Expensive or budget kitchen units?

[Falcon1]

Please help, I need to make a decision this weekend about kitchen units as our builder is due to start very soon.

I have fallen for the 1909 in frame slab door kitchen. Units online have quoted us for this at £10k. Much cheaper than it would be through a kitchen shop but still much more expensive than we had planned to spend. I'd like this kitchen with a quartz worktop, which again would be really expensive!

DH wants us to get the DIY Kitchens Carrera bespoke painted in F&B Downpipe - this would be around £3k. He reckons we can make it look expensive with 1909 handles. He also thinks we should get a wooden worktop as it's so much cheaper. All in, this would be a considerably cheaper way to go.

Our house was expensive and is in an expensive area. I'm worried that a cheap (er) kitchen will look out of place. Plus, this is our forever home - we need to be happy with the kitchen.

However, the option I want would mean no money left over to do anything else to the house for quite a while. And DH is of the opinion that the extra expensive is unnecessary. I'm really unsure as to whether he's right.

What to do?! Can a cheaper kitchen be dressed up? Would I not notice the units anyway once in? I'm usually the one that hates spending money but just love the look of the 1909 kitchen.

I think a cheaper kitchen well fitted with good appliances won't look 'cheap'

Good worktops and appliances will upgrade cheaper cabinets . Good design is the most important thing though .

Cheaper kitchen will look fine but don't go for wood. Get quartz. I have seen a very expensive kitchen with wood worktop after a few years it looks really tattered.

Thanks for your thoughts. Can I ask what you think of the DIY Kitchen Carrera? Reckon it could look good? All the picture of it have cheap looking handles, which doesn't help. Struggling to visualise how it could look.

Unless I've got the wrong style coming up it looks to be a totally different design to the 1909 one you mentioned

How about the cheaper units with a solid worktop? Composites aren't much more than wood. When you say wood, you don't mean laminate do you?

The 1909 is lovely, I love in-frame doors. I have an "in frame style" kitchen from Benchmarx.

It is soulrider. I want in frame, the Carrera is just plain slab. It would be a big compromise on my part to go with the latter, but the savings would be huge...

It is soulrider. I want in frame, the Carrera is just plain slab. It would be a big compromise on my part to go with the latter, but the savings would be huge...

I wouldn’t get a wooden worktop. They look lovely but having to regularly oil to keep it looking good and prevent stains would be a nightmare.
I would go for the cheaper kitchen with expensive handles.

SpamChoud - that is another option, getting a kitchen that looks like in frame but isn't. That would still be £7k though (from Units Online). Does yours look realistic? Can you tell it's not actually in frame? And does dirt get between the grooves? (Sorry if random question!)

And I mean oak worktop rather than laminate. We've had it before and liked it. Not too concerned about the maintenance but not convinced it would go brilliantly with the dark grey colour we want for the units.

DH regularly fits £50k+ kitchens and works with real quality materials and he said DIY Kitchens are fantastic. In fact, it's what we're having.

I think you'd regret the carerra, not because it's cheap but because it's not the style you like. Do you not like any of the painted in frame offerings from diy kitchens?

I love our oak worktop, we've only reoiled once in 6 years and it was massively cheaper than any other non laminate option - £300 for 6 m

DH hates the shaker look which all the DIY in frames are. The 1909 is the only slab one we could find. We both really like it, it's just the cost...

Going off-line now so won't be around for awhile but I would really value all your thoughts! Thanks for all those who have posted already.

Falcon - some of the doors are actually in-frame, but things like the pull-out larders are a solid slab with a groove. I did not realise this before buying it though, and the salesman did not see fit to point this out. Also the doors don't have visible hinges like a traditional in-frame, they are the usual hidden cabinet hinges.

I was worried about food in the grooves, but that hasn't been an issue at all.

What type of flooring are you going for? I think that can really make a difference. I used The Coloured Flooring Company. If my flooring's vinyl, I want it to look like vinyl, not an approximation of wood or stone.

We nearly went for the Carrera and then didn't. Have a good look at the customers' kitchens on the website in Carrera. Some look lovely, but to my eye some look a bit cheap. And I couldn't put my finger on how you make the difference. It might just be that I've painted a couple of old, cheap slab kitchens with melamine paint and changed handles in the past, and the Carrera reminded me of that look.

Anyway based on that, we decided our doors needed "something" - the newer glass-style gloss, or handleless or shaker or in-frame - it didn't really matter what, just something to give it some definition.

That said, cheaper units and expensive worktop would be the obvious compromise for you. In-frames seem massively overpriced to me.

Yeah I think the more expensive worktop is what is really more noticeable. A lovely undermount sink and great taps and decent looking appliances.

QuietlyQuaffing - that's how I feel about the Carrera, it just seems a bit...lacking. Can't get excited about it. What did you go with in the end?

We're getting a high quality oak floor, so that will look high end. Maybe a quartz worktop with the cheaper units is the way to go.

But then again OP, like you say, this is your forever home. If you can afford the one you really like, I'd do that.

We went with shaker so no good for you, but could have easily gone ?Altino? The glass-style gloss one. I'm not usually a fan of gloss but we both liked that style IRL in magnet and Wickes.

I would compromise on the units & go high end on the quartz worktop you want, and dress up with fancy handles, tap, sink, etc. DIY Kitchens' handles all look awful – naff and cheap and blah – and I think it makes their units look terrible when you see online, but if you get decent hardware from elsewhere it will look good.

It's the worktop & details, and good design and fitting, that matter. Even IKEA can look DeVOL with the right handles & worktop. (Not wood!) Ultimately a cupboard is a cupboard.

Burritofan - I completely agree about the handles, what is up with that?! Really cheapens the look.

Consensus seems to be for the cheaper units and quartz worktop. Must stop drooling over the 1909 kitchen...just felt our period property needed a more classic look and the 1909 seemed like a good option given DH's aversion to shaker. Sigh.

Pinterest is all well and good, but it does give you ideas above your budget!

Interesting what you say about taps Selbybear - we were planning to get cheapish ones

I've seen a carrera using end panels to frame the cabinets and it looked great. Possibly in their real kitchens? If not trawl #diykitchens on Instagram.

I love the inframe slab but I did think the 1909 looked a little plasticky in real life when I saw it at a show

If you have a good imagination, the two tone 50's style kitchen in the DIY showroom is technically an inframe slab kitchen and can be ordered in standard colours.