Kitchens - cheap vs expensive

[SS9]

I got a kitchen from DIY at the end of 2017. It's had 4 years of solid use and still looks as good as the day I bought it. We've had the odd chip which has easily been touched up with the paint they provide and I'd struggle to point out where these are now. We went with the Helmsley range in a custom colour. At the time we spent in the region of £5.5k on units (not including appliances), and ~£4k on quartz worktops (from a separate company). I'd 100% do this again. Installed the units myself but note we deliberately went with a relatively simple design so knew this wouldn't be difficult to get right!

[Tony Angelino]

As has been pointed out several times on the thread already, most kitchens at the sub £25k or so price point are more or less the same. The things to check for would be:

18mm chipboard carcass over 15mm
8mm backs over 3mm
Blum fixings over almost all other brands
Solid painted doors over vinyl wrapped MDF over slab MFC doors


Spending extra money on the fitter and the worktop should make the end product look and feel much better.

[singlecoil]

Tony Angelino said:

As has been pointed out several times on the thread already, most kitchens at the sub £25k or so price point are more or less the same...

That's very true, most are. Fortunately, for those that care about such things, not all

[loughran]

singlecoil said:

Not all kitchens are made from chipboard though most are. Some make their carcasses from birch plywood, and theirs are by no means the most expensive either

[austinsmirk]

Id also focus on the cost of a full rewire, gas re-pipe, plastering 4 walls and a ceiling and flooring

Not just cabinets.

Having fitted quite a few kitchens you can do well hunting down deals. So worktops from one place, appliances from another, sink and taps from somewhere and do on. Cabinets are pretty much generic.

[Tony Angelino]

singlecoil said:

Tony Angelino said:

As has been pointed out several times on the thread already, most kitchens at the sub £25k or so price point are more or less the same...

That's very true, most are. Fortunately, for those that care about such things, not all

What would you be looking for as a point of difference in mid range price point kitchen?

[singlecoil]

Tony Angelino said:

singlecoil said:

Tony Angelino said:

As has been pointed out several times on the thread already, most kitchens at the sub £25k or so price point are more or less the same...

That's very true, most are. Fortunately, for those that care about such things, not all

What would you be looking for as a point of difference in mid range price point kitchen?

My answer will be from the perspective of a small volume kitchen maker, rather than a buyer.

I believe that what my customers (and those of the other makers on PH) are looking for is a personal service and a quality build. They don't want to have to design the kitchen themselves, they don't want it to be made of melamine faced chipboard and they will often need to have the units made to specific, non-standard sizes in order to fit the space they have and to provide symmetry and balance. And they don't want to have to pay fancypants prices.

[counterofbeans]

singlecoil said:

My answer will be from the perspective of a small volume kitchen maker, rather than a buyer.

I believe that what my customers (and those of the other makers on PH) are looking for is a personal service and a quality build. They don't want to have to design the kitchen themselves, they don't want it to be made of melamine faced chipboard and they will often need to have the units made to specific, non-standard sizes in order to fit the space they have and to provide symmetry and balance. And they don't want to have to pay fancypants prices.

Ours still looks as good as the day you made it John, for which many thanks.

[Cascade360]

singlecoil said:

My answer will be from the perspective of a small volume kitchen maker, rather than a buyer.

I believe that what my customers (and those of the other makers on PH) are looking for is a personal service and a quality build. They don't want to have to design the kitchen themselves, they don't want it to be made of melamine faced chipboard and they will often need to have the units made to specific, non-standard sizes in order to fit the space they have and to provide symmetry and balance. And they don't want to have to pay fancypants prices.

My assumption is that bespoke, small volume manufacturers will be materially more expensive than the big kitchen firms. Is this not the case?

[okgo]

Where does one go if they don't want ste chipboard everywhere?

Mine is from some silly little shop that only has places in fancy bits of London, and as said on this thread, water on shelves or draw bottoms and it starts expanding like a sponge, utter ste.

[Wagonwheel555]

We have just priced a kitchen up with Wren.

Kitchen size is approx 3.5m x 3.5m so not huge.

This included their top end cabinets, mid range appliances and quartz worktops.

£19.5k including fitting.

Excludes flooring, electrics, plumbing, tiling etc.

