New Kitchen - where do I start?!

[smeerf]

My partner and I recently bought our first house. It's a small 70s ex council 2 bed and the kitchen is absolutely miniscule (and hasn't been replaced since the 80s).

As I'm on maternity leave, it's fallen on me to start the ball rolling with getting the kitchen done, but I really don't know where to start! We need a clever design to maximise the space.

My only experience of getting a new kitchen is when my parents did theirs when I was at school - I remember a trip to MFI with a diagram of the room on graph paper. I'm assuming it's a similar process now, except that the design is done on the computer?

Where should I go to get quotes and a design drawn up? The only places I can think of are Magnet or Ikea but I've heard Magnet is overpriced and Ikea don't do a wide range of cupboard sizes, which I imagine I'll need due to the small size and tricky layout.

Also everything needs doing in that room - ceilings replastered, floor tiles redone (the tiling also extends into the hallway) etc. Are these things that the installers do, or will I need to arrange these separately myself?

Any advice would be greatfully received.

I found a building and maintenance company with a good rep locally and got them to fit kitchen. They also did all the decorating and necessary plumbing and electrics. Where you buy the kitchen from depends on your budget. I had mine recently from benchmarx and spent 4k on kitchen and then extra on top for the appliances. Fitting wss around 2.4 plus vat.

I'd have a look on Pinterest for small kitchen ideas . Have a look at DIY kitchens for some ranges.
As for the work itself you can get a company to do the whole lot. If you are confident then you could organise the trades yourself it will be cheaper.

Ring a few kitchen companies and ask them to come out and design the kitchen then go from there

Cansu... show us your kitchen please!

My advice would be to think about what you don't like about your current layout and things that can be changed. If it's a small space then you may be limited with things like where the plumbing and stuff can go.
When we did ours I hated that we onky had one decent sized bit of worktop, fine if only one of us is working in there but when there was 2 of us dh would inevitably use the bit I wanted in front of the kettle or something so our new one has 2 long stretches of worktop. I also had in my head things that I definitely wanted (a dishwasher) and things I would be more flexible on (pull out larder) depending on the design and costs. We ended up getting ours from DIY Kitchens and it cost about 3.5k for the kitchen and worktop and I shopped around for appliances and stuff.
I know that some people have used concept planners (there is one on here called oneplanonhouzz) and then take the design to various different kitchen companies to get a comparable price for the same design, of course you would have to pay for the design rather than a free one from each place that take a few hours each time.

Actually my advice would be live with it for 6 months! I really think you can make some big mistakes if you start renovating when you move in. Get to know the space, the light, how you live in the house first. It’s a huge pain (we’ve been here since February and only just getting our plans drawn up now, but they have changed hugely from what we initially wanted). Plus designing a kitchen is loads of fun!! Get on Pinterest and ikea kitchen planner and start dreaming :)

Homebase have a design service you just need basic measurements. Cheaper than Magnet but same kitchen company for at least some of kitchens, found out when phoned up and they answered Magnet. It's free and they give you advice like fire regs etc. Often offers on their kitchen range. I would go with light colour if its small.

Some installers will do everything, you negotiate that with them.