Shopping for kitchens is NOT as much fun as I thought it would be!

[summerpuddingandclottedcream]

Which of these kitchens would you prefer for a 130-year-old house with period features? We're kitchen shopping and finding it hard work.

We went to Wren to price up a range I fancied, and after three hours and a bit of negotiating we signed up to a £17,500 kitchen right at the top of our budget. It was lovely, with solid oak units and drawer inserts, quartz and wooden worktops, and lifetime guarantees. The staff were very nice and said we could change anything we fancied, and we were relieved we'd found a kitchen we liked. [http://www.wrenkitchens.com/kitchens/shaker-kitchen-in-baltic-and-winter-white/1906]

But on reflection, we decided we were completely mad to spend so much. We've been renovating our house for a year and our savings are spent. Paying for this means taking out a loan and using up my entire salary (part time, have only just returned after SAHMing).

So we went back to ask them to price our kitchen up in two other ranges. (We've paid a £1,500 deposit so we have to go with Wren). After another 2 and a half hours we've got one other quote. It's a complete contrast: handleless gloss [http://www.wrenkitchens.com/kitchens/handleless-white-gloss-kitchen/140].

We've got three little children and can't face spending much more time in a kitchen shop talking about pelmets and decor panels.

So can you wise ladies help me? Do I go for a handleless gloss kitchen which is sleek but susceptible to grubby fingermarks and totally out of keeping with the rest of the house?

Or do we keep shopping for a cheaper shaker-style kitchen with laminate but looks possibly a bit old fashioned?

I realise this isn't the biggest dilemma in the world, but I'm really stuck! Grateful for any tips.

We're not total numpties, and we did get quotes from an independent and an estimate from Ikea, which came out similar - it's a very big kitchen with fiddly corners which need carpentry. Our builder said £17,000 was about right, and he usually works with Wickes, Howdens and Benchmark.

We're up to our necks in renovations and are just embarking on the children's rooms so we needed to outsource the kitchen designing etc to someone else. We'd source it and fit it/paint it in F&B ourselves if this was our only project, but life is really busy. I just need to choose a kitchen and get on with everything else. [knackered emoticon]

Going against the grain I say sod it, get what you adore. Pay for it over the year with your salary and smile every time you make even beans on toast. That's what I'd do.

I've got a shaker style kitchen in my 70yr old house (painted) - I also had one in my last 120yr old house (unpainted). I think it is simple, classic design and not twee at all. Twee is scrolled wooden fiddly bits, curved mouldings on door panels. I'm not a fan of the high gloss kitchen, I'm probably a kitchen ignoramus but they sometimes look a bit cheap (especially when covered with mucky hand prints) and I agree with others, will date horribly.
Have what you love, even if it is a bit of a squeeze financially (I'm sure Wren can help you work down from the £17k) for a while you will be living with it for years and if you don't love it, it will bug you.

My house is a similar age and style and I bought solid wood hand made bespoke wooden units from this company

www.handmadekitchens-direct.co.uk

My kitchen is large , about 4m by 8m with a 3m high ceiling . The base units are extra deep and wall units and larder units extra tall . I paid about £4k for units plus another £1.5k in labour to joiner and painter. About £1.5 k for granite and bespoke elm work tops . Another £2k on appliances, 2 sinks and taps . Perhaps a few hundred to electrician and plumber, as DH did the first fix himself .

So that's about half of your quote from wren for standard units , which seems expensive to me ( I'm assuming it's for the entire kitchen, including appliances and fitting ) . If it's for units and work tops alone then it's very expensive .

My costs also include other things, such as decorating and some joinery work in the room . The furniture comes already built, so that saves a lot of labour costs .

So it might still be cheaper for you to walk away from the deposit and go elsewhere . However, if you don't want / don't know how to organise anything yourselves , I can see the attraction of a one stop shop company .

I wanted to have the freedom to customise everything and choose work tops , taps and appliances that I wanted, rather not than from a small selection chosen by the kitchen company, but that might not matter to you.

Style - our furniture is a mixture of stained and varnished and painted wood, as the kitchen was too big to have it all the same colour . It's very easy to clean , which was very important to me as I have three messy children .

I know it's more effort but if you found same style cheaper elsewhere they might match it - from their website "Bring us a competitor's quote and if it's less than the Wren Kitchens price including discounts or offers then we'll beat it. Quote must be comparable in quality, structure and style and is subject to the store manager's discretion." www.wrenkitchens.com/kitchen-comparison I LOVE your first one but that is more than double what you could spend...

I have the first kitchen that you liked from wren. I have it in winter white with royal purple Matt shaker. It was expensive but I managed to change types of cupboards etc bring it down a bit. I sourced the appliances and sink etc elsewhere and I went for a laminate worktop which looks really good with it. I am impressed with the quality of the cupboards. We probably paid a premium to go with their fitters but they were really good. Just be vigilant with your order as they added extra bits we did not need in and tried to charge us for fitting fridge freezer etc despite us having an American fridge freezer that was already plumbed in but I was checking the order with a fine tooth comb. You need to haggle with them as they brought the cost down considerably from their initial offer.

Wren etc charge a mark up on worktops, appliances, handles etc so to bring the 17K quote down, source these elsewhere.

I am not a lawyer, so you might wish to check, but I believe that a deposit in law is in exchange for entering into the contract... so you lose it if you don't go ahead, however there are limits to what is considered reasonable as a deposit (basically enough to cover the other parties costs to that point), anything more is considered a part payment and is refundable...

so you might arguably manage to get some of it back if you wish...

equally if you feel you were pressured into buying that kitchen then you could be entitled to your money back...

some good advice here:
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/changed-your-mind/if-you-were-pressured-into-buying-something-you-didnt-want/

I wouldn't spend 17.5 k on a kitchen in a million years, and wouldn't spend anything if it wasn't saved up for in advance, but...

