If you had £40,000 to spend on a kitchen ?

[sosew]

Where would you go ?

Excluding appliances, floor and any building work. It's not a huge room (3.3M by 5m) basically a large galley so no room for an island. I was thinking we would look at a local firm (we're in London) as we'd like deeper than normal cabinets so we can add in a larder area and make the most of the wide space, but I'm nervous that this will blow the budget.

@Iggly

Go and visit some local kitchen designers. Not any chains. They’ll give you some great ideas tbh.

Definitely. I had a strong idea of the layout I wanted which included keeping my existing American fridge freezer. The designer actually drew the kitchen plan "I wanted" and also the kitchen he thought "I needed" and then another version of each with new integrated fridge and freezer. He was right. I went with his alternative plan and ditched the big FF and I love the final layout. It really works

I would have a look at Schmidt which are excellent kitchens and will come in below budget and also at Hacker. Both excellent for modern. Not bespoke, but both gorgeous and excellent quality kitchens

@Noextremes2017

Never ceases to amaze me what people think is reasonable to spend on a kitchen. But if you have money to burn I suppose...

What a ridiculous comment. You know nothing about the OPs circumstances. Plus, if its a £1m+ house, you're hardly going to put a £3k IKEA kitchen in it. Your comment is nothing more than borne out of sheer envy.

@HazelWong around here I can think of three companies off the top of my head who will completely manage a kitchen refurb, from planning to completion, including building work. The kitchens tend to be in the sort of mid-level semi-bespoke kind of style, so mostly off the shelf with some additional bits modified by the fitters. They’re nice kitchens but this option adds a premium. If you want truly bespoke the most popular route here is to sort everything separately yourselves. Adds to the headache dealing with different people, but the kitchen company make and install the cabinetry and nothing else.

@ILoveAnOwl

2 little ducks do beautiful kitchens. They're freestanding as well so should you ever have to move you can just take it with you.

Advertising?

Plus, who tf would actually take their kitchen with them? Can you imagine buying a house and moving in to find that there's no actual kitchen.

Those who say to put the money towards an extension... have you looked into how much extensions cost, especially in London? We looked at doing an extension going about 4m out. The building work without VAT and without sliding doors or the kitchen units themselves or any roof lanterns or electrical work was quoted at about 70 to 80k. Add to that all the other costs and you can easily spend £120-150k.

if its a £1m+ house, you're hardly going to put a £3k IKEA kitchen in it.

This is key. The kitchen has to “match” the house. People talk about a kitchen as a depreciating asset...but equally, a poor one can devalue a house as well. And you can absolutely tell the difference between even top of the range Howdens (which is pretty decent quality) or something bespoke.

Thanks all.

I like the stainless steel, but we have a stainless steel
Kitchen at present and it looks lovely for about a nanosecond and then the kids touch it.

Extension isn't an option for the kitchen but we do plan to extend in the future, and yes we've been told it will cost £150k.

Also I am of course open to spending less, but this is what we can spend up to as I've mentioned, the space is a little awkward (a wide galley, that flows into two other rooms) so we want to have extra wide work surfaces to accommodate more storage. We also need to maximise storage, so I think we need bespoke.

We put our last kitchen in ourselves (from Ikea) and for 10k including Neff cooker etc but now we have kids I can't see how we could do this without having a breakdown !!! And certainly not to the level I would want !

@Sophoa

I would have a look at Schmidt which are excellent kitchens and will come in below budget and also at Hacker. Both excellent for modern. Not bespoke, but both gorgeous and excellent quality kitchens

@Sophoa: would you know the starting budget for Schmidt? There is a showroom 5 minutes walk from where I live. I would like to get a quote once I receive the design from Karen from OnePlan but if Schmidt starting prices are too high I would not want to waste their time. We have a very small kitchen, 2 m x 3 m. We have Neptune on the same road and I like that they put starting prices on their website.

Top of my list without talking styles would be polished concrete for the flooring with underfloor heating, really good lighting, quartz worktops and tiling.

That'll soon eat into your budget.

You've worked for it, you're going to live in it. Some people spend 40k on a car so enjoy spending it on what YOU want to...theres no need to justify your choices to anyone.

I know that Nobilia do a good stainless steel 'look' kitchen. It was the best we looked at without it being that awful scratched effect. I believe they will also build you cabinets to your prescribed depth, but it might be a 600mm max though. They do have lots of other finishes too.

www.kinteriorskitchens.co.uk/german-kitchens/nobilia/all/inox

@Lily7050 Are you in Wimbledon? If you’re looking at modern German kitchens, you could also check out InToto (a 15min drive away) - they do really nice midrange German kitchens that don’t cost a bomb.

We used James Yeo - great kitchen and a really nice guy to work with.

If its modern look you are after we also looked at this a year ago.
We went with Pronorm in the end, larger kitchen than yours and high end appliances and came in well under your budget with installation. We also took quotes from Hacker (also nice but just preferred the Pronorm look) and Poggenpohl ( very uninspiring, twice the price, and our previous flat had a 6 year old Poggenpohl kitchen that was falling apart with minimal use). The best design wise was Bulthaup which gave us an excellent design with really interesting features. Their kitchen was also noticeably better quality than then others. We didn't go with them as their quote was double the Pronorm one and we decided it wasn't worth it but they might be worth looking at too.

@PickAChew That one is amazing! I'll add the wine rack to my lottery wish list.

Neptune or DeVol make lovely kitchens and should be in that budget.

We have a Next 125 kitchen almost! finished in our extension. Sleek & innovative storage with options that aren't too kitcheny. We have a mixture of ceramic & laminate doors and ceramic worktop with some wood. It's Schuller's high end brand and so far I'm very happy with it. Worth a look at their website & then if you like that see if there's a local dealer.

@Decentsalnotime & @Faffandahalf --baffling perhaps but I just double checked with my husband and we spent £16k for the supplies and labour.

I guess we just got a really good deal? The flat isn't particularly huge (downstairs is about 440 sq ft) and the cabinets are from Wickes, but all the countertops/floors are solid wood and everything has a great finish I think. Really nice and tidy builder too... maybe we just got lucky?!! :)

Shame posters didn't include a pic of their posh kitchens

Does that include VAT?