Key Points To Consider For Your New Kitchen
These days many of us are choosing to improve rather than move. Naturally, our home will be the largest and most long term investment we are likely to make. It follows then, that we want to both enjoy it and add value – sounds sensible, doesn’t it?
At K4 we are determined that you will receive personal attention from a Senior Designer who will not only guide you through the choosing and design stage, but also manage your project through to completion. Our friendly and polite team of tradesmen (and woman) are all selected mature professionals who have been with us for a good length of time, this means they are reliable and really help the installation phase run smoothly.
In preparation for your first appointment with our designer, here are some bullet points to help organise your thinking and research;
Before you even start looking at kitchens:
- Work out how much you have to spend. The budget is one of the first questions we’ll ask, as it helps us to guide you to the appropriate ranges in units, worktops, accessories, and appliances, and in turn, helps avoid unnecessary disappointment.
- Our kitchen planning and installation service can extend to ceiling lighting, tiling, flooring, decorating, building works, moving gas/electricity meters, boilers or radiators, so we’ll need to cost these separately – if applicable.
- A good starting point is the inadequacies of your current kitchen. Next look at the use of your kitchen; who uses it, how it’s used, what needs the new kitchen should serve. This will help us to guide you not only on the type of appliances, worksurfaces, units and so on, but also how best to distribute the budget.
But I guess you already understand the logic in that idea, which is why you are looking at a redesign of your existing kitchen.
The costs, upheaval and complexity of the project make it one that will require a high degree of expertise and organisation. In order that nothing is overlooked and to avoid potentially expensive mistakes it is very important to choose the right kitchen specialist to help you. K4 Kitchens has been established over 10 years and has the experience to manage projects of all sizes.
Kitchen ranges and your budget
Choice is one of our strengths and we hate to disappoint! So whether you are looking for the luxury of solid wood, a robust but low budget plain laminate range, or something in between we will almost certainly have the right kitchen for you. We offer ranges from six different manufacturers which means unrivalled choice all of which cannot be displayed on our website.
Broadly speaking the ranges fall into four price bands:
1. Flat plain laminate doors
2. Wipe clean vinyl non-gloss doors
3. Hi-Gloss wipe clean doors and veneered wood doors
4. Real solid wood and painted doors
Your shopping list
You need to think about:
- Range - to determine door fronts and colour
- Handles - knobs, handles or both, finish, orientation and position
- Carcase colour - cabinet sides and interiors aren’t always the same colour as door fronts
- Plinths - the panel which runs along the floor beneath the units is usually available in all cabinet colours, door colours, and stainless steel. For a free-standing look, you can have metal finish legs instead of the plinth
- Cornice - the trim above the wall cabinets , to have it or not to have it
- Light pelmet - the trim under the wall cabinets, to have it or not to have it
- Drawers - how many, extra deep, extra wide
- Interior fittings – tall pull out larders, magic corners, you name it, we do it
Don’t worry if it all sounds a bit much! We can help you with any decisions when we make the planning visit. It’s handy if you make a ‘wishlist’ of what you’d like, and how many drawers you need.
If you need to keep costs down, opt for plain cupboards rather than tons of drawers and fancy mechanisms
Worktops
From quartz, granite, glass, stainless steel and Corian at one end of the budget scale to wood and laminate at the other, we have samples and brochures showing the full choice of colours available.
Granite, glass,stainless steel, Corian and quartz need to be templated after the kitchen units have been fitted, so that the worktop is custom-made for your kitchen. This means that you would need temporary worktops (which are usually free of charge), for an interim period of about 2 weeks ( other companies take 4-6 weeks), before the finished worktop is ready for fitting. You’ll also need to decide on the profile of the front edge of the worktop, as well as optional extras such as back panels, drainer grooves, upstands and so on.
Appliances
You’ll want to consider cooking, refrigeration, dishwashing and laundry but obviously appliances vary hugely in cost – our longstanding links with Baumatic mean that their products are great value and have a long guarantee. If you want to keep costs down, opt for freestanding white goods rather than going for integrated, as not only are you paying extra for fascias, but the appliances tend to be more expensive too.
If you want to push the boat out though, there are integrated coffee machines, warming drawers, televisions and weighing scales to name but a few!
Accessories
We’ll also assist you to select your:
- Sink – how many bowls, what material, orientation
- Taps – material, controls, extras like a filtered water tap
- Unit & worktop lighting – halogen, fluorescent or LED lighting, and the switches for them
Optional extras
- Waste bin – freestanding, or fitted within a cupboard. How large, how many compartments.
- Water softener –especially recommended for hard water areas, and if you’ve opted for a dark granite worktop where limescale build-up is more noticeable
- Hanging rails for utensils, textiles and so on
Our Kitchen Design Services
So you’ve made up your wishlist – and given the project some thought now give us a call! Remember you can call K4 at any stage with a question or just for general advice – we’re here to help. Normally the next step is to make a booking for a designer to visit your home. The designer will ask his own questions and answer yours, he’ll then take your measurements and plan your kitchen during the visit, so do bear in mind we’ll be with you for several hours – but if you’ve done some thinking beforehand, that saves a lot of time.
We’ll work out the costs, based on your choices and the work needs to be done. We provide you with a detailed written estimate, showing a comprehensive breakdown of all the products and services that you need. This service is currently free. Once you’ve accepted the estimate, we’ll order your kitchen and get things moving.
