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?

Ha ha, Darkblueeyes, you type faster than me!!

Hee hee. I am like lightning!

Interesting about the handles though! I think TH is going to be way over my budget - so far my quotes are terrifying and I think they'll be the highest. Love love love their kitchens though!

Who are the trolls on this thread?

I am also in W London Darkblueeyes. And I am definitely not a troll, just obsessed with kitchens .

These are the companies we looked at:

Anthony Mullan - Bill was a great designer and nice quality kitchens. Bespoke with the workshop on site and can do it all for you. www.anthonymullan.com/kitchens

Higham - as recommended by MrsFlorick on here. If you search for her posts, you will see she had put in some lovely kitchens in the style you like and she has used Higham and rates them as truly bespoke - apparently similar to Devol but cheaper. www.higham.co.uk/

Main kitchen company - based in York, but they would travel. Also do everything for you and lovely quality. Cheaper as they aren't in the SE themaincompany.co.uk/kitchen/project1/24

Naked kitchens - quality was good but they only build the units, you have to do all the rest yourself - measuring, getting fitter etc. Also very hard to find a range of reviews of them www.nakedkitchens.com/

Teddington kitchens - didn't go there in the end as a bit late in our process, but they promise to copy any of the other kitchen companies but at a much lower price. Recommended by one mumsnetter on another thread. teddington-kitchens.co.uk/

If you want Miele appliances but without the price tag, they have an outlet in Abingdon. Some are brand new, others lightly used. We got our hob and ovens there for about 40% of the regular price and we're really pleased with them. www.miele.co.uk/domestic/outlet-2991.htm

As I said upthread a bit, I am very unhappy with my MDF kitchen - it is indeed bubbling at the edges. They have a 10 year warranty that I've not explored but I'm sure they have some escape clause. They'd have to replace my kitchen to honour it.

West London too.

It would take me 4 years to earn that, but if I was loaded then yes.

I think TH is often expensive as they use pricey appliances, but you can swap those out for cheaper. e.g. they recommended an extractor for £2.5k!! but we are looking at one just as good for about £1k. They do charge £50-£75 if you supply your own appliances though. They say it's for insurance as they would have to replace them if they damamged them on fitting, but I still think it's cheeky.

That's really bad Apple, but I agree on the get out clause. These comapnies are like Teflon if anything goes wrong I reckon. Is it worth tweeting them to see if you can shame them into a response?

I'd only spend that much if a) I had that kind of budget/money to spend and b) if it adds to the house value-wise

Oooh Cheese wish I'd known about Teddington kitchens! I don't need all appliances but it's still eye watering. Anyone know of a good range cooker supplier?

We had paid the deposit just before we heard about them Darkblueeyes. If you haven't paid yest, it might be worth getting them in for a quote. I think TH have a bit of wriggle room on their quotes too from something the sales lady said (although the designer didn't mention it). Or you could wait for the sale? We got 15% off the cabinets.

Our kitchen will definitely add more than £30k to the resale value of the house compared to what was there before as that was really knackered, but we could probably have done it a bit more cheaply and still added the same amount.

That's really bad Apple, but I agree on the get out clause. These comapnies are like Teflon if anything goes wrong I reckon. Is it worth tweeting them to see if you can shame them into a response?

I'd have to get a twitter account first! Yes, I need to do something in order to maintain my sanity, I just need to psych myself up for battle first.

I love the look of those ex display kitchens. I've got a cherry kitchen bespoke built by a carpenter for a moderate amount (I think it was about 15 grand ten years ago). It's showing its age, but the kitchen's pretty small and I know that the sensible thing to do would be to knock down the wall and get a side return extension - I just can't face the hassle. But when the time comes I'll definitely have a look at ex-display/nearly new. Either that or get a good joiner to fit IKEA.

I keep looking up kitchen designer/kitchen carpenter and Google brings me back to all these expensive bespoke kitchen places!

You need to search 'independent kitchen designers' or planners. Or independent design only kitchen, terms like that.

I'm not recommending, I haven't used any of these people, just got the search results.
eckd.co.uk
www.timrusselldesign.co.uk/service/
www.independent-kitchen-designer.co.uk
www.grantandgriffiths.co.uk
www.gvsdesigncompany.com/home_visits.html

Might be useful to read their sites, even not working in your area, see what you can pick up from them.

crystal We're about to have our kitchen ripped out in a couple of weeks.

