Would I be making a mistake by not putting a bigger/expensive kitchen?

[mum2015]

I am planning on a large extension and looking at ways to save cost on things which arent really essential for me and thinking we can cut cost on kitchen. I would be happy with a basic functional kitchen on one wall or may be a bit L shape from ikea with laminate worktop, but based on overall size and price of house, people would expect it to have large mid-range kitchen with granite/quartz, island etc.

Would I be making a mistake by not putting a bigger/expensive kitchen to match the house? Would it get dated/old by the time we would come to sell(in 10-12 years) anyway?

After how many years do you think a kitchen starts to look dated due to wear and tear, fashion/style change, being just old and used up?

Do have a high quality DW in the kitchen. Who wants to walk around all the time with dirty dishes, pans and cutlery? I have two sinks and the DW is near one. The laundry room is for laundry and it is kept clear for that. Hanging space, tall broom cupboard, stacked washer and dryer, huge hand wash sink and - a wine fridge! I think a cheap kitchen is ok but not cheap work tops with round edges! Squared edges and worktops as deep as possible.

cheap and narrow worktop with round ages
that is what i have in current kitchen lol

Get accurate costings - most people underestimate the cost of everything. We renovated and extended our house a few years ago. We opted for Ikea kitchen units to allow us to spend more on quartz worktops and higher end appliances. You can do a combination of Ikea carcasses and have custom doors made if your budget allows.

I see wooden worktops as the cheap, I've run out of money option although many people seem to choose style over substance. I would rather go for laminate over wood for a worktop choice if I had a really tight budget or if I only wanted to tart up a property to sell on fairly quickly. Wood = mould and black water marks imho - it won't last 10 yrs so just don't! Howdens was completely disappointing when I did my kitchen costing research and realised that their limited range of appliances offered were the budget range of brands. I think that if you shop carefully, you can buy branded appliances at a reasonable cost. If you can spot a Miele/Neff/Franke appliance compared to a Lamona one, so can other people!

Going too cheap maybe a false economy - I doubt many people change their kitchens every decade.

We went with cheap appliances fencote on the basis that we'd get 2/3 years out of them then replace. Wickes kitchen and granite worktops from a local supplier. The granite and getting the layout right was definitely worth it (for us) - even if we end up replacing the kitchen I love the layout so would keep the granite.

My friend's husband is a joiner and fits kitchens all day every day- he reckons the ikea kitchens are as good quality as anything else he fits - the vast majority of them have the same mdf carcasses anyway, so I don't see any problem with going with the ikea ones 😊

Get it made by a carpenter. A good kitchen specialist one, that will spray the doors and he a good supplier for the carcass and draws. It will be a lot better quality than the Ikea one and a lot cheaper than a mid price range one

really good point about having the layout right so granite can be reused later if needed.

i often read about using ikea cabinets but get doors from somewhere else. Are ikea doors bad quality or people just dont want the kitchen to look like it is from ikea?

That wasn't my experience. I bought a flat in 2002. The previous owner installed a basic range Ikea kitchen in 2000. It survived me and then 11 years of tenants until I sold the flat last year. I have attached a photo of how it looked before I sold it - excuse the dodgy lino chosen by the lettings agent. I expect you would want to go for something a bit classier than this, but just wanted to vouch for their quality.

thanks for sharing your experience and picture. kitchen looks alright after so many uears of use.

dodgy lino!! i have that in bathroom and kitchen, which is just a sheet with wood print and isnt even stuck to the floor under it. at places it has been nailed down to stop from coming out and we paid half a million for this house. looks like whatever i get, would be massive upgrade for us

if i manage to up the budget, looking at options what would be better :
kitchen with say diy-kitchens + laminate worktop
or
kitchen from ikea+ some stone worktop

We have just had extension and went for grey ikea units with (non ikea) laminate worktops, we went for the most expensive laminate we came across (gloss mirror effect) but cost £650 vs thousands and thousands for stone/granite. We love it, and glad we went for 'high end' laminate vs ikeas which we felt were pretty uninspiring.

Note had to do a lot of research finding a laminate stockist where the sizing is deep enough for ikea units - we used a company 'top shape'

I prefer a cheap-ish but well planned kitchen to an expensive but useless one. I'd feel awful ripping out granite worktops if a 1 year old kitchen was unworkable for us. 10 years old, I'd care less.

Our current units were at least a decade old, when we moved in. We stuck with them and changed just the worktops (just B&Q's finiest - they've stayed really nice on top) and superficial fittings (eg knobs)because the doors themselves were lovely solid oak. They do now need replacing another 14 years on, but mostly because they've been trashed by a burst underground pipe!

And, honestly, decent laminate worktop lasts ages!

Ikea kitchens aren't standard UK sizes so I think replacing doors would be quite tricky? Also be aware that a lot of the anti-Ikea thing comes from fitters who don't like fitting them - apparently they don't have the same 'channels' at the back (totally making that up prolly) so it's more work for them. We did go into Ikea but tbh the staff were supremely unhelpful so we walked out and didn't get as far as pricing.

To answer your point about it looking like Ikea -- let's face it - if you look at how many people in their lives replace kitchens, then take out the people who just get the builder to source stuff, then take out people who don't really care about that level of detail, how many potential buyers are going to know it's Ikea?

For me, I'd be looking for 1) great layout, plenty of light 2) decent worktops 3) not terribly old fashioned kitchen in reasonable condition.

Laminates would only put me off if I couldn't afford to replace and that's a question for way down the line when you put the house on the market - you won't get 'the top' if ppl think there's work needing done, but if you're happy with that then fine.

I honestly think that the best solution for a kitchen worktop - in most cases - is laminate. Non-staining, hard wearing, replaceable, value for money and doesn't shatter every mug you so much as fumble whilst making a brew; it really is great stuff.

Yes, there are hideous, cheap-looking laminates. Ours is a green and black "stone" look with a rough texture dating from some time in the 80s with those classic round edges. It's being replaced along with the whole kitchen in a month's time, and guess what we're putting in? LAMINATE. No regrets.

I'd go diy kitchens and a decent laminate (that's what we are doing). I costed up at both and ikea was about £800 cheaper but you have to build the units and hang the doors yourself, plus there is a lot more choice of unit sizes with diy kitchens. Ikea are all 200, 400, 600 and 800 with the method kitchens, they used to have a much bigger range of units. Fitters don't like them so much because the don't have the service gap at the back so they have to modify the cupboard to fit your pipes and stuff.

Thinking about it, yes a neutral hardwearing kitchen, good layout and plenty of light will make me happy and will look alright with the house.

I should get this worry out of my mind that kitchen cost needs to be certain percentage of the overall house price.

We've done the same Yorkshire; any more money we could save we'd only have to pay the fitter to build the cabinets, but we're already saving 2k going to DIY Kicthens anyway so we're happy!