Of kitchens and hairdressers… Who designed yours last? What a mess!

The subject is kitchens but after three odd visits from kitchen ‘designers’ from the usual suspects bad mouthing the ‘design’ of the one before I suddenly thought about the cliché about hairdressers when they look at a new customer’s hair for the first time and look pained and that’s even if the customer is completely bald! I expected at least basic design ability and a hard sell. To start with none of them did a basic check to see what was and wasn’t possible like say as an example was there a gas supply before asking if a gas or electric hob was wanted etc. I realised that I was looking at a salesman who could ask me a few questions then say something then draw boxes on a piece of paper, which conflicted with the other ‘designers’ and then say if you commit to this five figure sum now you’ll get the deal of a lifetime, sorry you weren’t quick enough I can now phone the office and get an even lower price! I said to the last and possibly best of the ‘designers’ “Do you seriously expect me to commit now to a five figure sum on the basis of a scrap of paper and a subsequent company surveyor’s visit” when he admitted, not for him because he knew what he was doing, that surveyors frequently had to make significant revisions and sometimes had to advise that a ‘designer’s’ plan had to be scrapped – his words not mine. He said as the others had alluded to that that’s the way the whole industry works without even a laptop loaded with a CAD programme. I said I wasn’t comfortable with this and wouldn’t commit to anything until I was comfortable with it and the safeguards.

Any advice?

Are there any members who can suggest a better way for me to approach a complete refurbishment of my kitchen. Thanks, drumster.

Hi drumster --- Whenever I embarked on fitting new kitchens in the past I used the old fashioned method of precisely measuring the kitchen in metric measurements, because the units are usually supplied standard as metric, and positioning doors, windows and obstructions plus services on a detailed scaled plan drawing of the kitchen dimensions.

Once I had these exact scale drawings on graph paper, I would make further copies of the floor plan and layout standard sized base units which are usually 600mm wide single or 1200mm double, all around, or better still pass them to the wife and tell her to mark preferably where she would like things to end up. If technically possible I would then decide on the layout of wall units and galleries above the floor standing base units and worktops, with that worked out I would tell her to pick her units and worktop finish from the catalogues I would acquire, along with style of sink fittings & appliances she would like incorporating in the kitchen.

Once I knew how many sized units of which style, size and finish would be required, we would get catalogues from MFI, Howdens, B&Q, Jewsons or wherever indeed takes your fancy, then once you select everything price it all up one by one until you have a price for the complete fittings that you will need to fully complete the job.

At this point I would go into the store ask them if everything was available from stock or fairly quickly, then I would tell them what I needed and really stick at them until I managed to get a great price reduction for the whole lot delivered on a certain day, to which I would have a pre-arranged joiner friend of mine ready to rip out the old and start fitting the new units, this joiner friend would either work on a daily fixed rate or give me a complete fixed price for doing the total job whichever reasonably worked out to be the best method.

You may find this is too much for you or you do not want to get too involved, but you can save a lot of money doing most of the organising yourself and cutting out the expensive middlemen or companies, to get the same or even better results if you plan & price everything up really carefully beforehand.