Please help me choose suitable kitchen make for large period house

[rollonholiday]

We are nearing the end of large house refurbishment of a period property and we need to design and buy a large kitchen and separate pantry and separate utility room.

I am at a bit of a loss to who to go to because the budget will not stretch to Tom Howley etc for the size we need in 3 rooms but I am being advised that Howdens, Magnet or similar is no good for the house and will affect resale.

I am looking for a more traditional kitchen does anyone have suggestions of similar kitchens they may have installed.

Thank you.

DIY kitchens? It's what we put in ours. They are solid wood.

We haven't had it fitted yet, but we went for Handmade Kitchens of Christchurch. They do a 50% sale twice a year. We have paid £11k in the sale for the cabinets for a large kitchen.

Worth taking a look at their gallery to see if it's something you like handmadekitchensofchristchurch.co.uk/top-50-gallery

I would take a look at used sites like used kitchen exchange. We just bought a huge second hand Mark Wilkinson kitchen with appliances for a fraction of the price new. It was only a couple of years old and from the looks of it was barely used.

Depends how long you plan to live there. A cheap kitchen will affect resale if you sell immediately. But if you’re planning to live there for 10 years, whatever kitchen you pick will need replacing by the time you sell anyway.

If you’re flipping the house, I’d honestly leave the kitchen empty and let the buyer put a decent kitchen in. What is your budget?

Location? Type and age of house? Some period houses can't have fitted kitchens so your first question might be whether you want fitted or free-standing. If free-standing is an option you might get more bang for buck.

We’ve renovated 6 times over 35 years. Had everything from handmade fitted to off the shelf.
Cooke and Lewis at B&Q has proven the best by far. We’re selling up again and after 14 years it looks as good as new. Fairly timeless, everyone in and out of the house recently (agents, trades people, etc.) have commented on what a great kitchen the house has.
Similar to you, 5 bed Edwardian detached.

if proper country then you need either to go traditional or very high end contemporary like buithaup and you can’t afford that.For traditional martin Moore are good. Not sure what their sales are like. Handmade kitchens of Christchurch would be good. If it is a smallish house (less than 5k sq ft) you may get away with John Lewis of hungerfotd particularly in the utility. Or get a traditional but good quality local joiner to do a proper kitchen. Stay away from mark wilkinson which has a Surrey/essex/bucks/golf course reputation and will put country people off.

The pantry does not need a kitchen company, it needs a joiner to install a large deep (60cm) wide slate shelf at about 650mm off the floor (to fit bags of dog food, sacks of potatoes etc under) and then simple wooden shelves above to your design, and it needs to have good ventilation and be on the north side of the house.

I've never had one, but i do think devol kitchens look amazing.

A local company. We have done this twice in two separate areas. Our handmade solid wood in frame kitchen cost around 20k.

I had a 500 year old cottage and put in a shaker style kitchen from a company in Wiltshire called Cheverell Wood. It cost £35k all in with all the appliances (big American fridge freezer, matching range, wine fridge, dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer, hot water tap, microwave). It was hand built in oak, painted a farrow and ball colour and had granite worktops. Included an island, and pantry cupboards, butler sink etc.

My next door neighbours got a Tom Howley kitchen, about the same size, cost £100k. Go to an independent kitchen company and get some quotes, you might be pleasantly surprised.

I've done a lot of research recently on kitchens. I live in a listed townhouse. The kitchen we need is reasonably small so I've gone for a local company who do bespoke joinery. We looked at DeVOL and Neptune but decided that they wouldn't really work in the space (low ceilings, wonky walls, creative storage solutions required). I think if I had a large room with no constraints then DeVOL would have been top of my list. Obviously it's £££!!
However, this company (see below) seems to make cabinets of similar quality but lower cost. So might be worth a look:

paintedkitchen.co.uk/pages/about-us

This is all great advice. Thank you.

We are on Hertfordshire/Essex/North London borders so if anyone can suggest an independent kitchen maker that will come this far I would be very grateful.

I like the DIY kitchens but architect adamant we need to go for something more upmarket to reflect the grandeur of the house or it will put sellers off when we go to sell. I am not a snob and a total amateur when it comes to kitchens so I am at a loss about this all.

I would investigate local bespoke companies. I bet there will be skilled carpenters in your area who can produce exactly what you want for much less than a brand.

The one thing I would say is make sure you do know what you want before approaching a local joiner. When I say that, I mean the features that differentiate a DIY kitchen from a DeVOL kitchen. Things like the drawers being made of oak and having dovetail joints. The cupboards having butt hinges. The cornicing and details that set it apart from cheaper looking kitchens.
Also, it might be worth really thinking about the design you want in terms of appliance locations and types of cabinetry.
Although I found that local companies can make you anything, sometimes they don't have the design experience to design the kitchen really well in terms of function without input.
Good luck! 😄

Bespoke kitchen by a carpenter a friend had built but her partner is an architect so they designed it together. It's stunning even unfinished. Still waiting for the wall cupboards. It's also been a lot cheaper.

Deffo look at independent kitchen companies.
What area are you in more precisely plz?

We used handmade kitchens of christchurch. They have dovetail joint fully wood etc. We got them all blank and will be adding handles from devol. Essentially we are trying to get a devol look for 1/6th of the price.

@Gymnoob great plan! 😄

Your architect is talking out of his arse. You go for DIY kitchens and then go for more expensive finishing and work surfaces. That’s what our recommended.

Would also recommend HMKC. We've put in 2 in our last renovations and are about to do a third. The quartz fitters said they expected the units in our last kitchen/utility to have cost £70k (Tom Howley style). In fact they were £15k plus fitting/painting. You can get a bespoke kitchen for a very good price although it's more effort coordinating things.

The Helmsley of DIY kitchens is solid wood and stunning and you'd be hard pressed to tell it apart from more expensive kitchens

www.diy-kitchens.com/kitchens/helmsley-white/details/

I don't have your size house at all (smaller) but my architect recommended Telese Bespoke Joinery to me in 2020. I'm edge of London/ beginning of Essex so I know they cover your area. May not be to your taste but a quick search shows an Instagram and Facebook presence so may be worth a conversation.

I mean it depends how much your house is worth but i think your architect is talking crap unless your house is worth mega bucks

I am in your neck of the woods, when we were house hunting a couple of years ago we were looking up to the £1.7/1.8m mark and I would have been fucking delighted to view a house with a nice solid wood shaker style DIYkitchen.
half the houses we saw had kitchens that looked good online but were laminate faux quartz worktops 🥴 and low/med end howdens/wickes units, the rest had black quartz and medium or dark wood fitted circa 2000s….

we ended up buying one with a crap kitchen and ripping it out. We actually used diy for both our kitchen and utility. I think we bought the Helmsley? In one of their standard colours.
We bought fancy handles separately and also sourced our own quartz to get a higher spec look.

we used The Marble Group they are in Hatfield and are THE BUSINESS.
I loved them. we went out and hand picked our sheets and so got ones where the marbling was in the right parts to compliment the specific worktop shape & minimise joins ours are basically invisible. The fitter was an absolute pro.

I would have suggested British Standard (the cheaper line from Plain English) but I just looked and they’ve just announced they are closing. They are selling some display which might be worth checking out? We have a BSK and in my opinion it looks well made and feels more expensive than Devol.

As replicated above, I think your architect is up his own *!%^, get a nice solid wood kitchen and make it your own with worktops, handles and butt hinges etc. Your architect will be getting a lot of commission from another company. DIY kitchens new Bramley (https://www.diy-kitchens.com/kitchens/bramley-cobham-blue/details/) kitchen looks drop dead gorgeous and would fit in a period properrty.