KItchens - what differentiates the Tom of the kitchen world from the others?

[WellTidy]

I keep seeing homes on instagram with gorgeous tom howley kitchens. Usually a beautiful island, floor to ceiling larders and painted cupboards in two coordinating colours. They look stunning.

I’ve never replaced a kitchen, but ours needs it now. We have an Edwardian house, and are hoping to knock through our dining room, utility room and kitchen to make a better configured eat in kitchen with sitting area and carve out a better configured utility room.

I would like shaker style.

So, what is the difference (apart from the cost!) between something like tom howley and a shaker style low cost or mid range? I am assuming it is the quality of the wood, but is it better design?

The difference will be down to the way the kitchen is made, as you say the quality and type of materials, plus Tom Howley say they are bespoke on their website, which implies that the kitchen is made to your individual requirements.

Send off for some brochures! :)

Cotteswood do similar and Plain English might suit you too. Bespoke kitchens are made to fit! They can make units for difficult spaces. My kitchen is from Cotteswood and is exactly as you describe but not sure if they are cheaper!

IMO the main difference between a bespoke mega £££££ kitchen and for example DIY Kitchens is all in the expertise of the fitter. An expensive kitchen can look worse than a cheap kitchen if it's badly designed and fitted.

A DIY Kitchens kitchen can look wow if it's expertly fitted with attention to all the little details that can otherwise ruin the final finish.

Not much in the actual kitchen imo. My sister had a beautiful TH kitchen and the units themselves were comparable to my third-of-the-price units (same material / thickness etc). I agree the bespoke elements and fitting make it look more expensive. Of course, people spending £££ on TH usually continue with the £££ spend on top of the range appliances / worktops / gadgets etc so the whole "impression" is high end.

The uper end tend to use ply with oak veneer for the carcass - much more expensive than the mfc and a better material.
they have the flexablity to make all doors to any size rather than off the shelf sizes.
That then means they can the also offer things off the pegs cant.
The things they can produce with handle cuts for internal drawers are and most of their work made on site and hand finished hence more £+
They can also do dovetail drawers at any depth/size where other off the shelf are brought in at 450mm depth.
runners are gen always the same - blum etc
they actually give a design like most bespoke rather than boxes placed
still a lot of £ notes though
ford or merc - both the same items but very diff in quality/finish

I don't think that there's much real difference if you've got a good kitchen fitter. The thing about spending lots of money on a top range kitchen in fashionable colours is how long will you keep it? Will it age/go out of fashion? I know two people that have had expensive (lovely) kitchens but got bored with them six or seven years later and replaced them..

I also ogle over the TH kitchens. We just got a quote from The Shaker Kitchen Company - £23K and the design was nothing special. I felt really disappointed as expected them to come up with little details or extras to make it special.

I meant to add - Tom Howley and most of the bespoke ones tend to customise unit sizes to fit the space. This looks so much better than a row of standard size carcasses plus an infill panel IMO. DIY Kitchens have a great range of sizes in their carcasses so we are now considering using these as cannot see a reason to go with the pricier options based on the service so far from the bespoke companies.

Genuine question- I don’t mean to be facetious. I keep hearing that a well fitted kitchen makes the difference regardless of the cost of the kitchen itself but How difficult can it be to fit a kitchen? Modern units are attached to the wall but have feet that can be moved up and down to get it square with the floor/wall/neighbouring cabinet. I don’t understand where the real skill is (but admittedly I’m clueless).

Genuine answer, Sowhatifisaycunt:

We planned and are in the middle of fitting DIY Kitchens cabinets. We visited the showroom and chose them because of the huge choice of carcass sizes (and we particularly liked the Stanbury) so we could fit the units to the available space and not have fillers like you often see on cheaper kitchens. We planned the whole thing using their online planning tool and graph paper. It took me a long time to get it right as it turned out to be quite complex with 3 corners and a peninsula.

I chose Stanbury Light Grey with grey carcasses and then was advised that Dove Grey was a better (perfect really) match with the grey carcasses which meant I could save money by having carcass material plinths, for example.

It is a challenge to fit it perfectly. We are experienced DIYers though not carpenters. Your spirit level is your best friend. Think 5 times, offer up 3 times then take a break. Do that all again then cut once. The corner posts have to be cut to fit and screwed, and sometimes you have to cut holes in the back of units for inconveniently placed pipes.

The levelling is not as simple as it might sound when you think about also levelling the units with the dishwasher door and other appliances. Also walls run out, floors are uneven, power points are in the wrong place. plumbing is in the wrong place or the pipes are too bulky to fit behind the service void so cupboard has to be hacked, gas meters to be custom built around.

The units are meant to come ready assembled and with the doors already attached but that hasn't been totally the case (see thread a week ago re how to fix bin door - we just couldn't fathom it but DIY rang on Sunday and talked us through which we thought was excellent customer service). We are going to custom paint the back of 3 open shelf units ourselves, which should make it a bit more unique to us. Though it looks pretty special already.

We went for white Ikea worktops as they are slim (28mm) and are fitting them ourselves. With a new range cooker, dishwasher, extractor, sink & taps, worktops and cabinets and good quality vinyl flooring it has cost just under £6,000 for a room approaching 4 metres x 3.5 metres. That included a couple of fancy units like the pull out bin unit with a drawer, a small pull out storage unit and a large larder cupboard. I think it will look a lot more expensive than that by the time we're finished. It looks great so far anyway.