We first went to Harvey Jones and the quality was amazing. Went to Wren next and could tell the difference in the quality of wood. We also tried John Lewis who came out and measured and created a 3D plan for £50.

We didn't choose HJ as they had a call out of 1k to take measurements and do plan. We weren't happy to pay that much before they had seen our current kitchen. They did call and try and persuade us to choose them including dropping their discount to 40% off.

We've gone with a local company who will be: ripping out and disposing of cabinets, electrics, plumbing, plastering, installing cabinets, hob, ovens, work tops, water softener and comes in at just over £20k.

One thing about Shaker style cabinets is that grease/dirt/dust collects on grooves and is a real pain to clean.

Some other questions/tips: what direction does your kitchen face? We have a north facing kitchen so made sure we chose lighter colours. Remember to plan for bins and towel rail. And check doors are soft close. Hard water area? Consider a water softener.

We are in the middle of a major house renovation (2 storey extension plus the remainder of the house is being completely redone too) which will include a new kitchen. We have opted for a similar style to that described in the OP, a blue/grey Shaker style.

I agree with other posters that the cost of the kitchen needs to relate to the overall value of the house. But, when doing major renovation work I think you also have to think really carefully about the kitchen look you want to achieve alongside everything else you need to budget for, and plan accordingly, and in that situation it may be necessary to compromise on the top-end 'dream kitchen' you might want in an ideal world. It's different if you're 'just' having a new kitchen installed because you're only budgeting for a kitchen.

I would not have been comfortable spending £40k + on our kitchen mainly because it would have eaten up a large part of the budget we have, and we have so many different things to pay for, and it's scary how quickly costs add up!

OP have a look at www.sigma3.co.uk - we have ordered our kitchen from there (not installed yet though) at a cost of about £21k including NEFF appliances and granite work surfaces. They have various Shaker style options in different cost ranges.

Look at Blackstone kitchens in Essex.

We are having our new handmade shaker kitchen fitted next week and it was a fraction of the cost of most other places.

It's all handmade and sprayed inside and out and bloody brilliant.

Wow. Out entire flat - 3 bedroom Victorian with huge garden, big rooms and high ceilings was bought for the OPs kitchen budget 12 years ago.
Everything is ancient and needs work but we redid the kitchen for just a few K. Wasn't a branded fancy one though.

If I had the money and the house to go with it then I would spend more on the kitchen, I think you not only spend vast amounts of your time in there to justify the spending but it's also a huge selling point, if you were thinking of selling in the next 10 years or so.

However, I don't have the house to justify spending vast amounts on a kitchen and I certainly don't have the budget, so the kitchen I've just had installed is perfectly adequate for me. We splashed out on tiles and lighting, flooring, sockets etc but the kitchen itself was a relatively cheap one from B&Q, it looks amazing in my small house and has definitely added value. I'm over the moon with the way it looks compared to how it used to look.

So, I would say go for it, if you can afford it, why not. It's your money.

There is an independant kitchen designer on here called oneplanonhouzz. She has been really helpful to posters in the past.

I loved the idea of getting a high quality second hand kitchen, but iit can be harder than you think to get something that will fit/work in the space you have. If you go to any of the home shows, the kitchen companies often sell off the display kitchens when they have finished that year's shows.

This thread is so useful. We are about to renovate our house. DH has expensive tastes so I would hope to keep it to 20-25k but I suspect it will creep up. Am going to go and look at the websites of all the companies mentioned here

I'd love details of the kitchen supplier please Darkblueeyes, I'm near Richmond and will be checking out Teddington kitchens too.

One kitchen shop recommended a shop in molesey to me for appliances. Have you looked at coopers in sheen?

Hope I'm not the troll for having posted a flippant daily mash link? Sums up my (shared with the OP) dilemma over whether it's worth spending crazy money or not.

Ktay Coopers are great and will price match. I used Northpoint for my last kitchen and three friends have used them too. It was about £25k 7 years ago and still looking fab. They are opposite red cow pub. My friend got a quote from them but they were SO slow. Significantly cheaper than others though. My Teddington friend used Stephen Anthony twice and raves about them. Cheap too. Based on Hampshire. I'm waiting for a quote from them and will post on here but my friend says about 30 percent cheaper than London prices.