Best place for kitchen design?

[Summersalmostgone]

I'm looking to get s new kitchen but it's an awkward space. We have knocked the galley kitchen through to the dining room. It would leave us with a U shaped kitchen but there's a back door on one of the short walls which means we lose worktop space. I think I know what to do with the rest of the layout, but I'd like a designer to look in case they come up with a great idea I'd not thought of.

Who is the best company to approach for a design? I'm looking to get a kitchen in ASAP.

I've seen a nice kitchen in Magnet but it was 6k without appliances. I wouldn't want to pay that sort of money when you can get one for 2-3k elsewhere.

I'd go to a local independent kitchen shop. That way you get a proper designer rather than someone who has been trained to use a computer programme.

I was worried an independent may be £££

I know I have recently recommended it (and I promise I am not on commission) but I recently got a design from an independent kitchen designer, then used it to buy units from a place online. I could not be more happy. We used Karen from Oneplan who posts here as 'oneplanonhouzz' or similar. I found it a really personalised, great way of getting a good value kitchen. In effect you pay a bit up front for the design expertise, but can redeem this later by buying cheaper units from somewhere (like DIY kitchens for example) that doesn't offer a design service at all.
I got designs done by Magnet, Ikea and Homebase. None of them was awful. But none of them quite did what I wanted, and I wasn't sure I was making the best of the room. It took quite a lot of to-img and fro-ing to work out all of the details, so it was worth paying for I think.

Thanks for the tip.

Do you mind me asking how much the design was?

You could always tell the independent shop your budget so they could work within it.

Not at all, it was £495.

I got designs at Howdens, Magnet and Benchmarx. I took the best bits of the design then got them to redesign based on that. Then compared the quotes. I am now actually going with DIYKitchens.com using the design from other places. You don't have to buy from the person who designs it.

I think I'm going to book in wickes to do a design.

Howdens seems like too much faff.

Can you go to Benchmarx showrooms and look around, or are they like Howdens?

We got one done at Ikea and the lady was knowledgeable and helpful. I'd made a plan of the kitchen myself using their online tool which you can log into in store, she fiddled around with it and made it a much better room. Also they are so cheap!

Also Benchmarx have a tiny showroom in the Travis Perkins builders merchants near us, do you have one of those locally? Nothing is priced though probably because it's overpriced so if you want an idea of cost you'd have to sit down with someone I guess.

We've going through the same process as you Summer - extending our kitchen. The overall shape of kitchen is changing & we're having a utility room put in. So we need someone to design a kitchen and a utility room.

I've been having a go on the Ikea design thing, which is reasonably easy to use, but I know what you mean about wanting to get better ideas about design. I'm totally rubbish at visualising anything.

Howdens knocked something up for us but it wasn't great, but to be fair I haven't been back to ask them to tweak it. We've got the Benchmarx woman coming tomorrow - I instinctively liked her more than the Howdens man but of course she may be rubbish at kitchens! After reading this thread I may go into our local kitchen showroom to see whether anyone there has better ideas than the big companies.

I went to John Lewis & they told me it would be 8 weeks to supply the kitchen, and they couldn't even order it until my building work (removing one wall & putting a new door in) was finished - wtf? 2 months without a kitchen? really??

Magnet did the best design for me.

Our new kitchen is going in this week and next week. We tried john Lewis, Howdens, Wickes, had a chat with a nice man in Benchmarx and then found inspiration with a small local supplier/designer who had the best choice and most polished designs. Howdens sent us a long list of items and a picture of a lot of white boxes, the people we went with did a really good design and even included a bottle of wine on the table in the picture.

John Lewis made us feel like paupers, asked for out total budget and then said we could only afford their cheapest kitchen. They also seemed to have mainly kitchen units the colour of old corsets in their range.

I'm not sure I actually have time to get a new kitchen now. I have a baby due in 8 weeks and Wickes have told me the average lead time when ordering a kitchen is 4-6 weeks.