How much did it cost you to do your kitchen?

[SleepForTheWeak]

And what was your initial budget compared to the final money spent?

We are going to do our kitchen, it's an ok size, perhaps 4x5m. we would be getting new worktops, cupboard a doors, a cupboard put in and perhaps one taken away. A fake arch taken down. New Lino and wallpaper stripped and repainted. Perhaps the ceiling re plastered and definitely new lights and fittings. Oh and a new oven and fridge.

Not looking for top of the range or luxuries, but wanting looking good.

What do you think?

Yes, I should have said "choice and budget", sorry!

I think our kitchen diner is coming in around 20k but that involves building work as we need a supporting wall taking out and the sliding doors are going to be replaced with French doors. So not a simple case of new carcasses and worktops b

We'll be getting Lino flooring instead of tiles, and painting the walls once the paper is stripped and not bothering with tiles (however nice they look!), so we'll shave a bit of money off that way.

We'll be keeping our washing machine, tumble drier and dishwasher but ideally would like a new oven and fridge.

Laminate worktops would be fine, I love the look of the granite and quartz ones but they are just too expensive on our budget.

Our kitchen is a similar size. Came in at just over 6k. That was the floor being concreted, plastering on the walls, sorting out bodged pipe work, new radiator supplied and fitted, new sockets supplied and fitted, about 14 units, many of them large, integrated dishwasher, hob, extractor fan, 1.5 bowl sink and tap, laminate worktops with upstands, mosaic tiles as a splashback, hand built tray space, hacking down the old solid plaster coving and supplying and fitting new coving, supplying and fitting new solid wood skirting, the fitters and lino plus fitting. Its solid oak as well. Got it from Homebase, it's the so called budget range but they have a solid oak version which is flat pack, in the next range up where the cupboards were already built, the doors etc were chipboard so we stuck to flat pack, solid oak budget range. Think the kitchen itself was just over 3k with appliances. I found all the stuff I liked online (appliances and sink) which was decent makes and cheaper and Homebase price matched the lot. Our fitters, who mainly dealt with Howdens and Magnet, thought we had accidently been sent the wrong kitchen they were so impressed with the quality.

Sleep, if you go via an independent stonemason then your work tops will almost certainly be cheaper. I was quoted almost £3k for ours (a 5m run with a deeper area for a recess and a cut out for a sink) by a 'worktop' company, and ended up paying £1020 from a stonemason I found online and they did a fab job.

I am planning my new kitchen now, hope to do it for about £6.000, using either IKEA or Howdens.
Both quotes came just under £4.000 for the kitchen, IKEA prices are better, it includes dishwasher, hood, oven and hob. Howdens does not include oven and hob. My washing machine is staying and i'll buy a new free standing fridge later.
Same as OP, the floor is going to be Lino, the work top will be laminate, tiles instead of splash backs.
Re: installation: IKEA cost came as high as £4.000, we have two quotes- from IKEA and the company who works with IKEA, who calculated "additional works" at nearly £2.000. The gas engineer quote was included twice, when I asked the company why should I pay twice for that, they have disappeared and did not answer my emails. So I think I should find a fitter instead.

I would certainly prefer to buy good quality appliances of my choice direct from a white goods shop, rather than have the ones thrown in by a kitchen supplier.

Ours is same size as yours. £5000 with no appliances. Got it from Howdens with a solid oak worktop. Burford I think. It's fantastic. We've just had it all tiled to the ceiling and it's looking how we envisioned finally. I'd recommend Howdens.

The fitter charged us £1100 to install I should add.

Monte we have been looking at Howdens as it's the closest to us and will design for free. It's that range we have been looking at too!

Our budget is around £7K so nice to know it's not completely impossible.

Well been to Howdens and they've already sent me a design plan. Going to see them this morning to chop and change a few things....yet to get an estimate.....gulp!

Here's some pictures of the plan. Shaker style doors/laminate worktop/integrated microwave, Cooker and fridge freezer.

Let's play a game and guess how much the quote will be!! Will be getting it on Monday.

Quote won't include joinery/plumbing/electrician costs or flooring.

I always think kitchen plans look so unbelievably drab.

£8k for complete cupboards, solid oak tops, ceramic sink, integrated appliances, large belling range cooker and limestone floor. 18ft x 18ft.

I think I'm up to about £1500 now, ours is a make do and mend

Second hand stove and cooker hood off eBay
Second hand American fridge freezer off facebay
Dp jiggled the units around and I painted them (vile orange pine begone!)
Removed wall cabinets and replaced with shelving
New worktop - engineered ikea wood ones, gorgeous and bomb proof although they do need sanding again after 8 months of abuse, much nicer than laminate
Handmade blinds, dp bricked up a doorway and plastered the walls, tiles came from Topps Tiles with tesco trade in vouchers.
New washer, new dryer, second hand dishwasher.
Think that's it!
I'm lucky that dp is very handy. I still dream of a kitchen extension with diy kitchens, Hague blue units and quartz work tops though

I'm watching this thread with interest! I'm in Fife with a budget of 8k and hoping to get a large L-shaped kitchen divided into a main room and a utility room. Would love all new appliances but probably will end up keeping our laundry machines meantime. Trotted around various stores yesterday and liked the look of the kitchens in Wickes. We went to the big Wren outlet in Edinburgh and the kitchens looked ok, but the rough quote they gave us was way more than our budget and it was apparently 50% off! Got Howdens coming tomorrow to quote and a local independent coming on Wednesday. From reading this thread I might have a closer look at the Homebase kitchens. I'm loathe to use B&Q as we tried to buy bathrooms from them a few years ago and ended up cancelling the entire order as they couldn't deliver anything when they promised, this appears to be an ongoing complaint about them.

