Would you spend 30-40k plus on a kitchen?

[crystalgall]

We are in the process of buying a house. The needs to be completely rnovated which I am excited about including a new kitchen.

I really love the grey/blue shaker kitchen look but my god some companies are so expensive. However it doesn't seem like you can get the same look with IKEA/howdens etc. Also we are utterly inexperienced in building works/DIY so want someone to come and do all the measurements/design etc and just have it fitted. Minimal faff on our part.

I want to know if it's worth it? It's our forever house pretty much and I cook everyday. The kitchen will be part of a big open plan space too. These are some of the companies I've looked at. Bloody gorgeous kitchens.

Sola
Devol
Tom howley
Harvey jones
John Lewis of Hungerford
Second nature kitchens

So would you spend that much on a kitchen? Have you?

Yes we have. Added £35 to our mortgage. It desperately needed doing and we had a fair amount of knocking down, blocking up etc, pretty much opened up the whole space. I love it. This is our forever house, probably worth around 400k right now although we've spent so much on it already I have no idea how much we'd actually be in profit!
I have no regrets. We went plain shaker style and will change wall colour/replace doors etc when needed. not for about 20 years though

£35k obviously! Ha!

18k on cupboards!!!
I must live on another planet
My brand new kitchen was 3500 from posh range from B and Q and looks great
Would have to be a millionaire and even then would rather travel as others have said

If money was no object then yes. But given that when I bought this house it cost £40000, I wouldnt in this house. The kitchen was 2500 in the sale 15 years ago. I replaced the doors and worktops for less than £500 last year and it looks brand new.

Ok. Any good kitchen recommendations then that do a shaker style and don't cost a bomb?

We spent about £15k on our kitchen about 7 years ago as part of a large extension. It was all we old afford at the time, it's a 30ft kitchen. It looks fine but given our house is now worth £1m it's a bit out of place for the overall quality of the other work we have done and as we are unlikely to move we will most likely replace it in about 3 years and probably estimate to spend about £40k to get something really incredible.

No.
QED.

Ours was 11k for units (solid oak doors, unpainted), worktops (granite) and appliances. Probably a smaller kitchen than yours though as no island. I don't see the need to spend more than that, updated for size.

Bearing in mind my 3 bedroom house is worth about 160k then now way would I spend that. Mines IKEA, it's fine and the entire job cost about £9k.

Our ikea kitchen has simply styled wooden doors and is repaintable. That's why we chose it. Teamed with black walnut, marble and expensive wallpaper it looks expensive.

And we have an island which you can do with any kitchen by using shallow units back to back and a wide worktop.

Yes that's about standard cost for a decent kitchen.

I've got a hand painted kitchen, similar to your Devol link. It's hand painted wood with Silestone worktops, a big 3m island, double sink.
We had several different companies quote and, in the end, went to a local carpenter. He came & looked at the space when it empty, discussed my ideas, drew up several plans, hand built it, installed it and painted it. Under 20K and completely bespoke.

If you need a kitchen planner I can recommend OnePlanOnHouzz who is an MNer and extremely good at what she does. She will plan with any units from any manufacturer.

I inhabit the same world as Dowser. Bloody hell.

I spent 6 months planning my kitchen - the kitchen planners I encountered weren't great, so if you find a good one....grab them!

Yeah I just came on to say about the rest of the work. Our kitchen units were about £2/3k from Ikea, £2k on a worktops, more on appliances and stuff.

BUT the whole project (knocking between two rooms, installing UFH, upping insulation) has taken £20k. We have done almost everything ourselves (brickwork, tiling, electrics, plumbing except the gas connection, kitchen fitting, painting, and way more besides that I'd really rather forget about).

Yes a big chunk of ours was fitting, plumbing, electrics, flooring, decorating, tiles, lighting etc.

My friend spent £30 on her kitchen,

A few years later she had to sell the house at less than she paid for the house never mind the kitchen.

She lost a lot of money. Don't assume it will boost the value of your home...it won't.

30 K of course

Look at Benchmarx Borrowdale range. They're real wood doors painted in-frame but not a solid wood carcass or individually designed so cheaper than a made to measure kitchen.

Only come in 2 colours ATM though.

Yes
My Harvey Jones kitchen is coming next week
It better be spectacular!

baby was that in London?

If I could afford it, yes totally

You said it's your forever home, go for it!!