How much to do a kitchen and a bathroom?

[lettie9]

I received some great advice on my other thread about a new kitchen, but now need some help with costing please 💰

London zone 3 FYI.

Mid-range kitchen from say Wren, 12 units, with stone top and solid wood units. Range cooker, dishwasher, fridge. How much for all this plus installation?

Mid-range bathroom. Bath and shower, sink, toilet - fairly standard set from say Victoria Plum. How much for suite and installation?

We last had work like this done over five years ago, so can't really remember, plus prices have gone up I'm sure.

Thank you!

Our large en suite was done last year and cost about £14k all in. Thats for ripping out, bath with surround, large double shower with bespoke shower cubicle, double vanity, japanese bidet toilet, nice tiling floor to ceiling (which isn't actually my preference but was the best option due to the design and layout), underfloor heating, decent towel rail, sinks, brushed brass fittings, mirrors and lighting.

Mine was Wickes for both and they were excellent.

@HasaDigaEebowai I was told that solid wood lasts longer (makes sense) and you can repaint later more easily. Are you suggesting composite units with solid wood doors? Would somewhere like Wren do that? A PP suggested IKEA units with solid wood doors from elsewhere, but that makes me nervous.

I don't know why that would make you nervous really. Things date and the reality is that unless you choose a very classic style, whatever you pick will need replacing after say 15-20 years. Ikea kitchen units have a 25 year warranty. How much is your house worth?

Im just taking out an ikea kitchen and I'm reusing all of the base units in our pantry and laundry room (they are as good as new after 8.5 years) and just repainting the doors (which are wooden frames with wood veneered flat panel centres).

I'm using Handmade Kitchens of Christchurch for the new replacement kitchen. They have solid wood doors and frames and oak veneered mdf boxes.

Veneer is a thin layer of wood applied on top of a more stable base material. It will therefore paint in exactly the same way as solid wood.

I'm nervous about mixing, in case of compatibility issues. I don't want the stress of finding out the solid wood doors from company x don't fit exactly the IKEA units.

Im not advocating that approach particularly, just saying that you don't need to find a supplier who uses solid wood carcasses (since most don't)

We are doing the IKEA cabinets carcasses mixed with solid doors and a solid standalone pantry. Worktop from elsewhere also. Saving a small fortune.
They all fit fine as you just get the IKEA door dimensions and match them - we have a local carpenter making them. He says he does similar often.

Our current kitchen is about 40 years old. Cabinets aren’t solid wood either, and they are fine tbh ( just all wrong size for new layout), it’s the doors than have peeled back mainly and ancient.

IKEA carcasses aren't solid wood though, they're composite MDF.

I'd say £30k too - 20-22k for the kitchen plus appliances and 8-10k for the bathroom.

You could blow this out of the water with a 10k range cooker or vanity unit of course!

I used Plumb World for a previous bathroom and was very impressed with the quality. It was 15 years ago though so a lot could have changed in terms of the products they offer and their quality.

Interesting @Caspianberg are your solid doors custom made by the carpenter then, or are there shops that sell them specifically?

@HasaDigaEebowai

The ikea wooden worktops might not be solid wood but they are real wood veneers rather than laminate. We had expensive american black walnut solid worktops in our kitchen and ikea veneered walnut worktops in our utility and you would honestly not notice the difference.

I'm doing a very high end renovation at the moment and Im using them again in our boot room.

They definitely do solid wood worktops. I’ve bought several from IKEA. And I’ve also had specially made from another supplier. I rate IKEA kitchens very highly. I’m about to do another kitchen and I’ll be using IKEA for part of it. I’ll use somewhere else for the worktop etc.

@Waspie absolutely re range. I'm having second thoughts now about the range. Context is I had always wanted an Aga but that's not practical, so we said we'd get a range that looked like one. They're very expensive and also enormous though.

It would be good if there was a way to get a normal oven now, and replace with range later... though I don't know how you'd do that without having to dismantle the entire kitchen.

Personally I prefer a decent eye level Neff oven but my current kitchen has a Britannia range cooker and I've got used to it. It's certainly a quality product but I'm looking at over £5k to replace like for like. I could get a decent Neff double oven plus 5 ring induction hob for £2k and save £3k!

It's definitely hard to swap one for the other later without redoing the whole kitchen.

My parents want to swap out their under counter oven and old gas hob for an eye level oven (so they don't have to bend down so much) and induction hob and I've been trying to come up with a way of doing it without removing the whole run of units. I haven't managed to work out a way to do it yet.

@lettie9 - ours are being custom made. But if you look online there slots of places in uk than make solid doors for IKEA cabinets ie
superfront.com/uk/

Waspie I have a stupid question - what goes under the hobs then if the oven is eye level? And does the oven go next to the hobs?

www.shakerdoors.co.uk/shaker-doors-for-ikea-kitchens-cabinets/

@lettie9

Waspie I have a stupid question - what goes under the hobs then if the oven is eye level? And does the oven go next to the hobs?

Pan drawers under the hob. Oven doesn’t have to go next to the hob, no. Depends on what layout works best in your kitchen.

@lettie9

Waspie I have a stupid question - what goes under the hobs then if the oven is eye level? And does the oven go next to the hobs?

Our double neff oven is built into the wall. On our kitchen island is an induction job, under the job are big wide drawers for whatever you want to store in them.

*hob not job!!

We've had our bathroom and kitchen done in the last six months - Wren kitchen and Wickes bathroom. Not stone worktops, tech board instead of tiles, eye level oven, five ring hob and new dishwasher; bathroom has built in vanity and no bath but a beautiful big shower with sliding screen door.

We've paid about £25k all in, including fitting for both. That does include fitting LVT flooring also.

I can't recommend Wren to be honest... The quality of the units is fine. Their customer service is awful.

Yeah I'd say minimum £30k minimum really for a 'nice but not luxurious' kitchen and bathroom refit.

Obvs depends on what you go for - full tile/half tile, fancy appliances, UFH etc.

@ProcrastinationIsMySuperPower thank you for that. Could I ask please how was customer service awful? Like you couldn't get through to them on the phone?

As PPs have said there are numerous companies who manufacture doors specifically in Ikea sizes - Shaker Doors only do MDF nowadays, but I want grain visible so am planning to use Naked Doors for mine. Look at Custom Fronts too, they have some lovely contemporary styles, and I hear good things about Husk and Plykea as well.

All of those are UK based, Superfront has some beautiful styles but is in Sweden, Noremax is Dutch I think (although just discovered they have a showroom in London which is interesting) - Reform CPH is in Copenhagen.

Both Naked Doors and Foxstow/Shaker Doors can mix and match Ikea doors with custom cabinets if you want eg a fancy larder cupboard like I do. The other companies I've mentioned are doors only AFAIK.

Sorry I should clarify - the non-UK based companies I mentioned will all ship to here, only there may be longer lead times involved.

We had a single drawer and then 2 pan drawers under the oven and same under the hob plus a cupboard above the oven. Our old kitchen wasn't enormous (3.5m x 5m) so it was a good use of space.