I agree you should try and get your appliances separately. I searched for Which best buys in my budget then bought from AOL and John Lewis (neff). Units from DIY Kitchens, worktop bamboo laminate from home base, floor vinyl from Harvey Maria (Cath Kidston design), tiles from Walls and Floors online. Total was about 7k. We ripped out the old kitchen ourselves!

Ripping the old kitchen out by yourselves is very satisfying! We found the filth of decades on top of cupboards and down behind the cooker. Not ours, may I add!
I'd be scared to do any structural work, though. Hidden wiring, plumbing and supporting walls are not a fun prospect...

We did ours last year, also in Scotland but not quite as rural as you sound but our only choice was really B&Q or Wickes... didn't fancy a 4 hr drive to IKea when we forgot everything.

5x3, fully re-plastered, new electrics and plumbing (done by professionals) - about £1,200 for that.

Then new wall and floor units and work tops and laminate flooring all from B&Q - this work we did ourselves (kitchen units are really easy to build an B&Q have videos online) - about £2,000

And then at least 2 weeks of your time to rip out and put back in...

It looks significantly more expensive than the money we spent even if I do say so myself

we had our kitchen totally redone last year and we went with wickes. I cannot recommend them highly enough. the wickes designer at our local store came to the house to measure up etc, then we went in store to go through the computer design to see what it would look like.

we started with an 8k estimate when the guy first came round but that was based on the best cupboard doors and worktop. by the time we'd gone through everything in the store the final cost was 4,700 fitted.

We chose Milton Grey, its still on their website. Looks lovely once fitted and we are very happy with the final kitchen.

wickes just use local contract fitters, but the lads were brilliant. It always seems crazy to me when I see the cost they charge , its almost half the cost of the total bill but theres no way I could have done it and they were worth every penny. cost included them ripping the old one out (half a days work) and fitting the new one (2 days). They even managed to cut the worktops in a way that we had a complete section unused which wickes refunded no questions asked (£200 back).

One thing I would say is the fitters who work for both wickes and bnq said if they were buying a kitchen theyd never use bnq. The quality of the cupboard carcass are really cheap compared to the wickes ones and they said they hated getting a booking for a bnq kitchen because they always have problems with the quality of what they have to fit.

the price didn't include the floor, I put down a laminate floor myself.

and it also didn't include any electric work (connecting up the oven etc) and plumbing (gas connection for the hob). The wickes fitters could do it but they actually advised me to get my own sorted if I knew someone. The fitters have to charge the standard wickes fees, so an example was the wickes fee for d/c the gas hob and r/c the new one with an isolation switch etc is a whopping £145, I paid my plumber and leccy about £30 each instead!

I can post some pics if you want.

hope that helps.

Pics would be great little thanks!

Haven't got our quote from Howdens yet. Our main issue is it's the only place close by that does the design service and has any kind of show room. If it's an astronomical price we'll have to look elsewhere though

I don't understand how some of you are getting the materials for so little??!

I'm going with Ikea, which seems to be rock-bottom in terms of costs, and I can't get it to come out below £10k. And that's not even with especially expensive appliances or fancy worktops or anything.

What on earth am I missing?

if you can do enough DIY to wield a saw, a drill and a screwdriver competently, you can fit a kitchen. You can get cabinets for a couple of hundred pounds or less, you can buy a piece of laminate worktop for £30.

Any DIY shed will have a pile of chipped or scratched things in a dusty corner, selling at firewood prices.

Fancy internal fittings are more fiddly than standing a row of units on the floor and lying a work surface on top.

It's just more wearisome than paying someone else, and many people are lucky enough not to have to hunt around for frugal ways of doing things.

I've been in clearance merchants, stacked up to the roof with kitchen unit doors and worktops. You might have to clamber about, and carry home the stuff you want, and some of it might be seconds or damaged if it has been piled up in a warehouse.

You might miss out on being able to brag to your chums what a lot of money you spent.

Sometimes cheap stuff is cheap for a reason.

Some examples. I have no opinion on quality of value of these, and I make no recommendation. Please don't cut your fingers off, and don't assume that your web-developer or banker DH was born with woodworking skills.

www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Worktop-High-Definition-Black-Matt-2000-x-600-x-28-mm/p/213452

www.plumbworld.co.uk/stainless-steel-kitchen-sinks-7-0000

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kitchen-Carcass-Unit-Hi-Line-Double-Base-Cabinet-18mm-Back-100-Colours-/321165624012?var=&hash=item4ac6f682cc:m:mVIta5gJV2jUqp8AkRNj04w

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281254152755?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172406666488?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370399853160?var=640004717661&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151633676104?var=450842526570&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181913711539?var=481362512120&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271857494062?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Thanks pigletjohn - some wonderful links there!

I am happy to do fitting, it's more the materials costs. My units alone seem to be coming out at the same price as others are paying - from Ikea too - for an entire kitchen! Altogether, 2 x 4 metre rows of floor cupboards (plus one 4 metre wall row) + 8 m laminate worktop + sink + fancy tap + fancy extractor fan (which I need, it being open plan) + worktop lighting + appliances (just standard ones, nothing fancy) + flooring + tiles is totalling £10k.

I do need a lot of new appliances for mine, though - wondering if some aren't including that cost??

Look at DIY kitchens! There are several threads on here about them, people are generally very happy and they are cheaper than Ikea! The hassle is that you have to plan it yourself (or at least you did a year ago - might have changed now). That said, I managed it without cocking up too massively (forgot a couple of end panels for the wall cupboards). My kitchen is small though - about 3.5m long galley style.