Expensive kitchen or cheap alternative?

[Richard]

Hello All,

I thought I'd ask for your opinions on purchasing a new Kitchen.

I have been trying to decide if spashing out 8-10K on a new kitchen is really worthwhile or settling for an equivalent B and Q jobbie at a quarter of the price would be better or serve us just as well. I had kitchens Direct in not so long ago and they qouted me 14K which I thought was a complete Pi!s take and have had other qoutes from people like John Lewis and Nichols for around the 8-10K price mark. Today whilst browsing through B and Q which has become my second home recently I stumbled on their kitchen range and quite like the gloss white offering they have. The money for this in comparison seems like peanuts. One of my mates recently spent 32K on his kitchen!!!! it looks real impressive but Im not sure you couldn't of got something a third of that price which would of basically looked the same.

Can someone tell me if there really is that much difference in quality to justify spending 10K on a new kitchen. We plan to stay in the house for a long time and have plenty of other things that we could be spending our money on as we have basically renovated the whole downstairs thanks to a lot of help and advice from you folks.

My mrs was telling me that on one of the DIY programmes recently it was mentioned that the average proce paid for a kitchen is 2K.

What questions should I be asking?

Any comments greatly appreciated as usual.

Cheers

Richard

[Andy Hall]

I found that going to several local kitchen specialist firms (not the outfits like Kitchens Direct, Moben, etc.) and inviting ideas, discussing materials etc. was a good option.

One factor in deciding what you are willing to spend is in your expected stay in the house. If you were planning to move within a few years you probably wouldn't get much of a return on significant investment, although a reasonable quality kitchen can help to sell the property. If you anticipate staying a long time, then I think it's reasonable to look on the kitchen in terms of what you like, choose quality things and pay more.

I think that the average of £2k mentioned by a DIY program could be an average for a basic set of stuff for a small kitchen bought from a DIY shed. They don't have top of the range brands for appliances typically either.

For the kitchen, I specified hardwoods for doors and certain panels together with pre-made carcasses in thicker than normal material. Worktops are granite and natural stones have been used for walls and floor. Windows and doors were replaced with custom made oak versions. A complete rewire and replumbing exercise was done, utility room fitted out and an Aga installed. The end result was and is very pleasing. Cost was north of £10k and south of the amount spent by your friend.

I have just been completing a refit of my study. For that, I've used some of the doors and drawers from B&Q's Solid Oak range. Normally I would now have made the doors but needed to finish the job reasonably quickly and didn't have the machinery or time to do so. The quality of these doors isn't anywhere in the same league as the kitchen ones but they are not bad for what they are. I didn't bother with B&Q's carcasses because I felt that they are fairly poor quality, they actually let the doors down - so I made my own with cut panels, biscuit jointed etc. It is something of a custom job anyway, as I built filing drawers into the deep kitchen drawer sizes.

The basics to look for are

- quality and constuction of carcasses and doors - thickness and construction of carcasses.

- worktop materials

- lighting

- fittings

- appliances

- check very carefully what is included and what is not.

Above all, take plenty of time and don't be pressured into buying. If you go for a local firm, ask for references. For the better ones be prepared to wait.

[Kevin Golding]

I've just fitted my new Ikea kitchen and I'm VERY please with the quality of the units.

Also Ikea do a free 3D kitchen designed program (for W> Hello All,

[Richard]

Hi Richard,

We've been trudging very slowly towards our 'fit once and never replace' kitchen for a considerable time now (inconveniencies like redundancy and suppliers who never quote have not helped the process). After much deliberation SWMBO has decided that we will have an ALNO kitchen supplied and fitted by John Lewis costing just a shade under £20K. Deciding factors included single source of supply and fit from a very big company, a designer who has visited us many times as requirements have changed and has always arrived on time every time. Oh and she likes the units and the stone surfaces that will be supplied. Why spend so much? The kitchen is the room that we spend most time in, the ALNO units seem to be the best constructed that we can afford - we aren't in the Stoneham/Smallbone league (and frankly having seen the MIL's kitchen we aren't sure that we want to be!) and John Lewis have been really helpful and obliging.

We tried to get the same kitchen from a bloke in the village (support local suppliers etc). However, he hasn't given us a quote so obviously doesn't need the work????

Richard

[robert]

I fitted the B+Q white gloss range about 2 years ago. I am very pleased with it and as I have to live with it that is all that matters. I used good quality handles and other accessories and many people comment on how nice it looks.

Personally I think there is a lot of snobbishness attached to fitted kitchens. A house in our street has had three families in it in 4 years and each one has ripped out the kitchen and replaced it!

You say you like the look of the B+Q kitchen go ahead and buy it and look at how much you will be saving to spend on other things.

[MBQ]

Do you intend to DIY or buy a complete package? If the former, then remember you can mix and match from any supplier if B&Q don't have the door knobs or worktop you want or you want to go upmarket with lighting, etc.

I found the B&Q "it" range to be very good quality. Delivery was on time, no damaged units or shortages and very easy to install. I do recommend the premium drawer system if you buy from B&Q.

MBQ

[N. Thornton]

If you DIYed you could make quite a kitchen for 20k. Solid marble worktops, or whichever stone takes your fancy, Miele appliances, double wide 6 ring cooker, polished slate wall tiles, artifical sun for the evenings, a massage-while-you-cook chair, underfloor heating, french doors, triple sink, oak, mahogany or cherry cabinets, limed oak or pine ceiling, crystal wineglasses, saboteur knives, silver cutlery... and we're still not upto 20k yet.

