Anyone recently installed a new kitchen?

[Jasper]

This is still in the realms of fantasy for me right now, but I do take ages to make up my mind about a major purchase! I am looking to refit my kitchen at some point in the next year probably. I have already had lots of great advice here regards getting an aga or similar and that is definately a major part of the plan.. Basically I want a medium priced kitchen (Better than B&Q's cheapest and nowhere near Smallbone and Devises!). Nothing too fancy, and I won't be buying any new fitted appliances. I have seen one I quite like at Magnet. Also have looked in IKEA.They seem reasonably priced but it is hard to tell if they will fall apart after a short time.It all seems very complicated, working out what you want to put where etc. and of course it is an expensive decision you will haev to live with for a very long time.
Anyone been through all this recently and got any advice and recomendations?

John Lewis of Hungerford - anyone got experience? I don't think they are anything to do with the John Lewis department store but correct me if I am wrong.
Saw their kitchens in Debenhams in Glasgow today and they looked absolutely fantastic. Anyone got one? Viv is this the John Lewis kitchen you meant?

Jasper, Sorry don't know John Lewis of Hungerford (even thought we do visit there often it only being 45mins from home) no our kitchen was from the department store. Hows the hunt going?

Jasper, no its not connected with THE John Lewis, my mum has experience of them, and loves them, I see the brochure at her house, and have my eye on a lovely big kitchen table - just need a room for it to go in really.

Anyone have granite worktops? Im thinking of getting them but have no idea as to cost.

Granite is expensive (about £300 a metre) but lasts forever and as you probably know is virtually impossible to scratch or stain. We have granite and stainless steel work surfaces and I would heartily recommend both. They are really easy to clean and its great to be able to put really hot things on it and unlike wood, you don't have to worry abou it getting wet.

There is an alternative to granite called Corian - your kitchen company or supplier should be able to get hold of the info. Basically, its man-made but has most of the properties of granite - you can put hot things on it, its hardwearing, looks great, you can have the sink moulded in (the same or a different colour) so there are no yucky joins where all the dirt collects. If it should ever get damaged you just rub it gently with fine-grade sandpaper and then buff it up. Brilliant - and cheaper than granite, which suited my budget better!

I knew someone who had granite, which she loved. The downside was that anything she dropped, such as her good china, ended up broken, as it's so hard!

We have granite worktops, as well as all the other points mentioned, they look wonderful! Beware though - installing granite work surfaces will make your kitchen installation longer. They basically have to stop work on the kitchen to enable the granite to be templated, cut and installed. Once this is done, the rest of the kitchen installation takes place. Our kitchen supplier cocked up the granite side not once, not twice but three times (!!!) - this held up completion of our kitchen by a whole month! The end result is great though. Bearing in mind the trouble and the cost (high), my advice would be not to bother unless it's a house you plan to spend a number of years in. BTW, they are easy to clean, but smears do show up, so need to be dried off quite carefully to avoid cloth drag marks and smears. The sparkle is quite something though!

We've got a black granite called Galaxy over light oak units and I really like it. Don't contemplate buying stainless steel with children, my fridge is always covered in streaks and hand prints. R.

Viv, the hunt has slowed down as it is just a theoretical one now. The aga is ordered for Jan 16th and so we don't have any money to do the rest of the kitchen as well just now. Last night we removed a wall of old units to make way for buiding a concrete plinth for the aga (it's a complicated business)
The John Lewis of Hungerford range ( they have a website) do corian worktops as suggested by Bee. I was really impressed with their kitchens. IKEA still seem very good value, if more hassle.
Anyone got a tiled worksurface? That's what John Lewis recommend. I had never though of it bit it looked wonderful in the showroom. I wondered if red wine etc. might stain the grout or if it was a special grout.

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As long as you get brushed rather than polished stainless steel for worktops it will be fine and won't show up hand prints and so on.

Jasper - we have a small tiled section which covers the small induction hob we use when the AGA is off. It's on a piece of wood which we can lift off when we are using the hob. It does mark but every now and then I give it a good clean with a toothbrush and bleach-based stuff. not sure I would recommend it for full-time use, however, I reckon it would soon build up stains.

Good luck with the Corian. I am a complete fan of it.

Has anyone got a Magnet kitchen - my mum's got her eye on one and we are wondering what they're service/ fitting is like?

what olor would you put on walls and floor if you had like a medium oak kitchen unit, the kitchen goes through to dining rrom and dont want it to be too dark but dont know if to make a feature of a wall or not either