and marble kickback in the island, but the rest will be a fairly standard matte white finish.

I want solid quality, soft close, great range of drawers and storage options.

What should I be looking at? Don't really fancy Howdens or Magnet- felt a bit like a rather impersonal service last time we went in there.

Any brands I should avoid? Which should I look at? We've got a 'sacrificial' ikea kitchen at the moment, which I don't mind, but it shows its imperfections...

We went for Second Nature solid painted units and then I googled to fine a local supplier. They're pretty standard so we we had quite a choice, a couple of companies quoted and we went with the one who was closest to our ideas.

We priced up a John Lewis kitchen and an Ikea kitchen. The only difference was that the JL kitchen was about 10K more and had nowhere near the number of drawer configurations etc that we had in the Ikea kitchen. They are both Which? best buys, and round our way they both outsource the kitchen fitting to the same company - I think the quality of the fit is what makes the difference between a kitchen looking cheap and looking great and then lasting well. We opted for the more expensive Ikea drawer fittings and they are rock solid - I put my 2 year old in one of the drawers and it didn't budge an inch, ran perfectly on the runners etc.

The main problem I think there is with Ikea is that it requires quite a bit more legwork at the design stage. I think you will get an awful lot more for your money if you (for example) consider Ikea for the units, and then spend the savings on the marble splash backs etc. Also, bear in mind there are only something like 3 kitchen unit manufacturers in Europe, so the chances are that the soft close hinges are all the same, whether you have an expensive kitchen or one from the DIY places. That is, unless you have a bespoke kitchen made by a local joiner.

Outside of that, we liked the Alno kitchens, and Mereway, which JL are a reseller for.

I'd describe Neptune as mid to high kitchen range to choose from...
Happy hunting !

Not sure if outside budget but we have roundhouse and I love it.
Looks great but also uses every inch of space well and the drawers takes the most amazing amount of pots.
Have IKEA in the laundry but can't load the drawers up!

We have a Higham kitchen, and ikea in our utility room. The difference in quality is very obvious. Higham is all built to order from scratch so they can do whatever you like storage-wise.

We have a Stoneham kitchen which I'm really pleased with. We had to make a couple of late adjustments to the layout (we were fitting in to a new extension so there was some movement in the actual measurements between design and build) and these were readily accommodated in units just a bit smaller than the standard ones. We found that the cost of the kitchen was not that much more than then likes of Magnet or Howdens, but the quality and appearance of the units was much better.

We went with Naked Kitchens. They offer a very personal service. Everything is made bespoke to order so you can tweak all the finer details. They offer a great quality product but not at the silly high end price range. It would be worth checking out their fab website. I love my kitchen and have had some amazing compliments on it. Hope this helps!!

We also have a kitchen from Naked Kitchens. Our utility room is from John Lewis of Hungerford and we thought that this was good quality until we saw Naked Kitchens - the service we have had is fantastic, the attention to detail is second to none and the quality of the units is to die for.

Just a quick note about Second Nature kitchens as they were mentioned. Second Nature only manufacture the doors and not the unit carcass. So, one person's experience of a high quality 'Second Nature' kitchen and good pricing may not be the same as another person's who have bought from a supplier using an inferior carcass or higher prices.

That said, Second Nature make some great doors, as do their sister brands Metris (Ultra Modern) and 1909 (Hand Painted Traditional). T K Components offer some good doors at very reasonable prices. All of these brands can be bought through local independent showrooms where you'll get a more personal service and they can also be bought online.

I'd highly recommend getting yourself to Grand Designs Live at the NEC if you can wait until October to order your Kitchen. There's loads of kitchen companies exhibiting there, offering all styles and all price ranges.

Alan
@Kitchens4DIY

I hadn't realised they were just the doors shows how much attention I paid! We went to a local kitchen showroom and they've been great considering my DH haggled the price down to a 3rd less than originally quoted. They have done everything except for the cooker and fridge that we got ourselves.