Breaking down the quote:

Cabinets - £7400
Appliances - £3000
Quarts Worktops - £4800
Fitting - £4300

On the face of it, it seems expensive but looking at the breakdown and the fact we have a fair chunk of other stuff to do like removing all the tiles, having the walls skimmed, moving the cooker electric point, I am tempted to order the cabinets and appliances from them, find a local company to supply and fit the quartz and a local place to do all the fitting too.

I am convinced I could shave £2-3k off the price doing it that way which would pay towards the flooring, electrics, plumbing and skimming the walls.

[MOBB]

We thought long and hard about what sort of price point we wanted to pay for ours, an average square kitchen.

We decided in the end that we would probably want to replace it again in 10 years so tried to keep the budget sensible.

Ended up with Wickes, with 6x AEG appliances and got them down to £10.5k supplied, and our joiner will fit for £1.8k.

This is the one we went for https://kitchens.wickes.co.uk/kitchens/intelliga-m...

We discounted Howdens and DIY purely as we wanted someone to design and spec it for us, if we were more "hands on" we would probably have used DIY kitchens as they supplied the units for our small utility room and they are very good quality. But so is the Wickes one to be fair.

[waynecyclist]

Wagonwheel555 said:

We have just priced a kitchen up with Wren.

Kitchen size is approx 3.5m x 3.5m so not huge.

This included their top end cabinets, mid range appliances and quartz worktops.

£19.5k including fitting.

Excludes flooring, electrics, plumbing, tiling etc.

Breaking down the quote:

Cabinets - £7400
Appliances - £3000
Quarts Worktops - £4800
Fitting - £4300

On the face of it, it seems expensive but looking at the breakdown and the fact we have a fair chunk of other stuff to do like removing all the tiles, having the walls skimmed, moving the cooker electric point, I am tempted to order the cabinets and appliances from them, find a local company to supply and fit the quartz and a local place to do all the fitting too.

I am convinced I could shave £2-3k off the price doing it that way which would pay towards the flooring, electrics, plumbing and skimming the walls.

B & Q quoted me £4200 for fitting, a local guy is doing it for £1350 including the plastering.

[MOBB]

Yep Wickes quoted me £4.5k, my Joiner doing it for £1.8k.

Must be huge margin in it for them.

[singlecoil]

Cascade360 said:

singlecoil said:

My answer will be from the perspective of a small volume kitchen maker, rather than a buyer.

I believe that what my customers (and those of the other makers on PH) are looking for is a personal service and a quality build. They don't want to have to design the kitchen themselves, they don't want it to be made of melamine faced chipboard and they will often need to have the units made to specific, non-standard sizes in order to fit the space they have and to provide symmetry and balance. And they don't want to have to pay fancypants prices.

My assumption is that bespoke, small volume manufacturers will be materially more expensive than the big kitchen firms. Is this not the case?

It's a reasonable assumption, and definitely true if the bespoke maker was making the same sort of thing as the big firms. I daresay, as an example, that a Savile Row tailor could make you a Next style suit, but if you are looking for that type of suit then the sensible thing would be to stick with Next. On the other hand if you wanted to treat yourself to something that would look better and last longer then you would go to the Savile Row type of tailor, but maybe one that didn't have an expensive showroom and advertising to factor into his pricing.

counterofbeans said:

Ours still looks as good as the day you made it John, for which many thanks.

[Wagonwheel555]

waynecyclist said:

B & Q quoted me £4200 for fitting, a local guy is doing it for £1350 including the plastering.

Where would I find a local guy? Its not something I have had done before and currently owning a new build. I have no contacts who do stuff like this.

[JeffreyD]

Wagonwheel555 said:

Where would I find a local guy? Its not something I have had done before and currently owning a new build. I have no contacts who do stuff like this.

Ask on your local facebook.

Do a bit of checking up after though.

[okgo]

Or google it like you would anything else

[JeffreyD]

okgo said:

Or google it like you would anything else

I actually tried that!!

We got let down a few times until in desperation my wife posted on facebook.

got a few recommends and messaged them and it turned out well.

I don't get it either as I only set up facebook when we lost a dog and my wife wanted me to put a post up, but loads of people practically live on it. Including businesses.

[Bob-iylho]

I make kitchens.
I made some at £180k - £200k plus vat, you get a lot of fancy stuff for that plus exceptional sucking up.