...that first kitchen is really beautiful!

sorry!

I hear you - but we'll stick with Wren. They didn't do a hard sell - we're just really really knackered from the noisy, messy children and living in a building site for so long, so we agreed to a deal we shouldn't because we were so desperate to get it sorted. And relatives were looking after the kids for the afternoon of the appointment (very rare!) so it felt like now or never.

We'll find a way forward, without going for that original one or the gloss I think. They've offered us the original kitchen for £3k less with laminate work tops, and I think we can find some other ways of whittling the price down. We don't need any special pull-out drawers in the cupboards - we've never resented our shelves before now!

My advice would be to make sure you love what you choose in the end, even if you have to sacrifice some fittings. You're going to use that room every single day, several times a day so it'll be worth it.

I'd far rather spend £17,000 on something I'm thrilled to bits with than have to settle at £11,000 and not be all that enamoured with it, I'd rather try and get away with £5,000 as I wouldn't love it anyway.

I think Shaker style is much less divisive, but gloss is a Marmite choice. If I went to view a house with a gloss kitchen I'd be mentally knocking the price of refitting off any offer I made and particularly in a period house. Personally I don't like the look of them and I wouldn't want the work involved. Which is not to say other people don't love them obviously.

I agree with Enrique . The most important thing for me is that the kitchen works , that the layout is correct for me and how I cook . Our previous kitchen was smaller but involved a lot more walking .

Now the dishwashers are beside the sink and the bin for waste food, with the storage for crockery and cutlery above . I can unload the machines and put the things away without taking a single step .

My pans, trays, dishes and cooking utensils are all together and immediately opposite the aga and the microwave and beside the fridge and food prep areas and prep sink .

The mugs, tea , teaspoons and boiling water tap are beside each other ( we are not coffee drinkers ) .

I have one enormous larder unit for all my dried and canned food storage - no searching through various cupboards .

Your kitchen can look very beautiful , but if it doesn't work for you , it's a beautiful failure .

We went for that last picture you posted (French partridge shaker ermine I think it's called) and it's just been installed. We love it. Oak worktops I ordered seperatley as much cheaper

I won't tell you how awful wren have been

Not completely finished in this picture but it'll give you an idea

Another one

The experience and understanding of a particular designer is as important as the kitchen manufacturer.

I manage property and hate the 'shopping' bits. My approach is to completely detach and rely on the designer. Last year I put a kitchen in to quite an expensive flat in Westminster. So a brief that it had to look quality in keeping with the value of the property but be as cheap as possible, be robust enough for tenants and that I was prepared to invest more on worksurface/breakfast bar as they would be the feature. The designer was great and much more upfront about what I should avoid and clear about things like picking a light colour for work surfaces since they were so big even though this meant light grey against cream.

His first design was great with some nice space saving ideas. However inevitably he used the more expensive high gloss. Looking through the catalogue I opted for a much cheaper low gloss kitchen but in the same colour and design. Make sure you have money spare for good appliances. Buying with the kitchen can be a good way of securing discounts.

(I use the same detached approach most places and allow plumbing merchants to point out good spec, popular and reliable shower heads, tile shops to tell me what interior designers are buying etc. I think people enjoy using their knowledge.)

Because I stepped back a bit it did not take much of my time. And though you can keep costs down the overall cost/quality should reflect the overall value of the property. Otherwise you won't get your money back.

I like the shaker one in your op too and I'd say don't go for gloss or something that isn't exactly what you want or you might regret it.

Good luck

My kitchen (including the utility room out of shot)
came in at under £6k
including worktops
appliances
fitting
ikea units
and all internal fittings

I still love it 7 years on and cannot imagine what makes up the difference in price to the incredibly expensive ones

one of my clients has a £50k kitchen and she prefers mine

Bamboo I love your tiled splashbacks - where did you get your tiles from please?

Thanks

They are from Topps Tiles Batik range. We had them in grey in old house too. Love them. Just noticed they are now half price so just re ordered and will return with full price receipt as bought them less than a month ago

m.toppstiles.co.uk/range427/page1/Batik.html

I agree about shiny kitchens if you intend to sell, i am a period property buyer and i would also be calculating refit price in anŷ offers i made.

If you intend to have this kitchen for years get the one you love love love, if you are likely to change your mind in 5 years get the cheapest one you can find.

Our kitchen is a painted shaker style but is painted MDF rather than solid wood. I think this saved quite a bit and looks good (in my opinion). This is my kitchen:
www.houzz.co.uk/projects/787449/open-plan-extension-with-office-corner
The kitchen cost £14.5k including appliances, units, granite, splash back etc.

My BIL has just installed the 2nd one in a pale green (sage?) and it looks and feels amazing. They got solid wood worktops elsewhere. They are not easy to please but they are recommending them to us

Having lived with them I would never buy gloss kitchen units again. Painted (or in the short term unpainted ) wood will not date as long as I the design is simple. Twiddly bits are the things that date.

I fall into the buy what you love category. Spending £11k on something you aren't sure about is worse than £14k/£17k on something you love.

Agree about Gloss kitchens dating : mine is the matt white - easy to clean but does not "reflect" so only needs doing when I CBA

I went for smooth because we cook a LOT and my old twiddly kitchen doors were full of greasy corner traps

PS the oven height in the first OP picture would drive me potty - too low to be useful at all