Anyone getting a new kitchen in 2020?

[skippy67]

If so, are you up for a support thread? I'm equally excited and terrified at all the decisions, I'll have to make!

@Mixmag in answer to you question 'how good is Karen'

Well, we gave her our room dimensions (she sends out a survey guide and a thorough questionnaire) she then came up with six totally different sketch designs for us that she talked us through over about an hour on a Tuesday evening, leaving us after to mull through ourselves, but said if we needed to ask anything further that night to just text and she'd answer ( ie well out of office hours) , she thought about stuff we never did, she's so logical and practical (she's so easy going to talk to).

We worked with her over the course of a Monday to Friday and she basically produced a pdf with everything we needed to shop around.

I would 100% recommend her. She's got over 30 years work of know how.

Much cheaper than lots of trades would be for a weeks work too.

It's a no brainier as your house is your biggest investment and you spend a lot on improvements and they have to be right, as you live with them for a long time.

Wehaveafloater sorry I meant that rhetorically, we also used Karen and we're thrilled to bits with the final design 😊😊😊

does Karen literally plan your kitchen space with units etc so you can plug it all in on day DIY kitchens and it’s good to go? I’m wanting to save money but nervous if design and buying on line. Thanks

Mumdone she does exactly that, I just emailed the pdf after to diykitchens and they prepared a full quote

Amazing!! What was the cost? Is it something you could do yourself using a high street design? Thanks

Mumdone I think I paid 450... Worth every penny IMO... She takes into account stuff a high st designer wouldn't like who lives there, your heights, what you like to cook if you cook lol, how you are using the space already etc... And she comes up with several designs before you choose your fave, I'll try and tag mine here for you. Alternatively for a freebie you could go round all the various high st kitchen retailers but most won't break down the unit sizes types on their quote now as they're wise to people using this to then go to places like diykitchens!

Fab. Thanks. Sounds great.

Here's a quick screenshot of some of the final pdf

Looks lovely. Thanks for sharing

That looks lovely!

Our kitchen was £575 and we added in other areas too at the same time at an incredibly reduced rate . But you can add in as many or few as you like . So you build the price to suit your needs . It's really really useful to see if you can fit in all the things you want to in other areas too. We did almost all of the ground floor. We omitted a couple of areas that we'd already done ( a bathroom and study /guest room and the garage ) so we paid about £810 for the rest of the space . (Not posting as way too outing!) But enabled us to buy the right size sofas and footstools and right size dining table etc and glazed and solid door storage cabinets in lounge and coat storage and a cleaners cupboard in the hallway.

Oh and utility that she reconfigured so we had one swing door into it from the hall and stairs, rather then going through two doors and through the kitchen to get there . She's so practical/logical !

Wehaveafloater wow your house sounds incredible! Love the idea of a hallway cleaning cupboard and a swing door, never heard of that before. She is amazing 👌

Have just had a quote from Ikea (used their 2 hour online planning service which was on a free offer (usually £45): 3 wall runs including 4 appliances and solid wood worktops- 4K - so I'm quite impressed having read through here.

Twillow that's really good 👌 I'd be snapping that up x

Bear in mind that Ikea don't have a space behind the backs of the cupboards for running pipes etc through, so the backs of the cupboard have to be cut out. This takes your fitter extra time/ causes hassle and you may have to pay more for fitting or even have trouble finding someone to fit an Ikea kitchen. I know that when we were looking for a kitchen fitter all of them wanted to know if we were planning to use Ikea and one of them said he wouldn't fit Ikea units that needed pipes etc to run through.

I'm looking at the DIY Kitchens painted Shaker-style doors. How do the painted doors hold up? How much touch-up paint did you buy when you bought the kitchen?

Any thoughts on mdf versus solid wood doors? Any differences in longevity and wear and tear?

I was told if you are painting it, it doesn't matter if MDF or wood as can to even tell? - however if you can afford good quality wood which is v expensive don't bother with tulip wood - dents so easy!

We’re hoping to finally get moving on an extension/ new kitchen soon. I’ll have to sit down with a cuppa and a notebook and go back over all the technical advice in this thread.

Dreading the whole thing- I have decision fatigue and haven’t yet managed to make a decision! DS has asd and I’ve been prepping him gently for months but it is going to be tough.

Our plans involve raising all appliances to eye level to minimise bending, drawers below counters, cupboards to the ceiling, a fridge and freezer separated by a huge larder and a lovely sociable island hob. Behind that we’ll have a laundry room with its own sink, space to fold and hang, and to iron and washer and drier raised to eye level.

Or not. I was hoping we might be able to get this done over a school holiday and just take ds away for the duration, but it’s looking like it will take about 4 months with no guarantees when it will begin. I really don’t know if I want this enough.

@Barbararara suggests you look at the 'surviving a building extension' thread on here. Lots of hard-won wisdom on there.

Apple can't do a click link from my iPad !

Well we've finally had one quote that doesn't give me a heart attack, but it's just the quote for the fitting with a list of disposal not included, tiling not included, electric work not included... So I'll need to ask more questions before I can actually compare the quotes.

One thing that I keep forgetting to ask people is whether painting is included... Is that normal? It's not been mentioned by anyone, is it normal for kitchen fitters to also do painting or is that something you get a painter in to do afterwards? Currently wondering if once it's been ripped out and the electrics sorted, we can paint it ourselves overnight before they come back 😅

Barbararara 4 months?!?!

Thanks @lightlypoached
Here’s the link for anyone else who might need it surviving building an extension

@PenelopeFlintstone yup! And I’ve asked around.

Wow. I'd have thought a whole house could be built in that time, although, to be honest, when I commented I hadn't noticed the word 'extension', only the word 'kitchen'

@polarisation the painting wasn’t included in any of our quotes.

Kitchen fitter advised to do painting after all units/tiling completed etc so it doesn’t get filthy during the fitting process.

Just posting to save place!!