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

I have boufht tow and tow haves kitchens for this house.

The cheapo stuff is Hygena - got from currys and MFI. Its not too bad, all plastic/chip ofcorse, but looks OK and will last about 10 years or so. Cost was about 500 for a kichen, 150 for utility room and about 350 for my workshop...including worktops, but not of course fitting, or inits,which I had, apart from a nice ceramic hob cooker I picked up S/H opr £100.

I got teh more expensive stuff from

- solid oak shaker style doors, and better caercaes than teh wbove, sort of 15-20 year life expectacy.

I think the units were a couple of grand for a very big kitchen with oak block worktops. I fitted most of them myself, but about 600 quids worth of carpenters time was needed fo the worktop, and fettling in details.

Theres 6 grand of aga and electric companion in there too, 700 quid of built in fridge, 400 of built in washing machine and 500 of water softener. Plus a cheapo belfast for about the ton with taps.

I spent about a grand on slate flooring. So maybe £13k for a complete installaton in a 35 sq meter kitchen. The absolute lot including aga. Frankly, the Hygena one is entoirely adequate functionally, it just looks a buit plastiky. Some nice tiles have helped...

To have the big one installed would have probably taken it up towards 20 gtarnd. Its hard to see how one can spend more other than on hand made solid wood units, or over the top ditzy appliances. Or granite etc.

So what is teh difference beteen '8-10 grand' and about 2 grand?

The doors look nicer.

The stuff will last about 15 years instead of 7.

That is IT. Otherwise its no bloody different!

[The Natural Philosopher]

Those units are exactly what

uses. But prices are way cheaper online. However, installation may be an issue if you don't want to DIY.

But use John Lewis to assist in design, then buy elsewhere, install yourself, is probably as good as it gets.

[Richard]

Interesting site. Can't see any reference to ALNO though and my understanding (from ALNO) is that the units are German.

The non-DIY stance is that SWMBO quite rightly thinks that I will not finish the job to an acceptible standard and she can earn the money to pay a fitter in less time than it will take me to do the installation..

Rgds Richard

[Richard]

Just had a look at 'Keek' (the appliance supplier on the Arena site) - the washer/drier that JL are supplying is cheaper from them than from Keek!!!!!

I'm astounded.

Richard

[tony sayer]

In article , [e-mail] writes

My missus has been going on about a new kitchen for as long as I can remember, BUT I still haven't had and quality assurance document from her that the grub will improve;))

[tony sayer]

My missus has been going on about a new kitchen for as long as I can remember, BUT I still haven't had a quality assurance document from her that the grub will improve;))

[Richard]

Great thanks for all your input.

I have just finished with the kitchen designer from our favourite company so far (John Nicholls), this is the third visit and the price is looking more like 15-18k now with appliances (Neff) and granite floors, worktops and a few mods :) She has been very good and like the JL designer has never been late, one downside is that she has been rather un-inspiring. I like a designer to fill me full of ideas and and to be enthusiastic I felt like I was leading all the time, not sure if thats good or not really. Hope she doesn't read UK-DIY!

Anyway another question does anybody have any experience with the Sheraton range of kitchens we're looking at the Mattonella which is not a flat pack?

Also are nearly all carcases chipboard? that doesn't sound good to me

As far as DIY installation is concerned I'm not sure of this yet, I have very limited experience with wood (Just read my skirting board post!!! :)) but could save myself 2.5K and another 1.5K for the laying of some granite tiles. With a little help from a few mates and father I think this may be possible.I have recently laid some granite tiles in my hallway and it was back breaking work but I think it will be worth the saving and it was a job well done.

Meanwhile I'm going to check out the B and Q IT range. Im still not convinced that paying 15-18k is really worth it

BTW I liked the ALNO range I had a quick sqiz @ their website and ordered a brochure.

Thanks all

Richard

[Richard]

Interesting to hear this as this is what I kinda thought. Thanks for the web site, I stumbled across this sometime ago and had been looking for it again for sometime. I will definately get some prices from these people.

Cheers NP.

[MBQ]

If I had that sort of money, I'd spend it on something else, anything else, but not a kitchen!

Who are you trying to impress with a kitchen like that?

Does it really make your life any better?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Try telling that to my wife...

[Andy Hall]

It depends on what you like.

Entirely myself and SWMBO, nobody else.

I think so. It's a place where we spend a fair bit of time and having something done properly with good quality materials pleases us.

[N. Thornton]

Yep, and no its not. I cant see any sense at all in spending over 10k on a plastic coated chipboard kitchen that will do nothing but deteriorate and end up looking like crap. If youve got money, get something decent that will last. 10k will buy you whatever cabinets you want, in whatever wood you want, with whatever finish you want. And it'll last for life. Buy chip and youll only chuck it out later.

Regards, NT

[Richard]

Once again thanks to all of you for providing yor input it is greatly appreciated. I think I need to take a step back and re-evaluate!!

When I finally decide on what the hell I'm going to do I will post some feedback for others.

I must say I just love some of these recent postings and answers, makes me chuckle, especially the one about burning the neighbours new summer house down whilst on holiday, not that I advocate such behaviour of course!!! :)

Keep up the good work guys!!!

Cheers!

Richard